Hold On

But at that look of sorrow, helplessness, and defeat, he felt sorry for the guy.

“We’re unaware of exactly what Wendy Derian had to talk with Carlos Gutierrez about,” Harleman began to explain. “We have Cutler and another informant inside his operation, some bugs, and eyes on Gutierrez and his men. Even with all that, we were unable to hear what was said. We just know that Ms. Derian spent quite a bit of time hitting various players in Gutierrez’s operation late Tuesday night through early Wednesday morning until she was able to secure a face-to-face with Gutierrez. Their meeting lasted just over fifteen minutes. She left and did it in a hurry.” Harleman’s eyes slid to Cutler as he finished cautiously, “Clearly, whatever she had to say displeased Gutierrez. It’s our belief, at his order, one of Gutierrez’s soldiers followed her and wasted very little time taking care of what had become a problem.”

At the last, Cutler’s head came up, his jaw hard, a muscle jumping in it as he pierced Harleman with his stare.

“You didn’t follow her?” Mike asked Harleman with annoyed disbelief.

“Ms. Derian was not a part of our investigation.” Harleman’s eyes again slid to Cutler briefly before he finished, “Part of the deal. She knew nothing of importance. She stays out of it. She stays uninformed. She lives her life untouched by this mess.”

“That didn’t work.” Mike’s words were now just annoyed.

Harleman gave him an aggravated look, but his stance remained uncomfortable.

They’d fucked up.

Huge.

Everyone knew it. It was time to move on.

“You know what she talked to him about?” Garrett asked Cutler.

Cutler looked to Garrett. “I disappeared. I broke shit off when we were good. She didn’t want that. I didn’t want that. She didn’t know any of this mess was happenin’. She knew I worked for Carlito. She was probably just tryin’ to find me,” Cutler answered.

“And Carlito ordered a hit on her for trying to find you?” Garrett pushed.

“Yeah, man, ’cause I disappeared. Carlito likes to know where his boys are.” He jerked his head Harleman and Faria’s way. “Assholes yanked me. Carlito no doubt got tweaked. Doin’ Wendy coulda been a message or he figured I shared and thought she knew somethin’. She’s sweet, but she can be not so smart. She coulda even made some fucked-up play, thinkin’ she could scare Carlito into tellin’ her where I was. Doesn’t matter though, does it? My woman is dead.”

It did matter. The cop in him had a need to know.

But the man in him looked into Cutler’s eyes and decided not to push further.

He turned to Harleman.

“Do you know which soldier?” Garrett asked.

Harleman shifted, alert to Cutler but eyes on Garrett. “We know which ones were unaccounted for, so we have our suspicions.”

“You gonna share those with us?” Garrett pushed.

“Not at the present time,” Harleman answered, and both Harleman and Faria became more alert as they faced a room with a pained and pissed Cutler and two cops investigating a homicide with uncooperative Feds not handing over crucial information.

“With chatter we’ve been hearing since Ms. Derian’s death, concerns we had that led us to yank him have been confirmed—Mr. Cutler is blown,” Faria told them. “He’s emphasized that he did not share with Ms. Derian he was working with us and we’re apt to believe that because, before Ms. Derian even sought an audience with Gutierrez, Gutierrez hired a man I believe you know named Ryan Danvers to surveil Cutler.”

Jesus, Ryan wasn’t working for Ryker?

Shit.

Ryan had never said he was working for Ryker. Cher had. Ryan had just said he was working for a scary guy who he didn’t want to give up.