“Hey.” Luca sat back in the seat, his hands in his lap, watching out the windshield where two men had entered a bar that hadn’t opened for the day.
“Ready for an update?” Mike said. “Everything is quiet here at the hospital.”
“I’m on surveillance with Hammer. He’s in the car with me. I appreciate you helping me out on your day off.”
The clock on the dash read 4:30 p.m.
He would sleep at some point, but it hadn’t happened in more than twenty-four hours. Kira would be even more exhausted than him. She was the one who’d worked an entire shift at the hospital last night.
Hammer said nothing, probably still deep in his thoughts about Jenkins and his brother Mack.
“Alden is out of surgery and stable. You guys told Mack what happened to his father, right?”
Luca watched a car pull into the bar parking lot and stop at the far side beside a lamppost. The occupant didn’t get out. “I told him, and Rowan went to pick him up.”
The fact Kira had passed it on so quickly impressed him. She was the kind of woman who knew that someone was going to be upset by news and made sure they got the information as fast as possible, not waiting for the police to trickle information down from the jail.
“Ralph Rousseau lapsed into a coma.”
Luca hissed out a breath.
Mike continued, “The tox screen came back with something called silent lily. It’s from a rare plant called moonshade lily that originates in Guatemala. It can be distilled into a clear liquid that’s tasteless. Kira explained the whole thing to me when she showed up to take over for Dr. Torres. It’s lethal, so Ralph must not have ingested that much. They have no idea when he’s going to wake up, or if he even will.”
“Makes you wonder if Destiny is going to go ahead with this gala, given the condition her husband is in right now.”
“I haven’t heard anything,” Mike said.
“And Kira is okay?”
“She looks like she needs a nap. But she’s currently reading the newspaper to Francisco and drinking coffee.”
Luca said, “Did they do the procedure on him?”
“They need his lab results to look a certain way before that. Apparently they’re hoping for tomorrow or the day after.”
“Heads up.” Hammer motioned to the entrance of the bar, where the two men they had been following emerged and headed to their car.
A third vehicle came in, pulling alongside the car that had parked by the lamppost. Something was exchanged between two open windows, and then both drove off. “Drug deal.”
But nothing to do with them.
“What’s that?” Mike asked.
“Don’t worry, we’ll report it,” Luca said. But right now, they had other issues to worry about. “Who are these guys Homeland told the Marshals about?”
All the information Saxon had was that both men were connected to Francisco’s cartel. He had received two headshots and a description of their car.
“It came in as a BOLO. The whole PD has been on the lookout for these dudes, and thankfully, one of our patrol cars spotted them quickly,” Mike said. “The two of them are mid-level enforcers for Francisco’s cartel, the one his nephew forced him out of. If they’re suddenly in town, it’s because the cartel found out that Francisco is here and they want to kill him before he’s able to testify.”
“Copy that.”
The car the two men had climbed into pulled out, and Luca gave it a few seconds before he eased into traffic behind them. There was an art to hanging back far enough that they wouldn’t be spotted as a pursuing vehicle, but remaining close enough they didn’t lose the other car. Being in an old truck wasn’t exactly inconspicuous in the city, but this part of Colorado was rural enough that there were plenty of other Ford trucks on the road.
“We have eyes on them.” Luca gripped the wheel. “If they approach the hospital, we’ll let you know.”
Mike said, “I’ll keep an eye out just in case they’re decoys. Any movement on your cameras?”
“I haven’t had any notifications.” Luca trusted his system, but he still activated the cameras and checked they were operating well regularly. Just to be double covered.