Chapter Text
Even if it wasn't much, Alejandro was pleased with their work. Valeria was in their custody, most of her men had been apprehended and the cartel was slowly slipping away from Las Almas.
Their team and 141 had thrown a small celebration to bask in the win after they got Graves, but it was short lived with Shepherd still out there and Los Vaqueros having to deal with the aftermath of Shadow Company's massacre.
Alejandro focused on the performance stuff, sending search parties for any registered person that lived in the area but wasn't accounted for, or mediating with his superiors, counting on Rudy to handle the paperwork.
He wasn't particularly happy about interrogating Valeria again, their history together making him susceptible to her tactics. She always found ways of getting under his skin, and that had been great fun while they were together. She was wild, fearless and cocky, she was everything Alejandro wanted, but being on different sides made her previously loveable attributes infuriating to go against. And of course, Alejandro still harbored feelings for her, she had meant the world to him, it would be difficult to put those feelings aside.
The feeling must've shown on his face, because Rudy immediately offered to do the interrogation himself.
Rodolfo was his best friend, and had been for the best part of twenty years. He was very aware that his fondness for the man wasn't exactly platonic either, but in their line of work that only brought problems, and he was half sure that Rudy wasn't into men. Even so, Rodolfo always reciprocated everything that Alejandro initiated, he would return the friendly flirting, he'd joke around when they caught a private looking at Alejandro for too long, he would make him breakfast after a rough night and stay with him until he felt better, and he would follow him anywhere he went.
Alejandro was glad for Rudy, and grateful that he had offered to interrogate Valeria for him.
The interrogation dragged on too much for Alejandro's liking, Rudy kept saying that she still had information to give him and that she wouldn't crack until they "got her a win", which just sounded stupid to him, but Rudy knew what he was doing, at least he thought he did.
In all the years they've known each other, he was always the one to hold him back when Valeria pushed him too far, if anyone knew how to handle her, it was Rodolfo.
The first time went well, Rudy hadn't managed to get anything out of her, but looked confident. From the second one on, however, he started withdrawing from Alejandro, he came to him with information and leads, so he hadn't noticed until Rudy started complaining about his arms hurting.
During all that, their higher-ups finally settled with Alejandro and said it was time to amend things between Los Vaqueros and the rest of the military. Alejandro was hoping for funds or trained help to figure out what remained of the cartel, his higher-ups, however, had different ideas on what would be an appropriate gift.
They sent 20 untrained recruits, none older than 22. It was a lot of work, and that only made the gap between Alejandro and Rudy bigger.
All that had started to weigh on Alejandro, so he invited Rudy to supervise the training for the new recruits. It had taken a bit of convincing (and bribing him with food) to get him there, but Alejandro was satisfied with himself.
They sat on the steps of the back door, getting a perfect view of their Sergeant and their recruits, exchanging observations and jokes at the expense of the privates. He glanced over to tell Rudy another joke about the same slow recruit they'd been laughing at when he saw an angry, red line on Rudy's neck. It had been previously hidden by his hoodie, but as he laughed it became exposed, he doubted that Rudy had even noticed.
He frowned.
"What's that" He leaned over and dragged the collar of his hoodie down to take a better look. There was another red line, lower on Rudy's neck, it went through the first cut right at the end, forming a small V. The cuts were clean and fresh.
Rodolfo sprung into action immediately, slapping Alejandro's hand away and tugging his hoodie back up. He looked at his Coronel with wide eyes and a tight lipped frown, like a deer in headlights, embarrassment blooming on his face with pink on his nose and ears.
They stared at each other for a few seconds while the information processed in Alejandro's head. She had hurt his best friend, under his nose, and he wouldn't have ever known. Hell, he was probably fighting her every day to pry information out of her for him. She had already taken the trust of his people from him, now she was hurting Rodolfo? His blood was boiling.
"Don't" Rodolfo warned, seemingly reading his thoughts. Or his face, he had probably read his face.
"What do you mean don't?!" He growled and stood up, his knees popped and he clenched his fists so hard his knuckles turned white.
"Don't make a scene out here" Rudy whispered, nodding to the side.
He turned around, the recruits had stopped their laps and were looking at them, their Sergeant stood in front of them, waving their hands around, trying to shift their attention back to the unfinished laps. All he had to do was glare at them and they scrambled.
He felt ashamed, he was supposed to be someone they looked up to, what kind of example was he setting having an outburst like that?
"When did that happen?" He growled and sat down again, but didn't unfist his hands.
Rodolfo had the decency to hesitate before replying.
"I got her a win, I'll explain later"
-
He did not explain later. In fact, he found every excuse in the book to avoid Alejandro, running around doing paperwork and aiding the sergeants with their new recruits. Alejandro knew better than to chase Rudy, so he let It be, he would find a moment to corner him again.
That didnt mean the idea didn't bother him, it did, and he wasn't about to let it slide.
So after finishing his daily round of paperwork, with his fists balled up and his blood boiling (significantly less than before), he made his way over to the reformed wing of their headquarters, which also doubled as a temporary cell for Valeria and her men.
He knew he had to calm down, but he was all he had left, his family had left Las Almas years ago, and he had no time or intentions of putting civilians in danger, it was only Rudy and him, of course his head was clouded
He stormed into the security room and scared the life out of the poor private that was tasked with watching over Valeria.
The private shook themselve back into life and saluted him clumsily.
"Coronel"
"Private, why was I not informed of Sergeant Major Parra's injury?" He spat at the poor soldier. He knew he was getting mad at the wrong person, he just needed someone to yell at.
Their eyes widened and they opened their mouth to reply, but made no sound, it was clear that they had either not known about the injury at all or had assumed Rudy would tell him.
"So?" He growled, he was starting to get annoyed, boot tapping loudly against the floor.
"We're not allowed on the control room while Sergeant Major Parra is inside"
"Said who?" Who in their right mind would let a dangerous criminal unsupervised around an important official? Sure, Rudy could handle himself, but Valeria was sneaky and smart.
He would kill whoever gave the order and all the people that followed it.
"... Sergeant Major Parra"
He blanked at that.
What the hell?
"Out"
The private didn't even bother hiding their expression of relief as they ran out the door.
Alejandro sighed, dread setting on his stomach, it ran deeper than he had expected, why would Rudy hide something like that from him? They always told each other everything, Rodolfo wasn't a particularly chatty person, but he always told Alejandro everything, especially when he got hurt, even if he knew that it would anger him. Alejandro was his Coronel, his best friend, he needed to know.
Was he working with the cartel?
His fists started shaking, he didn't want to assume the worst, but after Valeria's betrayal, he could never be too sure.
He walked over to the cameras, glaring daggers at Valeria through the screen.
She was sitting in her cell, tapping her finger on the wall, a distant look on her face. She looked tired, and a little beat up, dark circles under her eyes that could've been bruises or eyebags. He felt a little better knowing that, whatever had happened, Rudy had defended himself.
He clicked through the folders to find the logs of the interrogation room's camera. The first recording had no sound, he was aware of that, it was one of the few things his higher ups granted them as a gift, the next three looked normal enough, but the last ones were nothing but a black screen.
He clicked on them to check, and sure enough, the visuals of the camera had been disabled, purposefully he assumed, as the camera was still in service. The audio, however, still worked, Valeria's voice booming through the speakers loud and clear before he stopped the video.
He frowned.
The recordings were two hours long each, it would take him a day or two to watch them all.
With one last glance at Valeria and the memory of Rudy's wound fresh on his mind he looked for a miscellaneous drive to put all the recordings on.