by Sara Schoen
“I was bored at the loft, and I thought I’d take a risk.” I smiled at her, hoping she would relax, but she didn’t seem to. “I wanted to know if you’d like to take a walk with me.”
Chapter 24
After convincing Sara to go on a walk with me around town, toward the park where I typically went running and met Demon, she questioned me on everything. She wanted to know if I had come all the way to her apartment just to ask her on a walk. When I said yes, she asked what I would have done if she had said no. I thought about a joking answer, saying that I would have forced her come anyway, but decided against it. I’m sure my cover scared her enough. I wasn’t sure she would have taken it as a joke.
“I would have just continued walking on my own,” I said as we crossed the street into the park. “I wouldn’t have minded. I just thought that it would be best to spend it with someone, and Danielle and Camden are a little busy with each other.”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
I heard skepticism in her voice. I knew she wondered why I had actually shown. I was sure having the right hand man of the cartel’s leading member show up at her door wasn’t something she expected, but just as she did, I had a role to play. I felt like a double agent even thinking about what I had to do to make this work. I was supposed to be interrogating her for Camden because he was paranoid after the mole in the cartel, and at the same time I needed to help her in her plan to take him down. No matter what Sharp Shooter and Demon said to me when this ended, this plan had crash and burn written all over it. I just hoped that Sara’s plan worked.
“You didn’t have to come,” I said. “The weather has warmed up, it’s quiet, and the stars are bright tonight. I wouldn’t have minded being alone on a night like this. I could stay out all night to look at the sky.”
“I haven’t seen the stars in a while,” she whispered.
I had a feeling I wasn’t supposed to hear it, so I didn’t respond. She probably hadn’t seen them for a while due to her being on house arrest. She must not have been allowed out of the agency building since then. She went to Sandtown during the winter, about mid-November, and since then the weather had warmed up. Summer was right around the corner, which meant more deals, and the wedding Camden planned for. He still hadn’t asked Danielle. I think he wanted to wait for everything to blow over, but I couldn’t let that happen. If something didn’t happen for this plan soon, then Danielle would be in deep shit when Sara decided it was time.
I knew she would try to get Danielle out, especially now that they had formed some kind of bond with each other, but I wanted to be sure. I wanted to tell her we were on the same team, but to her I was a normal guy—a normal guy in the cartel who carried a weapon with him almost everywhere. That must have painted a wonderful picture of me in her head, and it only got worse with the file Demon had probably given her. She might only know the bad things, or she may not know anything at all about me. Maybe they only briefed her on the Cardozas and Danielle. She confirmed my suspicions a few moments later when she started asking me on my background.
“Can you tell me a bit about you, Marco? You know, besides that you’re sarcastic, egotistical, and think your flirting actually works on me.”
As I did my best not to take that as an insult, I noticed she tried to hide a smile. I realized that I was sarcastic and egotistical for the role I played, but it wasn’t my true personality. Sometimes I feared I had become the role.
“That about hits the nail on the head,” I said. “So unless you have specific questions, I can’t do much for you.”
“Who are you to Camden? I can tell you’re close, but are you partners or what?”
I glanced at her facial expression to see if she attempted to bluff me, but she appeared to be waiting for a genuine answer. They had really made sure she had very little information.
“I’m his partner, and we work together in order to track down missing people.” I repeated verbatim what Camden had said to Danielle to keep the stories in line.
A strange look crossed her face. It looked almost like guilt before she swept it away. “Have you found anyone?”
“I’m looking into Danielle’s brother, but one of our guys just lost the girl he spent a lot of time tracking. Unfortunately, the case ended with her being found dead on a hiking trail.”
Once again a flash of guilt crossed her face, except this time pain and sorrow accompanied it. Her expression had confirmed my suspicion that she had been the girl André searched for. Why else would she look so guilty? “That must have been hard for the family to hear about,” she said, sorrow lacing her words.
“I’m sure it was difficult,” I agreed, trying to figure out what she was thinking. “It’s hard to hear someone you love isn’t coming back. The family most likely ended up heartbroken, but they found an answer, and that’s better than never knowing the truth.”
She nodded, but didn’t seem to agree. She looked as if I had stabbed her in the heart, and I could see the tears welling up in her eyes. The girl André had been looking for—Sara Ricker.
Demon must have told her, and they found a way to get her family to admit they had forgotten she had been taking a hiking trip. I wonder what they had to do to convince them to call off the search. I would probably never know. Demon had made a scene of her death in order to get the cartel to stop looking for her, and her family. Then I made it worse by telling her the family she loved and cared for had suffered from hearing their daughter had died. She continued to cry silently, letting the night envelop us as we took a moment of silence.
I turned to her and gently wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Trust me, it’s better they have an answer, even one as sad as hers. Danielle doesn’t have an answer, and she’s spent years looking for someone who may not even be around anymore. She’s still looking for someone who can never come back to her. Danielle’s not moving on, but that girl’s family will.”
She offered me a weak smile before continuing our walk. I let the silence once again surround us, waiting for her to calm down and speak to me first. It must be a lot for her to process, having to hear about her own death, and then know the people she was investigating and trying to destroy had been looking for her. That explained why they had her attach herself to Danielle instead of someone in the cartel. André would have recognized her immediately, so she couldn’t be around Miguel or anyone in the cartel often, but she could be around Danielle. She could win her trust and then gain Camden’s from the outside, but what was the next step? Where could she go from there?
“I wonder what they think of us,” Sara said, gesturing to a couple of people out walking their dogs, and a few with their friends.
“They probably think we’re night walkers, just like them. People who find solace in the night, away from prying eyes, and alone with our thoughts,” I said with a laugh.
“Normally, a night walker is a prostitute,” she commented, completely missing my poetic phrasing, and somehow turning it into a conversation about prostitutes. I started to explain to her what I meant when I heard her gasp. I turned to face her to see shock taking over her features. “Did you just call me a prostitute? Does that make you my pimp?”
“Oh no!” I cried, trying to find the words to tell her what I actually meant, but being too flustered to do so. “I didn’t mean it like that,” I stuttered. “I didn’t mean it like that at all. I would never call someone that, and—”
Sara let out a laugh. “I was just kidding, Marco. I know you didn’t mean it like that.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, allowing my heart rate to slow down. Only to have it pick up again when she slipped her hand into mine. A smile curved at the edges of my lips, and I knew a blush had formed on her cheeks even though she refused to look at me.
A few moments passed by before Sara spoke again. “Night Walker,” she said with a whimsical tone, as if recalling something from her past. “I like that. That could be my nickname for you.”
I let out a chuckle. She had just asked
if I called her a prostitute for saying she was a night walker, and suddenly it was okay now that she was making the comment. I’m just glad she wasn’t actually upset. “Actually, I go by Renegade.” The second the words came out of my mouth, my eyes opened wide and I looked at her to see if she reacted to the name. She didn’t look bothered by the slip-up or she didn’t notice.
She focused on the lake, taking in the nighttime scenery. She scoffed, but it didn’t have anything to do with what I’d said. “That means you betray people. How can I trust you now, knowing that’s the name you were given?”
She stopped on a small bridge overlooking the lake before turning to look at me. She wanted an answer, and I didn’t have a good one for her. I had given myself that name after leaving my sister behind, and the friends I had made while in the service. It wasn’t total abandonment, but I’m sure it felt that way to them. As for Danielle, I wasn’t sure she would ever know I had left her behind to fend for herself.
“You’ll just have to grow to trust me for yourself,” I said, leaning into her a little more. For a moment, she looked scared and vulnerable. I wanted to know why. I wanted to ask her and get an honest answer. I knew I wouldn’t. Just like I had done to her, she would only tell me what came from her cover and nothing more.
“Marco,” she said, staring at me nervously. She didn’t move.
“Just tell me to stop and I will,” I replied.
She glanced up at me for a moment before closing the distance between us and kissing me. Just like before, I felt my heart swell. I instinctively grabbed her waist and deepened the kiss. For the first time I felt free, free of the cartel, free of the agency. I felt like myself again. I hadn’t been that person in years. She had come into my life to remind me that there was more to this world than missions and death. There was a life outside of it, and I wanted to have them both.
Chapter 25
Camden had been acting strange all morning. His office door had been sealed shut for the first time since I started working here. He had a permanent scowl on his face, and he yelled at everyone who came into the office, requesting that the few brave ones who entered should turn around and leave. It seemed as if he didn’t want to be around me, or anyone for that matter, because he even sent me away to run multiple errands, and every time I came back he sent me on another one.
The tension in the air became overbearing, making it hard to catch a full breath. Everyone on the compound felt it and avoided it, but Camden wasn’t willing to discuss the topic on his mind, even with me. He hadn’t said more than a few words to me, at least ones that didn’t involve wherever he sent me next. He said even less to those who attempted to visit him today, and they left as quickly as they could. Typically, a constant stream of people came in and out of his office, either called in by him or there to pass on the word from another area, but not today. I was the only one willingly entering the halls and his office to talk to him, and every time I came back he just seemed more annoyed than the last time. He was a ticking time bomb, and I just hoped I wouldn’t be the one he directed his anger at when he exploded.
As I left on yet another tedious errand, I assumed his foul mood had something to do with Danielle. I hoped she’d broken up with him, and that somehow Sara had let it slip that Camden wasn’t who he pretended to be. That would explain why Danielle had called him earlier. He had sent me out of the room so he could talk to her. Just after that, he sent me on the first errand. When I returned, he had become irate and furious. I tried to laugh it off with him, and asked him what happened while I was gone, but he wouldn’t say. Instead he just gave me a list of things to do and told me to get the hell out.
After that, word spread and everyone seemed on their best behavior so they wouldn’t upset him. Shipments were double checked, partners worked together to get the job done correctly and quickly, and a few people who rarely did work on the floor were helping push it through. Everyone in the compound did their best to avoid him one way or another, but no one knew what had gone wrong.
At first, I thought the deal with the Son Reyes Cartel had him tense and under pressure, worried that something would go wrong, but instead it seemed to be the only thing he remained calm about. He had set up the time, managed the shipment, the crew who would meet up with the Son Reyes, and he’d gone over how the deal needed to be handled, taking minimal help from everyone around him. But mostly because no one wanted to offer their assistance, only to get yelled at. I couldn’t blame them. After attempting to get Camden to talk to me about what was on his mind, I had given up when he silenced me and berated me for bothering him when we had things to do. We didn’t say anything else to each other for a moment before he sent me on another errand, and ordered me to shut the door behind me. There’s always more to do, and he made sure of it so he wouldn’t have to talk about whatever was bothering him.
I had just come back from double-checking the area around where the trade meeting would take place for the third time. The shipment had been moved last night, and there hadn’t been any problems, but Camden wanted to be sure. They were supposed to meet with the Son Reyes Cartel in two days, and now he seemed to be on edge about it.
“I’ve made the final checks for the location,” I said, walking into his office, and making sure to shut the door behind me. “The shipment is in place and ready for the deal. The police haven’t seemed to notice, and haven’t been around the area lately. There should be no trouble when it comes time to meeting and finishing the deal.”
Camden nodded, but he didn’t say anything. I stood there, waiting for more orders, but instead he told me to leave for the day.
“Go home, Marco,” Camden ordered, his voice tired and angry. “Go watch Danielle. I will finish some stuff here and be back soon. There are just a few more things to do before this deal, but you’ve done all you can do. Danielle and I will be gone most of the night, but make sure to come back tomorrow ready to finish up a few things for me. We have someone to take care of tomorrow.”
“What did they do?”
“Does it matter?” Camden glared at me, as if daring me to answer.
I felt the scowl etched on my features as I took in his question. He seemed to have aimed it at me personally. I hadn’t been expecting that. “No, it doesn’t.”
“Good, then just be here, and don’t question the order.”
I nodded, unsure of what else to do, and walked out of the office. I tried to keep calm as I followed my usual route out, but I couldn’t shake the foreboding feeling in my gut. Between someone getting terminated tomorrow and him ignoring me all day, something had sent him over the edge, and it couldn’t be good. I just wish I could figure out what happened, and make sure that it didn’t involve any of the agents from CIRA.
***
When I walked into the loft, after slamming the door behind me, Danielle called to me from the kitchen. I noticed the smell of our grandmother’s spaghetti sauce in the air. My stomach growled, a smile curved onto my lips, and some of my anger faded instantly. I closed my eyes to remember our family dinners. My parents sitting side by side, aunts and uncles, even extended family members who had come to visit. No one ever left the table hungry, and few left with empty plates.
“Smells great,” I said as I plucked a piece of bread she had made from the counter.
She flashed me an angry glare, as if about to tell me to put it down. So I stuffed it in my mouth. Now it was too late. She flashed me a glare and went back to cooking for a moment before a small smile spread across her face. When her gaze met mine, I spotted a knowing gleam, and her smile had turned into a satisfied smirk. That wasn’t a good sign. It typically meant she knew something she wasn’t supposed to, which never worked out well for me growing up. On the bright side, she now used it against Camden, which worked well for my mission.
“So, how was your date last night?” Danielle asked, sounding as if she already knew the answer.
“What are you talking about?” I questioned. I wasn’t in the mood to have
her interrogate me about Sara after getting yelled at by Camden, sent away, and then told to go home like an insolent child. Couldn’t she see that I was already in a bad mood when I walked in? Did she know what had Camden wound up? I had hoped they had broken up, but clearly my assumption was incorrect. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here cooking dinner. They could have gotten into a fight, but Danielle would be tense and aggravated as well. Whatever happened only seemed to affect Camden. I just couldn’t figure out why Danielle didn’t seem to be affected by it.
She scoffed. “Come on, Marco, don’t play stupid with me.”
“What if it’s not a game, and I just have no idea what you’re talking about?” I said, taking a seat at one of the bar stools in front of the counter. I hoped she would look away so I could swipe another piece of bread, but she didn’t.
She glared at me before sighing. “I know you went out with Sara last night.”
“So?” I asked, not understanding why this couldn’t wait until later, hopefully after I managed to get into a better mood. I wasn’t ready for her mind games. I just wanted to be left alone before Camden came home so I could have a chance to figure out what had gone wrong with him. “That doesn’t mean we had a date,” I clarified. “We just took a walk together, nothing else.”
I wondered why she couldn’t she just be direct about it and ask me what she wanted to know.
“After some persuading,” she said with a mischievous smile, “Sara told me everything.” She paused for a moment to take in my reaction. I guess I hadn’t given her what she wanted because then she added, “She even told me about the kiss.”
My eyes widened at the news. I hadn’t expected Sara to say anything to Danielle. I knew I wouldn’t have. I let out an uneasy laugh as she flashed me a smile, waiting for me to say something. I just didn’t know what to say because I didn’t want to talk about my date, and I especially didn’t want to discuss the kiss. Sara had probably told her everything already, anyway. What did Danielle need me for?