Into You

Chapter 30

"You need to report these letters to the police, Alejandro. You can't just hide them. They're evidence."

"They know, Lauren, they just don't seem very interested in it all right now."

"But after that attack on Miss Cabello..."

"They believe it was a one-off and that the individuals concerned have gone to ground now that you people have been employed. They think this is all copycat stuff." He turned from the window to look at her and grimaced, his face twisting as he fought back a comment. Finally, he got himself under control.

"The police are a waste of time, Lauren, that's why I'm telling you. I've called your boss over this morning to discuss things, but I wanted to let you know first. How serious do you think this is?"

"Serious, Alejandro, serious enough for me to be worried about Miss Cabello's safety, and that of all of you," she added quickly, hoping that he hadn't spotted her slip. "The guys at the office ran a threat assessment the other day and the opinion is that that a credible threat exists still. This adds fuel to that fire. This scares me a little bit more with those photos that arrived the other week."

"What about this weekend?" Alejandro asked staring at her as if she would have all the answers for him. "Do you think this will have an effect on Sinu's little family gathering?"

"I don't know, Alejandro," she replied truthfully. "I really don't know."

o+o+o

"Well, I think, with some extra added precautions, there's not a problem having you all at the house, Alejandro," Normani said softly as she placed down the letters on the conference table. "I think we just need to be a little more vigilant and maybe put a few more people around, alert the police, things like that. This shouldn't be any reason for your family not to get together."

They were sat in the conference room, her request to Alejandro to discuss this with his daughter finally being accepted. Camila was fidgeting in a seat next to her father looking uncomfortably at the letters that Normani had put down.

"What about the photos from the last time, LT?" Lauren asked, "they were taken pretty close to the grounds. Did the police find anything useful there?"

"They didn't, Sarge and they think, like we do, that if they had wanted Camila or Sinu dead, they would have shot one of them then while it was easy. Probably Camila as she seems to be the main target after you Alejandro, and you weren't there."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mani," Camila said smiling, but knotting her fingers in a way Lauren had discovered meant that she was nervous. "It's so nice to know that they want to kill me after Papi here."

"That's not what I meant, Camila. What I meant was Alejandro here is the main target for their attentions, but that you would..."

" I think Miss Cabello gets the message, LT," Lauren interrupted. "Basically, the whole family are still in danger and we need to step up security when they're all together. What about when we go to New York, LT?"

Normani paused for a second and rifled through her briefcase, finally extracting a document and handing it to her. As she read, she heard Normani giving the Cabellos a quick précis of what it said.

"On behalf of Cabello Industries, Dinah has been in contact with some friends at the Department of Homeland Security. They believe the threat level is very low, they have no reports of 'Khuddam-ul- Islam' operating in New York and the security for the Arms Expo will be very high anyway as it's considered to be a sensitive target."