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“I heard you were looking into your brother.”
That had me straightening up. “Yeah? Who told you that?”
“Do you want to know what I heard or not?” he snapped.
“I do,” I replied, even though I wasn’t sure what he was getting out of telling me.
“Word on the street is that Raul Guzman and your brother are meeting Saturday night.” He glanced around again as though someone might have slipped into the room and started listening in.
I couldn’t really blame him for the weird behavior now that I knew what this was about. My brother was a feared man in this city and Raul Guzman was one of the leaders of a large cartel that was spread out over the U.S. and Mexico. Everyone knew about the Guzman brothers and most were smart enough to avoid the vicious fuckers.
“Why would my brother be meeting with Raul Guzman?”
He shook his head vigorously, cutting me off with the motion. “All I know is it has something to do with that car bombing that killed his wife.”
My eyes widened.Holy shit.Nico had finally found out who was responsible for that? Or maybe the Guzman’s knew who it was.
“I heard he was responsible for that rash of killings that’s been happening the last couple months.”
A lightbulb clicked on in my head. He was killing the men responsible for Maria’s murder. It made sense.
“How did you find all of this out?” I asked Reeves.
“One of my snitches,” he replied with a shrug. “If we could get to Raul before Nico, I could bring this before the DA. Get Raul put away for the murder of your brother’s wife.
A plan began to form in my mind. If we could get the DA to prosecute Raul, that would keep Nico from going after him. It would keep him safe and show him that there was more than one way to do things. I loved my brother, I always would, but he needed to know he wasn’t above the law.
“Reeves. Do you think your snitch could set up a new meeting? Say, Friday night instead of Saturday? Same time.”
He looked at me with confusion until a mischievous glint flickered to life in his eyes. “You want to meet Guzman.”
“That’s right. I’ll go as Nico and arrest Raul Guzman for the murder of my sister-in-law.”
Reeves shook his head at me and whistled under his breath. “I’ll make it happen. We can set up a task force to back you up.”
“It needs to seem like it’s coming from Nico for this to work.”
A grin spread over his face. “Oh, it will. Just leave it to me.”
* * *
I glancedaround as I got out of my car. Fidgeting with my coat sleeves I peered into the darkness that the lights on the docks couldn’t penetrate.
This was a bad idea,something inside me whispered. It didn’t matter that I had fifteen different officers and detectives assigned to Reeve’s task force waiting somewhere in the shadows. Reeves and I had gone over the plan with one of his task force leads about an hour ago, before I’d headed down to the docks.
I didn’t like the idea of standing out here alone and vulnerable, but it helped to know my backup was minutes away. I knew Ciro was out there, waiting for my signal to rush in and arrest the scumbag who killed my sister-in-law. It settled my nerves to know my brothers in arms were nearby. I was doing the right thing.
It was long overdue that Nico realized that law and order would prevail and it didn’t matter how many people he paid off. The chief wouldn’t let me arrest him, but I could arrest Raul Guzman and take away Nico’s opportunity to exact his own brand of revenge. The other bonus was that it would keep my brother out of a dangerous situation. It would also protect Havoc. The Guzman’s wouldn’t use her to try to get to him.
I tugged on the suit again. I hated wearing these things. This was the only one I owned and I only used it for court—or weddings. Nico would be wearing a suit to this kind of a meeting, though, so I was stuck with it.
Headlights flashed as a single car pulled up next to mine. I was standing nearby, in the shadows. I watched as two man exited the vehicle and buttoned their suit coats.
Mobsters were so fucking formal.The pomp and circumstance was part of the reason I’d hated this life. They liked to pretend they were civilized, but every one of them played fast and loose with the law, peoples’ lives, and anything else they wanted to.
Unease filled me as they got closer. I wasn’t dumb enough to think Raul would show up here alone tonight, but I recognized the man standing next to him. His brother Lorenzo and he looked a lot alike. All of the Guzman brothers looked like they could be twins, though there was only one set of them that was. I hadn’t been expecting another brother. The danger of this mission had just doubled. I wondered if there was any way for me to notify Reeves that Lorenzo was here.
Not without giving myself away.I’d just have to take it in stride and work with this unexpected turn of events.
