Page 31 of Resolution

I nodded, pretty sure that our two friends could walk on water. I was never so happy than the day I’d met them on a recovery job. To find out that they’d known Miguel for twenty years, had only been icing on the cake. “So how can we help? Miguel needs to go lie down.” I looked down at him and he gave me a face.

“I’m fine, Raven. We have catching up to do. A hell of a lot has happened.”

He reached for me, and I took his hand, nodding.

“Hopefully, this won’t take long,” Cassidy assured us before launching into the purpose of their visit. “When we ran ballistics on the bullet which the LAPD dug out of a tree in the Trader Joe’s parking lot—”

“Tree?”

“We haven’t caught you up,” Cassidy said. “So, the morning after you were nearly shot, we went looking for the bullet the man shot at you.”

“Okay.” I’d almost forgotten the man who’d tried to kill Miguel, had originally been targeting me.

“We ran ballistics on it, and found a match in our database,” Cassidy said.

“Oh, yeah?” Miguel asked.

“Yeah, it seems it’s tied back to the cartel,” Cassidy said.

“The cartel?” I felt sick to my stomach. I knew what was coming, but I had to be sure. “You aren’t talking about the same cartel from the coffee shop, right?”

Cassidy and Mike both nodded. “Unfortunately, that’s exactly what we’re talking about. You might recall it’s the Sanchez Cartel out of Guadalajara.”

“Oh, fuck,” Miguel said, gingerly touching the lump on his forehead.

“That’s pretty much what the FBI said when we told them about that connection to our Trader Joe’s case,” Mike said. “The bullet matched one used to kill a different protected witness.”

“Another FBI witness?”

Cassidy shook his head. “A DEA case.”

“Fuck!” Miguel and I said at the same time. His eyebrows shot up in question at me. “There’re way too many letter agencies in my life at the moment,” he said.

I frowned at him, nodding before turning my attention back to our LAPD friends. I couldn’t agree more.

“So…the FBI wants you in protective custody,” Cassidy said.

I stood up, letting go of Miguel’s hand. “No way, Cassidy. In case it escaped anyone’s attention, that didn’t work out so good for the guy at the coffee shop.”

“Raven, that wasn’t the FBI’s fault,” Mike said. “That witness voluntarily left their safehouse. Once he took his safety into his own hands, all bets were off. Far be it for me to defend the FBI, but the truth is, they really were trying to protect Rufus Modelo until he had a chance to testify against the head of the Sanchez Cartel. By escaping their custody and calling his girlfriend, Gina Cardoza, he put his own life and hers at risk. And one of the Sanchez Cartels’ bosses, will probably walk since Modelo is no longer around to testify.”

I stared them both down. “Maybe he had a reason to be scared. Maybe he figured out that it wasn’t safe in FBI custody.”

“You think the FBI is dirty?” Cassidy asked. The frown he wore was almost comical.

I shrugged, glancing at Miguel before looking back at him. “Maybe. It’s not the first time, I’m sure.”

Miguel reached out a hand to me. “Come here.”

I walked over and took his hand, allowing him to pull me back down to the arm of the chair as he smiled up at me. “You watch too much TV.”

“That’s not fair!” I would have jumped up again if he didn’t have such a tight grip on my hand.

“Raven.”

I dragged my death glare away from Miguel and back to Cassidy. “What?”

“Do you trust Lincoln and Mac?” he asked.

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