Jaeger

by Evelise Archer

  Since there were no new tracks on the property, Jaeger surmised that the agency had cautiously approached soon after the incident and repaired and secured the area. He hoped the door code hadn’t changed. If it had, a silent alarm would be sounded in the agency control room and the offenders would know he’d returned. Hopefully they didn’t have anyone posted nearby to reach him before he was able to snoop around and vacate.

  He took the steps two at a time, used his code, and entered the spacious room. Everything had been put back together, and if Jaeger didn’t know better, he would never have guessed an explosion had occurred there just days before. The agency was nothing if not efficient.

  Jaeger immediately headed to his comm room and turned to the one hidden computer he had secretly left running in the background to record any sounds and images in the cabin. The electronics were still humming, so no one had discovered it. The device, an extremely low-frequency piece of equipment, would only pick up conversations in the immediate vicinity of the comm room. But hopefully that would be enough to give more insight.

  With one last look around for anything out of place, Jaeger disappeared.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  AGENT CHASE dreaded making his call, and the more time he wasted, the more his blood pressure rose. Utilizing one of his spare phones, he quickly dialed a New York City number, although the man would answer regardless of where he was. Only one man would answer the phone, so no pretense or small talk was needed. When he heard breathing on the other end of the line, Chase spoke.

  “He’s back.”

  “Can you be more specific, Agent Chase? Who are we speaking of?” Even with an accent, Chase could hear the sarcastic malice through the line. He knew the man had him by his proverbial cojones.

  “Tripp,” Chase said matter-of-factly. He hoped his trepidation was not too apparent. The man was a deadly force and not to be taken lightly. “I bugged the cabin when I was there after the explosion, just in case he returned, and he did. What are we going to do?” Chase was up to his eyeballs in shit—not a place he relished.

  “What do you mean we, Agent Chase. This man is your concern, not mine.” There was a silent pause, and then the man continued. “I will tell you this, cabrón, I want him and O’Riley out of the picture. When you have a lead on their whereabouts, I want to be informed immediately. Or if they return to the cabin. I will put an end to this clusterfuck myself. I’m flying into town today. This situation will be taken care of, posthaste. I will not have my plans thwarted by incompetence. This never would have gotten this far had you done your job from the start. Do you understand?” The venom radiated through the phone line and made Chase cringe. Would the money he’d collected ease his soul? Was his family any better off? The man on the phone was not one to be crossed. He’d proven that many times. But the minute he signed a blood oath with the Latin devil, he was fucked.

  Chase took a deep breath and replied, “Completely, señor. I’ll keep you informed.” The phone line went dead.

  “DID YOU get the information from the cameras and computer?” Wren had not stopped pacing the small room since Jaeger left.

  “Everything was as it should be, and I downloaded it all—even what I had installed in the comm room.” Jaeger busied himself as he spoke, getting the laptop plugged into the charger and turning it on.

  “They’d obviously returned to the cabin, because my exploding surprises were fixed—new windows, doors, any destroyed furniture replaced. Even the computers had been replaced, but they didn’t see the small one I’d hidden. It didn’t look like anyone had been there for a while, so I’m guessing they fixed everything right away. Hopefully I have good footage and voice recordings.”

  “I’m almost afraid to see what we’ll find.” Wren paused. “For both of us.”

  Jaeger cued up the feed, and Wren pulled the oversized chair from the other side of the room. Together they watched the footage. Sometimes Jaeger fast forwarded or rewound to see something again, and other times he let it run through. Neither said a word as they stared, stone-faced, at the screen.

  One man they both immediately recognized―Luis Calderon―was the cartel henchman who’d been following them initially and who’d been there for the trap. Wren verified that Calderon worked for his uncle, which left Jaeger to wonder what he’d been promised in return for killing Wren. His bandaged right arm peeked out from the rolled-up sleeve of his shirt, and there was a bandage on his forehead. He spoke to another well-built man whose face was not clear.

  The third man confirmed Jaeger’s suspicions—SAC Denver Chase. Fuck a duck.

  The footage didn’t lie. Agent Chase was clearly speaking to the cartel thug, Luis, and another man. The other man obviously didn’t want to be seen, even though he didn’t know whether the cameras were there or not. He kept his face concealed with a hat, so only a shadow could be seen. There was no audio from the outdoor cameras, so Jaeger would need to play the inside footage to know if anything could be clearly heard.

  “Do you recognize any of these men?” Jaeger asked.

  “Isn’t that Agent Chase from the Marshal’s office? Fuck. If he’s in cahoots with my family, we’re screwed. He knows we’re on the run.” Wren began to fidget in his seat and pulled nervously on a small string on his jeans.

  Jaeger took his hands and turned to face him. “He doesn’t know where we are, just that we’re on the run. And I suspected Chase. This is just a confirmation.” Jaeger rubbed his thumbs along Wren’s sweaty palms to soothe his nervous energy.

  “What we really need to know is who’s pulling the strings—the person in charge. What about the third guy? The one with the hat? Close your eyes and simply listen to the other feed and see if there’s anything we can use. Sometimes our senses are more heightened when we eliminate one of them. Then we’ll tackle this like a crime scene board. Okay?”

  Some of the tension left Wren’s face, and he nodded his head in acquiescence. “I’m not sure about the other guy. He’s familiar, yet not. There’s something about him, but I can’t place him. And without seeing his face… I just don’t know. I need this to be over.”

  Wren’s skin was flushed, and perspiration sheened on his forehead. Wren was about to reach DEFCON 1, and Jaeger needed to do something fast if he didn’t want a nuclear meltdown on his hands. A babysitting job had turned into a game of cat and mouse. Tears pooled in Wren’s eyes and threatened to spill over his cheeks. Jaeger raised his right hand to Wren’s face and wiped the lone tear that crested on his cheek. His beautiful, luminescent green eyes were even shinier with droplets of water in them.

  “We will get them. And then you can live your happily ever after in Spain with your mother, or wherever you choose to go. But first we need to figure out how far up this goes. I think the killing of Jesus Chino was just a small incident―a power play, so to speak―and you happen to play right into it. You’re a strong man, Wren O’Riley, and you can do this. You with me?”

  Jaeger didn’t wait for a response.

  “I have something else to tell you.” The voice was but a whisper, and Jaeger was already distracted by the voice recordings.

  “What do you mean you have something else to tell me? You recognize the other man?” He turned to give Wren his undivided attention.

  “No. It’s about Javi.” Whatever Wren had to tell him must have been important because the tears dried up and a nervous tic appeared. A thin line of sweat started to form on Wren’s brow, and his beautiful green eyes darkened with fear.

  “Whatever the fuck it is, spill it out.” Jaeger was fast losing patience.

  “My uncle killed him.” Wren’s reserved detachment threw Jaeger for a loop. “Well, not technically, but he was the catalyst.”

  “Your uncle? How do you know this? Wren, what the fuck happened? Is this the ‘it didn’t end well’ that I didn’t press you on?” Jaeger’s voice rose with each word. Didn’t Wren think that was an important piece to the puzzle? Death and destruction surrounded his family, and th
ey knew no boundaries. The death of Javier Chino at Rincón’s hands would have been a catalyst to the family feud that led them to their current situation.

  Fuck. Why didn’t I make Wren tell me the entire sordid story from the start? I should have pressed him from the first day.

  “Explain Wren, and I mean right fucking now. Do you realize that this is not something you should have kept from me? It’s fucking important. Motherfucker.” Jaeger felt like he might lose his shit any minute.

  Wren clearly couldn’t look at Jaeger and stared down at the patterns on the motel room rug. “We got into a fight. Javi and I.”

  Jaeger waited. “And…?”

  “I wanted to come out to our respective families. As a couple. I knew my mother would be fine and my uncle would go along with it as long as I didn’t flaunt anything in his face, but Javi was scared that his father would blow a gasket, and after hours upon hours of arguing, Javi finally relented and decided to talk to Jesus. I wanted to go with him, but he said it would be better if he did it on his own. Once he talked to him, he’d call me and let me know how it went and we’d plan from there. I was really in love with him, ya know?”

  Jaeger didn’t have time to console him, so he just nodded his head and urged Wren to continue.

  “The conversation with his dad did not go well. In fact it was a fucking disaster. They screamed and yelled. His father called him lots of rotten names—insulting him, me, his mother, anyone he could think of. Javi was despondent when he called me. He barely got through the conversation about what occurred because he cried so hard. I felt helpless, but selfishly I hoped that he’d still want to be with me, his family be damned.

  “We decided to not see each other for a few days to allow things to calm down, but it never really worked.” Wren sucked in his breath as silent tears streamed down his face and Jaeger waited—stone-faced.

  “I had to travel to New York City with my uncle for a business meeting. I usually traveled with Tío in order to keep up with the books. The family owns property in many of the major cities throughout the United States because of our many holdings. Leaving New Mexico also gave Javi and me a few days’ respite from the urge to be together, and we hoped it would allow Javi’s father to calm down.

  “It was a Friday. Javi and I were to meet up in the early evening, after I arrived back in town from the business meeting with my uncle in New York. It would be the first time we’d see each other since he told Jesus. Javi knew where I was going, and I can only assume he told his uncle I was away for business, so Jesus would have no reason to continue to badger Javi, even temporarily, about our relationship. I had no idea Jesus Chino would follow my uncle to New York to confront him. Like I said before, unprecedented and with only one body guard. I was in the office, working on a few spreadsheets and still marking my files and copying them, when I heard the commotion.

  “They were shouting, and Chino accused my uncle of allowing, and I quote—his deviant nephew to do the devil’s work and make his son a maricón—end quote. My uncle went ballistic. I couldn’t see them, and I don’t even know if they knew that I was in the office, but I can only imagine my uncle’s face.

  “Then it got deathly silent. I went to the door and opened it a sliver and saw the gun in my uncle’s hand. I could see Tío’s body posture—tense with fury—and the part of his neck that peaked from his collar was crimson.

  “He shot Chino. I screamed—or at least I think I did. In my head I did, but other than that, I’m not sure. My uncle saw me and told me to get the fuck back in the office and mind my business. So I did. But I was at the point where something had to give. I just didn’t know what. Until that night.”

  “What happened that night Wren? You were to meet Javi, and?”

  “All hell broke loose in the house—men shouting, running, my uncle shouting, blood pooling all around Chino, his body lifeless, his bodyguard immobilized by my uncle’s men. He was someone else they needed to dispose of. They needed to get rid of the bodies, clean the mess, and hope no one called the police. I can only assume Chino’s bodyguard met his demise in the same fashion as his boss. Probably at the bottom of the Hudson River.”

  Wren blinked and looked into Jaeger’s eyes. “I was confused and probably in shock. I went through the motions—packing my personal belongings and laptop. My uncle put me on his private plane, and I left and returned to New Mexico. Upon arriving I had the driver take me home so I could get my car. I went to Javi’s house. He resided on the grounds, but in a small coach house on his father’s property. I didn’t know what to do. For all the times I spent with my family, I had never seen a dead body, unless of course, at a relative’s funeral. But never in that fashion. How would I tell Javi his father was dead? The man who raised him. And killed by someone I loved and admired, who raised me after my own father passed. My mother’s brother? It would crush him. Would he even believe me, and then what would we do?—Stay? Go?—And to where?

  “When I got to Javi’s house he wasn’t there. Somehow he’d already heard about his father’s murder, and he blamed himself. Word travels very fast in the cartels. Especially when a major player meets his demise. Javi left me a note telling me that, even though he loved me, he didn’t know if we could be together knowing that my uncle killed his father—knowing that every time he looked at me, he’d think of that. He wasn’t sure if he could forgive me, even though I didn’t pull the trigger. He was going away for a while to think and get his head on straight. After things cooled down, he’d contact me and we’d take it from there.

  “I had no choice but to accept his decision.”

  Water pooled in his eyes, and despair clearly marred his expression.

  He chuckled. “The paper was crinkled, like he’d been crying. The next day I was told he’d been in a car crash. The body was beyond recognition, but dental records proved it was him. Mexico—he’d crossed the border into Mexico, and then he was gone. So no, my uncle did not pull the trigger on Javi, but inadvertently killed him because Javi wouldn’t have left if his father were still alive.

  “That was when I decided to contact the FBI. I think they thought it was a joke until I e-mailed them a snippet of a file to prove the truth. When I finally met with an agent, my only stipulation was that my mother be placed into protective custody before I told them or gave them anything else. I needed her safe. A few days later, while in Santa Fe, she was whisked away to a secure location, and I turned myself in to the authorities with everything minus the flash drive Clarissa is mailing to us. And the rest you know, because now we’re together, and I’m fucked once again.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  JAEGER FOCUSED all his attention on Wren as he related his tale. A dark cloud followed him. But something smelled fishy, and Jaeger meant to get to the bottom of the fiasco. So they listened to two hours of audio and got little new information. They could hear bits and pieces of conversations about finding Wren and Jaeger, although their names were never mentioned. Words like “target” and “fed” made it very apparent who they spoke of. The voices were too muffled, but Wren was sure he’d heard two of the three voices before—SAC Chase and Luis. The other voice, much like the face on the videos, was obscured.

  Jaeger was beginning to think they’d never get past square one. He had little choice but to sit and wait until they made for the city, where they’d stay until the trial—less than a week away. The flash drive from Clarissa should be at the PO Box in two days, and it was the evidence they needed.

  So they settled in for the night, and Jaeger flipped through numerous news links on his laptop in the hope of discovering anything concerning the upcoming trial. Watching the news proved futile, even though it was a high-profile case. The government kept a tight lid on any and all coverage so as to not taint the proceedings—a task that could be difficult in the age of social media.

  There was very little mention of Juan Rincón and his cartel family. Juan Rincón had the best lawyers money could buy, and once he realized Wren blew
the whistle, he had his toughest henchmen searching for his nephew. Jaeger wondered if Rincón knew the extent of the material Wren had copied and turned over to the feds in exchange for a simpler life for him and his mother.

  Jaeger watched Wren toss and turn on his side of the bed. A restful slumber eluded him. His brow creased and his lips parted as God knew what dreams or nightmares plagued him. Jaeger reached out and touched his exposed skin and ran his roughened hand up and down Wren’s arm. Soon he settled, and the only sounds heard were Wren’s soft snores.

  Not able to keep his eyes open anymore, Jaeger climbed under the covers and plopped his head on the pillow. Wren immediately gravitated to him and cuddled into his embrace. As much as Jaeger wanted to distance himself, he couldn’t. His need to protect Wren was just as strong as his need to escape.

  Wren turned in his arms and latched onto Jaeger’s wrist—the one with the leather band. Subconsciously Wren toyed with the soft leather until he stilled and slept through the night.

  Jaeger woke with a hard-on and the need to piss. He extricated himself from the tangle of limbs, padded to the bathroom, and took care of business—pissing, washing his face, and brushing his teeth. When he returned to the bed, Wren had sprawled out on the queen-size mattress and lay twisted in the sheets, exposing yards of corded lean muscle and two very pert copper nubs. The sight called to Jaeger, and he wanted to nip and lick each one—just to see if he could make Wren come from nipple play.

  The bastard in him yearned to take Wren, knowing full well Wren was falling in love with him and would freely give himself. On the other hand—fuck, there was no other hand. Jaeger wanted Wren.