Page 1 of Resolution

Prologue

RAVEN

I woke to the sound of my phone ringing on the bedside table. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with darkness and I frowned, rolling away from Miguel who grunted.

“Who’s calling at—”

I felt him stretch and sit up. I couldn’t help my sleepy smile as I heard him mutter.

“…fucking five o’clock in the fucking morning?”

I snorted, reaching for my phone, feeling the coolness in the air as the down comforter pulled away. Glancing at the screen, I blinked a couple of times as I tried to focus on the caller ID. I frowned and rolled back to my spot beside Miguel. “It’s Cassidy Ryan.” I quickly swiped the screen. “Cass?”

“Raven. I’m sorry to disturb you so early.”

I glanced over at Miguel as I put the call on speaker, scooting up against my pillow as he did the same. I rubbed my hand over my face to wipe away the sleepiness. “It’s…fine, Cassidy. Miguel’s here. What’s up?”

“Mike and I were scheduled midnight to eight and we’re just getting ready to leave the scene of a homicide.” He sighed. “I’m calling because we found your names written on the back of the victim’s business card…at least we think it’s his business card. It’s a little hard to read. From what I can tell, the name on the card matches the name on his driver’s license.”

I turned to look at Miguel, feeling dread coursing through me as my eyes widened.

“Who is it, Cassidy?” Miguel asked.

“Dave…Dave Reynolds,” Cassidy replied. “Do you know him?”

Miguel frowned. “I’m not sure but the name sounds familiar.”

My stomach turned over as I met Miguel’s gaze. “It’s the investigator.”

“Makes sense,” Cassidy said. “The card says he works for Aston, Summerfield, and Billings.”

I nodded, knowing that he couldn’t see me, but Miguel could. He reached for the bedside table lamp, switching it on.

“Yeah,” I replied blinking at the bright light which suddenly lit up the room.

“Remind me of the details,” said Cass.

“That’s where Gregory Aston is a partner. He’s Tawny Flores’ attorney. She inherited her late husband’s estate and when Aston inventoried a safe at her house and learned an expensive pigeon’s blood ruby was missing, he hired us to find it.”

“This ruby is the one those rogue CIA operatives were looking for…the one they threatened you two over?”

Cassidy and Mike had been brought in at the last minute to assist the ATF and FBI with the takedown of Mendez, Cassanova, and Bishop, three of the rogue operatives who’d promised Miguel and I retribution if we didn’t hand over the ruby to them as soon as we found it. Though it had been almost a month since they’d been arrested and taken away by the CIA, I still felt guilty as hell about not bringing in our detective friends at the very beginning of our search, or at the very least, cluing them into the threats we’d received.

“Yeah, that’s the one, Cassidy.”

“Okay, and you two are still working on the recovery, right?” he asked.

“We are,” Miguel said, leaning toward the phone. “I mean, we haven’t been successful in finding it, obviously. We’ve kind of run out of leads and our assistant, Judy, who’s our skip tracer, hasn’t been able to find a thing even though she’s running down everything she can about the rogue cell of operatives.”

I nodded to Miguel before holding up the phone. “And she’s pretty pissed that she shares a last name with one of the fuckers, even though Mendez is a common enough name in Southern California.” I winced, realizing I was rambling as Miguel rolled his eyes at me. “Sorry, Cassidy. You said you have a dead body.”

“Yes, and if Mike and I are right, that means you two might tie-in to this whole mess somehow. This guy’s been dead…a while.”

I could hear the disgust in our friend’s voice, picturing the shudder which was probably coursing through his big frame. I glanced at Miguel with wide eyes. “We should meet you guys. Do you want us to come there?”

“Not here, Raven. We’re in a dilapidated, vacant building downtown. It’s not pretty and not safe,” Cassidy said to my utter relief. “We’ve finished up at the scene and the body is headed to the county medical examiner’s office. The coroner was on the scene, and she says this guy’s been dead at least a month.”

I covered my face with one hand. “Oh, shit.”

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