Page 13 of Last Chance Christmas

“Nothing she could’ve done,” Wallace said. “She didn’t try and stop Mackey. No one does. You don’t mess with that one. He poisoned this guy in lockup a few months back just because he didn’t like his mustache.” Wallace shifted in his chair. “Put something in his food. The guy keeled over, and his face went in the mashed potato. He was just dead.”

“We need to know who they’re going after or what their plans are for escaping.” Basuto folded his arms. “All of them.”

“Or what? I’m already going back to jail, and I ain’t never getting out. What do I care?” He sat back in his chair. “Unless you wanna talk deals. With my lawyer.”

Olivia went back to looking at her file. She scanned the page for Alonzo Sosa since Anthony wasn’t going to rest until he found the guy and redeemed himself.

Jessica said, “Sosa?”

“I was around when his girlfriend was killed and they brought him in finally. He went after the Crawfords pretty hard. Maybe he wants revenge.” She found a note in the file under family members. “Izan?”

“What about him?”

“This says that Alonzo is related to him.” Olivia frowned. “Alonzo is Diego Sosa’s nephew.”

“He inherited control of the cartel, right?”

“But Diego’s second-in-command had a baby with his sidepiece. Camilo Rojas had an affair with Renata Perez, who was Diego’s girlfriend. All this was, like, thirty years ago. But Camilo worked with Elizabeth Crawford to place the child with a family. The Collins family. Izan was that child.”

“Does Alonzo have a reason to target him?”

Olivia shook her head. “I guess we need to find out. He could be the one Alonzo wants to meet up with, for any reason. We have no idea.”

“You don’t actually think Izan is in league with a cartel guy, do you?”

“No way. But he also doesn’t need to get caught in the crossfire because he wasn’t warned he’s in danger.”

Jessica nodded. “Good idea. Maybe he has intel about where Sosa might hide. Could be he knows all those guys, the cartel henchmen, and what they’re up to now. You know we didn’t catch all of them.”

“Doesn’t matter how many we catch. There are always more.”

But there was no way Izan was one of them. She would never believe that.

Which meant he could be in serious danger.

Six

Izan glanced at the clock, checking when their shift ended.

“Eighty-seven minutes to go.” Eddie took a bite of his pancakes.

When Izan made them, he either did blueberry or chocolate chips, but when Bryce made pancakes, he put ground breakfast sausage in the batter. It was always good.

Zoe and Della wandered in to get themselves plates. Amelia and Ridge sat at the other end of the table, their heads together. Smiling at each other, discussing something that was probably not lieutenant business.

The dark blue of a police uniform caught his eye. He looked over and lifted his chin to Olivia in the doorway, glancing around. He offered, “Pancakes?”

Olivia didn’t look like she was here for a social visit. “I’m starving. But I also need to talk to you.” She wandered to the dish on the stove and grabbed a pancake, holding it with a paper towel before she came back over to the table.

“Can I talk to you?” She glanced over at Bryce but said nothing, addressing Izan when she said, “Somewhere else?”

Izan grabbed his coffee and left his plate. He wanted to think this was about them dating, or going somewhere for breakfast when they both were off duty. However, given what had happened last night, he couldn’t help but think this wasn’t personal. “Are you here on official business?”

She finished her bite of pancake, stopping in the entryway, where they had a few chairs. The receptionist wasn’t in until nine each workday morning, so it was a quiet alcove right now. “I need to ask you a few questions.”

“About last night?” He settled by her and took a sip of coffee.

She finished the pancake, wiping her mouth with the paper towel. “That was really good.” She sighed. “Okay, you know we had a prisoner escape.”