“Noah… what-why is he after me? And what does CJ have to do with it?”
He shakes his head and swallows hard, as he stares at our son sleeping on the monitor.
“We’re still working on the why. We haven’t figured that out yet but-”
“Then how do you know he’s after me?”
Noah’s jaw tightens, his shoulders growing more tense.
He shakes and stutters as he tries to come up with the right words.
After a long pause, he stills, taking a deep, shuddering breath and collecting himself.
He sets the monitor on the desk next to me and gets up, holding out his hand for me to take. And I do. He takes me to the metal desk in the middle of the room, filled with folders and marked boxes.
The other men are quiet as they watch us, so silent and intense that you could cut the tension with a knife and hear it slice, the sound bouncing off the walls.
Noah pulls out a box from underneath the table and wordlessly asks me to look into it.
I pick up the first folder from the stack in the box and open it.
My eyes widen as my stomach turns sour.
The fear eats at me, clawing from the inside until I can practically feel it crawling on my skin.
I continue my search as I open another folder, and another, until I’ve reached the end of the box.
The box contains almost the entirety of my life.
He’s been watching me this whole time.Why? Who is he?
I’m breathing so hard and so loud I’m afraid I’ll pass out from the sheer force.
Noah’s fingers gently ease mine off the last folder as he grabs the stack and places them back inside the box. He leads me back to the desk, moving the chair to the side so it’s facing half of the room and the desk.
He sits me down again, easing back onto his knee.
“Who is he, Noah?”
“The illusive leader of the Sotnas cartel. He owns the majority of illegal trade stateside, exporting and importing in at least three continents.”
“But who is he?”
“We still don’t know. He eluded us for years. He’s smart in how he operates, handling everything through associates and picking randoms to do his dirty work for him. We don’t even have a name or a face to go on.”
Gabe leans on the metal desk, crossing his arms.
“The only breaks we’ve ever had on this case are all linked to you, Ria. That text, this box and now this guy, who Noah says you know.”
I rub my palm across my forehead, trying to follow this conversation. I am so confused and terrified.
“What is CJ’s part in all of this?” I bite the inside of my lip to keep it from trembling as I attempt to keep my focus on this horrifying conversation.
Ben speaks up from his perch on the wall with their weapons.
“We’ve been monitoring the drops the Sotnas cartel has been doing for the last two years. That’s how we found the box containing evidence that he’s been watching you. We have been careful not to move in because we don’t want to risk tipping him off. But the last transaction was done so close to where you and Noah lived, we decided the coincidence was enough to get a warrant.”
“Yet another link to you,” Gabe offers quietly.