Page 24 of Renegade

“We don’t have the ruby,” I said.

“I know…not yet, anyway. This is…let’s just say, this is afriendlywarning. Oh, and by the way, it’s the only one you’re going to get.” The man reached into his pocket and pulled out an old flip phone, dropping it on the carpet between us. “There’s one number programed into it. Call us when you have the ruby.”

I glanced down at the phone, desperate to pick it up and go immediately to Judy who could probably crack its encryption. I needed to know where the phone had been. If he’d been with John…if there was a place my brother was holed up, I needed to talk to him…find out what the fuck was going on. I glanced back up when the man chuckled.

“John took out the tracking chip, so don’t even try. It’s booby-trapped anyway.” He made an exploding motion with his free hand as the gun hand never wavered. “If you do anything other than hit one button to call us on the single number programed on speed dial…BOOM!” He laughed, looking directly at Raven before looking back at me. “To keep him safe, you know what you need to do, Trigg.”What an asshole.

“Fuck you!” Raven hissed.

“Thanks for the offer, but no. I don’t swing that way, sweetie.” He motioned to the stairs with the barrel of the gun. “Go on then. You have a job to do.”

I felt the weight of Raven’s stare as he glanced over at me, but I couldn’t drag my eyes away from the man as I mapped every freckle on his face. “This isn’t over,” I growled.

He chuckled, stepping back into the shadows. “That’s what I was hoping you’d say, Trigg. Now, be on your way,” he said, motioning with the gun again.

I took a few steps forward and bent, picking up the phone and tucking it into my pants, before backing up to where Raven stood. I reached over and touched him lightly on the back as I stepped toward the stairs, relieved when he moved in front of me and began descending. I followed right behind, feeling the gun at my back the whole way to street level.

Chapter Eight

RAVEN

I didn’t want to admit how scared I was. I was half afraid if I did, Miguel would grab the gun I knew he had tucked away in my glove compartment and go charging back up the stairs to shoot that guy. I had no idea who he was or how he was connected to Sutter, but at the moment, I didn’t want to stick around and find out. I was glad I’d found a place to park right outside McNulty’s office because my knees had turned to Jell-O by the time I got to the truck.

I walked around to the driver’s side door and fumbled with the door lock, completely forgetting to turn off the alarm until a deafeningwhoop whoopfrom the alarm split the relatively quiet sounds of the street. Miguel was at my side a moment later, covering my hand and pressing the button to shut it off as he started sliding the keys out of my shaking hand.

“Let me drive, Raven,” he said, hanging onto my hand as I looked up at him. The expression in his gorgeous brown eyes was frightening. I’d never seen him looking so angry, not even at the start of our relationship when I’d swooped in and stolen bounty on the Mulberry diamond case away from him.

“I can drive,” I said, feeling like a pussy as he stared at me.

His gaze softened. “You’re shaking like a leaf, Raven. Give me the keys and let’s get out of here.” He must have noticed the way I eyed up the building’s door because he squeezed my fingers. “He’s not there, Sunshine. Guys like him don’t hang around.”

I glanced around, half expecting him to be out on the street running away but it was absent of anything but normal auto and pedestrian traffic. I couldn’t spot him anywhere. I reluctantly let go of the key fob and nodded. He opened the door and slid into the driver’s seat as I walked around and climbed in beside him. My hands were still shaking as I clicked my seatbelt into place, so I took a few deep breaths and tried to calm my racing heart as he started the engine. As he pulled away from the curb, I watched the sidewalk in my rearview mirror, still trying to figure out where the shadowy man had gone since Miguel was so sure he had already disappeared.

“Do you have any idea who he was?” I asked, turning to look at Miguel whose jaw was clenched. A muscle ticked in his cheek, and I felt almost relieved to see it, hoping I would get to witness the wrath Miguel would wreak when we came across the mysterious man again.

“I have no idea, but I can tell you this, I’ve never seen him before. I have my suspicions now that he’s made himself known, but I’m going to keep those to myself for the moment.”

I felt anger race over my entire body, as I turned fully to look at him. “Why won’t you share your suspicions with me?”

“Because if I do, it could put you in even more danger, Raven. Guys like that man don’t leave witnesses behind to tell tales. That’s the code men like him live by. They do it for survival.”

“Men like him? Assassins?” I watched as he rolled his head on the headrest to look at me. The amusement in his eyes pissed me off, so I turned back to the road and reminded him that he had to make a U-turn since he was going the wrong direction.

“I know, Raven. I’m just—” He stopped talking, and I glanced over to watch him checking in the rearview mirror to see whenit was safe to change lanes. I realized Miguel must have been as shaken up as I was.

“Miguel, tell me who he is! He called you Trigg, so he has to be someone from…I don’t know…your time in the service or something. We’re partners.” I was trembling all over again but this time it was the fury coursing through me. When he didn’t say anything, I crossed my arms over my chest and looked out the window. He made the U-turn and started heading back toward home in silence. It wasn’t even noon, and I knew he didn’t want to go into work just yet. There were things we could do there like checking out all the things McNulty had told us about the system, but the appearance of the dangerous stranger with the gun had killed my mood for work. I was certain it was having the same effect on him. He’d driven two miles before he finally let out a tortured sigh.

“I’m…not sure, maybe. I think he’s CIA and now…I’m beginning to think John was pulled into that bullshit also,” he said. He glanced at me, meeting my surprised expression with a nod of his head before looking back at the road.

“Why?”

“He was carrying a military issue SIG Sauer P320 firearm, for one thing. They’re issued to all Army and Marine personnel. Second, because of John’s disappearance. Nothing adds up other than that, Raven. Our Recon team went back out to the desert to look for him over and over. Marine Recon units aren’t just grunts who follow orders blindly. We’re given classified intelligence to complete our mission that other Marines don’t have access to. And even with that additional intelligence, we couldn’t find a trace of him. That never made any sense to us. The CIA can decide what intelligence a team, a commander, or even a base is given. In this case, I always felt like those fuckers were holding back, and I never understood why.

“I think they either found him and promised that if he went with them on one of their fucked-up missions, they’d get him back to join our unit at some point, or they lured him by some other means. Ever since John showed up, it’s been rolling around in my head, but I just didn’t trust that he wouldn’t try to get some sort of word back to us. If the enemy found him and made him into a terrorist willing to blow up Americans like you suggested—”

“I never suggested that,” I interrupted. “You turned my words into that, Miguel.”

He let out a frustrated growl. “Okay, sorry. What I’m saying is, if the enemy captured him, we would have found traces of it out there in the desert. We didn’t find evidence of a firefight. It’s one of the reasons our team was under suspicion for as long as we were. And, trust me, even if John’s mouth was choked with sand, he would have fought back. Sandstorm or not, we couldn’t even find an enemy bullet. Besides, I don’t know if you remember, but back then, every American soldier or Marine the terrorists captured were summarily executed…usually on camera. They used our deaths to mock our weaknesses, recruit more followers, or just plain, be cruel and evil. If they found a Recon Marine, they would have exploited the capture, tortured him, and more than likely streamed his execution for all the world to see.”

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