Page 117 of Drawn Blue Lines

Brody Harcourt, the assistant district attorney, would have.

But Brody Harcourt, the first lieutenant, wasn’t backing down.

Not even for Valentin Carrera.

“I don’t know,” I said, clenching my teeth.

“You don’t know what?”

Mateo and I both turned to see Val standing in the entryway to the kitchen, shirt half untucked, his dark hair standing straight up, deep lines etched around the corners of his eyes, and shoulders hunched.

Never, in the years I’d known Valentin Carrera, had I ever seen him appear anything but formidable. He always stood tall, proud, his shoulders pushed back to terrorize and intimidate. Even when Manuel Muñoz kidnapped Eden, he still never lost his commanding presence.

But Santiago and Adriana were Val’s only family. They were his only tie to the humanity his mother instilled in him. It was at that moment I understood.

If he lost them, he lost that tie.

And that tie was the only thing keeping the son from becoming the man he was groomed to be.

I stood up. “Is Eden okay?”

Val continued into the kitchen, his movements robotic. “Her son is missing. What do you think?”

Mateo caught my eye, warning me with a slight shake of his head. But every minute I wasted worrying about my own ass was time wasted finding Adriana, so I turned my back to him.

“Val, you have to know Adriana didn’t do this. She wouldn’t hurt Santi.” I ignored the low exhale behind me and waited for the storm.

A storm that never came.

“Do you know what she asked me last night?” Val kept his back to me as he stared at the refrigerator. I assumed it was a rhetorical question, so I didn’t answer. “She told me she’d been to Santiago’s nursery. I already knew, of course. I’d already gotten an earful from Eden. She’d walked in and found Adriana caressing Santi’s cheek. Said she heard her whisper something about familia. Eden lost her shit, but Adriana didn’t fight back.”

The image of Adriana with Santi fueled my need to do something—anything—but I said nothing and let him continue.

“But it was what Adriana said to me that keeps running through my head. She said, ‘Are you sure he’s safe in there?’” He spun around, a vertical line sinking deep between his eyes. “I asked her what she meant, and she said something about having staff and sicarios coming in and out of the house, and shouldn’t I have security measures in place. I told her Santi was fine, but there was this look in her eyes. It was, fuck, I don’t know. It was sadness and fear. She said she had something to tell me, but then Eden came in, and she said she’d tell me later.” He sucked in a tired breath, his eyes shifting back to the refrigerator. “But later never came.”

No one said a word. All eyes just settled on the picture of the smiling baby stuck in the middle of a refrigerator that cost more than most people’s cars. No doubt put there by Eden, but Val couldn’t tear his eyes away. He traced the infant’s face, his shoulders sinking even lower.

“Why did she ask all that? Was she planning? Scheming?”

Then everything hit at once. Like a song playing in reverse, then suddenly skipping to the end.

She told me too. I just didn’t listen.

“This isn’t your problem, Brody. I’m not letting you take the fall for my mistakes. Past, present, or future.”

Then my own sister’s words rang in my ear.

“Salvation comes in many forms. Sometimes in the shape of your biggest regret.”

Adriana hated herself for the pain she’d inflicted on Val. Her salvation would be her redemption, but how would focusing on Santiago factor in with…

“Ignacio.” The word sounded as bitter as it tasted.

Val whipped back around. “What?”

“Ignacio has them. She didn’t take Santi. He took them both.”

Mateo’s chair scraped along the floor as he stood. “Do you have proof? She could’ve willingly taken Santi to him. She already admitted to him initially offering her a partnership.”

---