Black Coffee Morning
Chapter 31 of The Devil's Pilot
See Masterlist : See AO3 : See Prequel Fic - The Ghosts of Bogota (With Javier Peña)
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Chapter Summary: Esie meets with General Trujillo in Bogotá while Javier and Frankie work together on the ranch.
See masterlist for fic warnings, but if you've made it here i think you know whats up by now.
Comment welcome and encouraged. 🥰
Black Coffee Moring
Bogotá Columbia 2017
As she stepped into the large lobby of the National Capital of Columbia, she wondered how many times Javier had walked through the doors of the big federal building. She knew the number wouldn’t be small.
The man who greeted her wasn’t an imposing figure, but she knew he’d worked with Javier a long time, and hadn’t given up his fight for his country yet. “General Trujillo,” She said as she extended a hand to greet him, “I’m surprised you’re handling this personally, imagine this is well below your pay grade.” She told him in Spanish. Hers was rustier than she’d have liked. Her mother had wanted them to blend in when they’d first moved to Texas, so she spent a lot of Esie’s youth practicing English at home rather than her native tongue. It was only later, when Javier returned that both languages became common in their household again.
“Well Senorita Peña, I like to keep my sources confidential, and if this ends up being as big of a get as I’m hoping, your security does need to be a concern. The less people who know the better.”
“I understand.”
“But, if I’m honest, I was curious too. Your reputation proceeds you. Not just as a journalist, which is very impressive work. Truth be told I’ve been hearing about you for years, it sounds like you keep my old friend on his toes.” A rare mischievous smile crept over Trujillo’s face. “Which is a good thing.”
“Thank-you… I think. That said, I must admit, my DNA does come with a condition. I want to know, at least what you can tell me, about my birth father’s case.”
“I didn’t expect much less, is this off the record?”
“Yes, off the record. I’m retired now anyway.”
Trujillo laughed, “I know better than to trust a Peña’s ‘retirement’. Follow me, I’ll walk you through what I can in my office.”
Esie didn’t sit in the chair in his office right away. It was large, befitting of a man the General’s rank. There were a few photos, him in his dress uniform, him with politicians, a couple with a woman and two children, his family she assumed, but one stood out. It was a bunch of much younger men on a terracotta roof top, one stood out a blond man, and another stood out because he was lying there dead. A younger version of Trujillo crouched triumphantly over the body.
“I recognize this…” Esie said as she inspected the photo.
“It’s a bit gruesome, I know, but that was one of the best days of my life. I only wish your father… Javier I mean, could had been there to see it. He deserved to be. Escobar hurt many people we cared about.” The man’s eye looked far away for a moment, lost in memory before he seemed to shake it off, meeting her eyes again.
“Well, I think you’ll find if you ask him now that he’s of the opinion, he shouldn’t have been here at all.”
Surprise crossed the man’s face, “That doesn’t sound like the Javier Peña I knew.”
“I think it may have more to do with wishing he spent more years with my mother.” Esie said tactfully, no wanting to disparage the man’s recollection of Javier.
Trujillo nodded, accepting that rational, “That makes sense, it was obvious that cared very deeply for her.”
That surprised Esie, “you knew her too?”
“…no…ummm… I never did meet her,” Trujillo said cautiously unsure of what their daughter knew of Javier and Ana’s past, “But I knew of her, and he never care about any of.. anyone else, like he did, her. Clearly.”
“But you knew Uncle Steve.” She said, more so to lead him back to the case at hand.
“Yes, I did, though his Spanish was atrocious. When he did finally figure out how to speak it.” Trujillo said cracking a smile at the memory of the blonde agent stumbling over his words even after ten years in the country.
“I see Javi didn’t exaggerate that.”
“No, he didn’t. Now have a seat.” He said pulling a few filed from a locked drawer, “I’ll show you what we’re looking at.”
Laredo, Texas. 2017
Frankie, a quiet man by nature, had come to love the early morning at the Ranch. He rose, even before Chucho, who had since appointed himself the roll of breakfast man, all too happy to pass the torch of the early morning feed to a man with much younger joints. Even the animals were quiet at 430 am, before the feed hit their bowls of the sun cracked the sky.
Which was why, when Frankie walked into the barn that morning, he was more than just surprised to see the man there, with his dark assessing eyes, clearly waiting for him. “Good morning.” Javier said, in a tone that was perhaps more surprising than his very presence there, it was almost … pleasant? “Do you put a bunch garbage in your coffee, syrup and all that shit to hide the flavour.”
Frankie was not yet awake enough for whatever the hell this was, stumbled to find a suitable answer, “Umm no.” Sometimes, when he was in town with Esie he’d get one of the fancier things she sometimes liked to order, but Frankie would keel over right then and there before tell that to her strange coffee obsessed old man.
“So you take it black?”
“Yes,”
“Good,” He held out the coffee mug in his hand to Frankie. “This is for you, it’s medium roast, I picked the one with the broadest range of appeal, we can narrow down you r roast preferers later.”
“Okay.” Frankie said cautiously, as he took the mug from the man. Javier stared at him until he took a sip, “It’s good?” Frankie told him, it actually was, he assumed it came from the machine in Javier’s suite. The ranch kitchen still had drip coffee in it, since Chucho didn’t, “like to fuck around with all that fancy shit.” with his morning cup of joe.
“Follow me.” Javier led him into the barn office. He pulled out then flipped over his cork board, revealing the other side had a bunch of things tacked to it. Frankie said a slightest prayer of gratitude that the older man hadn’t taken down all of his schedules and notes on the other side for whatever the fuck this was.
“Since it seem you’ll be sticking around.” Javier said as though he’d just discovered this fact the day before. “And Chucho mentioned you have some ideas about the cattle; I figured I’d brief you on the big picture of the future of this place. Which, since we’re a cow to calf operation, has less to do with cattle and more to do with horses.” Frankie winced at what he was sure was a back handed criticism.
“We can’t get rid of the long horns for some fucking reason and the wagyu are still a profitable niche. But if you haven’t noticed, these days, when people talk about this place they talk about the horses. And ours are some of the best. But if you want to expand this place, we’re going to need another barn, more pens, and more hands, ones who know how to fucking ride preferably. The good news is we got more fucking 20-year-old Peñas then we know what to do with. The bad news is most of ‘em fuck off after college.”
“You want to hire more staff?”
“Not yet,” he said pinning a blueprint and an areal photo of the main barn area of the ranch. “We gotta put the infrastructure in place first.” He tapped the map of the ranch. “If you were going to put a 40-stall barn here, an indoor and outdoor area and three more turn out paddocks, where would you put them?”
“I…you want my opinion?”
“You’re the fucking ranch manager, aren’t you? You’re a little slow in the morning huh? You have that in common with your girlfriend, though she’s grouchy and she makes up for it the rest of that day.” If he wasn’t so shocked he would have realized that was the first time Javier had ever blatantly acknowledge his relationship with Esie. Before that morning, Javier had always approached Frankie like staff, or a guest who had appeared without any forewarning. Frankie wondered briefly if Esie had said anything to the man, though he supposed, that Esie was probably preoccupied with going to Columbia. He knew his lady, well, but he didn’t understand her relationship with the man who stood in as her father. Frankie figured it was more likely that the man was actually looking for his insight. A surprising show of respect from the grumpy old man, but Frankie was going to take what he could get. So he walked up to the map and explained what he thought might work.
That same morning, though slightly later in the day, Trujillo sat with Esie in his office looking over a case file with her, “Five years ago, a drug lord by the name of Gabriel Martin Lorea was raided robbed and burned. It was a professional job, we assume by one of the other cartels in the region.” Trujillo told her as he handed her a file. When she opened it there were pictures of half burnt corpses, cash and furnishings. “No one but a rival gang would have the balls, weaponry and skill level to pull something like this off. For a while we even considered it could have even been hired mercenaries. We got lucky, it rained heavily after they set fire to the compound, even for the rainforest and the walls were packed so tight with cash, it didn’t burn. When paper is stacked so thick and tightly it actually needs a lot of heat to burn.”
“Like books.”
“Exactly. What was interesting was the night before, intelligence suggested that Lorea held a meeting with a few of the other Don’s in the region. Not entirely strange, we believe he was their bank of sorts, a lot more than his own funds were stored in that house. We think one of them cased the joint during the meeting and sent some men the next day, while Lorea’s guards and family were at church.”
“And judging by Vega - the alias I believe your would-be relative now goes by - was the one to do it. That’s just a theory since he seems to have risen to a Don of Don’s status in the region. There are only a few cartel operations out of the jungle that don’t seem to have affiliation to him now.”
“Well, at least he is good at something.” Esie joked, which pulled an amused look from Trujillo before he handed her a few surveillance footage pictures.
“We also pulled what we could from the camera’s. we didn’t get much from the robbers, they shot out the security footage. But, we got some arriving the night before. Most didn’t have their faces to the camera, and there was nothing in the room that they met in but we were able to lift prints from there. That’s where you come in…”
Esie focused in on the gun the robber held, in the photo you could only see the gun and his hand and the edge of a night vison goggle, an imagine likely taken moments before the camera was shot out. “Not to tell you how to do your job but can I ask; did you try to trace these weapons or the gear they had in the photos?”
“I don’t mind, but they took the weapons with them, and they are common enough here, it would be nearly impossible to trace something like that.”
“Nearly impossible, yes. And depending on when they were acquired perhaps entirely impossible. But they were raiding this place with precision, right? They must have gone in with serious skill and firepower to do that. If it was mercenaries, they’d need to acquire all that in country. Or at least at a boarder crossing location.”
“Senorita Peña, I admire your eye, but we don’t really have the resources to spend on something like that, a drug lord taking out another drug lord deep in the amazon isn’t really a crime we get a lot of interest in solving here.”
“No, I imagine so, but I did a story about five years ago in Peru… I worked with some local guys, they helped me track every single weapon coming and going out of Peru, Argentina, Columbia, and Brazil. It was right around the time this happened. Funnily enough. I know it’s a long shot, but I imagine you took ballistics on the bullets. Plus, anything else you have on the attackers. We could draw on those old resources.”
“I see that you are as good as they say. I remember the article you wrote, about CIA involvement in smuggling weapons to drug dealer and militias alike.”
“My adopted country does seem to love destabilizing this area, fuck I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing was a covert operation buy was too.” Esie said with a sigh od disapproval.
“You took down their CIA head here, Javier called me to brag that a Peña finally got rid of the Schechner asshole, a thorn in all our sides. And you won your Pulitzer for it too. He was very proud that day for your old man.”
“One of my Pulitzers. I promise if you let me pull this thread, if there’s anything to be found I’ll find it.”
Trujillo debated for a moment, “These sources, they are dangerous?”
“Not to me.”
“You can be covert about this, I imagine?”
“Sir I never give up my sources, I have a code when it comes to that sort of thing.”
Amusement danced in the general’s eyes at that, but they seemed to land on a decision nonetheless, “Okay, I’ll get you a list of what they believed they had, don’t do anything stupid, just inquires. Bring what you find back to me directly, Do Not mention the names Vega and Lorea to anyone. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Esie said standing up to shake the man’s hand, now that she had the answer she wanted, she was eager to leave before he thought better of it. “Thank-you general.”
She was back at her hotel room when she did her required calls that evening.
“Hey pops, Trujillo says hi. He seems nice. And you’ll be happy to hear he even gave me a bodyguard while I’m in Bogotá. You’ll be less happy to hear that I think I can help him with his case.”
“What?” Javier said, as though he was actually surprised. He wasn’t, he knew his daughter too well for that.
“Just information, some of my old contacts from the Peru story might be useful.”
“Alright kid, so long as it stays just information. I’m glad Trujillo’s keeping up his end of the bargain.”
“Bargain? Never mind I don’t want to know. Anyway, I gotta get going…”
“Wait, one more thing, did you call me or your boyfriend first?”
Esie rolled her eyes, “Careful or I’ll tell mama you’re projecting your competitive feelings about me discovering my birth father onto my boyfriend.”
“I’m just kidding, mija. I was nice to him today. I even made him one of my Americanos. And he actually had some worthwhile suggestions about the new barn plans. So at least he isn’t an idiot.”
“High praise.” Esie said dryly, but she was smiling imagining Frankie’s face trying to comprehend the grumpy mustached man shoving a diligently made americano into his hand before dawn.
“I’m joking, no one has a sense of humour these days… anyway I’ll let you go, I’m sure that boy is just sitting there in that cabin staring at his phone screen waiting for you to call, like a lovesick puppy.”
“You didn’t even wait the standard 48 hours the first time you called mama from the ranch, remember, I had to play it cool for you both.” She said, as though she’d ever played anything cool successfully in her entire life.
“You didn’t play it cool, you forgot to pass on my message!”
“Same thing, okay love you, bye!”
Next, she called Frankie, filling him in on her meeting with Trujillo and some details she’d left out of Javier’s summary, she recounted everything that had happened since her arrival in Bogotá, speaking even faster than normal in her excitement from the day, “…and I saw a picture of my bio father, they think he goes by the name Vega now, he was tall, it was black and white, an old mugshot… no freckles though, which was weirdly a relief. I like my freckles and I don’t want to have to share that with that asshole. I know that sounds silly…”
“It doesn’t,” Frankie understood that all too well, “I hate that I share my dad’s name.” And a few other things he didn’t feel like bringing up at that moment. “At least all you seem to have in common so far is ‘tall’.”
“Well, you improved greatly on the name honey. Trust me…” She said supportively before launching back into her monolog about the day, “He sounds like he might actually be smart too. You know, in an evil way so maybe my deviousness come from him.”
“No, you get your brains from your mother, I think maybe your sense of humour too, though she is a little more…ah, subtle.”
“Wow Frankie are you into my mama?” She teased, “That’s not going to help your relationship with Javi.”
“No, though I am hoping you age like her.”
“I’m going to tell her you said that.”
“Please don’t.”
“I’m just kidding. I heard you just made it into the coffee club, wouldn’t want to ruin that for you… by the way how’s that going?”
“No, you need to finish telling me everything about the visit.”
“I can’t tell you everything, its confidential.”
“Well, tell me everything you can then.” So, she told him about Trujillo and the photo and Javier being obsessed with her mother even back then.
“That doesn’t surprise me.” Frankie said.
Her next question hit him out of nowhere, though he supposed it should have been expected, “Frankie have you ever been to Columbia?”
“Uhh, only passed through it.” He said not wanting to lie to her completely. That was close enough to the truth.
“We’ll have to come back together, you’ll love it. The food is insane. Its beautiful here, like Peru but also so different. Its nice, not too hot, actually its kinda chilly here in the mountains, even though it’s the start of their summer. Oh, and the flowers are beautiful, there’s a big flower market I’m going to tomorrow.”
“I wish I could be there with you.” He told her a slight longing tinged his voice,
“Me too, I’ll make you a deal I’ll scope out all the best spots then we can come back together! Oh, we could go to Cali too, show off some of those salsa moves I taught you.”
Frankie chuckled leaning back against the couch in their cozy cabin living room. “That sounds perfect. I miss you.”
“I miss you too. Say, how do you feel about revisiting the phone sex thing? Could be hot and I’m all alone in this big empty hotel room.”
“Mhmm, did you realize you didn’t pack a vibrator?”
“What?” She shot up then rifled through her bag. When she realized she had in fact forgotten to pack one she said. “Wait how did you know?’
Frankie might have been shy admitting this at some point in their relationship, but now, he’d been looking forward too it. Especially since he’d concocted his scheme as soon as he’d realized she forgot to pack one. “I got curios last night, I wanted to see what what toy you packed, then I realized there were none missing”
“And you just have categorical knowledge every single one of my sex toys?” Esie smirked, “What am I saying of course you do. Freak.”
“Now, you’re stuck all alone in a hotel room with no toys.” He said with mock sympathy.
“I am…fuck… so… what are you wearing?”
“No, no I think I have a better idea…”
“Oh?” Esie said intrigued.
“I think we should play a game this week, while you’re away.”
“I’m listening.” Just as much as she loved the physical aspect, Frankie also knew she loved the mental aspect to sex.
“You have to play by my rules. And you can only cum when I say.”
“Oh, well … that does sound like it could be hot.” If poorly enforceable. But they both knew that wasn’t the point.
“Do we have a deal?” Frankie said trying to hide his excitement.
“Deal.”
“I want you to touch yourself, slow circles on your clit, for now.”
“Okay.” She said ridding herself of her clothing and sliding a little lower into bed.
“How does that feel?” She wondered how he did that, made his voice both soothing and sexy all at once.
“Good Frankie, I miss your cock, I want it inside me.” She said always the impatient one.
“Yeah, trouble, I do too. Move quicker now,” He commanded.
He told her the things he’d like to do to her is he was there with her. He was surprisingly creative. “Okay, I’m getting closer. Are you going to cum with me?” Esie moaned in her sultriest voice, trying to drive him crazy too, she was certain by now he was stroking himself along with her.
“No,” She could hear the smile in his voice, that should have been her first warning. “I think I’m going make you wait, for now, for your orgasm.”
“Mmm, till when?” She thought maybe he would want to come first for once, she didn’t mind, she liked hearing him fall apart.
“Until you come back, and I can do it for you. It’ll give you nice incentive to come back soon.”
She sat straight up. “What?!”
“You heard me.”
“That’s bullshit!”
“Well, a deal’s a deal. Anyway, I should go, I’ve got a hand and some of these sex toys look like they could be fun…”
“Fuck you!”
“I love you too, baby.” He tease.
“You’re such an asshole. I’m both annoyed and impressed.” She said with a laugh in disbelief. She knew she could disregard their ‘deal’ but, well, she was too intrigued by the idea. And a little surprised her sweet Frankie had come up with something so creatively diabolical. “I love, you, but you’ll pay for this.” Frankie was still laughing as she hung up. Had she created a devious sex monster? If so, that wasn’t a bad thing by her estimation
Esie stayed true to their deal, but that didn’t mean she didn’t pout about it to him at each check in call. The first time she didn’t was also the first time she didn’t was also the first time she didn’t call on time, but she figured that still counted because she was calling early. Just so they wouldn’t worry.
“Hey honey, I know I’m calling a little early for check in, spread the word to the other warden, I imagine you two are still out working the ranch together, adorable. Anyway, I’m headed to Florencia, I have a lead. I’m going to extend the trip a tiny bit… I’m sorry. But I have an old contact who found something interesting about my father’s case. Anyway, I’m grabbing a flight to Florencia now, so I won’t be able to call you right on time. And yes, before you ask, I gave Santiago the details of my rental place. You’ll be happy to know he’s only an hour away from there. So it should be, even safer than Bogotá. And yes. I’ll text you once I get to my rental place, so you don’t worry all night too. Love you, give Lilly a kiss for me!”
Esie, landed, took a rental car to her place. Met the host who let her in. She sent both Frankie and Javier a text message saying she’d arrived. Then she headed to a little cantina to grab some food for the fridge. She picked up a bouquet of flowers, lilies to remind her of her mother and little Lilly while she worked. She would meet her source the following afternoon. Apparently, he had some interesting information about the robbery of Lorea’s compound. But he wasn’t willing to share it over the phone. Esie didn’t mind, she like that she got to see another part of the country. Florencia wasn’t as flashy as the capital city, which had its grand colonial architecture and was very much a modern bustling metropolis.
Florencia by contrast, was the was settled for the rubber trade in the early 1900s. It was nestled in the amazon region of Columbia. It sat along the Hacha River, with a population of less than 200,000 people. The last vestige of civilization before the unfathomable expanse of the untamed amazon rainforest and the Andes is nestled up against. It was remote, not set up for tourists like Bogotá, which was a plus by Esie’s estimation. The streets were surprisingly flat given the evaluation of the region. The most ornate build was, predicably was a grand Neo Colonial style church. The other attraction, the one that interested Esie a little more, were the El Encanto Petroglyphs, they were just a kilometre down the river, and Esie had every intention of setting eyes on those too. She wondered if that was something Frankie would like to do, she thought, if was possible for him to be there with her. He’d probably be a big old nerd about it too. She liked that, idea. Though they’d probably have to wait until Lilly was a bit older for that kind of vacation.
She sighed and adjusted the bag of groceries as she rounded the narrow street corner to her little place for the next few days. It had been a long day, the kind of day, she thought ruefully, that would have Frankie hovering around her a little nervously. Trying not to ask how she was feeling, and not so subtly suggesting that she relax while he made dinner. She missed him already. That crazy odd, sweet man. She was almost at her rental door when she started to feel it, that awful woozy lightheaded feeling. Not dissimilar to how she felt that day on the cabin porch. As if reality was quickly slipping through her grasp. Then, darkness.
Next Chapter
AN: I always hate the part of fic where the romantic leads separate... oh well...
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