I lean closer, my hands bracing on the back of his chair. “This wasn’t an assassination attempt.”
“No. This was a message.” Cal’s voice is hard. “Someone wanted to scare us. Show us they could get to us, could get to the kids, could have killed us if they wanted to. But they chose not to.”
“Which means they want something.”
“Or they’re working up to something bigger.” Cal switches screens again. “Got more. The vehicles?—”
He pulls up traffic camera footage showing three dark SUVs leaving the area. License plates visible.
“Ran the plates. Fake. But I did a reverse search on the manufacturing markers.” He brings up a new window showing technical specs, serial numbers. “These weren’t street-level forgeries. These were professional-grade fakes, the kind you need specialized equipment and access to make.”
“And?”
“And there are only three places in the city with that equipment. Two are government facilities. The third—” Cal pulls up a business profile. “—is Ramirez Auto Group.”
The Ramirez family. The ones Parker flagged this morning for creative accounting. The ones we have a partnership with for vehicle acquisition and modification.
“The dealership where we source our vehicles,” I say slowly.
“Yep.” Cal’s fingers fly across the keyboard. “Could be they’re involved. Could be they’ve been compromised. Could be someone stole their equipment. But either way, that’s where those plates came from.”
My phone is already in my hand. “I’m going.”
“Silas—”
“Someone just tried to kill my family using equipment from a business we have a relationship with.” My voice is cold, deadly calm. “I’m going to find out why, and I’m going to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
From the living room, I hear Noah laugh at something Jace said. A small sound, tentative, but genuine.
That laugh is the only thing keeping me from going to the Ramirez dealership and burning it to the ground without asking questions first.
But only barely.
“I’m coming with you,” Cal says, already closing his laptops.
“No.” I put a hand on his shoulder. “Stay here. Keep working the digital angles. I need you to track where those SUVs went after they left the park, see if you can ID the other shooters, find any other connections.”
“Silas—”
“And I need you here.” I glance at the living room, where Parker is watching us with worried eyes, where the boys are finally starting to relax. “Someone needs to stay. Someone they trust.”
Cal’s jaw tightens, but he nods. “You’re taking backup.”
“I’ll take Marcus and two others from the security team.”
“You’re checking in every twenty minutes.”
“Yes, dad.”
“Silas.” Cal’s voice drops. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Define stupid.”
“Starting a war with the Ramirez family without confirming they’re actually involved.”
I consider this. Maria Ramirez has been a solid partner for years. Her father before her, going back decades. The relationship predates even Charles’s time running the organization.
But someone used their equipment to create fake plates for an attack on my family.
