Potter looked at the commandos he had hired, then at Samuel Hernandez locked up in a room at a safehouse right across the border. "I need your men in position, by tonight," said Potter.
"We'll be ready," replied their commanding officer. "Are you sure about the target?"
Potter smiled. "Yes. I'm going to use both in the hope of dragging Miguel Galindo out of his comfort zone."
As he walked out of the safehouse his colleague eyed him. "How do you know it will work?"
"I don't. I can only hope that he still cares for her and for the son he never knew existed," replied Potter. "Time for a little family reunion, don't you think?" he said as he shot a glance at his colleague.
"How do you plan on letting Galindo know that we have them?"
"I'll make sure that he gets the message, I'll actually go and give it to him in person."
Mid-afternoon Isabella went to a meeting of her own with a few of the Town Council members to discuss putting together a new playground for the kids of the town. Afterward, she returned to work and dug her head in it; not seeing the time go by. When she took a break, she realized that it was late and packed up her things. As she locked the door of the building, her cellphone rang. She paused on the sidewalk and searched for it in her bag, until she wrapped her hand around it and fished it out.
"Hello?"
"Miss Hernandez?"
"Yes."
"This James Morrison, Dean at NAU. I'm here with Deputy Miller."
"Is something wrong with Samuel?" she asked concerned. Why would the Dean and Police call her unless Samuel had done something wrong?
"Miss Hernandez, I'm really sorry, I don't know how else to say this… Samuel was abducted."
She felt her heartrate accelerate and held on to the phone. "What do you mean?"
"Miss Hernandez, this is Deputy Miller, campus video footage shows your son being forced into an unmarked black van late last night. I've got an APB out on the vehicle and State Police is on the lookout. It would be wise for you to come to Arizona."
"Of course, I'll arrange to come down and be there as soon as I can. Please find my son."
"I promise you; we're doing everything we can."
She hung up and keeled over, unable to breath. Someone had taken her baby. Who would do such a thing? Her thoughts were racing at 100 miles an hour, fusing in all directions and possible scenarios as she stood and turned on herself repeatedly.
She sped dialed a number as she started walking back down the sidewalk toward the parking lot.
Even though they were in a meeting, upon seeing Isabella's name pop up on his screen, Bishop took the call as he stepped away from the table with the Mayans and Miguel.
"Belita, I'm going to have to call you back."
"Someone took Samuel!"
"Whoa, slow down, what do you mean someone took Samuel? I'm sure he's with Gunner or Bear."
"Bishop! You're not listening to me. The cops and the Dean called me. He's been taken!"
He walked back toward the table and snapped his fingers getting all the Mayans' attention, including Marcus' and Miguel's. "I'm going to put you on speaker phone, stay calm, mi amor."
He put the phone down on the table and pressed on the speaker button. "Now, take a deep breath and tell me what they said."
Miguel eyed Bishop, not sure what was going on.
"The video footage show's a black unmarked van taking Samuel last night."
Angel shot a glance at Miguel and saw that he had grown pale.
"Riz, try and geolocate Samuel's phone," said Bishop. "Look, I'm sure it's just a group of college kids fooling around."
"Something is wrong, Bishop. If it had been the case, he would have shown up by now."
Riz looked up from the computer screen and shook his head. "It's turned off."
"Oh my God, someone took him, Bishop. I'm driving up there now."
"No, wait for me. We'll all go."
Isabella reached her car and unlocked it from a distance. Suddenly a strong arm encircled her waist and a hand placed itself over her mouth, dragging her away from the car.
"Isabella?!" yelled Bishop as he heard a muffled scream.
She wriggled under the hold of whoever was holding her, resulting in the fingers of the hands sliding off her mouth slightly. As one of them slid into her open mouth, she bit down on it with all her might, forcing whoever it was, despite all of their efforts, to let her go, from pain as his finger bled.
"Bishop!" she yelled at her phone that was now a few feet away from her, on the floor next to her car.
"Isabella, where are you?!"
"Fucking bitch bit off a chunk of my skin," they heard a man's voice say, "get her!"
They heard footsteps running, then more screams before they were again muffled, then… complete silence. "Let's go!" The sliding door of a van was heard closing, then tires screeching as it sped up and drove off.
"Fuck!" said Bishop as he sent the contents of the table flying to the ground. "Let's go. If it's the same guys who took Samuel, they're in a black unmarked van," he said as he started rushing toward the door, the others following him.
Just as Miguel was about to offer his help, his phone rang, an unknown number popping up on his screen. He narrowed his eyes as he stepped away from Marcus and took the call.
"Galindo."
"Ah, Senor Galindo, I was hoping you'd take the call."
"Who are you?"
"I don't like using the phone, best we get acquainted face to face."
He looked at Marcus. "Where?"
"You're house. Your wife has been very welcoming. I'm looking forward to meeting you in person, Miguel."
The line went dead, and Marcus walked over to Miguel seeing him tighten his jaws. "What is it?"
"I find it quite coincidental that an unknown number calls me, and a man asks to speak to me at home."
"You think it's tied to Isabella and Samuel?"
"I don't know. But if it is, I can't ignore it even if right now the only thing I want to do is help Bishop find them."
Marcus shook his head in confusion. "What do you have to do with Isabella and Samuel?"
"I don't have the time to tell the whole story, but all you need to know is that Samuel is my son."
Marcus tilted his head, almost as if he hadn't heard Miguel correctly, as he eyed him agog.
"I'm going to need you," Miguel said to Marcus as he put his jacket on and walked toward the door of the backroom of the factory.
"You know you don't need to ask me," answered Marcus as he followed.
Bishop stopped his bike behind Isabella's car and got off. He found her phone on the floor not far from it. EZ walked over to him, a syringe in hand.
"They must have injected her something."
Bishop shook his head. "I don't understand, who would want to take Isabella and Samuel?"
"Maybe something to do with us," replied Riz.
"But why?"
"The drugs with Galindo, us taking down Los Cobras."
Bishop took out his phone. "Angel, any sight of them?"
"No. We're at the city limits and nothing."
"Shit, they're gone by now," said Bishop as he hung up and looked at Riz and EZ.
"What do we do?"
Bishop sighed. "There's nothing we can do. If we go to the cops, they're going to start digging in the club's business and that is not an option. We wait. Whoever it is, they'll reach out."
"How can you be so sure?" asked Riz.
"Because if it weren't the case, Isabella's phone wouldn't be the only thing lying dead on the ground."
