Page 37 of Fast Justice

“What?” he rasped out, his entire body rigid with disbelief.

“Oceane and Anya went to the Americans on their own,” Juan Montoya, his chief enforcer said. “They’re aiding the FBI and DEA in their investigation on the cartel right now.”

A strange, hollow ringing filled Manny’s ears. He sank woodenly into his richly upholstered leather desk chair, his bones and joints suddenly stiff as unoiled hinges. “They can’t be.” They wouldn’t betray him, no matter the circumstance. “Oceane doesn’t know anything—”

“But Anya does, and she’s obviously told Oceane certain things that they’re feeding the Americans,” Montoya added in a flat tone.

“You have proof?” Without irrefutable evidence, Manny refused to even entertain the thought that his daughter and mistress had betrayed him.

“I finally got a signal from the tracking device.”

His muscles tightened. The Americans must have missed it, then. Maybe there was still hope for him to recover Oceane. Or, the Americans had found it and this was a trap. “When?”

“Yesterday afternoon. I followed it. And do you know where it originated from?”

Dread congealed in the pit of his stomach. “Where?”

“The U.S. Attorney’s office in D.C.”

Manny shot out of his chair and began pacing the length of the room, his mind racing. “They might have been forced into talking.”

Montoya made a disparaging sound. “I know you don’t want to believe it. But it’s true. The chatter is that someone close to you is aiding the feds. And it’s not a coincidence that the FBI shut down your accounts connected to Anya.”

Hijo de puta. He stopped at the window, ran a hand over his face, sick inside. “Did you follow them?”

“I waited as long as I could, but they didn’t come out of the building. I found out who they’ve been talking to, though, and left a little parting gift for the lawyers involved.”

“No one saw you?”

“No. I had my guys do it. Feds are all over the building now.”

Annoyance speared through him. Montoya had his crack team with him in the States—mostly comprised of Mexican Special Forces veterans. Planting a car bomb was nothing to them.

But killing federal lawyers working on the case would bring unwanted heat and scrutiny, although Montoya wouldn’t care. He was all about vengeance and maintaining his reputation as a sadistic, ruthless bastard who decimated anyone who got in his way. So far Manny had been able to control him, for the most part. How much longer he would be able to was…probably not that long.

“How are you going to track them now?” he snapped. There was no way Oceane would ever allow her and her mother to be separated. She knew better than that. What had Anya told her? How much did she know? What did she think of him now? It sliced him up inside to think that he might have lost her love. That she might think he was a monster now.

“I’ll find them,” Montoya said, arrogant as always. “Someone else triggered the bomb in the female lawyer’s car. Both she and her boss are still alive.”

A spark of hope lit inside him. “Get one of them, or both.” If Manny couldn’t find his daughter, he’d use the American lawyers to find her for him. A lawyer was a far easier target at this point anyway. “Find out where my daughter is.”

Once he got her back, he would explain everything. He was a gifted businessman. His daughter was gifted with handling finances. He could pull this off, make her see the wisdom in why he’d protected her the way he had. Then she would understand. And then he could finally begin to show her the empire she had been born into.

He forgave her for being afraid. It was his fault for keeping her ignorant for too long.

****

Rowan rode up the elevator to the ICU with Malcolm in complete silence, every cell in her body tingling at his nearness. After tossing and turning for another hour following that knee-melting kiss in his darkened kitchen, she’d finally fallen into a fitful sleep, only to wake to Malcolm’s brisk knock on the door an hour ago.

They’d barely spoken a word to each other on the drive over. Malcolm because he was unwilling to risk crossing that invisible line again, and she because she didn’t want to make things any worse between them. But there was no way she could pretend she didn’t want him, didn’t want to be with him and give them a real shot. She just wasn’t sure how to tell him, or whether he’d turn her down flat.

He’s worth the risk. You know he is.

The ICU was quiet, the nursing staff moving about efficiently, an hour before shift change. One of them recognized her, gave her a little smile before returning to her paperwork.

Rowan headed straight for Kevin’s room. After showing her ID to the police standing guard at the door, she tapped on it softly and cracked it open. No surprise, Nick was there, sound asleep in his chair beside Kevin’s bed, his neck torqued at a weird angle as he rested his head near Kev’s pillow. Rowan’s heart squeezed when her gaze landed on their joined hands.

She set a gentle hand on Nick’s shoulder. He jerked up, his eyes springing open, focusing blearily on her. “Hey,” he mumbled, wincing as he reached back to grab his nape. “What time is it?”

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