Page 74 of Shackled

You with Isabella?

Yeah

You need to make sure she doesn’t overhear us. Meet me at headquarters?

now?

Yeah?

I glance at the time. It’s three a.m.

On my way.

I get out of bed and pull the covers over her.

I want everything in me to know I can trust her. I want us to be exactly what she said she wanted—a team. Inseparable.

That means putting this bullshit behind us.

That means facing whatever happens next.

I get to headquarters in record time. Dmitri sits outside on a bench. It’s cold tonight, a chill in the air. My breath hangs in the air in front of me.

We nod to each other in silence.

“Hey, boss.”

I nod to him and sit next to him on the bench. “Hey. When did you get back?”

“Javier sent me here a few days ago.”

“He still has no idea who you are?”

He shakes his head. “None. You have no idea how divided they are. He only trusts himself.”

I nod. That corroborates what Isabella has said as well. “And what has he instructed you to do?”

“I’ve been sent here to make sure nothing goes wrong with the shipment that’s coming in tomorrow night.”

I blow out a breath and laugh mirthlessly. “What could possibly go wrong?”

He huffs out a laugh of his own. “Seriously, though. But before we make any moves… I gotta show you something.”

I know before he shows me what I’m going to see. I don’t know if I can trust it, but there’s only one reason he called me here in the middle of the night where my wife can’t hear us.

I take the packet he hands me silently.

I curse under my breath as I look over the transcript, the communication, the texts.

“They know she’s here…”

“They don’t just know she’s here, boss. They sent her here. She’s been working with Carlos Cabrera since before you met her. Do you have any evidence of her contacting him?”

A cold shiver runs down the length of my body. This can’t be happening.

“No, but…” My voice trails off.

Dmitri waits patiently.

---