Page 54 of Beautiful Dangerous

“Keep in touch, Harry.”

“You’ll get a heads-up from me if you need one.”

I end the call and lay my phone down, staring at the screen. There’s been no word from Olivia yet, no messages, nothing at all, and that’s making me nervous. I can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t right, and I’m about to call Jorge, to make sure she kept her word and stayed home, when Eddie joins me at the bar. I’ll call Jorge in a minute. I trust that Olivia did stay put, but it doesn’t hurt to make sure.

“You okay?” Eddie slides up onto the stool next to me and I hand him the whiskey.

“Fine,” I sigh, glancing out through the open clubhouse door. For a moment I want to think about nothing, before the shit really does hit the fan, because it’s coming.

“Have you checked in with Olivia?” Eddie asks, handing the whiskey back to me, and I down another mouthful.

“She’s not answering her phone. I should probably go back to the house and make sure she’s okay.” I lean back against the bar. “Thanks for today, Eddie.”

“It was a long time coming, brother. But we did it.”

“Yeah. We did it.”

“All of the product is safe in the warehouse, and I have men there twenty-four-seven, just to be sure. You got eyes on the Pino estate?”

“It’s being dealt with. Any loose ends will be tied up by the end of the day.”

“Looks like we pulled it off, huh? Now the real work begins.”

“I’ll go talk to Olivia: organize a meeting for us all, we need to get together and work out our next move.”

“I’ll call Mexico. They need to know what to do over there, in case there’s any blowback.”

“The cartel that side of the border have it all in hand.” Because Javier himself has been running it. In Mexico, they’ve been very much aware of Javier’s presence, and how Olivia deals with that is just another mess waiting to happen. “I need to make a call, then I’ll check on Liv.” It’s been a long fucking day, and I didn’t realize how tired I was until I stood still for a minute; took some time to process all the shit we’re doing. “Thanks again, Eddie.”

“Hey, we’re all on the same team, remember?”

Yeah. We are.

I head outside and find a quiet spot, away from all the celebrating, and pull out my phone. I need to talk to Javier, but he isn’t picking up. And that isn’t right. He always picks up. Always

“Shit!”

Is no fucker answering their phones today? It’s not helping to ease that feeling that something isn’t right here.

I try another number, and this time it takes less than a second for my call to be answered.

“Everything okay your end?” I ask, my eyes flitting around the compound, my nerves are on edge right now, a feeling of unease creeping up my spine.

“He’s gone, Lucca.”

My head snaps back around, my teeth clenched, a wave of nausea flooding my entire body. “What do you mean, he’s gone?”

“He’s on his way back to the US. Upped and left this morning, he said it was time. You didn’t know?”

“No, I didn’t fucking know. I only spoke to him a couple of hours ago, and he didn’t say a fucking thing…Shit!” I lean back against a sprawling California pepper tree, glad of the shade, it’s too fucking hot today. “Is he going straight home?”

“I don’t know. He didn’t give any details, he just said it was time.”

“Jesus…”

“Is the job done?”

“It’s done. We’re good.”

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