Free Rafael (The Santiago Brothers Book One) by K. Victoria Chase

more and more
irritated. Not so much at Genie for taking her sweet time to come
in, but at the slow progress on the case. He dismissed the fact he
had only been here a day.
    A whiff
of sweet perfume drew his mind away from the dry music on the phone
to a female figure passing his desk. Genie . She didn’t acknowledge him when she sat down until after
carefully placing her purse underneath her desk, moving the mouse
to wake the computer, and glancing around the top of the desk. She
raised her eyes to his. The dark brown depths were strangely
intense. Before he could mouth a hello, she smiled and her mouth
formed the silent greeting.
    “Rafael? Rafa, are you there? Rafa, I can
hear you breathing.”
    Rafa blinked, breaking the spell, and cradled
the receiver closer to his ear. “Yeah, Jimmy, sorry about that.
Hey, good morning. Sorry about the time.”
    “No worries, you know I’m always here. Where
were you a second ago?”
    In la-la land. “Oh, ah, my partner just walked in. You have a minute to
discuss the case?”
    “Absolutely. How’s it going out there, by the
way?”
    “Four deaths so far, all with the
marking.”
    “That’s not good.” Jimmy’s grim voice came
through the phone. “You think it’s connected to the Snakes?”
    “It’s their MO. I know La Cocina Dulce isn’t
a chain, but there’s a location out here in Springfield. My partner
says their financial unit is looking into the restaurant's
financials. I wanted to touch base to see if you have anything
new.”
    “Two restaurants, hmm. They could be working
in conjunction but more likely independent of each other.”
    “How do you figure?”
    Rafa heard the shuffling of papers before
Jimmy responded. “Well, all of our research on the one out here in
San Diego shows no ties to any other establishment. Granted, the
owner of Springfield’s restaurant is the half-brother of the owner
of ours out here in San Diego. Santoro is his name, I believe.
Santoro hasn’t lived in California for years. Now, it’s absolutely
possible we’ve missed something. If so, then we have our work cut
out for ourselves.”
    Rafa let out a breath and raised his eyes. He
caught Genie’s gaze and she gave him a concerned look. He shook his
head at her to assure her there wasn’t cause for alarm — yet.
“We’ll keep you posted on any new developments.”
    “Sounds good, Rafa. I’ll give the Bureau out
there a call and see if I can get an agent you can trust to work
with you on this.”
    Rafa smiled. “Thanks, Jimmy. You’re the best.
I owe you.”
    “And you’ll pay up when you get back out
here.”
    Rafa laughed stiffly. “Later.” He didn’t have
plans to return. He hadn’t told the boys back at the station, but
he had received an employment acceptance letter from the Bureau and
he was to start training at Quantico in a couple of months. After
training, he would report to his duty station in Virginia as a
special agent. An equally capable detective will inherit the
investigation of the Snakes and then he'd start a new chapter of
serving the public as an agent with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
    “Good news?” Genie kept her eyes on the
papers in front of her.
    “Actually, yes. My guy at the Bureau is going
to vet someone from the office out here for our investigation.”
    Genie’s head rose. “I already have the Bureau
running a few checks for us. Are they involved in the investigation
out in California?”
    “Absolutely. The restaurant is heavily
implicated in a money-laundering ring. We are running a joint
investigation with the Bureau.”
    “So there’s a link between the La Cocina
Dulce in California and the one here in Virginia?”
    Rafa shrugged. “Anything other than a
familial connection hasn’t been verified. If there is a link, my
man Jimmy will find it.”
    Genie nodded. “That sounds promising.”
    Her tone hardly matched the stated opinion.
Rafa took a moment to study her before responding. She tapped her
fingers against