After thanks and goodbyes, he handed a small container to Aaron and left.
Mia had a soft and grateful smile on her face. “What a nice dick.”
Ignoring her, Aaron jumped into action, running the results on his computer.
Something occurred to me. “What are you going to do about the original lab? What if they find out you took the samples?”
“Mr. Bonner used only some of it, as I asked.” He tapped the container beside him. “I’m bringing the rest back to the lab.”
Mia sat next to him. “Won’t they know you’ve been running results on the side? I assume they can check your computer.”
He rubbed his lips and nodded. “If they become suspicious of me, it’s a risk, yeah.” Before she could refute it, he raised a hand. “I know I might face what you did at the DEA. It’s unfair, risky, and it pisses me off. But to be honest, I’m tired of how things are being dealt with. We could be making a lot more progress, and I don’t like to think my own agency, or at least some agents, is holding us back for whatever reason. So, if I’m discharged after this, so be it.”
I knew he was unsatisfied, but I didn’t expect him to be so...hopeless.
Before any of us could say anything to him—like invite him again to work with us—a ping sounded from his computer.
“We found the match.” His eyes rounded slightly, then he took a deep breath and blew out a mumbledfuck. “Matias is Pablo Salazar’s son.”
Mia threw her glasses on the table and leaned her head back to rub her face, groaning, while Ben and I cursed every bad word in the book.
“That’s why hisrelativewasn’t showing up in any recent investigations,” she pondered. “He hasn’t been able to do his bidding on the streets while incarcerated. He can command but not execute.”
A memory from our raid assaulted my mind again. A bedroom door with the inscriptionMatias S.on it. “That also explains why he had his own room at their base.”
“It also means you’re in more danger than we originally thought,”Aaron advised us. “We heard the tales of Pablo’s son. They were hardly kid-friendly.”
Mia straightened up abruptly. “Who’s Carlos Gomes’s son? Do you know anything about it?”
Aaron’s silence felt ominous, but I was too bothered by the news to care. “Wait! He has a son?”
“Why is that important?” Aaron’s voice was strained, but Mia and I were past the point of acknowledging it.
“For years, I believed he was kidless. But from what I heard recently, he had a son. Who is he?”
He rubbed his lips again. “How did you learn about that?”
“You know? People talk...” I tilted my head to the side, grinning at her getting caught, avoiding Ben’s questioning glare. If she didn’t choose her words right, Aaron and Ben would also learn about her late-night activities. And I could bet my paycheck they wouldn’t be as understanding as I was. From her discomfort, she knew that as well.
“In Holy Water?” he pushed.
“Oosh, the gossip mill here is strong. You hear all kinds of things.”
“Even about hidden information on a Mexican drug lord?”
“Why is it hidden?” she countered promptly. “What aren’t you telling us, Aaron?”
Ben scoffed. “He’s especially fond of secrets.”
“Only the ones I didn’t come up with, Walker,” he snapped.
Bothered once again by the many untold details he seemed to be piling up, I chimed in, “We’ve been risking our lives for years now after thosehijos de puta. We lost more than we could ever recover from, and I almost lost my daughter as well. We’re invested in this under the belief you’re working with us. But if you’re willing to keep information from us regarding something that could cost us our lives, then maybe we should reconsider this arrangement.”
After a moment of silence, he sighed heavily. “You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just...there are things...” He took in a deep breath, unable to hide his exhaustion. “La Sangre—the head of the cartel—had a son a while back, but he’s still a minor and isn’t around. Besides the boy, he has no other child. At least that we know of.”
“The woman and the kid,” Mia whispered.
“What woman and kid?” I questioned.