Page 16 of Havoc

“Jesus!” I mouthed then glared at him. He stared just as hard back. I swore he cocked a brow at me. I wondered what went through his brain in that moment. “Go.” I pointed. He waited for a beat then did what he was told. His typical huff as he plunked back down in his bed was louder than usual.

We lay in silence. I heard Leal growl at Zhar. Leal hated it when Zhar touched his feet. I chewed on the inside of my cheek as I mulled over this odd situation. After a bit, I felt her body relax and her breaths came slowly. She’d fallen asleep. I forced myself to block out what had just happened between us. I didn’t like things I couldn’t explain, and I sure as hell couldn’t explain that. I needed control of my life. Fuck this. I got out of bed.

My phone lit up in my hand, and I read the screen.

Trigger: We need to talk. Meet me at the diner.

Grim: Give me fifteen.

I showered and changed, and as I entered the elevator, I called the boys. We made our way down to the lobby. They were well trained and didn’t need a leash when they were with me. They only used them when they were with Jesse or their dog walker, Darcy.

I’m sure we looked intimating to most, a fully tattooed businessman with two knee-high Doberman pinschers. My dogs watched and listened for things I couldn’t, and I liked having them with me as much as I could.

I let the dogs take the lead as I walked toward where Trigger said we should meet. His expression might look the same as usual to other people but to me, I knew something bad was up. The boys looked back at me, and I told them to sit.

“How bad is it?”

“Bad enough.”

“Hey.” Brick’s voice came from behind me. He must have followed me out of the hotel. “Trig, I heard you met with Simon? Did he find out anything on…?” Brick rarely spoke about his brother, but we all knew he would move mountains to spend even one day with him.

“Last known address.” Trigger handed him a piece of paper. “Call Lu. He’ll do a drive-by for you.”

“Yeah, okay.” He looked at us. “Everything okay?”

“No,” Trigger drawled, “but go do your thing.”

“Okay.” He didn’t ask anything else; he just held up the paper and left.

“Let’s walk.” Trigger pointed with his chin.

We headed out to the Strip toward Secrets. I needed to check on the progress of the kitchen, and the boys needed the walk.

“They know Luis is dead,” he drawled.

“That’s impossible.” I kept my head straight. No need to give anyone following us a reason to watch. “We covered all our bases on that one.”

“They fuckin’ know he was dead a month before Castillo went down.”

“Shit.”

“They got proof the DR were there.”

“What kind of proof?”

“A photo, maybe more.”

Fuck, this was bad.

“Okay, you guys were there. That doesn’t mean you know anything.” Trigger gave me a look, and I knew he was right. Trigger knew everything.

“Same city in Mexico as you were in and a rival drug lord of yours. It won’t take ’em long to put two and two together. It was either you or me.”

We went into Secrets in silence. It was coming together much faster than I’d hoped. Tupot, the owner of the construction company, finally got his act together after our persuasion tactics in the desert. Now his men worked twenty-four-seven.

As we approached the bar, the workmen scattered after one look at Leal and Zhar. Once we were totally alone, he took a seat, and I walked over to the bar and poured us a coffee from a big stainless coffeemaker.

“How’s Kenna?” Trigger sipped the drink I handed him.

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