Page 25 of No Mistake

“What does Perez do for them?” Ryan asked.

“He’s their enforcer.”

Ryan’s stomach dropped to the floor. Fuck, this was getting worse by the minute.

“What is he doing in LA?” Sam asked.

“We believe they are here to broker a weapons deal which intel suggested is going down in a couple of days.”

Interrupting, Ryan asked, “But what has Chloe got to do with this?”

“Early hours of Monday morning, there was a shootout in a warehouse on the east side. A black and white stumbled on what we now think was an introductory meet and greet. They called it in, and an off-duty FBI agent was close by and responded. They walked into a firefight. I lost an agent and a police officer. Another in the hospital. One of their guys was hit but died before we got anything out of him. He has been identified as another member of the Vitelli Cartel. Had the same tattoo. Witnesses reported seeing a wounded man being bundled into a van. Another man speeding away in a Mercedes. Had to be Perez.”

“They can’t take the man to a hospital, so they found a doctor elsewhere,” Dex said, putting the pieces together.

“If Chloe told him she was a resident, it makes sense Perez might go there and force her to go with him,” Adams added.

Sanchez moved back into view. “They left one of their men to die on the ground, but got the other one out, and went to a lot of trouble to get a doctor. If this was another low-level cartel member, they would have left him to die, not worth the risk. It had to be someone important. Someone Perez knew he had to try and save.”

“You think it could be Vitelli?” Sam said through the screen.

“We think it might be his son, Luis Vitelli. Luis has been taking a more active role in the past year.”

“The officer that survived, he give you anything?” Sam asked.

“No. He's in ICU.”

Ryan ran a hand through his hair. All Chloe had done was dance with a guy and now she was being held by the Vitelli Cartel.

“If Chloe was taken to fix Luis Vitelli, assuming it is him, for as long as he needs medical attention, they’ll keep her alive. It gives us a little time, but the clock is ticking. A gunshot wound doesn’t heal overnight, but once it does, they may not have a need for her anymore, and we all know they won’t let her go. And Perez is one sick bastard. He enjoys his craft. He’ll make Chloe suffer.”

“What’s your plan?” Ryan asked, impatient to go after these fuckers, but he knew this wasn’t an Onyx op. This was FBI’s domain.

“We’re running down every lead we can to find their location. We have background on the Vitelli Cartel, and we know they’ve done deals here before, but they always seem to manage to get one step ahead. The shoot out today, two dead bodies, gives us enough to arrest without waiting to catch them in the act.” Sanchez turned to face Sam. “This is organized crime. Vitelli Cartel is known for supplying weapons. My team will handle it.”

He glanced at Ryan.

“Ryan, if you can hang around with Dr. Summers for a bit? We may need to ask her a few more questions, and she seems to trust you.”

Ryan looked at Sam. It would leave his team short if they needed to spin up, but he couldn’t walk away from this. He couldn’t walk away from Sophie.

“As there is no imminent op, yes, he can stay,” Sam answered. “Raven are due a little down time.”

Ryan inwardly sighed. “Thanks, Sam.”

“Do we know who the buyer is?” Sam asked.

“We believe a Middle Eastern terrorist group but nothing confirmed yet.”

“Keep me in the loop, Dale. If they find out who Chloe’s sister is, what access she has on base, it could be bad,” Sam said.

Sanchez nodded. “You bet. Alright. Limited details to the sister.”

Everyone looked at Ryan.

“No problem. She’s worried enough. I’ll keep it simple.”

“Good. I need to get back.”

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