Presumptions
Chapter 10 - Reprisal
"So this doctor is now missing, how did this happen? And why did it happen?", all could see that El Senor was angry, his face red with emotion.
"El Senor, he went on a brief vacation in Nairobi, and from there he went missing. Not one of our contacts there knows what happened!"
"Is it not apparent? Someone found out about our plans for this man and is now protecting him. I need to know what has happened here!"
"Si, El Senor, we will get on it", El Hefe, also known as El Primero, says with caution, not wanting his boss to get any more emotional than he already is.
"See to it immediately and get back to me."
"What of the woman? What do we do now with her?"
"Go as we have planned. I still think her abduction will bring this man out to us, once we make it known to him that the best way to save his former girlfriend is to surrender himself to us."
"But El Senor, this man is a doctor, a surgeon, and is quite smart. Will he not guess what we have planned? That despite his efforts, we will kill both of them, after we abuse his girlfriend in front of him as his punishment from us."
"Of course he does El Primero, but it is always the hope for a good ending that leads them to fall into our trap! The man will do anything to see his old girlfriend safe, that is the hook El Primero, the hope for a happy ending that pulls them in."
"You are so ruthless El Senor!"
"That is the only way to run a drug cartel. People must fear us, so no one will interfere with us. Until you learn that El Primero, you can not lead this gang. So where are we with this one woman?"
"We are still watching her as her abduction has become harder than we had expected. She is police, El Senor, and is a worthy challenge to us?"
"So you would let this woman stand in the way of our giving punishment to an enemy? I want to see some action here! Do what you must, but make sure it happens the first time. There is no room for a second chance here, do I make myself understood, El Primero?"
"Claro, El Senor."
"And El Primero, keep in mind, I can always replace you with someone who will do the job better. Prove to me you should remain as El Primero."
"Si, El Senor!"
El Primero leaves his brief in a cloud of anger. Never before had El Senor threatened him with replacement. This matter was serious to his boss, and El Primero needed to make things happen.
NYPD, 12th Precinct
The drug ring monitoring of Detective Kate Beckett had come about so subtlely that it had almost gone unnoticed, even by her protective detail. The NYPD officers had missed it, but it was the augmented DEA squad that caught it. They had more experienced with drug gangs and knew of the Columbians' tactics, so they had caught on to the well disguised surveilling of the Detective. The drug gang had bribed one of the doormen at her shared apartment loft to let them know of the comings and goings of the detective, particularly as to who visited her. Alarm bells went off for the local drug cartel group when it had gained knowledge that a DEA agent was in contact with her. It spelled that there were now bigger hunters in the game. El Primero did not share this fact with his boss, hoping the gang could complete the kidnapping before they had to reveal the DEA presence to their boss. They knew this one fact would just draw more anger from El Senor.
Capt Montgomery was pleased on his decision to request help from the DEA on the matter. But Roy Montgomery knew his request would be of interest to the DEA. They had worked unsuccessfully for many years to stop the NYC operations of the local Columbian Cartel and this presented to the DEA another chance at that. The DEA would use the female homicide as a means to get to the local Cartel. The Drug Agency will use whatever the Cartel's actions against the detective as a way to inflict countermeasures on them. The Hunter here becomes as much the Prey. It is a tactic the Drug Cartel would not expect. At worse the outcome of such a sting operation could hinder the Drug Ring's NYC operations...if only for a while. In the least, the counter-measure would send a message to the Cartel that they could not have their way in this city.
Although Beckett was now bait for the Columbians to bring out Josh, DEA in a similar manner, was using Kate's planned abduction as bait for drawing out the local Cartel. The lines between hunter and prey now blurred with this action of DEA. So Montgomery was very happy how things were unfolding. He had smartly used the situation to draw in another agency to augment his Alpha team. This was but one reason why Montgomery was a captain. His leadership had allowed his homicides to obtain the highest closure rate of any homicide in the whole of the NYPD and as their Captain, Montgomery had continued to watch out for them.
Columbian Cartel
El Segundo is sent to NYC on special assignment by El Primero to come up with a plan to abduct the Detective post haste. Their Boss, El Senor, wanted a plan and wanted the detective in hand. El Senor was not accepting any excuses as to why this had not happened yet. So El Primero has sent out El Segundo to observe the detective personally and come up with a plan that would bear results the first time. It had to work that first time or their Boss promised them they would both be replaced. In Cartel parlance, that meant the two would be killed for not bearing results. The successful kidnapping of the gorgeous homicide detective was the only acceptable result their big boss would allow.
"So El Segundo, what have you come up with?", they are talking long distance on their cell, NYC to Bogota.
"She is well guarded El Primero but the best opportunity might be as she is travelling to and from work from her apartment that she shares with her now fiance. It is a vulnerable moment, that we could go after. It will work, particularly when she is accompanied by her fiance, they will be so involved with each other, that they will not see us coming after them."
"Does our local gang have the people and experience to do this?"
"I will plan it down to the smallest detail and then I will train these people to execute."
"Good El Segundo, remember, our lives are at stake here. Fail on this and we will both be sent to the after life."
"Yes, I know, so we shall make it happen."
"Good, call me again soon with details on the plan. El Senor is giving us time now, and I will try and keep him happy in the meantime."
As Days Go By
Their union was becoming closer with each passing day. Now that they knew Rick was the father of her baby, a big doubt had been lifted. So now the couple concentrated on plans for their upcoming wedding. Gone was the angst and pain of seeing Kate with Josh, a sight Rick had endured the whole time when the failed couple was together. He had at one time even thought that he would always just remain as only a friend to Kate, his love for her unrequited. But he had come to realize that the Kate he knew then was conflicted in her emotions.
After the death of her mother, the fear of a loss from one so close to her had become Kate's greatest dread. The untimely murder of her mother had brought that out. She simply did not let men in, always having on foot out the door, if things went wrong. Kate had stayed with Josh longer than she should have, out of fear of loss for yet another relationship. Kate had tried to make it work, but Josh simply was not the one. It was not meant to be.
It was knowing that Kate is selective in whom she let into her personal space, that had Rick wondering how Josh had managed to be with her so quickly. Rick had was with her for three years and did not get that chance. Carnally the couple was together for almost a year. Rick needed to know the full story about them. He had tried to keep that from Kate, particularly since she was now his fiancee, that spoke volumes to Kate's commitment to them.
Then one night, after another passionate session together, he rested next to her, his need to know the full story came up again. So rather than do their normal pillow talk, Rick was so unusually silent and Kate had noticed it.
"You are so quiet there stud, what's on your mind?"
"Oh, nothing really. Nothing anyway that you should be concerned with."
"Rick, I know you, there is something bothering you. You can talk to me about it!"
"That has not always been the case, but anyway, it really is something that is silly."
"Silly, maybe, still it has you so uncharacteristicly silent after what is yet another incredible session together. So it can not be that silly, so come out with it studly!"
"I was just wondering...about Josh.."
"Oh...(she is shaken by the reveal)...you know that I am over him. Right? So why the wonder?"
"I told you it was silly, just some irrational jealousy on my part."
"Actually, I think it is kinda sweet that an old boyfriend has you jealous. So, why,... pray tell."
"It's just... that...it happened so quickly with Josh. Why him and not me? I had been with you for longer than Josh, but he manages to be with you before me for almost a year? And I had to watch it unfold and keep my emotions hidden."
Kate sees the angst in Rick. That pain she had caused him by being with Josh.
She needs to help him understand.
So she explains, "Rick, I was conflicted back then. I had just broken up with Demming so I could go with you that weekend to the Hampton's..."
"Wait...what are you saying?... you wanted to accept my invitation back then? But you had already accepted Demming's invite for that weekend! So how come I did not know about this?"
"I broke up with him just before that weekend so I could be with you. I was about to tell you and ask if the invitation was still open when Gina appeared...and I lost my resolve to tell this to you..."
"Uhmm...oh...you know that she was just a substitute? After you rejected my invitation after several attempts, I was emotionally hurting. I became an easy target for Gina. She knew me well enough to sense my melancholy, so she weaseled her way back in. It came disguised as her way to motivate me to finish my latest Nikki novel, but there were ulterior motives. She wanted back, and hurt as I was, I fell for it."
"So we both behaved badly, letting our emotions get in the way of rational actions. I also was so hurt after seeing you with Gina, particularly since I had been agonizing for weeks to let you know how I truly felt about you. This after I had to witness you and Elle Monroe together. I had this feeling that you did not want me."
"We both had been so ridiculously stupid back then! Let's vow to be more open and honest now that we are together."
"Hence this talk Ric."
"But you were so guarded back then, you kept me at a distance, and I did not push for fear you would reject me and run off."
"And in all honesty, that would have been the outcome if you had pushed. Since the loss of my mother I had been retreating inward. Afraid to let any man come close to me for fear of the loss when the relationship went south. The last person I let in before Josh, was Wil Sorenson. That was a big decision on my part, and then when Wil left me for a job after six months of being intimate, all my fears of loss returned, but even greater. Then you came into my life with this rep of being the 'love em and leave em' author, I was not about to be your next victim."
"Kate, you know that rep was mostly image. It helped sell my novels, and is not the real me."
"I know that now, but not back then", she answers and then continues, "Anyway, Josh was a bit of a rebound from all the things had happened, with Wil, then Demming, and my still not disclosed feelings for you. Josh too had just broken up and I had shared about my breakup with Demming. I never talked about you and how I felt secretly! Looking back at it now, it seems that both Josh and I were not aware of a rebound situation with the two of us. And it did happen quickly. It think the circumstance were right for it. Both of us hurting and finding relief in one another."
"Kate, being with Gina, that was a front at the time on my part. I had two failed marriages, the first, with Meredith, was because she cheated on me. Then Gina became my next failure. So I had to make this big show to myself of not being affected by it all and my playboy rep was part of that. Hurting as I was from what I believed was yet a third failed attempt at finding my one in you, that had allowed Gina back into my life a second time. She was my help line to save me from becoming a drowned man."
"So we both let our past baggage dictate how we could be as a couple. We both had made presumptions about one another. We both built protective walls around our hearts, but mine was higher! That is why our getting together sooner may have spelled failure for the two of us. We both needed to come to resolutions about our past failed unions. To overcome presumptions we put in place, before the two of us could become a couple. We both had to learn from those failures."
"The universe has a way of allowing for course corrections, and it did that with us. It took all that has happened between us to lead here, to where we are at now! So let's vow to keep on track and to self correct when needed. Just like we are doing now", Rick tells her in all sincerity.
"Oh Rick, if you only knew how I felt about you back then!"
"You were right, I had no clue, but I'm getting there, right?"
"So take me along for the ride."
"Feel free to hitch on anytime."
"I'm there now."
"So am I."
Rick gives her a kiss on the lips and that starts the fire for their third encounter that evening. This one however was so much more passionate than their first two. They end up totally drained, so spent, but sated. They both cuddle afterwards and fall deep asleep in a peaceful manner, now closer by the honest talk about their carnal union and their way ahead together as a couple.
At The NYC Columbian Cartel HQ
The two lieutenant are talking long distance, "So El Segundo, we will need to kidnap this detective in two days?"
"Yes, but we must have everything in place before then."
"This woman detective, she is special to El Senor. Never has he taken such big actions to abduct any woman?"
"She is a means to an end, El Hefe, and El Senor will not hear any excuses for not getting her on the first try. So we all must be well prepared and act boldly and with purpose in mind. There can be no other way."
"Si, we will make it happen. There can be no failure here, or we will both lose our heads. I prefer to keep mine and I know you do also. That is what is a stake here, do not consider anything otherwise. Do I make myself understood?"
"Claro, El Hefe."
"Bueno, see then that this happens according to our plans."