Chapter 45

Exiting the car in the garage I turned at hearing a sound and was so pleased to see Ansgar come bounding from around the corner to greet me. I crouched down on one knee and pulled him toward me giving him big hugs, I'd missed him so much.

"Azulejo"

I looked up surprised to see Juan limping toward me. I had never expected for him to be here or to be mobile. His face looked a mess with cuts and bruises, so I hated to think what other injuries he had.

"I'm so sorry"

I slowly rose to my feet not quite understanding why he was apologizing to me. Hell, he was the one who had got badly injured.

"It was me that looked at the calls that you'd made and worked out that you'd been to see Katrina. I reported it to Sinclair. He must have decided that you knew more than you did"

So was it Sinclair that had sent those men after me. Then at that scrapyard was that why he'd let the men who had taken Ranger go and gave us some cock and bull story about adding a tracker to the string around the book. Oh shit, it began to dawn on me that the feeling that I'd had about Sinclair was justified. Les had told me that he was a dangerous man and just how dangerous was only now sinking in. That man seemed to be capable of anything to achieve what he wanted.

"It wasn't your fault, Juan"

I watched as he walked over to the stairs and slowly, step by step, began to pull himself up. I was about to go help him when Ranger caught me by my arm and shook his head. I appreciated that Juan was a proud man and needed to do it under his own steam but in my eyes, it didn't make you weaker to accept help sometimes. I followed Juan up the stairs and then watched as he lowered himself onto the couch. Ranger was pouring out some coffee so I sat down opposite Juan and gratefully accepted the mug from Ranger.

"I never doubted his motives or how he conducted his work, but now. I just don't know whether I trust him or not"

I looked over to Ranger as Juan told us that because I knew that Ranger had a history with Sinclair, was that why he had never trusted him.

"I knew Sinclair when we were teens in Miami. He was always in with the wrong crowd but never got caught. As he got older, he began to yield influence over some of the men who had more influence, wheeling and dealing between them. I went to college and then into the army so never thought about him again until I came across some information about him after a job"

Even Juan was intent on listening to what Ranger was going to say. I was curious because I was sure the account would explain the reason behind the animosity between him and Sinclair.

"The intel that we had was where and when an arms dealer would be. The job was to extract the man so that he could stand trial, but when we made our move, we were ambushed, it was apparent that we were expected. The country was in the middle of a civil war, and it turned out that the arms dealer ended up in the hands of the CIA who then provided the rebels with the weapons that they needed"

"Syria?"

Came from Juan as though he knew something about it.

"Yes. Seems Sinclair manipulated the intel that we were given, and he was the one that handed the arms dealer over to the CIA"

That wasn't what was bothering me. I knew that there were sections within the government that sanctioned supporting rebels in other countries, what was worrying me was what had happened to Ranger and his men when they were ambushed.

"I remember that operation, but I had no idea that the Rangers had been sent in. Sinclair was contracted by the CIA for that job. I spent months researching that arms dealer to work out where he would be, and Sinclair told me to put out misleading information. Hell, why can't government departments liaise better"

"Took us two months to get back home and we lost one man"

That must have been an awful experience for Ranger and his men, they were lucky to get out alive and it was because of Sinclair that it had happened.

"Does Sinclair know what happened?"

I asked because if it had been me, I would have been so annoyed with Sinclair.

"Yes, I confronted him about it afterwards and told him that he ever jeopardized me or a team again then he would be answerable to me"

I assumed that Sinclair knew that the false intel would be used by someone else, so I was with Ranger in threatening him.

"What about Kinley?"

I asked seeing this as an ideal opportunity to find out how Kinley knew Ranger so well. I was really hoping that it was work related because I wasn't too sure I'd like it if he had been in a relationship with her.

"Kinley was originally Homeland and I'd worked a case with her, maybe five years ago. I heard that she made a stupid mistake on a job afterwards and was demoted to a desk job, which was when Sinclair offered her a position within his organization"

We all went silent after that, no doubt mulling over thoughts in our heads. I was actually relieved that Ranger didn't know Kinley that well but I didn't know what to say because my mind couldn't even comprehend what kind of man Sinclair was or what he was capable of doing. He'd told us that he was working to close down the organization that were killing people off. Had he been lying to us or was he trying to use us in order to obtain information.

Even as I was thinking I was looking over to Juan. He really didn't look so good and I knew from experience how badly he must be must be feeling. It made me wonder how Juan had ended up getting hurt so badly. Hell, he could have died from his injuries.

"How did you end up getting so badly hurt Juan?"

Wondering if it had something to do with him not trusting Sinclair.

"I'd told Sinclair that I didn't think that you had any idea of who Sullivan even was, but then you went and met up with Katrina Ricci. He told me to get close to you so that was when I followed Santos out to here"

I wasn't going to rehash the actions that he'd done so tried not to react to him as he said that.

"After that I decided to look at possible victims and discovered that there were at least three of them. I hit the streets around where each of them had lived and what I picked up was that two guys had been asking about them, before they'd died. Turns out the men asking questions were two bounty hunters working for a bail bonds company, Les Sebring"

I'm sure that I looked shocked at hearing Juan mention those two guys. Hell, I'd come across them when Les asked me to locate Harley Chroma. Was I responsible for Harley dying? Had they passed on that information to someone else? Katrina had told me that she had nothing to do with his death, so had they taken it on themselves to do away with him? I focused back on Juan as he continued to talk wondering what else he'd managed to find out.

"I had the victims, the people who found them so backtracked to the officers who had charged them. Cruger Wallace led me to Morelli and Cutliffe, Reeves and Chroma led back to Sorenson. I took that information to Sinclair, but he argued that it must have been the partner, Michaels, because Sorenson was working with us. That didn't sit right with me, so I decided to do some surveillance on Sorenson. I was caught off guard while I was watching his apartment and the next thing I knew was waking up in the hospital"

"The two men that we are holding for their own safety admitted that they had orders come through to pick up a man and beat him to death"

My eyes went wide as I looked at Ranger. Were those men so stupid that they just followed orders like that without questioning them?

"They follow orders Babe and get paid. Men like that never question why"

I didn't think that I'd said that out so maybe the expression on my face gave me away. Okay, I was probably being naïve in how I expected people to behave and was appreciative that they hadn't actually killed me when they first held me. The problem was what did we do next. Ranger had implied that the chief didn't think there would be enough to even question Morelli or Sorenson.

"What now?"

Because I couldn't see a way through this and I'm sure I sounded as despondent as I felt. I didn't want to voice my concerns over Sinclair, but I had the feeling that both Ranger and Juan were conflicted over how he was involved in all of this. There were too many examples of where his behavior seemed questionable. What I couldn't work out was why.

"I have a plan, if you're up for it"

Came from Juan as he smiled over toward Ranger. Oh shit, went through my mind, because I had no idea what Juan was thinking.

I understood what Juan was saying as he tried to explain his plan to us. That we needed to bait and trap those involved. That didn't mean that I was enamored with what he was saying though. We already knew who the assassin was and that she was being apprehended by Les before he delivered her to the FBI. Her arrest wouldn't cause us any problems because no one knew who she was, other than a woman who was on their most wanted list. That left the position of assassin open, and we argued a lot over who that could be. Juan wasn't an option and Sinclair knew Ranger too well for it to be him, which didn't leave us a lot of options. The idea that it could be me left me feeling both nervous and excited. Nervous because it was a hell of a role for me to take on and have people believe me. Excited because I wanted a part in bringing down the bad guys.

"Babe, I'm not happy about this but understand how it could work"

I was glad that he had some faith in me and took what he said as a way to boost my own confidence. The biggest problem that I would have would be in convincing Sinclair, if it ever got that far.

"We're starting with Sorenson and you'll never be totally at risk. Ranger, who do you have that would be the best backup for her?"

My mind went to Ansgar who was laid down next to my feet as I sat on the couch. He was an amazing guard dog, and I could work him into my story. Hell, I was already coming up with ideas for my cover story. Hadn't it been me who had found some of those victims in the first place.

"What about those two bounty hunters?"

Worrying that they could blow anything that we came up with.

"I'll get Brown to arrange a sudden illness and have them isolated"

I wasn't going to ask how that could happen and had images of the cells down in the basement of Rangeman decked out as medical rooms.

"We'll need somewhere that you can work out of, somewhere as a cover that would be suitable as an assassin, because Sinclair will be sure to want to know more about you and how you've managed to stay off the radar"

That fitted right in with what I'd been thinking but wasn't sure how it would work.

"Latisha's. It's secluded and she has these amazing outfits that would account for how I moved around without being recognized"

That got a look from Ranger that had me sighing. He'd want to know how I knew that.

"Okay, when I left that meeting, I needed some space to think things through and ended up there. It's empty but not trashed"

Seeing Ranger's eyes darken I knew exactly what he was remembering so looked away hoping that the blush I felt coming on wasn't too obvious. I'd never been so grateful for hearing a beeping sound that had Ranger standing up and moving to the stairs. Fortunately, Juan seemed oblivious to that interaction so didn't ask me any questions. Ranger reappeared with Hector and Kinley following him which had me a little nervous seeing her here. I watched as Kinley walked over to Juan, how she carefully hugged him and said something to him. She seemed to be genuinely concerned for him so I took her being here as a positive step and we probably needed her skills if we were going to get a break in pinpointing who were involved.

"There was no data on some of the files, but Hector and I eventually managed to backtrack from those encrypted files. Dresden was accessing three online sites for communication. One looks as though it was receiving data on possible victims, which he probably shared with other like minded men to make a decision. A second site relayed names to the hunters and a third site set up a contract with the assassin. That last site is no longer online"

Which was what Katrina had implied. She'd told me that she was finished and that there wouldn't be any evidence or clues to follow. I'd just assumed that she was referring to the whole organization especially as Ranger had told me that Dresden had disappeared.

"Jack was more than excited when I told him that I was close to recovering and reconfiguring the corrupted files and data. I told him that I needed to use the main computer at the office to give me some time to work with Hector"

Okay, so why was Sinclair so keen to know what was on that pen drive. Was he doing as he'd said and solving the problem of who was responsible for people being killed?

"I need to go before Jack gets suspicious. I'll let him have the information on these sites but will keep in touch through Hector"

As Kinley left, I was actually worried about her because she was working in defiance of Sinclair, her boss. He'd probably be annoyed with her deception, but would he hurt her?

"We've reactivated the site that the killer was using so we know who is being targeted and the order for the contract. What we haven't been able to do is to identify anyone who might be accessing the other sites"

It seemed that Dresden had been very clever with keeping people's identities a secret and I was sure that even those involved had no idea who they were working with. With what Hector had told us I was trying to figure out how I could use that to bait Sorenson when Ranger asked a question that I hadn't even thought of.

"So are you saying that it's possible for victims to still be identified and that information to be shared on the other sites?"

Hector shrugging his shoulders wasn't what I expected.

"But Dresden is missing"

I came out with struggling to understand how he could continue to make decisions on people's lives.

"Estefania, with the information that we have found we know that he is involved at a high level but there could be someone else that works with him. The last name that was registered is you, Estefania"

I looked over to Hector with a frown on my face because I couldn't believe what he was saying. That someone was targeting me both confused me and sacred me. Who would want to get rid of me? Then of course there was also of why they would want to do that. I didn't know any more than anyone else, did I? I looked over to Ranger because I'd expected him to say something, but he'd gone perfectly still with tension running through his muscles. His face, well, let me tell you, he looked ready to kill someone and his was barely suppressing the rage that radiated from him. I placed my hand on his cheek making him look at me, trying to get him to calm down.

"Not yet, this is perfect, we stick to the plan. Nothing is going to happen to me because Katrina isn't around"

That seemed to have the effect that I was after and placing myself close to Ranger allowed the tension that I suppose we were both feeling to work its way out of us.

"I hate that someone wants to hurt you Babe, but if I feel that things are getting out of control then I will put a stop to it"

I kissed him lightly on his cheek showing that I understood but in my head I was thinking that I could definitely work on Sorenson with that piece of information. It was the early hours of the morning before I had to concede that I couldn't stay awake any longer. Juan's idea of being meticulous with our plans was worse than Ranger's and he just had to have plans for any contingency, yeah Plan A to Z.