Page 121 of Exposed

If I have to scream it from the rooftops for the world to hear, I will.

She’ll get it through her head eventually.

24

ENIGMA

King

“If you don’t heal fast, your face is going to fuck up your wedding pictures, King.”

My eyes angle to Micah. “I’m not in the mood.”

“I’m just saying, you still look like you fought twelve rounds and didn’t win one of them. That was two days ago. A week from today, there’s a chance you’ll be sayingI dothrough a fat lip.”

We’re sitting on the lanai in Trippy’s backyard. It is my backyard, but to me it will always be Trippy’s.

It’s paid off. When Trippy decided she wanted to fight daily with other blue-haired ladies, she laid out the details for Laken and me.

When Trippy is gone, I get the house. Whatever the market value is at that time, Laken gets the first payout of Trippy’s estate equal to the value of the house. The rest will be split between us evenly.

And the estate is sizable. Don didn’t make billions, but he didwell. They lived well below their means even though it felt like Lake and I hit the jackpot.

Trippy said I needed a home after all my years in the Army. And even though she hates Silas, Lake has a home in Illinois.

We were supposed to meet at Tim’s today, but everyone is here. Apparently when an agent gets jumped by the bad guys, the party is delivered to you. At least everyone is here but Rocco. His SWAT team had a callout. All Goldie and I had to do was show up to my house and make sure we weren’t followed by any of Carter’s men. Secretly, I’ll do anything I can to have Goldie here. We’ve been at her place because it seems the cartel likes to show up whenever they feel like it. We need to at least pretend we live there.

We all ate dinner, and the kids wanted to swim. The wives clamored around Goldie the moment they walked through the door and haven’t left her alone yet. It’s hot as fuck right now, so they stayed in the house with the baby.

I watch Brax stand in the middle of the shallow end of the pool with Baylee who’s kicking around in floaties. She’s never more than an arm’s length from him. His oldest, Brian, and Micah’s oldest, Chase, play in the deep end.

Tim returns from the house and distributes beers all around the table we’re sitting around. “I’ve never seen anything like it. We have the right phone numbers. They talk on their fucking phones, but never about cartel business. We’re missing something.”

I take a beer and twist off the lid. “They’re communicating another way. Hell, Dex won’t call or text. He didn’t even acknowledge me when I told him his money was on the way to Panama. I’m about to make a call to our friend in D.C.”

That gets everyone’s attention. Tim points at me with his long neck bottle. “You’re not in Panama anymore. Cole Carson won’t be able to do shit for you inside the country.”

I take a drink and don’t answer.

But I do get Brax’s attention from the pool. “Carson will find a way.”

Tim shakes his head. “No. I’m not doing that again. We got one money drop. Once we funnel seventy-five percent of his money to an offshore account and he trusts you, the lines of communication will open up.”

“The offshore account,” Micah says. “That’s enough for the CIA to step in and help.”

“Maybe.” Tim sighs. “It’s drugs and money laundering. The CIA is spread as thin as we are. It’s not like they can transition a case overnight.”

I’m thinking of other ways Cole Carson can help, but that would be off the books and not a line I would normally cross.

I also don’t usually give a shit how long my cases are drawn out. I’m usually patient.

I put my beer down. “A week from today, the fake me is supposed to marry the real Goldie Carter in front of God and the cartel. I don’t want her anywhere near Dex or Rand, let alone put in the position we were the last time we were at The Pink. If they were willing to jump me, who the hell knows what they might do to her. I need to fast track this shit.”

“What happened to you was bad enough. No one needs a repeat of that,” Micah agrees.

I’d never tell Goldie, but she’s right. They don’t trust me because of her. I didn’t know the full backstory between her and Dex when I set up our first meeting.

I still wouldn’t change a thing.

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