The heat boiling inside me turned to stone. “You want me to apologize for getting pissed at being insulted and threatened with blackmail? Are you kidding me?”
“You put a hole through my wall.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t put a hole through your head.”
“I’ll chalk that one up to the hangover. Regardless, my offer has an expiration date. I’m not a patient woman, Brody, and contrary to the lenience I’ve given you, I don’t tolerate being jerked around.”
“And this offer would be?”
Smiling, she toyed with the loose threads on my shirt where the buttons used to be and trailed that damn red painted fingernail down my chest. I held in a groan, the fantasy of where the nail swirled earlier dancing around in my head and causing beads of sweat to break out across my upper lip.
My brain sent flares up, screaming for my cock to stand down.
It’s a trap. It’s a trap. It’s a trap.
“Either you call Val and tell him we’re coming, or I call him and tell him the only reason he’s married is because your plan backfired.”
My cock sighed as my brain took a bow.
Told ya so.
God, I needed space. I needed to think. Wrapping my fingers around her upper arms, I gave enough of a push that she released her grip on my chair and stumbled backward. Breathing in gulps of air instead of just her, blood finally rerouted to my brain.
“You don’t have any proof.”
“I don’t need proof.” She punctuated each word with a dramatic pause.
“I don’t think you have the balls.”
Adriana let out a husky laugh. “Oh, counselor, I have them, and they’re way more than you could ever handle.” Perching her ass right on my desk, she grabbed my cell phone.
I lunged. “Give me that!”
Bad move.
My close proximity gave her perfect positioning. She quickly turned my phone around, holding it just long enough for the facial recognition to unlock the damn thing before jumping off the table. “I’ll put it on speaker just so you can hear it for yourself.”
“I swear, Adriana, if you—”
“Brody, is everything okay?”
I froze as I heard the familiar voice. The one that still made my stomach flip.
“Good morning,” Adriana said, in a sing-song voice, her accent heavier than usual. “I’d like to speak to Valentin Carrera.”
“Who is this? Why do you have Brody’s phone?”
“I’m a friend of Brody’s.”
There was a long pause, and my heart slammed against my chest so hard, it might have broken a couple ribs. A door closed in the background, and the voice on the line hardened. “I’m a friend of Brody’s too. I’m also Valentin Carrera’s wife. Anything you have to say you can say to me.”
“Eden Lachey.” A catlike smile spread across Adriana’s lips. “I don’t think so.”
“Eden Carrera.”
“How traditional of you.”
“Look, lady, I don’t know who you think you are—”
Adriana held my stare. “Trust me, he’ll take my call when you tell him who’s on the line.”
“And who is it?”
“Adr—”
I knocked the phone out of her hand, lunging for it before she could drive the final nail in my coffin. Luckily, my reflexes weren’t as sluggish as my brain, and I grabbed it seconds before she did, ending the call with a glare. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
She shrugged. “You forced my hand.”
“I thought you wanted my death to be slow and drawn out, not over in the next five minutes!”
Adriana cocked her head. “You still love her.”
“Eden is married to Val, and Val is the head of the cartel I’ve sworn a life oath to. For fuck’s sake, they have a baby.”
“Thanks for the biography. However, you didn’t deny it which tells me I’m right.”
The headache that had been pounding behind my eyes suddenly became a full-blown explosion. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I closed my eyes as a heated conversation from over a year ago broke through the incessant hammering in my head.
I shed my suit jacket and raced to catch up with him. “You need me, Carrera. I know where she is, and I need you. I can’t go in there alone. I’ll never make it out.”
“You’ve got that right.”
“Look,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder and stopping our movement. “She doesn’t want me, man. I don’t know what you’ve got going on with Eden, but it’s obvious you care about her. I may not like you, but that’s enough for me. I just want her safe.”
“She’s mine.”
“Fine, she’s yours. Can we go get her now?”
His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “If you have no interest in her, why are you so dead set on walking into a massacre? You do understand this isn’t the movies, right? These men are real. They have real guns with real bullets, and a lot of people will die. I can’t guarantee you won’t be one of them. My only concern will be Eden.”
I didn’t flinch despite his warning. “Let’s just say, I’m hoping if I do this, you’ll owe me one.”
I was right. I may have lost Eden to Val, but I gained something almost as valuable.
An owed favor.
A favor that I cashed in trying to protect my sister. Now my safety net was gone. I didn’t have anything to shield me from Val’s wrath should Adriana follow through with her threat. Our relationship was already shaky due to my history with his wife. If Adriana told him I exposed her identity just to sever his hold on Eden, he’d happily gut me himself.
I might be reckless, but I wasn’t suicidal.
I squeezed my phone so hard, I was surprised it didn’t crack. “Fine.”
Adriana cupped a hand behind her ear. “What was that?”
I ground out the words as if I were chewing sand. “I said, fine.”
“Well?”
“Well what?”
She pointed at the phone in my hand. “Aren’t you going to call him?”
“With you here? I don’t think so.”
“You’re seriously taking all the fun out of this for me,” she huffed, crossing her arms.
“I thought this was about family and saving the Carrera siblings from impending doom?”
“It is. Watching you squirm is just a fringe benefit.”
I lowered my head into my hands, rubbing my forehead. “I can’t believe I’m even considering this. He’s not going to be happy I’m leaving Houston unmanned.”
She nodded toward the bar area where Rafael was probably fending off bar bitch. “Your boy seems more than capable of handling things. Arrange a flight for this afternoon. I’m sure there are washed funds tucked away somewhere in this office.”
I swore, the woman lived to make my life hell. “Get out of here before I change my mind.”
She dropped her arms by her side, her sulky attitude fading. “Fine. I have to pack, anyway. Pick me up in an hour?”
Rolling my chair against my desk, I stared at spreadsheets I didn’t give a shit about. “Meet me here in two.”