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Zach and I joined the navy and soon enough joined the SEAL program. That’s when we met Daniel “Danny” Delgado. Mia opted for another route. She went to college, and after her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, her master’s degree in law, and her doctorate in criminal psychology, she was accepted at the Drug Enforcement Administration, the DEA.
Danny, Zach, and I went to every deployment together for years. When Danny’s girlfriend (turned wife) announced her pregnancy, he left and went back to civilian life. Lucky for him, we already had an in at the DEA, so he started working under Mia.
A few years later, Zach, Mia, and I stepped out of where we were and opened our own company.Bryants & Walker Protectionwas our baby. And it was thriving.
Danny wasn’t comfortable leaving a steady job to enroll on the adventurous path of starting our own business—and when I said he wasn’t, I meant his nagging wife, Andrea. I could understand their caution in doing so, what with having a baby and all. But I was past the point of not liking the woman.
When we finally convinced Danny to come work with us, we were already becoming well-known in the field. With Mia’s connection and expertise and Zach’s and my background, we were assigned more cases than we could accept. Having Danny with us was a relief, especially because we all knew and trusted him.
But there were still moments when we had to work with other groups, so we wouldn’t say no to a good assignment. We needed to expand ASAP, as Mia always brought up. We needed people we could unquestionably trust.
We needed more man (and woman) power to deal with our daily activities (private securities, private investigations, consultation) and embrace what the government required. Not only was the money good, the job was meaningful.
Our investigation of the Train (Santiago Cruz) and the Package (Brian Keyes) came to us from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI. Drug trafficking was getting bigger in our area, law enforcement wasn’t able to contain it, and they didn’t even know where it was coming from.
The frustrating part was that most of our investigation was done in the dark. After the night at Picadilly, we talked to our FBI liaison, but either he also didn’t know anything or he wouldn’t tell us. I couldn’t decide which was worse.
Zach, the most centered of us all, was trying to resonate with the bureau. I was focusing on common routes for trafficking heroin (what we thought the “horse transportation” meant), and Danny and Mia spent the last few days holed up in her office, looking at our old cases and their cases from the DEA to try and figure out the two men’s connection and who was the girl with them.
We were on edge and frustrated. The only highlight of our day was when Haley brought Gabe to the company or Danny brought his daughter, Sofia, to lighten us up. That was, when Andrea let him do it.
I was going crazy looking at meaningless photos and articles that didn’t help. I stood up from my chair and strode to Mia’s office. She had her elbows on her desk, her hands thrust in her hair as she read whatever it was on the many files she scattered along with snacks. Danny was working on a chair facing her.
Still holding her head, she lamented. “I wanna die.” She looked up at both of us, took off her glasses, and rubbed her hands over her eyes, exhaustion clear if the dark circles around her eyes were any indication.
“Have you eaten? We should take a break,cariño.” Danny’s voice transpired the worry I was carrying.
“I snacked with you, but I think I need to eat something.” Her eyes were tired, and she seemed dizzy, even though she tried to mask it.
“I’ll get us something. Do you know if that new coffee shop is any good?”
Danny turned around on his chair to face me. “I went there the other day. The pastries are awesome. I think she’s doing well, because every time I went there, there was a good amount of patrons.”
“She?”
“The owner. I think she’s the one who bakes. Really good stuff.”
“So I’m trying her. What do you guys want? Can I bring you coffee?”
“No caffeine for me.”
I shot a surprised glance at Mia. “We’ve been working nonstop. Wouldn’t coffee be helpful?”
“Caffeine is bad for her.” I don’t know if it was because they worked together before we started the company or just his natural fatherly instincts, but he always seemed more attentive than me. Thank God I didn’t have a baby. There were so many ways I could ruin a kid.
Just like I was ruined.
“Danny’s right. My head is a little funny right now, if I ingest anything remotely energetic, it won’t be nice.” She shrugged one shoulder, trying to play it cool, but she didn’t fool me.
“Are you having a crisis?” Danny’s voice was quieter than before. “We could dim the lights in the room. Or better yet, you could stop and rest.”
She gave him a small smile. “Not a full-on crisis yet, just a little annoying dizziness. If I eat something, I’ll feel a lot better.” She gazed at me. “Just bring me a hot chocolate and whatever pastry that looks yummy.”
My worry about her remained. She’d have labyrinthitis episodes from time to time, especially under stressful situations. She knew what she needed to do, but there were times when she powered through it for a case we were working on, and the results were horrifying.
Not for the job, she always came through. But for her health.
I took their orders and told myself to be quick. We were based right outside of town, but Holy Water was so small, we felt like everything was close.
