A/N Thank you for all the wonderful reviews, I'm sorry if I didn't get back to you individually this week. It was crazy at work. I'm going to start posting on Saturdays now, at least I'll be able to give everyone a personalized response over the weekend. Thanks again :)

If you recognize them, I can't take the credit. :) And a big thanks to Margaret once again for reading ahead and sending me in the right direction.

Chapter 8 — In the Hood

Hector's POV

Raphael and I were done with Tater Moreno by two. He'd asked us to take him up to Westchester to his favorite all-night diner. Although it was a forty-minute drive from where we were in Newark, we decided to indulge him.

He ordered a shot of tequila with his burger and fries. Rafe and I had coffee. People said Moreno looked like a tater tot. I was eyeing him intently while he ate and what I saw was a giant turd. It was a good thing turd man liked me. I was pretty sure he knew I was gay and most bangers had no use for a gay man...except that I had knife and street Jui Jitsu skills way better than anyone and I'd never bothered to bleed out. I was still technically a gang member and so was Raphael. We tooled it when necessary. And tonight it was necessary.

Turd man told us very little in Newark. Could be he was afraid he'd be overheard even though there was no one else around. What he did say was that it was Fernandez who was behind the attack on our systems and that he planned to get even with Tank for moving in on his woman.

"Did you ever talk to Maria Padilla?" I asked him trying to get a sense of what truth or falsehood he was operating under.

"No need to talk to that cunt. She gave 'Nandez up to the Feds."

I knew she didn't. Fernandez had wrongly assumed she did and beat her brutally for it. It was because she lived through his attack and never wanted to experience his anger again that she sought out Tank to be her personal bodyguard. I hoped the little turd sitting in front of me would tell me where Maria was currently living. I could run a search on her and probably find a relative to tell me, but I knew that Tater knew. And if he knew, chances were pretty good 'Nandez would be able to find out. First order of business: kill Tank; second, kill Maria. Over my dead body were either of those scenarios going to happen. And someting told me I could get him to talk.

"You say she's a cunt but I tink you're protecting her," I said trying to get him to admit to knowing her whereabouts. He was on his third shot at this point and I hoped he was ready to start bragging. "You know 'Nandez would kill her in an instant if he could find her. He'd skin her alive like he's threatening to do to Tank's cat. You're playing this both ways, which will bite you in the ass. We could get her out of the country and protect her without anyone catching on."

It was the truth and he knew enough about our reputation to know it was. I looked over at his empty shot glass. He downed that too quickly. I gathered I hit a nerve.

"Another?" I asked nodding to the empty glass in front of him.

He nodded and I signaled the waitress. I knew I was enabling him but right now I didn't give a shit.

I let him knock back his fourth and then a fifth before I started in on him again.

"You were going to tell me where I can find Maria." I stated as if he'd already divulged that he knew where she was. It was a tactic that usually worked on the scared or inebriated. This turd wasn't scared but by now he was on his way to being shit-faced.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said looking at me as though he were trying to get the two of me to merge into one again.

"Yes you do," I said pointing out his empty glass to the waitress. "Maria Padilla. Not Newark, so I'm assuming the South Bronx."

"Ha. How long do you think it will take you to rattle off every corner where a Columbian could safely hide?"

He gave me my answer. Miami. Although known for its Cuban sector, it was also home to the largest Columbian community in the United States. I had my phone in my hand so I texted Silvio. It was almost 2 am, but I was sure he'd see it in the morning if the buzz of a new text didn't wake him. He was already down there so it would be easiest for him to run the search, although I'd ask Steph to duplicate the effort tomorrow. Maybe better yet, a few of us should pay a trip to Miami. It would get Steph and myself away from Kravin and also allow Steph to collaborate with Silvio. And when we found Maria, Steph would be the perfect person to talk to her.

Once we dropped the turd back in his hood I called Ranger and Steph and left them voicemail messages. I had just gotten back to my apartment and was hoping to catch a few hours of sleep before heading out to relieve Hal and Binkie when my phone rang. It was Raphael.

"Tater just called, he has some other information for us and didn't want to talk over the phone." Shit. Another ride to Newark. I needed at least an hour's sleep, but I figured turdman was still intoxicated and it would be good to go now before the alcohol wore off and he shut up again.

"I'll meet you in the garage in ten," I said to Rafe, thinking a quick shower would have to take the place of a few hours of sleep.

Since 4:30 am was still early by rush hour standards, I made it to Newark in record time. We met in front of the check-cashing place across the street from the bodega where a bunch of bangers hung out. Tater would never let any of us know where he lived and personally I didn't care.

He was already there when we drove up and he motioned for me to open the back door for him. That wasn't exactly a safe practice. Whenever we drove with someone of questionable background, they sat in the front so we could a train a gun on them from behind. So instead of my popping the lock for the little turd, Raphael got out and give his seat to Tater. I then opened the back door for Rafe.

Our meeting didn't take long, he handed me an envelope. A South Bronx address for Maria Padilla-Quiñones was crossed out and a yellow postal sticker was glued on under it. This address was a South Miami one.

"This current?"I asked him.

"As current as a few months ago. Mi hombre works in the post office. He saw her name on the envelope and pulled it. I have not tried to contact her but I kept this in case I needed it someday."

"Thank you."

"My debt to you has been paid. And if 'Nando gets wind of this I'm a dead man.

I'm sure someone saw me get in your car. Now let's go for a short ride so it looks like we're conducting business."

Stephanie's POV

After breakfast I decided to check my phone and I had both a text and a voicemail message from Hector. The voicemail was sent first and it asked if I'd be able to run a search on a Maria Padilla-Quiñones in the morning. I was about to start on that since it takes a long time to run but something told me to read my text first.

Hector: No need to run the search. I have her address. Feel like a vacation in Miami?

I texted him back: Am I going to see U today?

I got an immediate reply: Be there in 10

I wondered what was going on but instead of waiting for Hector and Rafe to show up I excused myself and went out to the gym to ask Carlos.

We have a locker room with two showers in our gym and as I walked in, Bobby and Carlos came out of the locker room both looking delicious after their showers. What was I doing checking out Bobby? I was engaged to Carlos who makes everyone look inferior. I looked at them again, both shirtless with their hair damp and decided that Bobby was a pretty close second, well along with Lester and Vince. Jeez, I was such a slut. But really, every single man who worked for Carlos was hot.

"Babe?" Carlos asked, probably picking up on my checking them out.

"You guys are so hot," I answered honestly.

"Babe."

"No really. Is that a requirement? I mean you, Bobby, Lester, Vince...the whole lot of you."

"Do I need to be worried Babe?"

"No. You're the hottest. Sorry Bobby. But you're a close second."

Bobby was practically doubled over laughing at this point as he grabbed a T-shirt to hide his perfect six-pack.

"Bomber you are too much. And to what do we owe the honor?"

"I come to the gym sometimes." I said indignantly. "Actually I got a text from Hector asking me if I wanted a Miami vacation. Do you know anything about that?"

I caught Bobby glance at Carlos. Yeah, that was probably one of the things they were up all night 'discussing'. I hated that they did that but I certainly didn't want to be woken at 4 am to get in on a conversation.

"It's Hector's idea, why don't you let him tell you," Carlos said finally.

"I heard my name," Hector said, entering the gym with Raphael. "And what was my idea? How about we go back into the house and I'll tell you everyting I know? It smells like man sweat in here. Not that I have anyting against man sweat," he added, raising his eyebrows in a kind of cute way, "but this place needs a good airing out."

That's what I thought too. A couple of men on treadmills and this gym just stunk to high heaven. Carlos never seemed to notice. We needed a filter or something on the air conditioning unit.

Carlos had stopped to turn the AC to high and open a few windows so I led the parade back to the house. I agreed with Hector; it would need more than an open window to fix the place. The time that Hal, Manny, Tank and Ranger were all in this gym at the same time was enough to make me gag. Today was nothing compared to that and judging by his reaction right now, I was glad that Hector wasn't around for that one.

Once we got back to the house Carlos put on another pot of coffee, brought out fixings for the bagels that were left and we said our goodbyes to Hal and Binkie. It was 'The Hector and Rafe Show' now and they brought us up to speed on this Tater guy. For a gangbanger, he didn't sound like a bad person and he did give Hector Maria's address.

So now this Miami thing was making sense to me. It would put Hec and I far away from Kraven and we'd be helping to bring Tank and Lula home. Well, hopefully. But before I agreed to anything, I needed a timeframe. I didn't want to be away from Carlos for too long and I knew he had a business to run. Taking constant vacations wasn't good for business and Tank was on a forced leave of absence as it was.

"How long?" I asked. If this was weeks I'd say no, days, maybe.

"Well, I don't tink she'll be going anywhere, she has no idea that anyone is looking for her. I tink we can safely leave Tuesday morning so I can go to Mets opening day. When we find her, I want you to talk to her. She listen to another woman, she not listen to me," Hector said, reverting to the pigeon English of his past. I wondered why.

And then I got it, he was nervous that I'd say no. If I said no, there would be no plan.

"So I say yes and we find her," I said opening up a scenario. "We get her to say she wasn't screwing Tank. It's her word against Fernando's. If we can't get him to change his mind about Tank have we moved anything forward? Probably not, but now we've let him know that we've found Maria, so she's no longer safe."

"You are right Chica, but at least we've tried and we'll have you away from Kraven for a few days. How close are we to finding him?"

Carlos took point on that one. "Erik, Eugene and a few teams checked out the recent warehouse rentals in Bergen. All were a bust. They are now moving on to the older properties. We'll find him eventually."

"But what about Maria?" I asked again, "I don't want to put her in danger or have to move her again. I'm sure she already feels like she's on the run."

"Our job is to find Maria. We'll let Tater and Sotolongo handle 'Nandez. Tater knows where she lives so I don't particularly think she's safe where she is anyway. It'll be our job to convince her to either move again or join the witness protection program for a change of identity once she's helped us get 'Nandez behind bars."

"Is that what we're trying to do? Get Fernandez behind bars?"

"He threatened Tank, his pets and his fiancé. He's a repeat felon. We have enough evidence against him to put him away for a long time. Although I tink he's one of those people we hate to put back into the system, he'll never reform and will be after our asses from then on. We probably need to make him disappear."