Rendezvous with Danger (Reunited Series) (23 page)

Wiz sat across from him. “I don’t understand.”

“I let her go. I basically told her that she and I were done, finished.”

“Wait, go back. What makes you think she was telling the truth this time, when you didn’t believe half the things she’d told you before?”

“She was twirling a lock of her hair.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Quinn sighed. He absently toyed with a small pad of paper sitting on the desk, thinking about how twirling her hair around her finger seemed to pacify her. “She can lie with a straight face, but when she’s nervous, talking about her feelings, or discussing something that’s difficult, she plays with a lock of her hair.”

“Interesting.” Wiz sat staring at him for the longest time before he stood and walked around the desk to his laptop. “Since you claimed to have screwed up, I take it you’ve suddenly had a change of heart.”

Quinn slammed his hands on the arm of the chair and shot out of his seat. The quickness of the move made him stop short and grab his head.
I’ll never drink again
.

Wiz chuckled at his discomfort. “Man, you’re a mess. Do you even know what you want?”

Quinn raised his head. “I know what I don’t want,” he said. “I don’t want to lose her again.”

“I’m glad you finally figured that out,” Malik said when he walked into the room, biting into a bagel with cream cheese, smelling as if he had just stepped out of the shower.

“I have to tell you,” Wiz started, “now is not a good time for her to be missing.” He handed Quinn a fax. “Does this guy look familiar?”

Quinn looked at the sketch. “Yeah, it’s Agent Vance Anderson. He’s CIA.”

“Neil met with Alandra’s sister and drew up the sketch. That’s the person who stopped by the hospital asking questions about Alandra.”

Quinn, aware of his growing sense of unease, glanced at the drawing again. “How did he know she was in Chicago?”

“I’m not sure,” Malik said, “but I sent the picture to the guy who’s been watching Alandra’s place and he said Agent Anderson has been by the apartment. He saw him talking to the building manager, which is how I think he found out she worked at the hospital.”

Quinn leaned against the back of the chair he’d vacated, his head swimming from overindulging the night before. It wasn’t helping that he was worried sick about Alandra.

He pulled out his cell phone and tried her number again, and again it went straight to voicemail. She knew he couldn’t trace her cell phone if she didn’t have it turned on. “Baby, I need you to call me right away,” he said on her voicemail and disconnected.

“Did you try calling Harry? Maybe he’s heard from her.”

“I called while I was upstairs. No answer.” Quinn clenched his hand around the phone until his knuckles turned white. If anything happened to her...

“I have to find her.” He looked at Wiz. “Can you hack into the rental car company’s navigation system and track down the truck?” he asked Wiz.

“Yeah, but first I need to show you guys what else I found this morning.” Wiz typed on his keyboard and then turned the monitor around so Quinn and Malik could see it. “Guess who’s related to Orlando Medina?”

Quinn glanced at the monitor and stared at two pair of eyes that looked almost identical. “You have to be shitting me. They’re related?” Unsettling wariness crawled up his spine. It looked as if Alandra had good reason to believe he was responsible for her being gunned down.

“Ramos?” Malik said, his surprise matching Quinn’s. “You’re saying that Congressman Ramos is related to Medina?”

Wiz nodded. “The Congressman is Orlando Medina’s stepbrother. They had the same father. Ramos was born in the U.S but his mother gave him a different last name than his father’s.”

Quinn sat in the chair and rubbed his eyes, exhaustion making them heavy. “Go on.”

“After you returned from Guerrero,” Wiz said to Quinn, “there was a serious shake up in
Los Hermanos
’ organization. Someone had to take over when you killed Medina. My sources tell me Ramos was that someone.”

“Let me get this right,” Malik said, “a U.S Congressman is the overseer of one of the most dangerous drug cartels in Mexico?”

“Yep, and he’s operating it on U.S soil.”

“Someone’s helping him,” Quinn interjected and then he remembered. A sick feeling, not brought on by too much alcohol, but instead brought on by remembering some valuable piece of information, came over him.

“What is it?” Malik asked looking at him strange.

“I can’t believe I didn’t remember this.” He stood and wanted to punch something for not thinking of it sooner. “When I arrived at the warehouse where they were holding Alandra, I found a list with what I assumed was a schedule for a drug run. It had code names and dates. And one of the line items on the list read -
 Congressman – Washington, D.C – 1 kilo
and it had a date next to it.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t grab the list,” Malik said.

“I was so focused on rescuing Alandra, nothing else mattered at the time.”

“That’s why being involved with a woman and being on an op doesn’t mix.”

Quinn glared at him.

“At first I thought Sarah Olson might’ve been the person helping Congressman Ramos,” Wiz said, “but it looks like she was actually blackmailing him.” He handed Malik and Quinn Sarah’s bank statements from a local Chicago bank, showing a large sum of money being deposited into her account at the end of the month, for the last six months. “I did a back trace and those deposits are from the Congressman.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he was behind the house explosion,” Malik said.

A knock at the door halted all conversation and Quinn hurried to answer it, hoping Alandra was on the other side of the door. When he opened it, he tried not to show his disappointment when he realized it was Olivia.

“Sorry for the interruption guys, but I thought you might be hungry.” She stepped across the threshold carrying a tray loaded with bagels and muffins.

“Here, let me get that for you,” Quinn offered and placed the tray on the desk.

 “Thanks, there’s coffee also. I’ll be right—”

“That’s all right sweetheart,” Wiz walked around his desk. “Thanks for bringing in breakfast. One of us will come and grab the coffee in a minute.” He followed her into the hall but returned almost immediately.

“Sorry about that, where were we?”

“Man, when are you going to make an honest woman out of her - again?” Malik asked. “A blind person could see that you two still love each other.”

“I’m working on it.” Wiz walked passed Malik and punched him in the arm on the way back to his desk.

“I talked with Sheldon this morning,” Wiz said, reclaiming his seat. “I wanted to find out where Chicago PD is with the investigation of Sarah’s house explosion. They don’t have any suspects, but the body they found outside the house was an eighteen-year-old male and he was a member of
Los Hermanos
.

Quinn rubbed his head. The more he heard, the more worried he was about Alandra. “What else you got?” He asked, leaning against the back of a chair.

“Well this next piece of information, you might want to sit down for.”

Quinn knew whatever it was he wasn’t going to like it. “I’ll stand.”

“All right, suit yourself.” Wiz met Quinn’s gaze. “Shortly after Orlando Medina was killed…Ramos put a hit out on Alandra.”

An icy fear raced over Quinn and he clutched the back of the chair.
Son-of-a-bitch
. Alandra
had
been the target. Rescuing her from the clutches of the drug cartel had inadvertently put her at risk.
Damn
. It was his fault. Ramos went after her to get back at him.

Quinn stepped away from the chair, rubbing his chest. He couldn’t breathe. He bent over, his hands on his knees trying to force air into his lungs and get himself together.

He glanced up in time to see Wiz rise out of his seat. “Q, man, you all right?” he asked and started back around the desk toward Quinn.

Quinn waved him off. “Yeah, I’m okay. It’s just…I can’t believe this crap.” All this time, he wondered who would want Alandra dead and he finally had his answer.

Malik placed his hand on Quinn’s shoulder. “It looks like we’re about to get our hands dirty. Tie up some loose ends.” He and Quinn exchanged knowing looks and headed for the door.

****

Alandra pulled into a motel parking lot. She shuddered at the thought of staying at a place where some of the letters were missing from the motel’s sign and where graffiti plagued one side of the dingy building. It wasn’t the best place to stay, but it was the only place she could afford with the cash she had on her. Knowing Cameron’s skills, if Quinn wanted her found, he’d track her down through credit card use, her cell phone and who knows what else. She didn’t want to be found. She was using her back-up cell phone and planned to use cash for all her purchases, just in case. That’s assuming Quinn cared enough to at least make sure she wasn’t lying dead on the side of the road somewhere.

After driving around for hours, she hadn’t come up with a game plan. She still couldn’t believe Quinn could just toss her away like a piece of trash, like the love they once shared meant nothing. She was on her own and had no intention of going back to Chicago until she found the people who tried to kill her.

She parked and grabbed her bags from the back seat. Sadness wrapped around her as she slowly walked toward the motel’s office. She hated motels. Not just because most of them were disgustingly nasty, but also because with the cheap curtains at the windows, anyone walking by could look into the room. She hoped they had a room available on the second floor, at least then there would be less chance of anyone peeking through the windows.

“Can I help you?” The old man behind the glass window asked when she walked in. He inspected her from head to toe over the rims of his glasses. “Are you sure you’re in the right place, sweety? This might not be a good spot for a pretty little thing like you.”

“I’ll take my chances,” she muttered.

“How long you stayin’?”

“One night.”

She hoped Vance would let her crash at his place for a day or two if she ever caught up with him. Today was the first day she’d turned on her back-up cell phone and was surprised at the number of messages he’d left over the last few days. She finally returned his call and let him know she was in the D.C. area.

“Do you have something on the second floor?”

“Anything for you pretty lady.”

Alandra rolled her eyes and handed him the cash. With the key in hand, she headed to her room. Had she known the trip to D.C would turn out like this, she would’ve stayed in Chicago, but then again she wouldn’t be able to accomplish what she’d set out to do.

She unlocked her room door, but didn’t walk in. Quinn would have a fit if he knew she was staying there. How many times had he counseled her about being safe, not putting herself in vulnerable situations? And this was definitely a vulnerable situation. A raggedy lock on the door, a window that didn’t close all the way, and the sagging ceiling looked as if it would only handle one more good rain.

She stepped into the room and did a quick look around. She checked the bathroom, the closet and under the bed, which she regretted when she spotted large dust bunnies and a used condom.
I don’t know if I can stay here for even one night.

What if Quinn wasn’t looking for her? She’d be staying in this dump for no reason when all she had to do was use the credit card he’d given her days ago and stay at a five-star hotel. But she couldn’t take any chances.
He might’ve been mad at her, but she knew he wouldn’t wish anything bad on her, and that meant, he’d be looking for her.

She closed the room door not knowing whether it was safer to leave it open or closed. Using the sanitizer wipes she’d picked up earlier she wiped down every solid surface. She didn’t even want to think about the bed. She sat in the only chair in the room and called Vance again.

Please answer. After several rings, her heart sank when his voicemail kicked in.

“Hi Vance, this is Alandra again. Please give me a call as soon as you get this message.”

Now what?
She thought when she disconnected the call. She needed to confront Harry, but if Vance was able to get the documents she needed, she could confront Harry with proof of what she suspected.

She sat back in the chair and turned on the television, surprised the room came with a color TV and a remote. She clicked through channels but stopped when she got to a local channel and saw Congressman Ramos’s name at the bottom of the screen. She turned up the volume.

I repeat, we’ve just been informed that Congressman Mateo Ramos was shot and killed while sitting in his car late this morning in Washington, D.C. He died of a single gunshot wound to the head caused by a high-powered rifle. Early reports are saying that the killer fired the rifle from a nearby rooftop. We’ll continue to keep you informed as information becomes available.

“Oh my God!” Alandra covered her mouth with her hand. Cameron had just asked her about the Congressman.

Alandra jumped when her cell phone rang. Seeing Vance number on the screen, she hurried and answered. “Hello.”

“Alandra, where are you? I’ve been trying to reach you for days. Why haven’t you answered your phone?”

“I accidently dropped it and it took awhile for me to get a new one,” she lied. “I’m in D.C. can we meet?”

He hesitated. “Sure. Are you in D.C alone?”

“Yeah, why?” She wasn’t sure why she lied to him, but Sarah’s words were at the forefront of her mind. Trust no one. She would get as much information as she could from Vance, without giving too much away.

“Oh, just wondering. I’m surprised you’re here that’s all.”

Thirty minutes later Vance stood outside in the parking lot of her motel.

“Thanks for picking me up,” she said when she climbed into the car. She tossed her overnight bag in the backseat. “I don’t think I could’ve spent another minute in this place.” She dug through the messenger bag resting in her lap and pulled out her lip-gloss.