Page 46 of Agency
“Good. Now, tell me about this man you met. It’s not often we talk about anything other than work, these days.”
That flush returned to my face. This time, though, shame didn’t necessarily bring it. No, not shame. I didn’t feel shame about what I’d done with Andrew and Jericho the night before, either in the back of their SUV, or upstairs in my room. Not a bit of shame about that at all. Though, I wasn’t exactly one-hundred percent sure Aunt Val would feel the same way.
No, instead it was embarrassment. Embarrassment at the fact that I was still thinking about Morgan, also. Embarrassment at how I could still smell Jericho and Andrew on me, and could almost imagine their masculine musk mixing with Morgan’s phantom scent. And just how magical getting all three of them together in one room, with all their skillful attentions just on me, would actually be.
“I… I’d rather not,” I said, opening the leather briefcase and reaching inside. “I didn’t bother to get a number, anyways.”
“Now you’re speaking as if you couldn’t find him after all your training,” she replied, her voice light and teasing. “Or is he married, instead, and you don’t want to ruin things with his wife?”
I sighed. “No, not married. No, this was definitely a one off thing.”
And last night was, wasn’t it? And the night previous?
Even though I was going to be in town for what seemed like at least another day, there was no chance in hell I was going back to the Bothersome Beaver, even if Morgan had said back in the bar that he didn’t mind sharing. No way was I going to risk running into all three of them in the same place and on the same night, especially not with having given a different alias to each party.
Still, though, the idea of all three of them… That did have a certain charm. The kind of charm that might keep me occupied on some future lonely night, that’s for sure.
“But, it did get me thinking about what it would be like to see the same man more than once. And… And that led to its own train of thought. Like, how awful is my life that I can’t even consider that? Not just with him, but withanyman? I already wouldn’t be able to be honest with anyone about what I’ve spent my life doing, and every client I see is just going to make that harder.” I released a long sigh, looked down at the bag in my lap. Not sure what to do after baring my soul like that, I allowed my hands the run of things. On instinct, they opened the bag and pulled out the dossier, opened the manila folder to the first page.
A Hispanic woman. Not necessarily beautiful, but not unattractive either. Her hair was long and dark as a raven’s, and she was walking across an urban road with a well-dressed man. The photo, though, was clearly centered on her. She wore a sleeveless white top and black slacks, and the top was cut to reveal a hint of shoulder tattoo. The Virgin of Guadalupe. Even wearing her stiletto heels, the man she walked with towered over her petite frame.
“Who is she?”
“All work?”
“If this is the last one, I’d rather get it over with. Faster I can leave town, the better.”
“Fair. Her name is Stella Beltran. Early twenties and hungry to establish that women shouldn’t be ignored in the Mexican underworld, she’s the heir-apparent to the Beltran-Guzman Cartel based out of Monterrey.”
“I’ve heard of them.” I began to flip through the dossier. “Luis Beltran is missing, right?”
“By all accounts. Whether he’s in hiding, or dead, the only thing we know for sure is that he hasn’t been seen in public or by Mexican LEOs or US federal agents in months. Meantime, a war has broken out between Michoacan New Generation and the BGC.”
“And her?”
“Luis Beltran’s daughter. Like any good cartel boss, kept his children out of the limelight and known only to his family and inner circle, so what little information we’ve been able to glean has been from within the last year. We know she studied here in the states, attending school on the west coast, in Southern California. After that, college, with a bachelor’s in accounting. Graduated with honors, too, and was on track for a masters program, and then her CPA. Whether she knew the full details of her father’s business dealings until recently is also in question. Even if she was aware of his various and assorted criminal enterprises, she was likely fire-walled from the more gruesome aspects of what it takes to build and maintain a cartel the size of the Beltra-Guzman organization…”
I flipped through her UCLA transcripts. They were good. High marks.
“Until recently, that is.”
“Until recently,” my aunt confirmed.
“Fast learner. All that schooling was good for something, I suppose. So, in her father’s absence, she’s risen to the challenge of leading the organization?”
“Fast learner, yes. And dangerous, too. Rumor is, Beltran the Elder is dead via assassination, and Stella’s the one who set him up, then blamed MNG for the attack. That, in turn, sparked war between the two cartels, but also an internal struggle within Beltran-Guzman, whereupon she immediately went to the mattresses.”
“Patricide. Isn’t that frowned upon?”
“Especially when the Guzman part of the cartel you’ve taken over is still alive and well. Of course, on the other hand, strength is smiled upon.”
“Fair. What’s she doing in St. Louis, though?”
“With the internal feud ongoing, she needs ways to unload product that don’t rely on the Guzman side of the equation. Meth, heroin, pills, human trafficking. She’s meeting with a consortium of gang leaders in East St. Louis.”
“Risky to come herself.”
“Not so risky when she’s not listed by the federal government as the leader of a known criminal enterprise. She can slip in and slip out with barely any oversight.”
