Rafael
"Mr. Santiago, we have him."
"Good." I said, walking down the short metal stairs into the dimly lit basement.
There, a tattooed man was chained to the wall, blood running down his face and covering his body. My men had already done a good job roughing him up, but it didn't feel half enough to me. My fingers itched to pull out my gun and put a bullet in his skull.
The image of Nina bleeding out on the sidewalk with tears running down her face replayed in my head, fanning the flames of my fury.
"Has he talked yet?" I asked one of my men while I undid the button of my suit jacket and pulled it off. Next, I rolled up the sleeves of my white shirt, not wanting to get blood on it.
"Nothing important." Antonio replied.
I stepped up close to the bastard who had stabbed Nina. "Who sent you?"
"None of your business!" He spat.
"It is my business." I drawled. "You know why? Because you and whoever the fuck is employing you is giving me a bad name."
The man's mouth spread into a smile, blood staining his teeth. "At least that bitch would have finally learned to stop digging into things that don't concern her. Isn't that what we all want? To be left alone?"
"I'll ask you one last time before I decide to stop being nice." I whispered. "Who sent you to kill agent Torres? Now before you give me another stupid answer, consider the fact that I'm going to kill you, and I'm going to make it slow."
His eyes narrowed and I continued.
"You think whoever sent you is terrifying? you're about to know the true meaning of terror." I told him. "Is whatever they're paying you worth your life?"
Suddenly, the man burst into laughter. "I'm not afraid of you Rafael Santiago. The black smoke gang is nothing but a relic from the past. You're all nothing but pussies now, too afraid to make the news. Kill me if you want, but_"
I whipped out my gun and fired before he could say anything else, my bullet ripping through the back of his throat and silencing him forever.
Antonio gave me a look, but I merely shrugged. "He wasn't going to talk anyway. Did you find anything in his motel room?"
"Just a bunch of fake IDs." He replied. "What now? The FBI isn't going to let us walk this off, not after we've just become the prime suspect in the attempted murder of an agent."
My teeth gritted in fury. My plan to distract the organization by setting up that attack on the docks had worked brilliantly. But with what happened to agent Torres, I was sure they were going to double down on the investigation of the black smoke gang.
Nina was like a freaking dog with a bone, and now that she had been targeted specifically, it'd make her believe she was on some sort of right track.
The other two agents Richard and Matthew were a bunch of buffoons. I just needed to toss them a bone every now and then and I could continue with my operations. Agent Torres was different though.
"Mr. Santiago, there's something you should know." Juan came down the stairs, face grim. "The FBI just made contact with a witness, someone who can accurately describe you according to my Intel."
I dragged a hand through my hair. "A witness? That's impossible."
"Apparently, this person knows our meeting locations and drug trade routes." Juan said. "I think it's someone planted by whoever tried to kill the rookie agent."
"You think they're trying to use the FBI to wipe us out?" Antonio asked. "That's cold."
I nodded. "Or they're trying to put us in the spotlight while they continue to carry out their operations in the dark, unsuspected. We have to find the witness, find out who they're working for and what they've been ordered to testify."
"The witness is in Vegas. He's in hiding at the moment, but he's supposed to meet up with two agents on Friday." Juan pointed out. "We'll have a small window of time from when the agents identify and pick him up till when back up gets to them. Approximately six minutes."
My brain worked over time, trying to figure out how to go about this. I might have been a criminal, but I wasn't interested in bringing down the wrath of the city on my head by killing cops. I had no doubt Richard and Matthew would pull out their guns at the first hint of trouble if I tried to get to the witness now.
"There's one more thing, boss." Juan's voice cut through my thoughts.
"What?" I asked with little patience.
"Richard and Matthew aren't the agents in charge of retrieving the witness. Apparently, it's going to be a collaboration between Vegas and Chicago. We have someone named Paul Simmers on the case, and you won't believe this, Mr. Santiago, but the agent that was attacked will be his partner."
I froze. "You mean agent Torres? "
"Yes, sir."
"Impossible. She's supposed to be confined to her hospital bed!" I barked. "How is she cleared to get back on the field after a near death experience?"
My fists clenched and something dangerous slithered down my spine. Did that crazy woman have no sense whatsoever? Had losing so much blood also caused her to lose the brain cells she had left. She could barely even stand straight not to talk of defending herself if something went sideways while retrieving the witness.
"We can't let that witness get back to Chicago." Antonio stated the obvious. "I'll go and_"
"No, leave it to me." I cut in, grabbing my suit jacket and slinging it over my shoulder. "Clean up this mess, and dump his body somewhere that his employer would find it."
"What's your plan, Mr. Santiago?" Juan asked.
"To handle this." And by this, I meant Nina Torres.