Page 59 of Renegade

“How do you know, if you didn’t see him?” Mac asked.

“Because after I told her I’d shoot her if she tried to stab me, she said he was waiting in the trees. When I looked out to the tree line, I noticed a red laser trail. Someone had me in their sights, pointing directly at my chest.”

There was a collective groan in the room. “Amateur move, too much TV,” Jarrett drawled.

“They wanted to make a point. She told me thatJohnhad me in his sights, but I know that was a lie. He’d never hurt me but then she said some things—” He broke off before glancing over at me. When I nodded, he turned back to the others. “She said she knew I made a pass at John, but he rejected me and accused me of trying to turn him into a gay.”

“Into a gay?” Jarrett asked with a snort. “She said it like that? That you were trying to turn him into a gay?”

Miguel nodded. “Yeah, that’s why I think that English was not her first language. I’m pretty good at accents. I’m sure she was Italian.”

The others nodded when Thayne spoke up. “I have to ask but is the part about you making a pass at Sutter true? And the rejection part?”

Miguel stared at him for a second before lifting his hand and making a so-so gesture. “There was no pass. John and I were in a relationship, not…oh, God, this is fucking embarrassing.” He cleared his throat, exchanging a look with me. I nodded before he glanced back at the others. “The feelings between us were reciprocal. I know that she knew John, though, because she, at the very least, knew our relationship went beyond being on the same team. That’s how I know he’s somehow involved. John must have told her something, but if he did, it wasn’t the whole truth. He may have somehow been dragged into this thing after his disappearance, but I think telling her what he did was his way of getting a message to me that what’s going on now, isn’t being done with his consent.”

“That don’t mean he’s not in cahoots with her,” Jarrett said. He looked humorless, which I knew from past meetings wasn’t his nature. I was very glad that he was taking the situation seriously.

“Though I can’t be sure, I don’t get the feeling he was too embarrassed to tell her about us. John was openly bisexual, so if she knows something like the fact that we were involved, he wouldn’t have made up the thing about me coming onto him…about trying to get him to turn gay or him rejecting me. Hell, the whole camp knew John swung both ways. He was kind of a dog, though, I’m pretty sure he was exclusive with me by the time we started up.”

“Is there more to the meeting with this Cassanova woman?” Mark asked, cutting to the chase.

Miguel glanced over at him, shaking his head. “No, sir.”

“But we wanted you to have her name and description so you can start looking for an operative who might fit her description,” I said.

Mark nodded. “Tall for a woman, so that helps, possibly Italian, might know John Sutter.”

“She knew Miguel as Trigg,” I added. “She was curvy too, not in the Rubenesque way, but you know.” I made the shape of an hourglass with both hands. “Like a…siren, a temptress…” I trailed off.

Miguel snorted as he looked at me and nodded. “Definitely that.”

“Okay. I’ll contact the Getty security detail. There’s a chance she was caught on camera inside at least and we can employ some facial recognition software.”

“You didn’t see the man in the trees, Trigg?” Thorne asked.

Miguel shook his head. “No, but I do know this, it wasn’t John. He’d never point a weapon at my chest.”

“He might,” Thayne said. “If he thought he had no other choice.”

“No, he wouldn’t, Thayne,” Mac said, shaking his head. “He’d take a bullet first.”

“But Sutter might be under their control in some other way,” Jarrett said. “When Thayne was kidnapped, I would’ve moved heaven and earth to keep him safe.”

There was a whole other story there, but I didn’t press the point, and none of them elaborated even as they all nodded.

“Does Sutter have family?” Mac asked.

“No. He had one brother who died when he was a kid and both parents are deceased. No kids that he knew of anyway.I know he would have mentioned something that important,” Miguel said, glancing at me before looking at Mark. He sat forward. “But we’d like you to find out if I’m right about that, sir. Maybe a nurse on base…or other military personnel, I’m not sure. We had doctors on base, not all of whom were male or military for that matter. Doctors Without Borders were always rotating in and out of the camp for short periods even though they were mostly there to treat non-military personnel, villagers, and the like. We hoped you might be able to get lists of anyone we haven’t thought of.”

Mark nodded. “I’ll do that. It looks like I have some homework to do and if it’s not classified, I’ll get these boys to work on running lists of folks down. I’ll start with operatives matching the description of the female—Cassanova. What else can you tell me about the male in the stairwell other than what you told me before?”

“I don’t think there’s anything,” I said. “He’s not quite as tall as Miguel, of average build, average looking, about forty, with no visible scars that I saw. He had dark brown hair, almost black. He might have been Hispanic, but we live in a melting pot so we don’t want you to focus too heavily on that.” I looked at Miguel who nodded before glancing back at the others.

“Nothing else to speak of, sir.”

“I’ll check with my commander in the Army also, Miguel,” Mac said. “We’ll figure out who these bastards are.” He rose from the chair to his towering height, and we all followed suit.

“Thank you all for helping us,” I said, before turning to Damon. “And thank you so much.” I held out a hand to him, feeling like I could trust him since he’d been so forthcoming and had clearly known Miguel for a while.

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