Page 51 of Mace
Ramirez ignored her question, “You judge me unjustly. I only wanted a beautiful wife and daughter, exactly what my brother had. Is that so difficult to understand?”
“You are everything my father wasn’t. You’re a vile, disgusting liar who stole your brother’s family.”
“It is my fault that you grew up selfish and stubborn, I should have punished you for your disobedience years ago. This I will fix. My brother would want me to.”
Alicia added another piece of the puzzle. “It was you, you k—”
Another timid female voice came from behind them, finishing Alicia’s accusation, “You killed him.”
I surged forward and almost snatched the laptop up when a man wearing a suit walked in dragging the woman I presumed to be Alicia’s mother by the arm.
“Is that true, Ramirez? Did you kill your brother?”
“It was an accident. There was a shootout. He caught a stray bullet—”
Alicia’s mom cut him off. “If you hadn’t been running drugs for the Cartel none of it would have happened. When you took us, you knew he’d return to Mexico to try and get us back. It’s your fault he’s dead,” she shouted accusingly.
The suited man holding her mother’s arm jerked her back. “Enough of this.”
Ramirez asked, “Where did you find my wife?”
The suited man smirked. “I found her right where you left her. Why am I not surprised to find that you’re capable of killing your brother and stealing his family, when I found you had the audacity to lock your own wife in the trunk of your car?”
“We’re not married,” Alicia’s mother stated clearly as she tried to twist her arm from the man’s hold. By the suits, I had assumed that he was one of the federal agents that Alicia had been in contact with. But something about the way he was acting made me nervous.
“She was being difficult,’ Ramirez responded. “In fact, she’s always difficult. I don’t know why I put up with her.”
“From the sounds of the conversation I walked in on, you killed your own brother and took his wife for your whore? Youmust have coveted her greatly, so don’t act as if you’re the long-suffering victim in this situation.”
Alicia went ramrod straight and took a step closer to the interloper. “Why are you calling my mother a whore? You said if I cooperated with you, the US Marshals Service would make sure she wasn’t arrested, and we would get immunity for my father’s crimes. What’s happening here?”
Ramirez threw back his head and laughed, a genuine deep belly laugh born of genuine amusement.
Her mother hissed, “He’s not with the Marshals Service, Alicia.”
Alicia stammered, “I don’t understand.”
Ramirez, chuckled. “Of course you don’t. I think we already established that you are more stupid than any of us ever dreamed possible.”
His words stung. I could tell because Alicia kind of folded in on herself.
I muttered to my club brothers, “We need to get in there, before things really start to deteriorate.
Storm jerked me back. “Hold position. We don’t know if the one Alicia identified as her handler was lying when he said he was with the US Marshals Service or if he’s lying now. This could still be part of the sting. We have to figure this out.”
Alicia’s so-called handler spoke. “If you can take a break from attending to the family shit that you’ve apparently fucked up beyond all redemption, we need to talk about what you stolefrom me. You also killed five of my best men and I expect you to compensate me for the loss.”
Alicia’s hand flew to her mouth, and she took a horrifying step back. “You’re not a fed but a member of that Latino gang?”
The man pulled open his shirt collar showing a neck tattoo.
“How?” Alicia asked.
“The nine-four-five have people imbedded in several federal law enforcement agencies, mostly wives, girlfriends, or sisters, feeding us information. In your case, they erased evidence of your call and forwarded your number to me instead.”
“You used me,” Alicia whispered, clearly still in shock.
“Pipe the fuck down,puta.I made a deal, and unlike your uncle daddy, I’m sticking to it.” He shoved her mother hard in her direction. The woman was caught off guard and stumbled. Alicia was forced to leap forward to stop her from careening into the wall. Once they were in each other’s arms my anxiety clicked down a little. I prayed the gang member was serious about releasing her.