Online Murder Syndicate: The Paranormal Mysteries & Adventures of Special Agent Lou Abrams (The Paranormal Mysteries & Adventure of Special Agent Lou Abrams Book 2)

by Thomas Craig

“I have it under control. I was just having a little fun by being creative. Some of this work is not challenging and my mind wanders the creative path,” Tazario shared.

  “Did I say you could have fun with my business?” Tiki shot back.

  “To be fair you were not running the business at the time and my process was working fine.” Tazario felt a little threatened and started to be defensive.

  “Fucking semantics. And screw you having fun at my organization's expense. If you ask me, Gilberto let you off easy in there. But I will not. Clean this shit up and do it right,” Tiki ordered.

  “Understood,” Tazario said with respect in his voice looking eye to eye at his mentor, his boss. Then after a few seconds, he could not help taking a jab at Tiki. “Do you need an apology too?”

  “You can’t help yourself!” Tiki shouted as he threw his lit cigar at Tazario’s chest. It did no damage, but cinders flew everywhere creating the theatrical effect Tiki was going for, and it caught Tazario by surprise.

  “I will tell you what I need from you,” Tiki said with a stern voice as he stood up and finished the glass of whiskey with one quick swig.

  Tazario waited for the demand. He knew that whatever the demand, the answer would have to be yes.

  “I need your Señorita Esperanza to keep my bed warm tonight,” Tiki said with a serious look as he put down the glass and straightened his bolo tie. He knew how Tazario would react to this. He knew which buttons to push.

  Tazario did not share his two favorite women, Izabella and Esperanza. They were his project, his toys, and 100% his personal property. This was a personal attack on him for stepping outside the lines and he now realized just how pissed off Tiki was with him. He could not say “no” to the demand though.

  There was a standoff of glares for roughly 5 seconds as the men spoke without words. Tiki had dished out the punishment to Tazario’s ego. Tazario let him know he was not pleased, and that the punishment hit home.

  “That will be arranged immediately for you in the primary guest suite,” Tazario reluctantly informed his boss.

  The next day concluded the meeting and members were taken back to town by personal drivers or trusted helicopter service. It was a productive meeting. Tazario had the support he was looking for to invest in Venezuela. He already had a few locations scouted out and houses, nothing opulent, already purchased to conduct business in-country.

  The day passed quickly as his mind was on Cartel de los Soles business and which key players he would meet with next.

  He looked up from his desk to find Izabella standing patiently at the doorway. She was wearing a long flowing emerald green summer dress that split at the upper thigh accentuated her bronzed leg. It was one of his favorites. Business started to slip from his mind.

  She always had an inviting smile, but it was slightly hallowed now. Almost forced. The bedroom was just down the hall and she was motioning for him to take a break and come with her.

  Tazario obliged and arrived at her side taking her hand as she led him to their master bedroom.

  This is what he especially liked about the time he had put into his women. They were so well trained that they would come to him asking for quality time together or inviting passionate sex at what he deemed the appropriate times. It wasn’t always him dictating when they had to be ready for his needs. They too acted like they wanted the relationship, the love, the attention. They were loyal beautiful servants, and he had no intentions of letting them go. Tazario unknowingly had become enamored with them both. They were his weakness.

  As they entered the room, he was already pawing at her waist and pulling her in close. To his surprise, she turned around and shook her head back and forth suggesting this is not what she wanted.

  That is when Tazario saw Esperanza laying on the bed in a fetal position.

  “I found her beaten unconscious and stuffed in a closet in the main guest house,” Izabella revealed with great disappointment and a hint of fear.

  Both women thought they were safe with Tazario, especially if they did everything right and pleased him. Esperanza had done nothing wrong to receive such a severe punishment.

  Tazario’s eyes were large with rage as he walked over to examine his other favorite companion. Her face was swollen from crying, as well as from the split lip and shiner that would turn many shades of black and blue in the near future. Her throat had red marks around it as if choked with a rope or belt.

  Izabella drew Tazario’s attention to Esperanza’s lower back where several cigar burns would constantly remind him of his boss.

  “That bastard!” Tazario muttered as he started to leave the room.

  “Clean her up and have her checked out tomorrow,” he told Izabella over his shoulder as he went back to his desk.

  His mind was no longer on Venezuela. Instead, it was on how to take over the Ibagué Cartel from Tiki after introducing the idiot to his untimely death.

  Chapter 14

  The Broker

  With news that the team would be going to Colombia, Lauren called a college friend, Nathan Bahnkiarti, for a little prep assignment. Nathan was known by many as a hacker, but that is not how he thought of himself. Lauren described him to us as an “entrepreneurial computer technician, best at making customized high-performance processors, secured hard drives, and elite private operating systems for portable PCs.”

  She was going to need something unique for the fieldwork required while out of the country. FBI, NSA, CIA, and other organizations had advanced laptop capabilities, with cloud computer processor support enabling advanced analytics and research in the field. Lauren, however, was looking to run many sophisticated programs simultaneously, across multiple agency cloud servers while, on the move, and Nathan was creative enough to deliver on her needs. Hopefully.

  “Nate, sweetie, how are you?” Lauren asked the receiver of her call before he was even able to say hello.

  “Is that my favorite techie turncoat gal pal?” Answered the excited voice on the other end. Nathan always gave Lauren a hard time for leaving the ‘fun stuff’ behind to pursue law enforcement. She was sure of herself and her choice and his endearing comments did nothing but make her slightly giggle.

  “Yes, it is, and I need a quick favor. Can you help me this week?” She explained what she needed and that he would need to come to Atlanta to help make the special laptop from the FBI PC gear she had.

  “You could do this yourself you know. Why ask me to fly there?” Nathan asked because he knew Lauren’s incredible skills.

  “I don’t have the time to tinker around until I figure it out. This is urgent and I can compensate you well for your time,” Lauren promised.

  “I know that is right on all accounts,” Nathan said sarcastically. “Make the arrangements and I will see you tonight.”

  Lauren hung up the phone and looked across the table at Special Agent Arya Shah and SAIC Cooley who were half-listening as they were filling out the team's travel itinerary and coordinating the approvals through the International Operations Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

  “Hey!” The burley voice caught her off guard for a second and made her sit up quickly and spin around to see Holliday entering the room. He was already in the process of tossing his Stetson onto the table next to her.

  I entered after Holliday and peeled off the opposite way to greet Arya properly. It had been close to a week and I missed her. It was a quick and professional looking hug if seen by someone passing by.

  I snuck in a quick kiss on her neck below her ear lobe and drew her scent in through my nostrils. It gave me a boost of energy and alertness I had not realized was needed. I may need some extended time in the sun. Having arrived back in Atlanta by jet at noon today, if we could cut out of here soon, I would have a few hours of sun, poolside, before the night calls.

  ◆◆◆

  When Arya stood and welcomed the hug and quick kiss from Lou, she already knew how much she had missed him and was tempted to hold him clos
e a bit longer. However, she let Lou go and at the same time, she was overcome with a vision. To everyone in the room, it just looked like Arya hugged Lou and then paused for a few seconds before retaking her seat next to Director Cooley.

  To Arya, in those 3 seconds, she was swept away to a dark, pungent-smelling basement where Lou lay lifeless on his back. Standing over Lou was a giant of a man with his huge chest noticeably expanding and contracting and before the vision came to an end the man quickly turned and stared into Arya’s sole with big black eyes as if it could see her looking at him in her vision.

  Arya gasped and sat down quickly. She knew this was not the place to blurt out what she just saw. She knew from experience she needed to internalize her vision in her head, play it back a few times, pay attention to the detail, and then share it if possible.

  Years ago, it was not possible to share what she saw when she would shake a stranger's hand in a casual greeting. Or hug a friend, shake the hand of a fellow FBI agent, or worse, a suspect or interviewee. The things she would see at times were personal, private, too blurry to make out, disturbing, and just plain unexplainable at times.

  Nevertheless, she was disturbed by this vision and knew she needed to share it with Lou as soon as she could. It could be nothing. It could be helpful.

  ◆◆◆

  Holliday noticed Lauren’s reaction to his abrupt entrance when her shoulders tensed up. He gently patted her twice on the back and gave her an apologetic smirk and sat heavily into the chair next to her. SAIC Cooley paused from his work to glare at Holliday and just as he was about to speak, Holliday beat him to it.

  “Did y’all wrap this case up? I mean, Lou and I gave you a nice nugget to work with, right?” Holliday half asked, half proclaimed.

  He was not wrong. We did get a great bit of intel from Mr. Dante and his FLAGG organization. We knew it would have been a stretch to get a warrant to go through FLAGG computers based on one corporate officer being at the plantation. However, a nice Virginian Judge granted us full access to Mr. Dante’s cell and computer.

  It did not take long for us to connect the dots between the FLAGG organization and Colombian-stationed DEA agents in Barranquilla and Cartagena, and possibly a CIA agent in Bogota, Colombia. The names of agents were not used, and the evidence would take time to verify. It would take some real digging, but the leads were solid.

  It had been a long week for everyone, and Director Cooley’s response was not the playful banter Holliday was expecting. Instead, the Director expressed that he was glad his team was reunited and ordered us to rest up for a day before we headed to Colombia to follow the leads on the CIA, DEA, and Tazario Zapata of the Ibagué Cartel.

  He would finish the needed planning with our partner agencies and would set the trip and agenda on a need to know basis, as we were not sure how deep the corruption would go in the Colombian based US agencies. He then dismissed us. We were slow to react.

  “Go!” He insisted, with his deep voice. We went.

  An hour later I found myself, poolside, in swim trunks happily laying and baking under the Sun’s rays. Next to me, under a beach umbrella, was Andy enjoying a bowl of water. He was gnawing on a bone I gave him for behaving while I was away, but I also had to keep him distracted from the foot-long sub sandwich I would be destroying momentarily.

  On my other side was Arya in a bikini, holding my hand with her right and reading a book with her left. She started to play with my fingers to get my attention.

  “You know we have been talking about this very thing for months, but I thought we agreed it would be Nassau or St. Lucia, not poolside in Atlanta,” Arya said with a smile as she used her book to shade her face while looking me over for a reaction.

  “Yes, I agree, this will not do.” I propped myself up on my forearm and leaned over to kiss her. When we connected, I felt a surge of warmth rise from deep within me and it moved up to my chest. I calmly leaned back and smiled at her. Until I find a better way of thinking of it or describing it, I was feeling ‘fully charged’ from the Sun.

  “I think we both agree that once this case is closed, we will immediately be on a plane to a nice beach bungalow,” I said as I raised my yellow can of Orpheus Pilsner. Arya raised her can of Variant Double Cashmere beer and we both drank a sip.

  “Lou, I can feel that your energy is strong. I’m going to call Lauren down from the apartment to take Andy to the dog park but would like you to finish healing her first. Then you and I can soak here for another 30 minutes to make sure you stay well.”

  “And then?” I asked.

  “And then, we go upstairs and roll around in bed before taking a shower,” she said with a grin as she dialed Lauren on her cell phone.

  “I think I will leave the planning up to you when we go on vacation. I like your style.” I laid back down and started to remove any romantic thoughts I had for Arya. This was not easy, but I had to clear my head.

  Lauren lived about 20 minutes away but she spent all of her time either at our apartment or her boyfriend Jack Cable’s apartment. She liked the presence of people but did not require their attention, so she never was considered anything but welcomed.

  A few minutes later Lauren came down from our apartment and walked through the pool gate wearing khaki shorts, brown timberlands, a red blouse, and a black Falcons ball cap on backward.

  I quickly noticed the hat as she normally did not wear them. “Are you now a fan of the Dirty Birds?” I asked Lauran.

  Without looking, Arya raised her IPA can. “Rise up!” She chanted before laughing at herself.

  Lauren looked a little confused not realizing we were referring to the Atlanta Falcons NFL team logo on her hat. I pointed to her hat.

  “Oh. Jack is a big fan, so I thought I would show up today with team spirit. They play today, right?” She looked happy. Tired as well.

  “Well, it’s April,” I responded

  “What does that mean?” Lauren shot back.

  “It’s soccer season. You should get an Atlanta United soccer jersey or hat. NFL season is from August to January. But you are good to wear the hat with pride any time of the year. Jack will appreciate it,” I reassured her.

  She shrugged her shoulders playfully but then winced.

  “Here, please sit next to me Lauren, and let me finish healing you.”

  “You don’t have to Lou; I’m doing well enough.”

  As I sat up and put my shirt on, Arya chimed in. “We need you 100% for this trip Lauren. Please let Lou help.”

  Lauren sat down between Andy and me and gave me her left hand. I scooted a bit towards her and placed my other hand on her shoulder as I tighten my stomach muscle engaging my core. It flared up instantly in me and shot through my hands into Lauren. She jolted a bit and gasped as she watched me release her a second after touching her.

  “Whoa! What the hell was that Lou?” Lauren said as she rotated her arm and shoulder checking the free movement and lack of pain associated with the movement. She then lifted her blouse exposing her rib where she knew she had two deep bruises. They were gone.

  I felt fine. A nice change of events as healing usually came with side effects on me. Perhaps I should do more healing under the Sun, versus indoors or at night. I’m not sure why that was so hard to figure out. It makes total sense for something so unexplainable. I almost laughed at my internal hypothesis but managed to kept it in.

  “What happened Lou?” Arya asked. “Did you hurt her?”

  “No, he healed me in one second. It was like when you open the oven and a wave of 450° heat passes through and around you,” Lauren explained.

  “Sorry about the heatwave. I guess my healing is a bit more intense in the Sun.”

  Andy was licking Lauren’s ankle to get her attention. Andy was ready to go have some fun elsewhere. Lauren leaned over and gave me a quick hug and thank you, before leashing Andy to take him.

  “If you don’t mind, can I take Andy to the park and then back to Jack’s for the night?” Lauren asked
.

  Arya and I gave each other a quick look with raised eyebrows before answering together. “Sure.”

  Once Lauren left with Andy, I’m not sure Arya and I gave the Sun another full 30 minutes as planned before we found ourselves upstairs in bed.

  Working together in this line of business was a rare treat for a couple. Cases could take us away for weeks on the road. Most cases keep us somewhat local, but hours could be very inconsistent. We had to be professional and focused at work because our lives and the lives of others relied on us to be sharp.

  Our relationship was still in the first year. When we found ourselves together and not tired from work, we took advantage of the time. Sometimes we would go to a good local bar that had unique microbrew selections or go bowling. If the weather was nice, hit a park with our bikes or walk the trails. We were having fun exploring each other's hobbies and intellects, as well as discovering the intimate side of our relationship. Right now, would be the latter.

  Our clothes were already off and as we slowly began kissing each other, I rolled Arya on top of me. Our hands were quickly exploring each other, and our breathing became heavy with anticipation. I could feel the goosebumps on her skin as my hands enjoyed her curves. After getting tangled in the top sheet a few times, Arya tossed it to the floor leaving our naked bodies fully exposed on the bed. I could feel the heat build in my hands as I pulled her hips to mine. Arya trembled all over.

  “Lou,” She gasped. “Lou, with every touch, you are shooting massive warm waves through me. I can’t…” she almost seemed to be hyperventilating as she forced out a few more words. “I can’t control myself,” she gasped and trembled as she grabbed my wrist pulling my hands off her, and pinned them by my shoulders.

  She paused there for a moment eyes closed as if meditating.

  “You have to learn to control those hands, Lou,” she said with a soothing voice as she opened her eyes. She leaned in and kissed me while keeping my hands at bay.

  I wanted more of Arya and I could see through her heavy breathing that her eyes were aching for more too, so we continued.