Page 83 of Embedded
Armondo stood at the bottom of the stairs, and he looked up at me.
I straightened my jacket. “Do you have anything to report?”
“Not yet, but Marcel said to check the back-road camera.”
I nodded then took one last look down at the woman who had made my life a living hell. She wouldn’t stand in the way of my plans anymore.
“Get that cleaned up.”
I marched to my office and flicked on the computer monitor then placed my finger on the pad to bypass all the logins.
Armondo’s phone rang with that ridiculous sound he insisted on using for work. “Once you get rid of Mama, deal with Archie.” When he didn’t answer, I looked up and saw he wasn’t there. His phone rang again.
“What the hell?” I searched for the sound and had to pull my chair out to find it. When had Armondo been in my office, and why? I quickly silenced the call and sat it on my desk.
Then my own phone alerted me to a text, and I pulled it out from my coat pocket. I scrolled down and stopped on the message where my informant had written me about what border Nicole and the child were going to cross. It still bothered me that the other Cartel families were there too. I had my suspicions about who shared that information, but I’d deal with him later. One shit storm at a time. I kept scrolling to the last message.
J: See attachment.
My excitement bloomed as I read the words, “You’re invited…”
I opened a group message.
Bruno: Green light. Every sleeper has the green light. ATTACK.
TWENTY-ONE
PAUL
Once we finally got back to the base, Nicole was approached by Daniel with a hug and an explanation that he needed to debrief her of any information she could provide. She hesitated, and Daniel apologized but explained it was necessary. It was obvious she was sleep deprived and emotionally wrung out, but being the professional she was, she agreed.
“You’re not leaving the base, right?” Her words made me want to hug her, but I just nodded.
“Not without you,” I assured her. Her teeth caught her bottom lip, then she followed Daniel. I watched until they turned the corner then headed to get cleaned up. I met John’s hard stare as he leaned against a wall outside the room. “Jesus.” I nearly ran into him.
“I’ve known you the longest out of everyone in there,” he pointed to the room where I was headed, “and when you left here, after all that shit went down with Frank, I was pissed because I knew you were holding something from me.”
“Yeah, I know,” I admitted. It killed me I was in the position I was in.
“Okay,” he stared at me, “I wanted to tear you a new asshole and remind you that you’re still in the doghouse.”
“I know.”
“But what I also saw was that Cole was out of the loop on where you went as well. I felt maybe Frank was up to his old tricks and maybe he has you doing things you don’t want to be doing but you’re under orders.” I couldn’t answer, but I didn’t break eye contact. “And now you’re back covered in the same mud and dirt as Nicole. Now, as I understand it, and correct me if I’m wrong, that woman wasn’t supposed to be extracted for another few days.” He stepped forward so we were inches apart. “So, I know you can’t answer, but look me in the eye when I ask this.” I didn’t flinch. “Did you go back under cover as Eric Noah?”
I hated that I was filled with shame when I heard the name. I’d never asked for any of it. I’d been fed a false promise that I had served my team, and I’d never have to go back to such a dark place. My mind twisted around itself, but I reined it in because what choice did I have? I was under orders.
“I’ll never lie to you.” I held his gaze.
His jaw ticked. “Copy that, brother.”
“Hey,” Cole came up behind me, “Frank said you had something?” He stopped when he caught our body language. “Is there a problem here?”
“No,” John stepped back, “we were just discussing the trip.” Cole knew better but wisely let it go.
I held up the paperwork in the bag Nicole had given me and handed it to him. “Nicole managed to take this from Esmerelda’s purse before she ran. I went through it, and there’s mail in there with an address in New Mexico. There’s a contract with the same lawyer Nicole mentioned before. Looks like she’s interested in some land in the area around that address. There’s also an invoice for two SUVs that have been upgraded to military level protection. There’s some other stuff, but that’s all I got through.”
“Sounds like you got through a lot.” His face was bright with interest.
