It pissed me off.
“Why are you so obsessed with me, Atwood?”
He leveled a stare at me. “Maybe I’m picking heads on a platter—evil over innocence.”
In that moment, I understood why he seemed so unflappable. Agent Atwood knew he held all the cards. He held the lives of the woman I loved and the child I’d yet to know in the palm of his hand and dangled them in front of me like a prize.
He didn’t have to say it out loud. I understood the choice he wanted me to make.
The family I honored with other men’s blood or the family I created with my own.
Alex leaned both elbows on the table, a sheen of sweat beading on his upper lip. “What Leighton said proves she knew about what you did to Diaz, and it makes her an accessory after the fact. Either she cooperates with us or she goes down with you.”
His threat was my undoing. Imagining her behind bars, scared and alone, unleashed a darkness that devoured me. Jerking on my restraints again, I roared, the sound inhuman. “What about my daughter, you son of a bitch? Why are you doing this?”
Slamming the folder closed, he leaned over it, his face reddening with fury. “You cartel guys think you’re untouchable, but all it takes is one loose thread for everything to unravel. How ironic that the ADA’s sister will be the one to do it.”
The monster in me begged to go for his jugular. Instead, I imagined Stella’s innocent face and regained control. “Why did you have Finn Donovan kill Hector instead of doing it yourself?”
It was the last card I had to play, and it was an educated guess at best. But too many coincidences usually pointed toward a conspiracy. Seeing them at the party together set off a warning bell, and the photo of Alex at Leighton’s father’s funeral rang it even louder. His obsession with Hector Diaz was the final link that clicked everything into place.
“Finn Donovan?” Alex enunciated every syllable. “You mean the missing man, Finn Donovan? Are you admitting to another murder, Cortes? If so, speak loudly so the microphone can pick it up.” He pointed a finger toward the ceiling where a camera sat tucked in the corner.
“Let her go.”
Pursing his lips, he returned to his reclined position. “Let’s talk about your friends Emilio Reyes and Valentin Carrera.”
“Eat shit.”
“No thanks,” he said, rubbing his stomach. “I had a pretty big breakfast.” Picking up the folder, he tapped it against his palm. “Tell you what, hand over what you stole from Diaz, and maybe I won’t leave her in a holding cell.”
I stared at him with new eyes, understanding him now more than ever. That was the thing with men like Atwood—get them talking long enough and eventually they tipped their hand.
No one but Val and Bright knew I’d taken the flash drive from Hector’s apartment.
And only two other people knew what was on it.
“What could Diaz have had that you wanted so badly, Atwood?” I felt relaxed for the first time in five hours, and I suspected, for the first time in five hours, Alex Atwood didn’t.
“Something that could free both of us,” he conceded.
Houston’s official “on-call” Carrera counsel sat across from me, flipping through papers and making unpleasant grunting noises every time he read something he didn’t like. By the fifth groan and dramatic sigh, I wanted to grab the end of his blue and white striped tie and choke him with it.
“Why is he here?” I grumbled.
Glancing up from his own stack of papers, Brody glared at me over the wire rims of his glasses. “I called him because you’re a moron and talked to the DEA without a lawyer present.”
I shrugged. “Not my first rodeo.”
“That’s because you’re a gigantic bull’s ass,” he muttered, readjusting his glasses and returning to his files.
I didn’t know whether to punch him or laugh. The Brody Harcourt Val had blackmailed a little over a year ago was a far cry from the Carrera lieutenant sitting in front of me in a private counsel room at the Houston PD.
“You do realize I’m still your boss, right?”
“Speaking of bosses,” he said, taking off his glasses, “I called Val.”
“You...what?”
He held up his hand. “I wanted him to hear this from me before it made its way to Mexico. I also told him all they have is circumstantial evidence.”
“You told Val? Fuck, Brody! If he finds out it was Leighton who caused this, he’ll kill her.”
“Val doesn’t hurt women,” he repeated, his face paling.
Idiota!
“No, but he eliminates traitors. How do you think he’ll see Leighton after what she said to Atwood?”
I didn’t want to be right. It made me physically sick to watch the reality of our world register on Brody’s face because I knew the same truth was plastered across mine. Depending on what happened in the next few hours, he may have just gotten his sister killed.
“Shit. What do we do?” he asked, both hands fisting his blond hair. “They’re holding you until Leighton gives her statement. Once you’re charged and booked, Leighton will be subpoenaed.”
I had no idea what bullshit Atwood was feeding Leighton. I just hoped she believed in us enough to not fall for it. “You’re the ADA,” I countered. “You tell me what we should do.”
The asshole lawyer cleared his throat. “May I interject here—”
“No!” Brody and I shouted at the same time.
Frustrated, Brody pushed out of his chair and paced the room. “I’m not on the inside, Mateo. Because of my affiliation with Leighton, they won’t let me try the case.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway,” I said, dropping my head back. “The cartel will blow wide open, and you’ll go down too.”
“Too bad it’s not the movies,” he quipped, not breaking a stride in his incessant pacing.
“Why is that?”
“This is the part where the hero marries the girl, so she doesn’t have to testify against him in court.” Collapsing against the wall, he crossed his arms over his chest and shrugged. “If there’s no testimony, there’s no case.”
“Is that a real thing?” I asked, sitting up, my eyes bouncing between the two of them.
Once Brody’s brain registered my question, it took all of two seconds for him to lose his shit. “No. No fucking way.” Pushing off the wall, he came at me with an accusing finger. “I was kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re not marrying my sister. Hell no.”
It wasn’t the way I planned on it happening, and I sure as hell didn’t want it to involve a pending court case, but, regardless, the end result would be the same as I always wanted.
“Why not?”
Brody exploded, his breathing erratic. “Because she’s my family, not a solution, that’s why. I’ll take care of my sister, but you’re not doing this out of some code of honor.”
Jumping to my feet, I kicked my chair so hard, it crashed into the wall. “I’m not! I’m doing this because I love her!”
Chapter Thirty-Four