Rafael (The Santiago Brothers Book One) (14 page)

Genie’s muscles relaxed under Rafa’s skilled
hands. She returned his smile. She had to give Franco credit for
tying a victim to the restaurant. Whatever it meant, it was a
significant break in the case. She wasn’t the only cop who could do
the job.

And she had to give credit to the handsome
delinquent-turned-surprisingly mature detective in front of her.
Whose gaze remained latched to hers. Whose hands still massaged her
muscles, moving in slow, circular patterns.

“Detective Green.”

The spell was broken. Genie moved out from
under the heat of Rafa’s hands and faced the officer who had called
her name. A phone rang nearby and Rafa moved to answer it. An
officer handed her a sealed envelope, addressed to her, from the
forensics lab. With a letter opener, she sliced through the top of
the package and pulled out the pages.

She heard Rafa replace the handset back on
the receiver. “Anything interesting?”

“No. Just the final report on some evidence I
sent off for another case.” And just like that, he picked up the
phone again. Genie sighed. She never sought his attention, but ever
since their ride into the office this morning, Genie wished for it.
And ever since their exchange in the conference room, she craved
it. She thought she had it a moment ago, but clearly she was wrong.
She didn’t want things to be weird between them. Did he believe her
apology? Did he trust her? She kneaded the back of her tight
neck.

His call didn’t last long. Rafa leaned
forward. “I just got off the phone with a source. Seems like our
two missing friends from the Snakes were sent out here on a
specific mission tied to La Cocina Dulce.”

“What kind of mission?”

“All my source could say was loose ends were
being tied up.”

“Loose ends?”

He shook his head. “He wouldn’t elaborate on
the meaning.”

“So a middle-aged waiter, a teenage boy, a
mother, and a respectable college student are loose ends? Well, my
source said someone he knows saw two unfamiliar guys waiting in a
black four-door at Maribol’s apartment, but he couldn’t describe
them.”

Rafa leaned back in his chair, locked his
hands behind his dark head, and stared at the ceiling. For a
moment, Genie saw her fingers lost in the curls of his loose locks.
She snapped her eyes back to safe territory: her desk. “Yup.
Unfortunately, I think the only one who may know what all of this
means is Cera.”

“Wherever he’s at,” Genie muttered.

“If he’s smart, he’s left town.
Disappeared.”

“That’s not so good for us.”

Rafa groaned audibly.

Genie’s phone rang. She snatched up the
receiver. “Are you absolutely positive?” she asked the man on the
line. She reached for a pad and pen and began to write. “Thanks, I
owe you.”

“What was that all about?” he asked when she
replaced the handset.

“A fax should be coming in shortly to explain
all the details, but we have a lead on Diego Cera.”

She saw Rafa visibly tense. If anyone knew
anything about loose ends and La Cocina Dulce’s involvement in
money laundering, it had to be Cera. “Don’t keep me in suspense,
woman. Spit it out.”

Genie gave him a dirty look but angled toward
him. “We have a trace on his credit cards. Seems like he used one
last night.”

“Yeah? Where?”

“Right here in Springfield.”

“I don’t know whether to be elated he’s still
in town or pity him for being too stupid to run. Especially if he’s
somehow connected to the Snakes.”

Genie’s eyes shifted to the beeping fax
machine. “That should be it coming in now.” She rose to retrieve
the information. Her eyes glanced quickly over the page. “The card
was swiped at a convenience store around 11:30 p.m.,” she stated as
she stood near his desk.

“If he’s still in the area, then I bet
someone close to him knows what he’s up to.”

“And why he stuck around.”

An officer approached their desks and handed
a sheet of paper to Rafa. His brows rose as he read the
information.

“What is it?” Genie asked, her voice
anxious.

“It says our boy Diego Cera is on staff at
the La Cocina Dulce restaurant.” He raised his eyes up to his
partner. “You requested a list of all the employees. Good
work.”

Genie
felt her cheeks go warm at the compliment. She snatched the
documents out of his hand and held them up to eye-level, not just
to read the information herself, but to hide her blush. “Basic
investigative step, Santiago.” When she believed sufficient time
had passed for her cheeks to return to their normal color, she
lowered the document. “Looks like we need to have another
conversation with Ms. Flores Cera.”
And this time, she’d better tell the
truth.

YOU
need to return to California. Now.

Rafa frowned as he viewed the text on his
phone. If he had to take a guess, he’d say it was from his cousin
Enrique. The acid in his stomach burned. Something wasn’t right,
and it wasn’t just the suspects he and Genie were after. If Enrique
knew he was investigating members of the Snakes, an organization
his cousin was still heavily involved in, then who else knew? He
trusted his cousin to keep this assignment under wraps, but why the
urgency for him to return to California? If his cousin wasn’t so
cryptic…

He has no choice
, Rafa thought. If anyone knew Enrique was talking to a cop
— never mind the fact they were cousins — Enrique would be the one
with a snake design on his chest.

“Enrique, you gotta give me more to go on,”
Rafa muttered underneath his breath.

“Santiago!”

As he walked into the office, Rafa saw Genie
standing in the doorway of the conference room. She signaled him to
join her. He thought he’d beat her in today, but here he was just
walking into the office and she was already hard at work. It wasn’t
even daylight. He couldn’t sleep and apparently, neither could she.
Or she was as determined as he to solve this case. “Coming!”

Rafa pressed the delete button on his
phone.

“Santiago!”

****

Genie yawned. It was too early to be working
with Rafael Santiago. While he had re-interviewed Flores Cera
yesterday, her boss ordered her to have face-to-face time with the
FBI. And they were hiring. She smiled. As soon as she put this case
to bed, she’d be a shoo-in for the agency.

Genie glanced at Rafa, who sat beside her in
the conference room. He’d been talking non-stop for the last ten
minutes about some offshoot case the DEA was running against drug
smugglers indirectly tied to the Snakes.

“My mother would like to know if you want to
stop by her place for lunch this afternoon. I think she’s making
your favorite: fajitas and rice.”

Genie’s gaze shot up from her case notes.
When had he gone off-topic? Rafa leaned away, watching her, his
eyes filled with humor. Genie fluffed her curls over her shoulder
to hide her face. She once again leaned over the table and feigned
interest in the paperwork by shuffling a few pages around. “Of
course I’ll come, thank you for inviting me.”

She felt her hair being displaced, and Rafa’s
hand shifting the curls behind her shoulder, his gaze on her
face.

“Good. She’ll be thrilled. She talks about
you quite a bit.”

Genie arched her brows, wondering why his
mother would be discussing her — with her son, no less. “I’ve
missed seeing her in church.” Genie toyed with the edges of a sheet
of paper. “But I guess that’s my own fault,” she mumbled. Silence.
He expected her to continue. She knew very little about him, so no
need to go in to anything about her. “So, what happened when you
went to see Ms. Cera?”

“I think she’s hiding her brother.”

Genie’s head popped up. “What?”

“I can’t be sure, but we should probably have
surveillance sit on her house for a few more days.”

Genie searched his eyes for more information.
“Really? What did she say?”

Rafa sighed, crossing his arms over his
chest. “It’s what she didn’t say that I’m concerned about.”

“Explain.”

“I confronted her about her brother’s credit
card being used in town.”

Genie leaned forward. “And?”

“Well, her non-verbals were all over the
place. She couldn’t look me in the eye, she fidgeted
uncontrollably, and then she shot off.”

“Shot off?”

“Accused me of lying. Said we had her brother
under arrest, and demanded to see him. I calmed her down, but she
confirmed what we’ve been thinking.”

“That Diego is here in town. He never
left.”

Rafa gave her a short nod. “Exactly. The
Snakes wouldn’t be stupid enough to use his credit card if they’d
already killed him. Dealing in cash is far more difficult to
trace.”

Genie blew out a breath. “You’re right. Wow.
Does she know where he is? What else did she say?”

“She claimed no knowledge of his whereabouts.
But I think she’s lying. If we sit a few more nights on her house,
I suspect we’ll find she’s harboring Diego.”

“That’s it?”

He averted his gaze.

“What aren’t you telling me, Rafael? You’re
hiding something.”

He gave
her a small smile. “Just so we’re clear. We aren’t hiding
anything
from each other.”

Anything about the case
. “Of course.”

“Flores is scared.”

“Of what?”

“I’m thinking she’s afraid of what could
happen to her brother,” he responded quietly. “The same thing that
happened to the others.”

Genie put her face in her hands and then ran
them through her hair. “Compton told me the FBI should have their
inquiry on the restaurant completed by tomorrow. If anything is
remotely shady, they’ll open a full-blown investigation.”

“Sounds like this is something the IRS would
sink their teeth into.”

Genie nodded. “Compton said they’d call the
IRS the moment they audit La Cocina Dulce’s financials, but I wish
we had a little more to go on. Perhaps the surveillance will yield
something useful.”

Rafa surged to his feet. “I’m going to run
the surveillance plan by the lieutenant.”

Genie
nearly jumped herself at how quickly Rafa had left the room. Was
there a fire somewhere she didn’t know about? She shook her
head.
Well,
at least he’s eager to do what’s needed to solve this
case
.

Genie glanced at her watch. They had a few
hours until lunch. Lunch with Rafa and his mother; strange, she was
a bit eager for that, too.

****

His mother, the matchmaker.

Rafa couldn’t believe his ears when his
mother had asked him to invite Genie over for lunch. Dissuading his
mother in her scheme proved to be an impossible task. He tried in
vain to convince her that his only focus must be the case: nothing
could deter him from stopping Huera and Montenegro. A woman was the
last thing he needed on his mind.

But the woman across the table from him — the
one with her eyes closed, her lips pursed in pleasure over his
mom’s fajitas — she stirred something in him he never imagined
possible. Since returning to the faith that was introduced to him
by his mother when he was a boy, he spent his energy focusing not
on women, but on making something of himself, to make his mother
proud. He had set his goal and he'd accomplish it.

But now… Now his armor was cracking and the
one responsible couldn’t stop smiling or complimenting his mother’s
cooking.

His mother. The one woman who promised to
support him no matter what was a determined conspirator. Since he
began working on the case with Genie, his mother couldn’t stop
talking about his lovely partner. The woman he loved to rile had
left his ego bruised and his mind exhausted with efforts on how to
better appeal to her. His mother claimed to have some inkling or
woman’s intuition, but an inkling of what he refused to
contemplate. Whether or not he protested the set-up, Genie would be
right where she is now and so would he. He glanced at his mother’s
cheerful face as she took another forkful of rice, which he
considered better than any “authentic” restaurant. He shook his
head in wonder. She was something else.

“Well, Rafael told me you two have some
casework to discuss so if you need me, I’ll be in the living
room.”

Rafa watched as she stood with her plate and
glass. She winked. Rafa smirked. “Thanks, Mamá. Lunch was great as
always.”

“Yes, Mrs. Santiago, everything was
wonderful. I think I’ll be stuffed all week.”

His mother giggled with pleasure. “Thank you,
dear. There’s plenty left, so keep eating.” Then she disappeared
into the other room.

Rafa focused his attention on Genie, who was
no longer smiling. In fact, she looked uncomfortable. Had she
guessed this lunch had been a subtle set-up? Genie’s eyes darted to
his, and then down to her plate. She forked a few pieces of rice
around her plate, avoiding eye contact. Then she took a long drink
of homemade sweet tea and cleared her throat. If he read her
correctly, then he guessed how she felt. Ever since their first
meeting in the lieutenant’s office, something electric hummed
between them, and it steadily grew. And neither of them knew what
to do about it.

He’d kill it, if necessary. The closer he and
Genie got to solving the case, the more dangerous it would become.
He thought about his prior connection to the Snakes. He left the
organization behind, but if he continued to disrupt their
activities, the protection afforded him would disappear. Being home
with his mother also put her in danger. His whole family could end
up on the coroner’s slab.

He searched Genie’s face. The image of her
cold, colorless, and eyes devoid of a soul shook him to his
core.