Page 30 of Ace

As time crawled by, the less convinced I was about his loyalties, but in the end, it was his wife who betrayed him when she discovered his burner phone. Instead of taking it toher husband for answers, she bypassed him and went to her father. She was confident in her loyalty to her family but quickly discovered her paranoid father had lost all confidence in her.

I pinch the bridge of my nose. Now is not the time to take a fucking trip down memory lane. It's marked with regret and the most painful loss I've ever felt in my life.

Trying to shove the thoughts away doesn't work. I'm locked into the memories until they play out. I've been down this road a million times, and I know every what-if and what-could-I-have-done will play out before I'm capable of escaping the memories.

The tape was sent to us with his bloody wedding ring. although I knew what I was going to find, I had no fucking clue just how bad it was going to be until I played it.

We'd heard rumors that Cortez had grown increasingly paranoid because although he'd killed some low-level dealers in the past for sampling his drugs, he himself formed an addiction to the cocaine he was sending out of Mexico, making him even more distrustful than before.

The tape never showed him, but voice analysis determined it was him in the background, issuing commands to his men.

They killed Noah's wife first. There was no emotion in the cartel leader's voice when he issued the death warrant for his only daughter. Next was Alexander. The two-year-old having his grandfather's name meant nothing to the man. The baby, Carlito, was only ten months old and had no fucking clue what was happening to him.

Noah sobbed and begged, wanting to trade his life for theirs, to no avail. I knew my best friend of over twenty years was going to die the second Cortez was willing to kill his own daughter and grandsons.

"Their blood is the blood of a traitor," Cortez told him when he was on his knees, begging for death.

They didn't kill him right away, of course. That would be too noble of a death. It was slow, the pain they caused him.

I don't know how many times I reached out to turn the tape off, finding that I couldn't. If he had to suffer that shit because of me, then I had to suffer with him. I couldn't leave him alone in his last moments, despite knowing he'd been gone for days before we received the tape.

I clear my throat but it doesn't dislodge the clog of emotions. It's been ten years, but the images in my head are just as vivid as they were the day I got the recording.

Love got him in that kind of trouble. Why volunteer to die in the face of such betrayal? I can understand dying for his kids, that's reasonable, even if I'm not a father, but willingness to die for a woman who betrayed you and set all of that shit into motion? That's the fucking definition of insanity as far as I'm concerned.

Love gets you killed. It's a useless emotion that makes people do the stupidest, most dangerous shit, and there's no place for it in our line of work.

I vowed vengeance on Cortez. I put every effort I could into taking him down. There were times I nearly lost my job because of my obsession, but the man had a heart attack and fucking died before I could wrap my hands around his throat and watch the life drain from his eyes.

What eats away at me now is the fact that although I tried to find ways to take Cortez down, I did nothing to stop the Agency from putting a stain on my friend's record.

Noah Upton died a traitor to his country. The Agency wanted it to seem like they killed him, so the other agents they had working on various cases in Mexico wouldn't be discovered. It made sense back then, but with Cortez's death, that branch of the cartel sort of imploded. Alejandro left behind no family. He killed his only heirs, and all that was left was a gaggle of selfish men fighting over their piece of the pie. With no real leadership, the organization was fractured,which caused more problems than it eliminated as far as smuggling and sex trafficking were concerned.

Noah lost his life, and we lost our hold in Mexico.

I've spent every day since living in regret and doubting every move I make.

But I know one thing for certain and that's getting involved with anyone on anything more than surface level is only asking for trouble, and I want no fucking part of it.

Chapter 14

Cora

"I'm not going to be able to make that," I tell Alice. "Is that something you can handle for me?"

I don't miss the way her eyes brighten. My assistant had told me the day I interviewed her for the job that she was hoping that there would be room for advancement in her position. Although I assured her there was, I don't think that she believed me.

"You're sure? It's a very important luncheon," she says, caution in her tone.

I can tell she doesn't want to get too excited in case I change my mind.

"You know the proposition backward and forward. I think it's a great idea."

"Thank you," she says, barely able to contain her giddiness.

Alice is one of the good ones. She joined Chapter One right out of college with a degree in political science, knowing she could get a much higher paying job than the one we offered here.

"I won't let you down. I'll—"

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