Page 40 of Guarding Bristol

Her face went a little pale, and her arms fell to her sides.“Maybe I will sit down,” she said quietly, and walked over to sink onto the wide easy chair off to one side of the room.“DEA,” she said after a minute, staring at him in disbelief.

“Yeah.”

“So you were...just posing as an unhoused person?”

“Yes.”It had been way rougher than he’d expected.He couldn’t even think about all that time and all the hardships being a total waste.The agencyhadto get the intel they needed from the evidence he’d gathered tonight.Otherwise, everything he’d sacrificed had been for nothing.

“Why?”she asked, sounding aghast.

He understood her confusion.“Best way to see what’s really going on in the drug scene at the street level is to live on them and stay under the radar.”

“And why were you meeting with Mark?How is he involved?”

“He’s a confidential informant who’s been giving us insider intel for the past eight months.”A growl of frustration built in his chest.They’d worked so hard to win his trust.

They’d been so close to getting in contact with the critical asset Mark had access to.Been within weeks of having enough intel to execute a raid on the main facility the drugs were shipped through after reaching this part of the coast.It would have put a major dent in the cartel’s operations in the region and stopped hundreds of millions of dollars of potentially lethal drugs from hitting the streets of American cities and towns.

It would have saved thousands of lives.

“So he runs drugs through the hospital?For the cartel?”Bristol asked.

She looked and sounded so disappointed.“Yes.”

Before she could ask anything else, his burner phone rang.“Yeah,” he answered, not bothering to get up and have this conversation in another room.Like it or not, Bristol was part of this now, and at least temporarily his responsibility.

“What happened?”his handler, Diana, asked.She was one of only a handful of agents he reported to.His team was small because of a suspected leak in the DEA chain.Someone on the inside might be feeding intel to the cartel working this part of the coast.

“An acquaintance saw me meeting with the CI.”He was acutely aware of Bristol watching him, hanging on his every word.

“And your cover?”Diana asked.

“Burned.”To fucking ash.

“That’s unfortunate.The timing especially.”

He smothered a snort.“Yeah.”

“Anything else I need to know?”

“Two guys working with the CI chased us in a pickup.They crashed west of the 101 near Crimson Point, with minor injuries.I secured them and called the cops.”He reached into his back pocket to extract the IDs he’d found in their wallets, gave their names and listed addresses.Though chances were good they were all fake.“I’ve also got their phones.I haven’t had a chance to look at them yet.”

“Good.I’ll send someone over to collect them.Where are you now?”

“Home.”It still felt weird to say that.Not that it would be home after tonight.His entire world had just been upended again.

“And this acquaintance?How much does he or she know?”Diana asked.

“She knows I’m DEA.She’s here, by the way.”

A startled pause answered him.“You took her home with you?”

“Couldn’t be helped under the circumstances.”There was no way he would have left her to fend for herself in the parking lot or ditch her after the crash.Mark was still out there somewhere.If he’d reported what happened to his contact in the cartel, there could be others after them right now.

“Are you secure?”

“Secure enough for the moment.”

“All right.Sit tight while I pass this intel along.I’ll contact you with further instructions.”She ended the call without a goodbye.Diana was always all business.

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