Page 40 of Always Been Mine

“Oh, my God, was that the shoot-out in the small town?”

“Yup. We couldn’t account for the sniper who took out one of the Fuegos. Travis speculated that sniper was Crowe, the man who shot Caitlin and worked for your dad,” Nate added.

“I remember him,” Beatrice murmured. No coincidences.

Travis stopped pacing and sat in his chair. “I bet the admiral has the necessary answers to make sense out of all this, and I have a feeling we’re not going to like it.”

Gabe definitely had more explaining to do as well, Beatrice fumed.

“We did have a run-in yesterday at Cloverleaf,” Beatrice confessed. “That two dead and one critical from gang violence yesterday—”

“I caught that in the news this morning,” Travis said. “Damn it, Bee, was that you? Was Gabe with you?”

“He was.”

“What’s going on with you two?” Nate asked sharply.

“All right, let’s stay on point in this meeting,” Beatrice retorted. “We can talk about my personal life later. Anyway, I managed to filch the wallet off one of the dead guys to see if I could find a connection to any threats to Senator Mendoza, but the guy’s a dead end. He is a U.S. citizen and I couldn’t find any links back to Colombia.”

Ed flicked through the brief. “What exactly were you hoping to find?”

“From what the senator told me, his trip to Colombia is to pressure their government to increase monitoring over some of the businesses that may be working with drug traffickers. With no drug cartels to speak of, most of the drug traffickers are using the Mexican cartels to move their stuff and it’s cutting into their profits. I hear they’ve gotten creative.”

“How so?” Nate asked.

“Remember that recent bust in Virginia Beach regarding a hundred million dollars’ worth of cocaine stored in juice cans?”

The men nodded.

“Well, there’s speculation that they’re moving it under the guise of sacks of coffee beans or cans of ground coffee.”

“Holy shit!” Ed muttered. “That would be hard to track. Colombia is one of the world’s largest exporters of coffee.”

“Exactly. So, instead of increasing funding for Border Security and Customs, it would be better to address the problem at the source. The senator is hoping to convince the Colombian government that it’s in their best interest to do so.”

“Good luck with that,” Nate muttered.

“Corruption and bribery is rife in Colombia,” Beatrice agreed. “The outcome of the senator’s trip is not our problem. Our concern is making sure the senator will be protected against harm. We need to do background checks on the businesses that stand to lose in case the government decides tocrack down on drugs. We’re also going in at a time when the peace talks between the government and the left wing guerrillas and right wing paramilitary groups are at a flashpoint. Senator Mendoza and his delegation can be a target if talks break down, so we have to consider routes, convoy formations, and safe haven alternatives in case of an ambush.”

“We’ve got this.” Ed nodded in reassurance.

“I’m proud of you, Dmitry.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Grigori Zorin clasped his shoulder. “Almost three years you’ve shown your unwavering loyalty. You know you’re almost like a son to me.”

“I know, sir. Again, for that I’m grateful. You have been most generous.”

“You should marry one of my daughters.”

“Sir?”

“You’d do well to run the Zorin Bratva one day.”

Dmitry nodded tightly.

Gabe satin the outer offices of BSI, waiting for Beatrice to be done with her meeting. It was almost 7:00 p.m. The rumors were true: Travis Blake was a slave driver. He observed Emily Shephard, who worked efficiently at the reception area fielding calls, filing documents away, and doing whatever she was doing in front of the computer.

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