Page 78 of For The Days We Can't Forget

Aaron breathed loudly. “You’re right. I’ll try some contacts and see what I can do about it.”

“What about Matias?” Ben asked. “He needs to be stopped, and we’re not even sure what his next step will be. We need information from inside.”

I chanced a glance at Mia, who was already mulling something in her head. And I was once again sure she wouldn’t spend the next few—or several—nights at her home. Even though I admired her tenacity and ability to push things until they were solved, I feared what her secret venture might cost her. Might cost us.

We’d already lost too much. I couldn’t fathom losing even more.

“Ethan’s still undercover, but I know he has some contacts who could enlighten a few things,” Aaron volunteered. “Since I’m his handler, he’s supposed to touch base with me soon to tell me about his progress. I’ll try to reach him sooner and have him talk to you.”

I knew both Ethan and Mia, I had the privilege to work with both. And I had a deep belief if anyone could come up with any answers, it was the two of them.

Yet that wasn’t enough to lose the knot tightening inside my chest. Something big was coming our way, I was sure of that.

Were we ready to deal with it? Or once again, would we be caught off guard and lose someone else we loved? And if that were the case, who would be the chosen one?

As my brain ran those questions around, leaving me uneasy and anxious, all I could think about was my woman and baby. And how I’d do whatever it took to keep them safe.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Working undercover was a lonely job. It shouldn’t matter to me. It never did before. But I was coming to a point when being a lone wolf and fighting bad men weren’t as appealing as it used to be.

Not that I was ever that much of a loner. I had my family, whom I was close to. I had good friends. Well, work friends. But they were good ones. And I had my grandpa and brother—maybe them, I could call my best friends.

Was it weird that my best friends were a grumpy over-eighty-year-old and thirty-something member of a motorcycle club?

That was the price to be paid for being introspective and having a thriving career—no relationships, close to no friends, strands of white hair already growing on my temple, and no real place to call home.

The worst part, though? I was dealing with so much shit for so long, never connecting with anyone, that I was lusting after the woman I was supposed to investigate.

I wasn’t sure Freud could explain that one.

That was a new low for me. And I could only blame it on loneliness. Or I was really losing it. It was high time for me to take a step back and head to Holy Water like I promised my Pop I’d do.

But it wasn’t the right time just yet.

I walked into the fancy restaurant and headed to the bar. I took the time to make an inventory of the people I saw and glimpses of conversation I could hear.

It was incredible what people were willing to say when they thought you were just a stupid worker in a high-end restaurant. For what it was worth, that was my job at that hateful place. I had to get close to the cartel somehow, so working at the restaurant they ran to money launder—the same one wherethe cartel and their associates met to discussbusiness—was a good answer when I started that charade.

I began as a bouncer and rose to the head of security, never failing to show them I could be useful inside, making sure their disgusting meetings could happen without interruption. Soon—but not soon enough for me—they realized I knew my way around computers—that was putting it mildly, but I didn’t want them to know I could hack the hell out of their systems; I just wanted an upgrade.

So, becoming manager of their chain of said restaurants it was. And if I needed to be rough with someone who wronged the cartel, so be it. If I had to look the other way when they did something despicable, that was the price I paid to get closer to them and listen to their conversations as much as I could. It was needed for me to get access to their computers, although I’d gathered more information than I knew what to do with. I needed help to go through with it.

Being rough with the scum who dealt with them was easy. The hard part was to keep my cool when I knew they were destroying several lives, and I couldn’t do a thing just yet. It was a job that required patience. And guts.

I chose a secluded part of the bar, trying to stay concealed by the shadows. Hiding my tall frame wasn’t as hard as hiding my dark auburn hair and the tattoos coloring my arms. The ink, I could conceal with long sleeves. There wasn’t much I wanted to do about the hair, though. Counting on the dim lighting was my choice.

Once again, I sawherlooming around. I shouldn’t be so attracted to her. It bothered me that I was. If my CI was correct and my investigation was on point, she was somehow connected toEl Rey Alacránin the area.

Worse than that. She was the one trying to acquire somecommodities. And by that, she meant “young girls.”

When I was transferred a few years back, my main assignment, according to Aaron, was to bring down the chain of human trafficking increasing in the country by theAlacráns’hands. He had someone looking into the drugs, I needed to care about the people. I had big shoes to fill. From what I heard at the DEA, I had to conclude what The Bryant Prodigy had started. Whomever the guy was, he was a legend.

Since I started and my investigation progressed, I narrowed down my goals to be after two women: the one Carlos Gomes wanted back (I still didn’t know who she was), and the one sitting a few feet away from me, conning her way to get to Bryan Keyes, one of my targets.

She was different from the other patrons. Besides regular—fancy and rich—clients, there were some criminal, bigger fish in that pond. Along with dealing with shady shit, they yearned to show their status, how high in the ranks they’d reached, or how close they were to the cartel.

They ignored the lowly employees—me—to proclaim their wins and boast about how big they were. Not that woman, though. While everyone talked, she listened. Taking advantage of their willingness to announce their accomplishments, she asked the right questions, things that were supposed to be private but men were all more than ready to share with her. All the while, she kept her cards to herself.

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