Marty worked his way down her back and over her butt, palming her front at the same time and pressing the seam of her jeans into her skin.
“Speed it up, Marty,” one of the fake cops said.
Ballestrini pulled his foot back and kicked the dead body firmly in the stomach as though to test the deadness of it.
Cameron clenched her fists.
Finally, Marty stooped to feel Cameron’s ankles. He groped the left one first, running his fingers from her crotch down to the top of her shoe. He grinned up at her as he started toward the second shoe. Cameron spit hard in his face.
“What the fuck?” He reared up and struck her, knocking her to the ground before wiping the spittle off his face. “Fucking cunt,” he said as the others laughed. He started back toward her, but one of the fake cops waved him off. “Later, Marty.”
Marty got up in her face. “I’m not done with you, bitch.”
Cameron said nothing as she got to her feet. The guy behind her pushed her toward the warehouse. The hard shaft of a gun jabbed into her back. “Don’t fuck with us. We can do this neat, or we can do it messy.”
Cameron thought about Nate and gave a little nod.
As they got close, she thought she caught motion in her peripheral vision, but when she looked, there was nothing.
She was alone.
Chapter 49
As Ballestrini reached into his pocket for the keys to the warehouse, Cameron thought about Diego. She could have saved him. Now, they were all going to die. She prayed she’d have a chance to tell him how sorry she was, if only in the afterlife. She tried to hold that faith, but it didn’t feel like enough.
Ballestrini pulled open the door to the warehouse and pushed her inside.
Cameron scanned the room. In the far corner by another door, she saw Ivana. Her hands were bound behind her and a strip of silver duct tape covered her mouth. Beside her lay a motionless bundle of blankets.
Cameron cried out, trying to get free to go to Nate. She could almost smell him, and a rush of pain ran through her.
“Sorry,” Ballestrini said. “You’ll have to say goodbye from here.” Kelly and Caltabiano took hold of her arms, holding her back.
“No!” Cameron screamed.
“Marty, handle the girl.” Marty went toward Cameron. “The girl, Marty,” Ballestrini snapped, pointing toward Ivana.
Marty crossed the warehouse, and Cameron tried to imagine how she’d get to her gun. There was no way she could take them all down, but she’d have to try. She took a deep breath and swooned, letting her body go limp. The two men stumbled forward as Cameron hit the floor.
“What the hell?” one of them said.
Cameron rolled into a fetal position and moaned, trying to pretend she was having some female melt down. Her fingertips found her weapon, and she drew it, aimed at the bigger of the two and pumped one into him. Before she could shoot, Caltabiano fell. She spun toward Ballestrini who stood, stunned.
She shot out Ballestrini’s left knee. He dropped howling, and she rose quickly. Before he could move, she kicked his gun across the warehouse floor. She took the guns off the other two and threw them as well.
Marty was halfway across the warehouse, running for Ivana and Nate. Cameron raised her gun and fired low on Marty’s leg, careful that Ivana and Nate weren’t in the line of fire.
He stumbled forward onto his knees, screaming, “You bitch. You fucking bitch.” But, he didn’t stay down. Within seconds, he had scrambled back to his feet and was running again. Ballestrini was wailing.
“Shit,” Cameron yelled, taking off after Marty.
“I don’t have a shot,” a woman shouted from somewhere above her. “Mei?”
“No! I can’t see him.” Cameron recognized Mei Ling’s voice. And Hailey Wyatt. They were here.
“We’ll cover you, Cameron. Go get that son of a bitch.”
“Cover me, Mei,” Hailey shouted. “I’m going down.”
Cameron took aim again, but stopped before pulling the trigger. If she missed Marty, Ivana was in her line of fire. She couldn’t risk it.
Marty was getting too close to Nate and Ivana.
Ivana struggled against the tape on her hands. She rolled to one side, trying to fight the rope.
Cameron fired to the right of them, hoping to startle Marty into stopping, but he kept running. He was closing in. Cameron was too far behind.
Marty raised his gun and aimed it at the bundle on the floor.
“No!” she screamed.
Glass shattered and two shots rang out in quick succession. Marty was thrown backward. His gun fell from his fingers, and he landed, sprawled across the concrete.
The door opened slowly, but Cameron didn’t stop to look. She sprinted toward Nate. She dropped to the cement floor and scooped him into her arms. He started to cry, and she clutched him to her chest, rocking back and forth.
The door fell open. Diego Ramirez stumbled through, dropping his gun, before collapsing to the floor.
Ivana sobbed. Mei Ling arrived and sat beside her, using box cutters to get her loose.
Phone to her ear, Hailey stood over Marty. She kicked the gun away from the body. “He’s not dead yet.”
From the distance came the symphony of sirens. She carried Nate to Diego, touching his haggard-looking face as she sank beside him. His eyes opened and she cried out in relief.
He spoke first, his voice raspy. “Is he okay? My son?” He tried to reach up to touch Nate, but the effort was too much.
She lowered the baby so Diego could see him. “He’s fine. Help is coming. You hear the sirens?”
He nodded.
“Just don’t die, okay? Not again.”
To that, he almost smiled.
Two paramedics came in with Lau and Kessler, and Hailey directed them to Diego. Lau peered at Nate and whistled. “Jesus, he looks just like you, man.”
Diego winced a chuckle as Lau gave Kessler a thump in the arm. “No wonder she wouldn’t go out with you, man.”
As Diego was being loaded onto the gurney, Cameron heard him say, “What the hell? If I wasn’t shot in three places, I’d be taking you down now. Hitting on my girl.”
She grinned and held Nate tighter.
Lau let out a hearty laugh and Kessler blushed. “You were dead, dude,” he said softly.
“Okay. I’ll give you that.” The paramedics rolled Diego out.
Nate cooed happily in Cameron’s arms as she crossed to Hailey. Ballestrini was lying at her feet, spewing venom at her and cussing about the pain. “What, Tim? No show tune to go with this one?”
“Fuck off, Cruz.”
Cameron put her foot on his knee and applied pressure until he screamed out.
“Why don’t you ride to the hospital with Diego?” Hailey suggested. “We’ll be behind in a little while.”
“Take your time,” Cameron said.
“Oh, we will,” Hailey promised.
Patrol officers and additional paramedics arrived. A woman officer wrapped a coat around Ivana’s shoulders as the paramedics set up to examine her.
Mei crossed to Hailey and Cameron, stopping to run her finger under Nate’s chin.
“Thanks you guys,” Cameron said.
Hailey winked. “Of course. This is my favorite part.”
Epilogue
Three days later
Cameron carried Nate down the hospital corridor. They had come from Rosa’s room. Mama Cruz was still there, busying herself with pampering her baby during the day and coming home and cooking and taking care of Nate and Cameron and Ivana, who was staying with them.
Ricky had told Evelyn about the affair with Captain Ahrens while they were back east and Evelyn had agreed to go to counseling. While Evelyn was a little more reserved than usual when she visited, Cameron thought they would make it. It probably helped for Evelyn to have Mama around, whether or not she would share the story. Evelyn was certainly keeping busy, shuttling in groceries and supplies, and cooking with Mama. Rick
y took turns staying with Rosa when Mama Cruz needed a few hours off.
Mama would be with them for another three weeks. After that, Ivana was going to take care of Nate for a while. The time would give her a chance to see how she liked America, and try to put what had happened behind her.
The idea was Cameron’s. She thought they would all enjoy some extra people around for a while. Ivana had been through enough already—they all had. The only stipulation was that Ivana call her mother and tell her where she was. Cameron thought no mother should have to survive an hour not knowing where her child was.
The city’s mayor had appointed a commission to investigate the ring of smugglers. With Ballestrini and Marty in jail, they were expecting them to roll over on each other. It was still hard to imagine Tim Ballestrini as the head of anything so awful. Everybody had a dark side.
Ballestrini had managed to ensnare other officers with an illegal poker game played above the ORG Lounge. The losses got big, the game illegal, and soon officers were searching for ways out. Ballestrini set them up to pay off their gambling debts by helping circumvent police attention from the trafficking business. Soon, though, keeping the police away wasn’t enough. One by one, he dragged them in deeper, all the while establishing evidence to blackmail them into submission on the chance they decided to double-cross him. He’d started to threaten their families.
And Cameron had led him to that boat of women herself. While she and Ballestrini were supposedly on the lookout, waiting for the team to be assembled, Ballestrini had given the order that the women be killed as a message to the players.
Although the commission had already identified several leaders of the trafficking operation, it would take time to sort through the details of who killed the women on the boat, how the business had worked, and, of course, exactly who was involved. Ballestrini was careful to keep the police officers isolated from one another, so none knew that other officers were involved. That way, he reduced the risk that the group would turn against him. Ballestrini hadn’t confessed to chasing her car that night, so she may never know who it was. It didn’t matter. Certainly not in comparison to the other things.
Thankfully, a Mexican man by the name of Luis Rosario had kept a detailed account of his dealings with the traffickers in a safety deposit box. Between that and the sergeant’s dossier on each of his runs, the commission had enough evidence to put away more than two thirds of the twenty-seven names they’d uncovered.
With Lavick and Daley dead, they would likely take more than their share of the blame. The results on the non-police participants were even better. Most had priors, and in addition to the arrest of Marty Redd, they’d rounded up a major player named Freddy Jackson and a busload of criminals who had been paid for services related to the trafficking.
The tipping point was that Ray Benjamin had a change of heart. While he hadn’t come forward to confess his own role in the smuggling operation, Ray had decided to quit. He’d decided to keep that last bag of money and walk away. When Diego had fought him on it, Ray had been willing to shoot Diego. Cameron sincerely hoped those were details Jess didn’t have to know. It was a terrible thing to think badly of someone you loved after he was gone.
When the police started to investigate the smuggling, members of the team stepped forward to volunteer so that they could steer the investigation away from themselves. That was mostly Lavick’s role early on. Then, Ahrens was strong-armed into looking the other way when her ex-addict son had racked up a seventy-thousand-dollar loss at Ballestrini’s poker table.
Cameron hesitated in front of room 3203, Nate in her arms. He smiled up at her. Gathering her courage, she knocked on the door.
“I’m decent,” a voice called back.
Cameron pushed the door open.
Diego held a remote in the air and was flipping channels. “Time for my bath?” he joked. Their eyes met. His jaw dropped slightly, and the remote fell from his grip. “Cameron,” he mumbled.
Feeling awkward, she stepped into the room.
He picked up the remote and fumbled with it until the TV went off.
“Were you expecting someone else?”
He shook his head. “No. No one—” He waved her in. “I guess—” He pushed himself up in the bed. “I wasn’t sure you’d come.”
Nate cooed, and Diego noticed the bundle in her arms.
She watched his face and knew the emotion that ran through him. She was familiar with the swell that filled your chest when you saw your own child. She stepped closer.
He hesitated, watching Nate. “Is he okay? I mean—he wasn’t hurt or anything?”
“He’s fine.” She stopped at the bed, holding her son to her chest. She should offer Diego a chance to hold him, but she couldn’t get herself to let go. She watched Diego’s face, those wide dark eyes. She could still picture their last night together. They’d talked about the future, made plans. And then, he’d been dead. Gone.
“Rosa?” he asked.
“She took a nasty blow to the head, but she’s going to be okay.”
“And Ivana?”
She watched him. “You saved her.”
Diego squeezed his eyes closed. “Thank God.”
“Why did you use your real name?”
He shrugged. “Everything was such a mess. A part of me hoped maybe you’d hear about it. Maybe after I was gone, it might convince you that maybe I wasn’t so bad after all. Despite what they’d done to make it look that way.”
“And Claudia’s going to be all right?”
“I think so,” he whispered.
There was a silence as they watched each other. His gaze made its way from her to Nate, and then Cameron, too, looked down at her beautiful son.
“The start was so uneventful,” he began. “I was out with a group of guys one night. One of the few nights we weren’t together. You had the stomach flu.”
She remembered. It was actually morning sickness, but she hadn’t known it at the time.
“Benjamin was there and I was asking about ways to get Claudia out of Mexico. He mentioned an ongoing case in ICE, cracking down on a human trafficking ring. My look—that’s what he called it—made me a good candidate for an inside position. He hinted that maybe in return ICE could help get Claudia out.
“It was only supposed to be six weeks, so I jumped at it. My job was to meet with potential buyers, negotiate deals. Someone was capturing it all on film, collecting names. Then, there was the story that someone had made me, so they invented my death. Like a sucker, I bought it all.
“I never saw any surveillance pictures. I was in there seven months and sold some ninety women into slavery before I admitted to myself that something was wrong. There was no report on arrests. No takedowns, no feedback on the sting that should have been happening. But, I kept pushing.”
Cameron shifted on her feet.
Diego winced. “They kept telling me that it wasn’t like Special Ops, that things took time. Maybe playing the game for so long without asking more questions makes me an idiot. As I started to ask questions, they started to tighten the noose. At first, they used Claudia the same way they used the gambling debts on Daley and Lavick. When that didn’t work, they started to paint a picture of me as the crooked cop. Some new Jaguar leased in my name, credit cards maxed out at the Bellagio’s high roller suite in Vegas. I finally got my hands on that duffel of money to leverage a meeting. I didn’t expect Ray Benjamin. And… well, you basically know the rest.”
She stared at him, wishing it would all make sense but that would take a long time. “I’m sorry for what you went through.”
“I’m sorry, too,” he said, his voice softening.
They both studied Nate. Cameron held him a little tighter. “You never chose this. It was my choice.” The words slipped from her tongue before she could stop herself.
Diego’s body folded over itself. He shook his head and didn’t speak.
Cameron watched him, then broke the silence. “You don’t have to�
�We’re okay.”
Diego reached his hand out to stop her. “Yes. Yes, I do. This matters more than anything.” He rubbed his hands over his face, and Cameron saw the hospital bracelet on his arm. It reminded her of Nate’s birth. She and Nate each had a bracelet. There had been one for Dad, too. But, he hadn’t been there. She tried to push the past behind them, unsure if she could.
She saw him watching her.
“I was trying to protect you.”
The comment stung. “I don’t need your protection, Diego,” she said. “What I needed was your trust.”
He gripped his hands. “I know. You were my partner.”
“Your partner,” she repeated flatly.
“Yes. No. I mean—a partner in everything. I should have let you in. I should have trusted you would be okay.”
“You should have.”
Diego blew out his breath. “I didn’t want to risk it.”
“It would’ve been my choice. I would have chosen to help—for Claudia, for you.”
“I thought I could do it alone, save her and come back, make everything okay again.”
“Well, you did save her. She’s going to be okay.”
“But, in the process, I lost what mattered most.” His gaze swept over Nate, and he looked away, defeated.
With a deep breath, she held Nate out toward him. “You should hold him.” Your son. She couldn’t say it out loud.
Diego’s mouth dropped and without speaking, he held his arms out. The tears fell.
Cameron set Nathaniel into his father’s arms, and felt tears swell in her eyes, too.
Nate smiled at his father.
Diego stared at him. “He’s gorgeous. He’s so unbelievably gorgeous.”
“He does look just like you,” she said, seeing them together for the first time. It was still so easy to talk to him. As much as she hurt, she wanted him to know that he mattered. To Nate, at least.
Diego’s eyes went wide. “Really? You think so?”
“I do.”
Diego cradled Nate in his arms, running a finger over her son’s cheek, then across his head. He was clearly in love.
“Does your arm hurt?” Cameron asked.
The Rookie Club Thriller series Box Set Page 83