Alejandro was walking away from Kate's apartment when heard her stumbling out onto the balcony. He knew she wasn't there to watch him stroll in the parking lot, especially after he just pointed a gun at her head, so when he turned he wasn't surprised to see a one aimed at him.

She wasn't going to shoot. Both her hands held the grip with a shaking hold, finger not on the trigger. Kate was pale, and it was clear this decision — the thought of committing an act of murder — was taking an immense toll on her. Her arms went limp and dropped to her side.

His gaze lingered on her for a moment longer, then he faced forwards again.

Perhaps it was because of Kate's resemblance to his daughter that seeing the woman in that state arose pity in him, a feeling he thought he was void of. As he would never see her again, he dismissed the thought and continued towards his car.

Alejandro had just unlocked the door when a gunshot sounded.

Instinctively he flipped around, unholstering his weapon and kneeling behind the car beside his for cover. Cautiously he peeked out, surveying the area. There was no sign of any shooters — his eyes scanned the roofs and caught movement on the building across from Kate's, likely a sniper. Alejandro glanced towards her balcony, the warning he'd just gave her fresh in mind. A single gunshot seemed too coincidental at a time like this.

He stood, jogging towards the building, his pace increasing into a run until he kicked in her door.

"Kate, where are you?" Alejandro asked, his voice bordering on yelling. The balcony would be the easiest place for the sniper to get to, he turned towards it, and froze.

Red spattered the glass, pieces of brain slid down the pane in fleshy clumps. A pool of blood leaked from her skull, where the bullet had exited leaving in its wake a space where tissue and brain hung from. Kate's body lay motionless with a hole in her head. The gunshot had pierced between her eyes, mutilating her face and leaving her almost unrecognizable.

He had seen many dead bodies before, either by his or another's hand, and their usually gruesome demise left him unaffected. But like with that pity, that haunting feeling he hadn't experienced in years, another emotion came back into his life, one he hadn't felt since he dealt with his family's deaths; grief.

Alejandro lumbered over to Kate's body, kneeling down beside her. He stared at the bloody tissue, the pieces of hair matted to her face from the blood which dirtied it. He stretched out his hand, tucking a strand behind her ear.

Just her presence had wormed its way under his surface, the hard shell he'd grown accustomed to in his determined and raging search to find and kill the man who destroyed his family. Kate, who's stubbornness and persistence reminded him of his own daughter, was one he'd hoped to make it out of this alive.

With another look at Kate, he promptly stood and walked over to the balcony's edge.

Across, there was a rope dangling from where the sniper rested to the ground. An anger began to boil inside him.

Who the fuck did this? Was it the Sonora Cartel getting back at him for killing Alarcón? Did someone step up as boss that fast and order Kate's murder? Or was it some of his henchmen feeling it was their 'duty' to kill those who killed their boss?

There were too many questions, and he didn't have time to investigate on his own. He knew someone who would hopefully be a faster way of getting to know what he needed.

Alejandro stepped back inside, pausing to drag his shoes on the carpet to wipe off the blood. He then pulled out a phone and dialed Matt's number.

"Hello?"

"Meet me in thirty minutes at Kate Macer's apartment."

"Alejandro? Wait a minute — why Macer? What's up?" Matt sounded confused as he tried to change his ignorance to knowing. Without divulging anything, Alejandro hung up.

Thirty minutes later, Matt Graver rolled into the parking lot. When the man entered the apartment Alejandro was sitting at the island facing the doorway, gun resting in his lap.

Matt held his hands up in surrender, noting the weapon, a smile played on his lips. "What's going on? You need me to bail you out of a bad date?" Alejandro said nothing, only stared at Matt with a an unfathomable expression. His head inclined sideways, indicating for the man to look.

Matt turned his head and his mouth fell open slightly. "Well, shit. What the hell is going on? You didn't kill her did you?"

His gaze hardened and he stood, marching until he towered over Matt. In a dangerously low voice he spoke, "I would never."

They held each other's stare for a moment, then Matt backed off. The man sighed, a hand dragged down his face. "Did you see who did?"

"No. A sniper was on the building across, they got away."

"I can find someone to dust the place for prints, but if it's a professional likely there's not anything there."

Alejandro huffed. He was losing his composure, he could feel the rage rising higher and higher like a tide engulfing the pieces of land until there's only a water that choked him with it's freezing acidity and blinding him to nothing but a need for violence.

Curtly, he said, "Do what you have to, I just want results."

Matt nodded, then began a phone call.

Alejandro listened intently as the man called for forensics, refusing to go through the proper channels, admitting that there was a dead body. By the time he ended his call, the CIA was sending a team of forensics in then when they had cleared the local police would arrive.

Matt sighed. "Now I owe like four people favors, this better be worth it."

Alejandro's gaze fell on the dead body on the balcony. The bitterness inside him stirred; he looked back towards the man with a blank face, giving Matt a long, mute stare. Then he stood. As he passed a blanket he scooped it up, holding it folded over his arm as he maneuvered over to Kate.

The blood stopped pooling. It had coagulated on the concrete floor and with each step he pulled his shoes from the sticky liquid. Alejandro shifted, slipping the blanket further down his arm until he held it in his grasp and flung it out and over the body.

He sighed quietly, reentering the room a silent man.

A/n

I actually plotted out the plot a lot further head for this story but I'm not confident that I can write Alejandro's and Matt's character that well so enjoy an angsty one-shot :)