But fuck, I can taste it.Thisis it.
The hole in their operation that we’ve been searching for years.
Ria is the key.
Gabe moves to stand on the other side of the table. He folds his arms, his stance determined and amped for a fight.
“Ria is the key to this whole thing.”
With my head hung low, I glare at him.
This motherfucker knew.
“How long did you know he wanted her?”
Gabe’s mouth presses in a grim line as he picks up a box from under the table and hands me the folder on the top.
I open it to find photos of Ria from over a year ago.
“What the fuck?” I growl.
I throw the folder on the table and grab another from the box and then another.
Halfway through the box, I stop.
Years worth of surveillance.
I try to draw air into my lungs.
They took photos of my wife for years.
There are even folders with photos of me from when I met Ria.
My head pops up to find Ben has stood up from his desk. His screen lights up as it searches for more information on CJ. He approaches us cautiously, probably wanting to be a buffer in case I lunged for Gabe’s throat again.
“Where did you find this? And why do I not know about this?” I barely get the words out.
Ben and Gabe exchange looks before Gabe turns back to me with a resigned sigh.
“A few months ago, we followed a courier out to a harbor in Virginia. This was the first time a pickup happened close to where you lived. We figured it was worth a shot given the only time we had any progress with the investigation was when we found out he wanted to kidnap your wife and kill you. We lucked out. At that harbor was an abandoned furniture factory, and inside we found a production line of stolen car parts anda drug lab. We found all these files during the raid. One of the men we picked up admitted to it being one of Sotnas’ spots, but that’s all we could get out of him. He clammed up pretty quick and lawyered up.”
I’m teetering on the edge of a freefall, frightened to my very core.
My wife—the love of my life.
He wants her.
Gabe releases a heaving breath.
“Noah. We thought he wanted her to get to you but it looks like he’s been after her the whole time. The sight of those folders changed everything for me. They gave me clarity. We should—
I should have insisted we bring you here after they cleared your name. I fucked up. But I meant what I said, man. You and Ria are like family to me. There was no way in hell I was going to let him take her like that. I had every intention to bring you to Ria, but Director Villegas was determined to keep you off the case because of the ramifications. He assigned you case after case, so I just had to bide my time until there was an opening. I had to do it without him knowing I planned to lure you back here to your family.”
Gabe shakes his head in disparagement at the folders.
“What the fuck does he want with her?”
A ping breaks through the silence in the room and Ben sits back at his desk to check it out.