Page 13 of Betraying Bexley

“You did the right thing, mija,” Jamie murmured. “You saved your new friend, and our target from being harmed more than she already was.”

“Yeah, well. Bex is cool. She doesn’t deserve this shit.” Bronx headed for her room. “Call me when there’s food and make me a pot of coffee. I’m pulling an all-nighter here.”

A knock came at the door and Eito was there, his gun pulled and behind his back as he glanced out the peephole. It appeared Bronx and Alé weren’t the only ones on edge. “It’s the rest of the team.” He released the hammer on his gun then opened the door. “She’s in Alé’s room in the back. Tell me someone remembered food. We’re all hungry.”

“AJ and Scotty are grabbing it,” Asher said, pushing inside with Rae in tow then pointed at Alé. “You with me.”

Alé followed behind them while Noah stayed with Jamie and the others. “She passed out. I think from the pain. I didn’t, you know, remove anything.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Didn’t think after everything Bex had been through, she’d want me touching her any more than I had to.” Worry and concern filled him. Why was she different? Why was she the one who turned him inside out?

“Thank you,” Rae said. “That was very considerate of you.”

“Initial assessment,” Asher stated, snagging Alé’s attention.

"I think a broken wrist, maybe a broken cheekbone. Her split lip is open again. Her leg is messed up too. I think maybe it's from the prosthetic, not from being beaten up. She also said something about going to work but there's no fucking way."

“Callahan’s going to the dry cleaner to see what transpires there. Since Raul’s on the run I doubt anything would be coming in. Shit, I imagine, because it’s been a couple of weeks since the raid, she hasn’t had much to do anyway, but it’s been beaten into her to show up on specific days or face her father’s wrath.”

Asher had a point, and Ale had thought the same thing too. Which could be why Bex was losing weight. "Do we know where she lives?"

Asher shook his head. “No. It’s the one place we haven’t been able to surveille yet.”

“Maybe now is the right time to ask the school for her address?” Alé hedged. “I understand not wanting to tip off anyone who could be helping Raul, but after this...” He slid his gaze back to where Bex laid, her eyes closed and her body so still, it freaked him the fuck out. “It’ll help us in the long run.”

Asher scrubbed his cheek then nodded. “I’ll have Mateo get it for us and then set two of my guys on it. They need to stretch their legs.”

Relief coursed through Alé’s veins. “What do you want me to do?”

“Let me do my job,” Rae said, shooing them from the room. “Asher get me the portable ultrasound machine from the Humvee and the cement kit. I can already tell you her wrist is broken.”

“What about her cheek?” Alé asked.

“Not sure. I’m going to be as gentle as I can be with her. First, I am going to give her an IV with some good drugs and some antibiotics too. Then I’ll start my assessment.”

“Your job right now kid, is to start digging.” Asher turned him away from the door then started down the hall back to the entrance.

"Right, start digging." He grabbed the laptop AJ and Scotty set up for him and opened it. Marybeth was not only a member of The Bitch squad; she was also a social butterfly at school. If he was going to find anything else out about her, he'd start his investigation at the high school and go from there.

Eito and Alex joined him at the table with their laptops. Neither of them said a word as they typed, which helped Alé concentrate. He began by going through photographs posted by the school, then, when he found Marybeth, he input the girl’s full name into one of the databases AJ hooked them up with. Three dots flashed on the screen over and over before it beeped, and a list of entries pulled up.

“Son of a bitch,” Noah muttered behind Alé, startling him. “Shit. Sorry, kid. Pull that one up.”

Alé clicked on the link Noah pointed to. It was an old article about Anderson Gunther and had something to do with SNAP fraud, but all the charges being dropped. There was also information about him being in El Dorado, Texas. When he got to the bottom of the article, he clicked back and went to the next piece of information the program spit out. It was a photograph of Anderson, his three wives, nine children, and grandchildren. Each name was written from left to right under the picture. There in the middle of the group was Marybeth, or well, a younger version of her.

“I’ll be damned.” Noah leaned down, so his face was almost next to Alé’s. “Send that to AJ and Scotty then send it to me and Asher. I think we just found our connector.”

Alé stared at him in confusion. “I don’t get it.”

“Remember our conversation in the beginning about Pueblo Cartel and Los Trios doing business with another entity?”

Alé nodded.

“The FLDS is the other entity. I can’t say for sure this is why Bex is the target of those girls at the high school, but it does seem to fit.”

“It’s too convenient though,” Eito said. “Don’t you think? Raul happens to put his daughter in the same school where the granddaughter of the man who is trying to take control of the Nieto Cartel also goes?”

“It is a bit on the nose,” Noah agreed. “However, neither might have known about each other until recently when shit went south for Raul. Or, fucked up as it seems, it’s all just happenstance”

"Fuck, this is a head-scratcher." Alé copied all of the information into an email and sent it to everyone Noah specified.

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