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He never brought you here before.
No, he hadn’t. Not until now, and only because they needed a safe place to crash. It was a hard fact but one she had to accept; Dylan hadn’t been rushed out of Red Grove by the FBI. He’d been biding his time until his ticket came in and he had his get-out-of-jail-free card. He’d never intended to stay, or to continue any kind of relationship with her. Intellectually she’d always known it, but for an inexplicable reason the truth had only reached her heart today.
And her heart ached.
Dylan exchanged a few more pleasantries with his folks, and while she tried to appear interested in the conversation, she couldn’t help her mind from wandering. How growing up a Colton must have affected him. Had he chosen law enforcement for a reason not so far from her own? She’d wanted to avenge Tawny’s death, understandably, but Veronica had always wanted to serve her community and to get out of the poverty she’d grown up in. Dylan’s family was financially sound by all indications, and a surgeon’s salary would have kept food on the table. His mother had freelanced when he was a kid, he’d mentioned, and had enjoyed modest success as a writer since divorcing Jonathon. Had Dylan’s childhood been emotionally impoverished?
Why do you still care?
Emily Colton departed right after their awkward introduction to return to her home, and Jonathon had left for the conference he said he’d missed the first day of due to “other work demands.” Dylan hadn’t said another word about either parent and she was loath to broach the subject as it was obviously painful. She decided to emulate Dylan’s attitude. Detached, unworried. Asking Dylan about his family dynamics was something she would have done when they were at the station together. When she’d longed for more than a colleague, confidante or sex buddy. When she’d wanted something lasting that she could count on.
Not anymore, though. Not ever.
Three days later
Stark County Sheriff Law Enforcement Center
“Sorry we’re late.” Dylan offered a quick explanation to Cal, the official head of the task force, as he and Veronica slid into the empty chairs at the large conference table. He’d had to pick Veronica up from her mother’s, where she had spent the night in her loft apartment above her mother’s garage. He hadn’t told Cal as his brother wouldn’t be happy that they’d spent a night apart when the call to apprehend Rex and Bulldog and Slim, or all three, was imminent. But Veronica needed to get clothes that fit her, and he wanted her to see her mother for the same reason he was grateful they’d had that awkward run-in with his parents. They were at the most dangerous part of any assignment, and facing down the most lethal threat he’d ever experienced in his years in law enforcement. While they all hoped for the best outcome—crooks behind bars, all LEOs safe and accounted for—the harsh truth was that one or more LEOs could be injured or killed during the takedown. Dylan knew he sat at the table with his equals, those who were willing to lay down their lives for the sake of justice.
“Let’s get this brief going, folks.” Cal sat in the single seat at the head of the table. “You all know me and each other. Go around and reintroduce yourselves, give us what you got.” He nodded at RGPD Chief Thelma Brady.
“Chief Brady, Red Grove PD. As you all know, you apprehended Paloma Lopez three nights ago, and she worked as a rookie at my department for the last several months, under the name of Kat Caruthers. Since she’s been in custody she’s refused to give any location information on her father, Slim, but she did mention that her father never trusted Rex.” Thelma looked at Dylan. “FBI intel shows that Bulldog, Rex’s bodyguard, is in fact working for Slim.”
“Dylan Colton, FBI. Yeah, that’s correct. We believe Bulldog either has Rex as his prisoner, awaiting orders from Slim to bring him across the border, or Rex still believes Bulldog works for him and they’re both waiting for Slim to give the go-ahead for a face-to-face.”
“Why wouldn’t Bulldog eliminate Rex on the spot?” The state trooper spoke up.
“I wondered that myself,” the task force member from the RCMP added. “My superiors are waiting to move in on Slim and his local minions as soon as you give us the location.”
“Rex has information that Slim needs,” the DEA agent replied. “We all have to remember why the ring has been so incredibly successful to date. Slim’s methods are brutal, no question, but genius. To keep his trafficking as secure as possible, and to minimize the risk to the cartel, Slim has each major distributor—meaning they each have several dozen high-volume dealers working under them—maintain the list of their dealers’ names, the volume of product sold weekly, their cash return, etc. Slim will ask Rex to turn over his specific information voluntarily. He’s looking for the intel on Hawk, which clarifies that his daughter doesn’t know that Hawk is an alias for an LEO.”
Dylan’s brow furrowed. “That’s news to me.” Veronica understood his frustration. They were all from different agencies, brought together for this task force to accomplish what none of them could do alone. Yet interagency comms still could be slower than ideal, especially in the heat of the fight. While she and Dylan had been occupied with evading Rex, and then apprehending Slim’s daughter, Paloma, every other task force member was mired in their own work, too.
“They wouldn’t need Rex alive to access his information. We keep it on printed spreadsheets, and Hank sends files to Rex of each night’s take via cell phone.” Veronica couldn’t keep the incredulity out of her tone. This was basic technology and general police knowledge. “If Slim wants to check Rex’s phone for evidence of being cheated, he can kill him and still use his biometric data post mortem. Maybe we need to ask a different question—why does Slim want to see Rex alive?” She looked at Dylan, then the others.
Chatter between the different LEOs broke out, and she noted that Cal watched it all but didn’t interrupt. Veronica’s respect for the sheriff rose several notches. Allowing the team to brainstorm demonstrated to her that Cal liked to hear all ideas, from all perspectives.
The woman who had introduced herself as an FBI cyber security analyst raised her hand, and waited until she had everyone’s attention. “You all have excellent questions and points. I think I might have the answer to all of this. It’s our assessment, after having help from NSA analysis of Slim’s most recent comms, that Slim wants to set an example with Rex. By bringing Rex to him and most likely torturing him to death, he’ll show the other traffickers and dealers that they dare not screw with the cartel. He’s looking to make an example of you, too, Dylan. He’ll never let a new guy into his ring and that’s exactly what Hawk is. It’s a pure power move, to prevent other major traffickers from even contemplating a takeover.”
“That makes sense,” Dylan concurred, then looked at Cal. “What are our next moves, Sheriff?”
Chapter 22
The room grew silent, and Cal didn’t hurry his response as he sat with his fingers steepled, clearly mulling the new intel. He leaned forward, looked around the table.
“I think it’s clear. We keep our eye on the prize, so to speak.” Cal’s calm tone matched his stoic demeanor. “Slim is our number one target now. We always knew that the op against Rex could snowball into something larger, a takedown that goes far past Red Grove and Stark County. It’s happened, this is where we’re at. We have to get to Slim. At this point, we know where Rex and Bulldog are, and we know Slim’s been hiding north of the border. Our plan has been to monitor Rex and Bulldog, and then move when they move, let them lead us to Slim. But we’re racing against the clock. If Slim gets one whiff of us closing in on Rex, he’s going to vanish as he’s done before. Any hopes of dismantling the ring will go with him. The cartel will keep the supplies pouring in and being ferried to the multiple distributors and in turn their dealers.”
“Minus the Frisky arm of the operation.” Chief Brady nodded at Veronica with appreciation for what she’d done so far.
“Yes, Officer Martin did a spectacular job at Frisky. But the sad truth we all know and have experienced is that someone else will step in to distribute to Red Grove dealers from a new location, unfortunately. Our job isn’t done unless we take them all down.”
“I have a question, Sheriff.” Veronica sat on the edge of her seat and didn’t look at Dylan but felt his presence, his gaze. He wasn’t going to like her question.
“Shoot.”
“We haven’t discussed the threat to Hawk, meaning Special Agent Colton. We can’t be positive that Paloma didn’t tell her father about me, or about Monique’s situationship with Hawk. I’m assuming my cover’s been blown, so don’t we need to assume Dylan’s has been, too?”
“I can answer that.” Dylan’s interjection made her nape prickle. “My cover has not been blown, not yet. But I see no reason for Veronica to be involved in the takedown, now that her cover’s definitely been blown. She’s at risk from both Rex and Slim. It’s too much at this point in the op.”
