Page 7 of Renegade

“It’s the most valuable piece of jewelry I own, irreplaceable…priceless to me because Benny gave it to me. The last time I wore it was the night of the benefit I told you about.”

“And you’re certain it was stolen during a burglary even though the police ruled that out?” Raven asked.

“Yes.” She nodded. Tears tracked down her face. “Please, help me get the ruby back, Mr. Mathis.”

“I have a request for you, Mr. Aston,” I said. The elegantly dressed man turned to me.

“Anything.”

“First, I’d like to interview your in-house investigator to see what he turned up and next, I’d like to see all the other letters and get a look at the safe.”

“Also, the police report,” Raven added.

I nodded.

“Well, that’s easy enough to arrange,” Aston said. “I’d like you to start immediately if you don’t mind. As you can imagine, poor Tawny has been through enough and I’m frankly worried for her safety.”

“We can start as soon as you can make your investigator available to us,” I said, disliking the way he called his client by her first name. It was fine in private since attorneys often grew close to their clients over time but in my opinion, using it while sitting in front of strangers in a business meeting was just wrong.

“He’s out of the office on another of my cases today but I will have him call you to set up an appointment tomorrow morning since I’m not sure of the exact hour he’ll be back in town. I’ll also arrange to have you see the safe if that would be a convenient time?” Aston said.

“Of course,” Raven said, smiling. “And our PA will send over the contract to sign for engaging our services.” We both stood and so did Aston while his client remained seated. The bodyguard boyfriend stepped closer, putting a large hand on her shoulder. She turned her head and covered the hand with her own. If they were putting on an act, it was a good one.

“Thank you for meeting us on such short notice. Expect my—” Aston’s words were cut off when there was a loud commotion at the entrance to the patio.

We both turned to see what the noise was, and I spotted the security guard arguing with someone taller. The man was dressed in a tailored suit much like Raven and I were. It was approaching happy hour, so I figured some businessman had left the office early and shown up for cheap margaritas and free Mexican appetizers…until I spotted the bulge of a weapon underneath his jacket. I watched for a few seconds, noting the man’s back since it was the only thing I could see. He was arguing with the guard who’d raised his voice so loudly that by now, I could hear it carrying all the way across the ten yards separating us. The man raised both hands, using them in a shushing motion. He suddenly turned his head and looked back over his shoulder…directly at me.

I felt the ground shift under my feet as I recognized…a dead man. “John?”

“Who?” Raven asked

If I could have torn my gaze away from the man to acknowledge Raven’s question, I would’ve, but I was staring at the first man I’d loved…and lost, almost eleven years ago.

When he frowned at me with a double take I’d never forget, in a much older face than I remembered, I blinked, but not before starting to walk toward him. When he recognized my intent, he seemed to shake off his surprise, and bolted, almost immediately disappearing from sight in the direction of the parking lot. It struck me that the second he’d realized I’d seen him and recognized him, he’d taken off running. He’dknownI would come after him.

He didn’t expect to see me. That I’d known from his expression. I knew them all. At the time of his recorded death, I’d worked with him for more than seven years. His frown was a dead giveaway, but it was the double take that sealed the deal. I’dseen it many times on missions when we’d gone into dwellings and found something unexpected. But rarely had I ever seen his expression morph from surprise into fear as I had today. Perhaps that was what struck me more than anything else.

Had this man, whom I’d shed blood for, whom I’d loved, meant harm to us? Or someone else in the restaurant? And why, when he’d recognized me, had he turned and run?

It was inconceivable. John never ran but then this could be personal.

He was the bravest of all of us and before we’d lost him in a sandstorm, the best team leader we’d ever had. Stepping into his role after we’d left him and our vehicles buried in desert sands, was the hardest thing any of us had ever done. We were Marines. We didn’t leave one of our own behind. And if it hadn’t been for being ordered out of Afghanistan where we were based, we’d have stayed and searched until we were satisfied that he’d really been killed…drowned in sand. We hadn’t been allowed to go back officially into the Taliban controlled territory and our whole unit had grievedthatalmost as much as the loss of our friend.

“Miguel!” Raven shouted when I’d gone twenty feet, weaving between tables and servers on the busy patio. I ignored him and sped up, hearing him calling after me. I knew he’d be following, though, I wished he wouldn’t. I was going to have a hard enough time explaining not only who John was, but what he’d meant to me when I’d lost him. By the time I’d finally reached the entrance where the security guard was standing, several seconds had passed, and John had a huge advantage. I couldn’t explain what in the world he was doing there, but if I was able to catch him—which seemed unlikely—I was going to make damned sure he did some explaining of his own.

I pushed past people standing in line at the entrance to the patio and ran out into the parking lot, looking left and right, knowing that John would’ve parked his vehicle himself and not taken advantage of the discretionary valet parking offered during the day. Calabasas was a more affluent area of the San Fernando Valley, and I figured a lot of the cantina’s patrons took advantage of valets even during lunch and happy hours.

I could only speculate, but if John were following me and Raven—or perhaps someone he thought the widow to the Flores estate had hired to find the ruby, it might explain him running away the second he saw me. Clearly, he hadn’t expected me to be at Sagebrush. But then again, it may have had nothing to do with us and my imagination had just gone into overdrive.

Cars were lined up at the valet stand and people had formed a long queue at the entrance of the restaurant itself, waiting for a table inside. I had no idea the restaurant was so popular but at the moment, the only thing I cared about was how hard the popularity of the place was making my job. Sorting John from the crowd wasn’t impossible but if he decided to do something stupid like jump into a car and tear away from the place, he could inadvertently hurt someone. Why was he running from me anyway? And how had he turned up here, alive and seemingly in perfect health? Why had he come armed?

I was still standing just beyond the line waiting to get into the patio when Raven caught up to me. I glanced over at him, noting his stoic expression. I frowned. “I saw someone.”

“You saw someone?” he asked. “Who? Why’d you take off like that, Miguel?”

Raven sounded almost angry at my lack of response to his questions, but at the moment, I couldn’t be bothered to answer them. I perceived a long, drawn-out explanation in my nearfuture but I ignored him, still searching the lot and then the entrance to it. “He’s not here.” I took off running toward the street, cursing the fact that I had little traction on the gravel lot due to the dress shoes for the meeting. I heard Raven following close behind as I got out to the street. Looking left and right, I spotted him just at the end of the block. John turned to look back at me a second before yanking open the passenger door of a Jeep and diving inside. The car tore out into traffic causing several cars to jam on their brakes with a series of angry horn blasts.

And then he was gone…as if he were a ghost who’d never been here at all.

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