“Marcello?” I flung open the front door just as I heard another noise behind me and turned to find Tio and Tia running into the front room. When I pivoted again, Marcello stood on the doorstep looking like something off the TV. Or the guys yesterday. “Marcello?”
Only then did I notice three tall men, all dressed in what I now realized was Tac Team clothing. All of them held guns which was why my mamá let out a scream from behind me.
“Marcello?” I asked again, shock coursing through me.
I didn’t wait for a reply as one of the three men turned, the other two keeping guard toward the street. One of them was familiar and only then did I recognize him, Rex’s boss, Captain Candy Sorensen. He stood there looking scary as the long scar running down his face shone under the porch light. The other two men either side of him, I couldn’t see, but they looked equally intimidating.
“Cachi, let us in. We need to talk to you and then you and your family will be coming with us,” Marcello said.
“Cachi?” I turned to Mamá, who stood there looking shocked and worried at the arrival of the FBI. “What happening?”
“Cachi?”
I looked at Tio Francisco who stood with his arm around Carlotta who appeared as scared as Mamá. “It’s okay, Tio. I know these men.” I turned back to them, glancing at Marcello for answers. “What happen, Marcello?” I waved my hand up and down his body. “Why you dress like FBI?”
“Because I am FBI, Cachi,” he replied. “Let us in, please.”
I nodded numbly, feeling like I’d just been punched in the guts as I stepped aside. All four of them walked into the house and it was only then that the last one—a guy I’d seen talking with Rex out in Bel Air—closed the door behind him. I watched him lock the front door before turning around.
“Please, Mr. Adams,” Rex’s captain said, “time is of the essence. We need to get you and your family out of the house in the next few minutes.”
Tio, Tia, and Mamá all started speaking at once but I held up both hands. “Please, these are friends,” I told them.
“But, Cachi—” Mamá began when the captain walked over and held out both hands. She craned her neck to look up intohis fearsome face as she held out her own hands. He took them, closing his fingers gently around hers.
“Mrs. Adams. Please. You, Cachi, and your family are in terrible danger. We need you all to go and pack a bag. Clothes, toiletries, medication, important papers. An agent will help you. We need to leave the house right now. Please,” he said, sounding very kind as he pleaded quietly with her.
She nodded. “Si, si. I understand,” she said before turning and running out of the living room, speaking in Spanish to my aunt and uncle as they left with two agents following them.
I looked at Marcello who was still standing there, looking so strange in the protective clothing. I could barely believe what he was telling me. “You are FBI agent, Marcello?”
My friend walked over. “Yes, and I am so sorry I couldn’t tell you. It wasn’t my decision. All of us were handcuffed or we would have explained it to you before now.”
I frowned hard at him. “You were…handcuffed?” I tried hard to interpret what he was saying, knowing I’d misunderstood something.
“What Special Agent Biagi is saying is that he’s been operating as an undercover FBI agent ever since we recruited him three years ago. He couldn’t tell you anything about it. His superiors—his boss—didn’t allow him to say anything to you until they cleared you from any involvement with the cartel.”
The captain spoke quickly but I got the gist of what he was saying. Marcello was somehow an undercover—had been an undercover—agent for a while. I didn’t even know he was FBI. I thought he worked in a grocery store. Then again, when we got together, it was never at the store, but generally, at a restaurant. They apparently thought I was connected to the cartel but that was crazy. It was Marcello who’d brought me into contact withthe cartel people, not the other way around. I shook my head. “I no understand.”
The captain nodded. “I know that, and all of it will be explained to you just as soon as we escort you and your family to safety. Now, please, go pack up some clothes. We need to leave right now.”
“Okay.” I glanced in Marcello’s direction one more time and then ran back to my bedroom to start throwing clothes into a bag. My phone lay on the bed and a lightning bolt of fear suddenly slammed through me. I grabbed the phone and hit redial on Rex’s phone number even as I ran back out to the front room. His phone rang out going to voicemail again, and I growled in frustration. Marcello and Candy turned to me as I held up the phone. “I call Rex. He no answer.”
“Rex Monroe?” the captain asked, striding forward.
“Yes, Rex—he call me ten minutes ago—the call, it cut off. I call him back but he no answer now.”
“You talked to Rex ten minutes ago?” the captain asked as he pulled out his own phone. He instantly hit speed dial, and I heard Rex’s voice as his voicemail picked up. “Shit! I shouldn’t have rostered him off,” the captain swore as he tried the call again with the same result. “Where was he when he spoke to you?”
“Rex say he at club where I a dancer. He say he come in thirty minutes.” I glanced at my watch, the time was nine-twenty. “He say he come to pick me up because I was supposed to work, but Larry…he fire me today.”
“The club…Dance Hall Boys?” the captain asked.
“Si!” I nodded. “He come at nine to pick me up.”
The captain nodded. “Got it. Okay, Cachi. Go pack your clothes,” he said as he started calling someone else. I ran back to my room. Fear squeezed around my heart as I threw clothes and toiletries into a duffel bag. I met Mamá, Tia, and Tio in the hallway no more than a minute later with the hastily packed bag.
“Cachi? What happen? Why we in danger?” Mamá asked.
