Law and Order: Special Victims Unit Gangster

15. The Three Musketeers: Loyal To A Fault

Detective Juliana Vasquez was on her way back to a meeting at work when she ran into Rafael Barba at the precinct.
"Mi amor. Back already?" she called.
Rafael nodded darkly. "Alex got angry and left. He denied everything and said the he was hacked, and when I offered to have TARU look into it he declined defensively. Then he just stormed out, taunting me about.... my past with Yelina," Rafi grumbled angrily.
Juliana sighed. "Rafi.... I really do hate to say this, but he looks guilty as all hell. I don't know what we're going to do about this."
"Juliana, mi vida, you know exactly what NYPD is going to do to him," Rafael sighed, hurt in his eyes.
She shook her head. "I don't mean NYPD. I mean us, you. Watching your colleagues put away your oldest friend will be one of the most difficult things ever. Believe me.... I already know what half of that situation is like," Juliana told him.
Rafi nodded sadly. "Yeah."
"Let's just go tell them what happened."

They headed quickly back into the room where everyone else was waiting.
"Alex claims Wall Street is setting him up," Rafael reported to SVU.
"What, you told him we were looking at his account?" Amaro asked, upset.
"I gave him a chance to get out in front of this."
"So now not only is he tampering with witnesses, he has you covering it up for him," Nick shot back.
"Nick," Juliana warned him.
"Guys, please," Benson interrupted.
"Did you find any evidence at all that Lindsay is shaking him down, or that's he's paying someone to hush her up?" he snapped.
"There's nothing so far on the public site, but we'll keep checking," Rollins replied.
"Do that," Rafael glared at Amaro as he stormed out.

Juliana and Nick both stood to follow him.
"You know, Counselor, hold up," Nick called.
"What?"
"Nick, I swear to God, if you make this any worse...." Juliana began, shaking her head.
"Look, her Facebook page is scrubbed clean. We can get a warrant, have TARU go through all of his accounts, they might find something," Amaro suggested.
"A warrant for suspicion of sexting? That's not going to happen, speaking of texts," Rafael said as his phone chimed,"Our DA wants to be briefed. This should be short, but not sweet," he muttered irritably.
"You know, what you did, tipping off Muñoz, you could be charged for obstruction yourself," Amaro pointed out.
"Nick, I think that's enough," Juliana said exasperatedly.
"Go ahead, report me, see where it gets you," Rafael challenged him.

Juliana then crossed her arms, giving up on the two angry men, waiting for them to be finished with their childish bickering.
"But it's not just about the sexting. We sit on all this until after the election, it'll look like we were carrying the water for him too," Nick argued.
"And if we take him out now based on innuendo, it'll look like a political hit. Are we done?" Rafael Barba asked as he waited for Juliana by the elevator to say goodbye.

The elevator opened, and he and Juliana hopped in, followed by Amaro.
"Nick, you really shouldn't be here right now," Juliana warned with annoyance.
"Neither should you," he pointed out, further agitating both Barba and Juliana.
"You driving me to the DA's office, Detective? Thank you."

Rafael sighed as Amaro continued to stare at him expectantly.
"I am not cutting Muñoz a break just because he's my friend."
"No, I get that, it's not about friendship, it's about you. You're afraid to go after Muñoz, because while he stayed in the hood, in El Barrio, and played man of the people, you went off to Harvard and pretended you were one of the Gringuitos!"
"Nick, that's enough, get to the point!" Juliana raised her voice irritably.
"It's okay, Juliana. And I know where I come from," Rafael murmured.
"Yeah, so does Muñoz, he's playing you, mi socio, and making you feel like a sellout," Nick told him.
"Mi amor, he's got a good point, tactless as he's been,"Juliana sighed.

Rafael looked at her apologetically, then gave Amaro an annoyed look.
"Yes, thank you so much for the.... Bodega psychoanalysis, Detective. Compay. No te equivoque conmigo."

With that, Rafael gave Amaro one last warning look, and kissed Juliana goodbye on the cheek.
"I'm so sorry about this, Juliana, I really am," he sighed.
Juliana nodded with a forgiving smile. "Esta bien. Te amo. Get to work."

This made Rafael smile happily, despite the stress that he was under.
"Te amo, mi amor. Adios, Juliana," he smiled as he left them.

Juliana pressed the button of their floor on the elevator as Amaro stared at her curiously.
"You're too nice to him, you know."
Juliana rolled her eyes, which she only did when she was extremely annoyed. "What do you care?" she snapped.

****

"Hey. You three okay?" Benson asked as they arrived back upstairs.
"Yes," Juliana nodded, walking away.
"Guys like Barba, too smart for their own good," Amaro said as Juliana sat down.
"I'm sure he said the same about you," Rollins replied, not looking up.
"What, everyone thinks we should just let this go?" Juliana asked, turning to face them all.
"Come on, Muñoz sends out some selfies, that's not a sex crime," Fin Tutuola pointed out. "All I know is I don't want to see any more of them."
Juliana nodded. "Agreed."
"It's not just selfies, alright? This clown could be mayor, he opened himself up to blackmail, right?" Amaro persisted.
"Eddie had cash, where'd he get it from, huh?" Juliana agreed.
Nick nodded. "This could just be the tip of the iceberg."
Juliana nearly winced. "I think we saw a lot more than the tip."
"Even if you're right, this is a political corruption case, we'd have to hand it over to the feds anyway," Benson argued.
Fin laughed. "What are we gonna hand over, the pics he sent to Rollins?"
"It looks like I'm not the only one. Enrique Trouble's popping up on other sites, it goes back over a year, look, I found ten so far," she reported, showing multiple pictures of women.
"That makes him a dog, not a criminal," Fin chuckled.
"Except one of these women that he was sexting with just got an executive position at the New York Gaming Commission."

Everyone looked around, sensing what had happened.
"I wonder who could have pulled those strings," Juliana sighed.
"'Anna Pretard'," Benson read.
"Does she have any governmental background?" Juliana asked almost pointlessly.
"Doesn't seem like it."
"Hold up. I've seen this girl on a screen before, and it wasn't on C-SPAN," Fin realized.

****

Maybe an hour later, Juliana received a text from Fin. It was about their meeting with 'Anna Pretard'. She was in fact given the job by Alex Muñoz, and before that was payed off five-hundred dollars a month, by an indirect bag man each time. Eddie Garcia. She knew that the news would've destroyed Rafael. Sure enough, Juliana received a get from him as well.

Juliana, Eddie might be coming down to confess about the money. I think I might've got to him.

The message relieved Juliana, but also worried her.

Are you okay, Rafi? I know this is a horrible situation, and it kills me that you're hurt.

I'm okay for now, Juliana. Why don't you just focus on your work for now and we can talk later. Just, please try to go as easy on Eddie as possible. He's being cooperative now, and he's just loyal to a fault.

Sounds good. I'll do whatever I can. Love you, Rafi.

I love you, mi amor.

Juliana waited, and sure enough, Eddie Garcia came through the door, looking around the room. He then approached Juliana's desk, to her surprise.
"Can I help you?" she asked.
"Uh, yeah. My name is Eddie Garcia, I'm the friend of Rafael Barba's. He talked about you, Detective Juliana Vasquez?" he asked.
Juliana nodded. "Yeah, that's me. What can I do for you, Eddie?"
"Well, I wanted to let you guys know I'm ready to talk about what happened with Alex," he replied. "All of it."