Page 69 of Renegade

“I’d bet,” Mac said. “Did they tell you why they kept you alive or how you ended up in their hands?”

Sutter looked over at him. “You’re military?” He lifted his hand and rubbed over his own head before pointing at Mac. “The buzz cut.”

“Former Green Beret.”

Sutter nodded. “Thought so. Anyway, they never told me why they kept me alive, but it became only too clear to me later on.”

“What was it, Sutter?” Mark asked. His voice was softer now with a hint of compassion.

“They wanted me to become their bitch,” he said sharply. “When I told them to fuck off, Bishop came in and nearly shot me again until Mendez intervened at the last second.” He shook his head before looking at Miguel again. “I promised myself that no matter what, I was going to get away and somehow come back to you and the unit.” More tears slipped down his face and I could see his lip tremble as he tried not to break down.

“I tried to get back, Miguel. I escaped twice but every time I did, Mendez found me and dragged me back. He wore me down and, though, I knew I was being groomed and that he was my handler, I didn’t care. By that time, months had passed, and I was beginning to feel safe being around him. He treated me like a friend. He told me things about himself, like the fact that he had gotten a village girl pregnant and was taking care of her.”

“You’re saying John Mendez had a kid with an Afghani woman?” Mark asked.

Sutter nodded, looking at Miguel. “I told Trigg—Miguel—about her. The woman’s name is Niloufar, and her son is called Daniel.”

“How do you know that, Sutter?” Mark asked.

He sighed. “Mendez told me about them roughly three years after I’d started working with them.”

“Wait a minute,” Damon said. “Youvoluntarilystarted working with them?”

Sutter gazed down at his hands. “I guess…at some point…I guess I lost hope of escape. Every time I ran, Mendez found me and brought me back. I’d get beaten by him and then it’d take me a week to recover. He’d apologize, saying he went too far and tell me that I had to do something else for them to make up for it.”

“What did they make you do?” Damon asked.

He looked up and laughed bitterly. “They made me learn Arabic. It took months before I finally tried to escape again. That last time, Mendez beat me so badly, I nearly died. They took me to a hospital…somewhere in Iraq, I think. The doctors and nurses had Iraqi accented Arabic anyway. I’d become almost fluent in the language and accents from different regions by then. While I was in the hospital, I was treated…but I lost a kidney.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Miguel said as everyone at the table groaned.

“Anyway, after that, I gave up and started doing whatever they wanted.” He looked up at Miguel, eyes haunted. “I swear if I had it to do all over again, I would have just killed myself as soon as I got the chance.” His eyes filled with tears, and they ran down his face. “I tried to get back to you. I swear it.”

Miguel reached out and clasped his shoulder. “They tortured you, brother, and I swear whatever they did to you, I’m going to do to them ten times over.”

Sutter shook his head, swiping at his tears. “No. You have no idea what they’ll do. They nearly killed you that night at the Getty. Mendez told me he had you in his sights. He could have pulled the trigger, and you would be gone from this world. You’ve become another pawn to them, just like Nilu and Daniel.”

“Can you tell us about them, Sutter?” Mark asked in his calm voice.

“I have them in hiding.” He glanced at Miguel before looking back at Mark. “I move them every few months.” He sighed. “About two years after Mendez told me about them, he took me to see them. He had them stashed in a flat in Karachi. He said he wanted them safe but when I saw the fear in Nilu’s eyes, I knew he was torturing her just like me. She was a slave to him and waskeeping Daniel alive to use against her. One day when he’d left me alone with her and the boy, she confided in me. He beat her and used her, keeping his own son alive, to torture her.

“I promised to get her to safety and, though, it took another two years, I finally convinced a female medical officer from Doctors Without Borders to get them to Europe. They lived in Paris for a long time but they’re here in Los Angeles now.” He looked around the room. “I’m trusting you all with the lives of people I call family. They’re the only good that I’ve had in the past eleven years.” His voice hitched. “I’m trusting you with their lives.”

Miguel glanced over at me and then back at Sutter, reaching up to squeeze his shoulder. “John, you’re not alone anymore, brother. You’ve come home.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

MIGUEL

I was feeling sick to my stomach as we sat in the conference room. Mac, Damon, and Mark had excused themselves from the room to huddle in SAC Connor’s office to fill her in as to what was going on. I knew they wouldn’t share anything classified with her even though she possessed the same TS/SCI clearance all the ATF agents did, but she deserved to know what the big meeting was all about and who John Sutter was. Thayne and Jarrett had excused themselves to go pick up food for everyone since it was well past dinnertime when Sutter finished his explanation.

I was stunned as I sat in the conference room with Sutter at my side. It was hard to believe that John had lived through everything they did, but in hindsight, all of it made sense to me now. His never contacting us after living through it, him running from us at that first sighting at Sagebrush, all of it. Raven was across the room, quietly speaking to Dolly as he asked her to stay the night again so we could work out a plan to rescue Niloufar and Daniel and go after Mendez, and the others before they realized Sutter was no longer working as a slave to them.

I turned to him as something occurred to me. “How does Rosina Cassanova fit in with all of this?”

John pursed his lips like he’d tasted something sour. “Cassanova’s an asset, one Mendez has been running for as long as I remember. She’s a fence, taking the goods they smuggle out of the Middle East, and selling them to the highest bidder.I suppose it’s because she can easily pass as an upper-class European. She speaks five languages including Arabic and walks into their rich homes as easily as an aristocrat. She meets her buyers at art galleries, benefits, formal balls, anywhere she can. She organizes auctions and sells off the looted goods. Her connections are with several European royal families and she’s often invited to state dinners at their palaces. She hangs around with foreign dignitaries all over the world and princes in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Her beauty opens a lot of doors for Mendez, Bishop, and Fillmore.”

“That makes a lot of sense. Is she Mendez’ lover?”

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