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“What?” I asked.
“I want to hire you and Mr. Huerta to join the team, Mr. Mathis.”
I finally managed to snap out of it long enough to laugh. “I don’t have any kind of military training, sir.”
“Do you know how to track, son?”
“Yes.”
“Are you any good at it?”
“Yes, I’m damned good. I’ve been doing it for years.”
“Good. You’re hired,” Waters said.
“I don’t—” Miguel squeezed my hand, and I met his gaze. “What? I don’t know how to shoot or—”
“Later, Raven,” Miguel said. He dragged his gaze away from me and looked back at Waters. “SAC, thank you for the offer. We’ll talk about it and get back to you.”
He grinned and slapped both of his knees, standing up, holding out his hand to me as Snow got up too. “Good. I look forward to talkin’ with both of you about it on Monday.”
“We’re going on vacation!” I blurted, twisting around to give Miguel a pointed look. He nodded before turning back to Waters.
“We’ll be back in about ten days during which time, I promise you we’ll be discussing your offer if it’s still good until then,” Miguel said.
Waters smiled. “Actually, the team won’t be transferrin’ to the West Coast for about six weeks. Understandably, they have family obligations to wrap up, lots of packin’ to do, and homes to sell and whatnot here in Houston, so ten days is more than enough time. I’ll look forward to talkin’ to you then.” Waters shook my hand and then Miguel’s. He nodded at Lincoln. “Thank you, Snow. Sorry I kept your plane on the ground as long as I did. I’ll be talkin’ to you.”
The two men shook hands and Waters turned to leave the plane. I looked at Lincoln but before I could say anything, he put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “We’d be lucky to have you, Raven. You met Noah. He doesn’t spend time in the field very often.”
“But Noah is a computer genius, Lincoln. You don’t need him in the field.” I looked ashamedly at Miguel. “Besides, I barely know how to use a gun.” Miguel squeezed my hand harder as I turned back to Lincoln. “What good would I be on a Spec. Ops team?”
“You heard the man. A good tracker is very hard to find, Raven. It has a lot more to do with instinct, and I know you have that in spades. Working with you over the last six months proved that to me, if nothing else.”
“You’re really giving us the hard sell there, Snow,” Miguel said.
He laughed. “The FBI isn’t a bad place to work. Just think it over and get back to me when you return from your vacation.” Before I could say anything else, he held out a hand, and I shook it. Miguel shook as well. Lincoln returned to his seat.
I glanced at Miguel. “Are you seriously going to consider the offer?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know, Sunshine. But I can tell you one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Waters should’ve been a recruiter for the U.S. Marine Corps.,” he muttered.
I smiled as Miguel’s eyes closed, and I relaxed back in my chair as the flight attendant closed the door to the cabin and the pilot started the engines. The offer was something I’d never expected to get. Miguel was well suited to the job but me? I was far from certain of anything at this point. My partner and I had obligations to not only our clients, but to Judy Mendez. She was the one the FBI should be recruiting.
Still, Lincoln was right. I did have talent and skills in finding things. Maybe I could be of some help to a team. I glanced over at Miguel. As much as he denied that he would even consider the offer, I could read him like a book after all these months. Working on a team again had been a heady experience and the bottom line was, I needed him to be happy. I sighed, closing my eyes for the return trip, knowing that we had time to make the decision. Right now, though, exhaustion was creeping in. I gave myself over to it only moments later.
Epilogue
MIGUEL
Phoenix, Arizona was hot in late May, but not as hot as it’d be in the summer months. As I sat in the hotel room the morning we arrived, I reflected on what had happened and the astounding offer which SAC Waters sprung on us during the stopover in Houston. I was happy we’d been offered the chance to take our time to make any decisions about the FBI jobs. We’d gone home to sleep after calling Dolly, and Raven’s nana from the airport and then gone to pick them up in Compton so Nana could sleep in her own bed. Since we had to be out of the house bright and early the next day, Dolly had offered to spend the night in our guest room. Stanley had been elated to see us both. It was a happy, exhausting homecoming.
Waking up the morning after we’d returned to L.A. and spending an entire day at the FBI going over everything that had transpired during the case from start to finish had been tiresome if not eye-opening. My head was slowly improving but the day before had added to my fatigue and the sixteen hours that followed at the Federal Building in West Los Angeles, had been in a word…grueling.
We’d learned so much about things the cartel had planned for us, all of it unpleasant. Since Castillo had been unable to get his pound of flesh from us, he’d taken his rage out on the hostages, none of which he’d planned on keeping alive after he’d gotten his fifty million dollars, money that had been frozen by the FBI at the end, as part of the wrap up to the investigation.