Page 46 of Drawn Blue Lines

“Shocking, right? Unfortunately, one thing led to another, and she died, and then his mother got arrested.”

Oh, hell no.

My days of being left in the dark were over. With fire shooting through my veins, I hobbled around the corner. “I thought your sister was dead?”

Chapter Fourteen

Adriana

Both men turned at the sound of my voice. Mateo faced the wall where I’d just been eavesdropping, his palm braced next to an impressive dent. Brody leaned against the opposite wall, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, the vibrant green in his hazel eyes all but swallowed by a lifeless brown. However, once they landed on me, a rough smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Mateo, not so much.

“Don’t you know how to knock?” he growled.

I glared at him. “Don’t you know how to close a door?”

“Calm down, Mateo. It’s fine.”

“It’s fine?” Mateo pushed off the wall, his hands fisting by his side. “I’m sorry, have you forgotten she blackmailed you into betraying Val by having Leighton stalked?”

Brody shot him a pointed look. “No, I haven’t forgotten.” Both men stared at each other, their restraint razor thin. However, instead of volleying another insult back to Mateo, Brody shifted his attention back to me. “As far as the US government knows, my sister and niece are missing and presumed dead. Before I left the DA’s office, I faked passports for both of them so Mateo could get them out of the country.”

“Why?”

“With the mess my mother’s arrest made, it was the only way to ensure their safety and privacy.”

“You haven’t seen them since they left?”

“No,” he admitted. Pushing his shoulders back, he tossed a heated look Mateo’s way. “And contrary to popular opinion, it should stay that way.”

My brows knitted together. “Huh.”

“What does ‘huh’ mean?”

“Nothing. Just that the US has this huge intelligence cooperative, and all this time the two people they’ve been looking for have been—”

Mateo came off the wall like he’d been shot out of a cannon. “Stay away from my wife and daughter. You got that?”

To be honest, I forgot he was even in the room.

“Wow, the nice guy routine doesn’t last long, does it?”

Antagonizing my new brother’s foot soldier probably wasn’t the smartest move, but the guy acted like I planned to toss his family into a bonfire and watch them burn.

He shoved his finger in my face. “Look, you bit—”

One minute, the Carrera underboss stood inches away from wrapping a hand around my throat, and the next he sailed across the room like a frisbee, creating a second dent into the wall not far from the first.

“That’s enough!” Brody growled. “Do I need to remind you that Adriana is a Carrera? She’s Val’s sister, which means you’ll treat her with the same respect you would any member of this family.”

Being thrown like a human lawn dart by his inferior didn’t seem to faze Mateo. Instead of coming barreling back, he tugged a hand through his long hair and gritted his teeth so hard I heard his teeth clack together. “She hasn’t earned it.”

“It’s not your call to make, is it?”

I’d witnessed brutal murders that didn’t fill a room with as much tension as the stares those two men passed back and forth. I almost felt guilty for stirring the pot of whatever friction boiled between them.

Almost.

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