Page 31 of Always Been Mine

Gabe didn’t knowwhether he wanted to strangle Beatrice or fuck her. She was a damned handful. But taking his personal stake out of the equation, she was right. It was her job to investigate threats to a client. Well, it was his job to protect her. She’d just gotten herself a bodyguard whether she liked it or not.

He walked down the curb of the U.S. Capitol until a black sedan pulled up.

“I don’t have much time,” Gabe told the admiral as he got into the car. “Beatrice is in back to back meetings. One is with Alex Mendoza. How didn’t you know of her business with the senator?”

“I don’t keep tabs on my daughter all the time,” Porter said derisively. “The world is keeping me busy.”

Gabe snorted. “What do you have for me?”

“The woman in the picture is Luisa Delgado,” the admiral rattled off the other names of the victims. “She’s half-American, half-Colombian. She has a fresh tattoo on her back that tells me she had recently been initiated into the Fuego gang. Their attack on Beatrice must have been part of their hazing, or so they were led to believe.”

The two men exchanged grim looks. There was their link.

“Anything on Eric Stone’s cause of death?”

The admiral shook his head. “Not yet. I expect the results by the end of the day. I’m dealing with some red tape.”

“What?”

The admiral had carte blanche on mostly everything in the agency. Red tape wasn’t in his vocabulary.

“There’s something bigger at play here, Gabe,” the admiral said gravely. “What’s happening is merely the gravel in a landslide. I’m getting closer to the traitor inside the CIA responsible for everything, and he’s throwing wrenches at me in the system.”

“Spy games? What do you meaneverything?”

“I could trace anomalies back to the specter agent program. There were big ethical issues that came about with the Berserker serum that was administered to agents and turned them into killing machines. The lead scientist who created BSK had disappeared. Soon after, Project Infinity was shut down, agents cut lose. Those who weren’t hunted down joined the Russian mob. Someone high up was involved. I started the op to infiltrate the Zorin Bratva, partly to draw the mastermind out, but he was too smart and stayed hidden.”

Gabe couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was Admiral Porter saying there was someone wilier than he was inside the CIA?

“You better give me the CliffsNotes version, Admiral, I need to head back.”

“We’re playing cat and mouse with this guy. He’s still one step ahead. We’ve shut down the Zorin Bratva, his coffers are running dry. Thanks to your undercover work, we’ve determined it’s through the sale of cocaine into the homeland that allowed the drug traffickers to buy their guns.”

“He’s the guy allowing the shipment of cocaine into the U.S.?”

“The point is, Gabriel, I was expecting our guy to start shifting his attention to the conflicts in Ukraine and Iraq. That’s where more arms dealers would make money. With the Colombian government in talks to lessen, if not end the armed conflicts, he should have abandoned the country a yearago. Yet he continues to have a vested interest in Colombia. The question is why.”

“Where do we go from here?” Gabe looked as his watch.

“Right now, there are very few I trust inside the agency.” The admiral sighed. “I’ll have to depend on unconventional assets.”

“Who?”

“The enemy of your enemy is your friend,” the admiral said. “The Iron Skulls MC and Fuego gang are known mortal enemies. Even with the death of that Marko guy who caused all the trouble for us over five months ago, this had not eased tensions between the two organizations. They’re competing for market share in drugs, cocaine versus meth, both under the control of the Russian gang, which is controlled by the Russian mafia. Skulls are under protection of the Russian gang whenever they’re in the Cloverleaf District—a frequent artery for their operations.”

“Lesser evil?”

The admiral nodded. “I’ve spoken to their president. Nicholas Crane used to be in the U.S. Navy.”

“How can you be sure you can trust him? His MC is running drugs, Admiral.”

“I’m helping them get clear of the drugs. The town they’re protecting is booming. Once they become self-sufficient, they’ll cut their meth runs. They’ll have your back when you get into Cloverleaf District to do whatever Beatrice needs to get done. They’ll have their eyes on you, but won’t get involved unless the situation deteriorates. They don’t want to jeopardize their standing with the Russian gang.”

“Do you know if Beatrice is the target?” Gabe realized he was clenching his fists tight.

The admiral held out his smartphone to Gabe. “This was sent this morning to one of my email addresses.”

A picture of the admiral and Beatrice.

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