Page 6 of Still Burning

“And ended up with guns pointed at her,” I snarled, thinking about Hatter having his arms around her and Lick shooting the bastard that close to Salem’s head.

“They weren’t pointed at her. They were pointed at Kendrix. From what I hear, Ezra wanted her very much alive. He didn’t want to shoot her.”

“Who the fuck is Ezra?” I demanded this time.

“He goes by Lord, but I refuse to call him that. Vain bastard,” she said, picking up her glass and drinking down the rest.

I didn’t need the reminder of the fucker who wanted Salem.

“So, you’re the reason Salem came to Miami. You don’t think she came because of the port here and that the Murphys wanted her here for that reason. To work within that family?” Liam asked her.

She scrunched her nose. “Not anymore. I did question how easy it was to get her here. But I can honestly say I think she knows nothing. As in she has no clue that Eamon Murphy and his family are the Irish cartel. If she knows”—Marlana shrugged—“then she fooled me, and I am rarely ever fooled.”

The relief that came with her words coursed through me, and the tension in my shoulders eased.

“But you’ve been fooled before,” Liam pushed.

I wanted him to shut the fuck up. To let this go.

She nodded. “Once that I can recall. That damn Timothy Sellers. We were six. He convinced me that chocolate milk came from brown cows. But it was an elaborate setup, where he even went as far as to have chocolate milk in a pastry bag with a rubber band around the bottom to keep it from leaking. Hetied the thing onto the side of the cow. Don’t ask me how he pulled that off because I have no idea. Anyway, when he went to milk the cow, I wasn’t getting down there and watching. Those bastards are huge. I stood back. But he went down and milked it—or rather milked the pastry bag—and came back with a bucket of chocolate milk. He even drank it and then had me try it. When I told my teacher this fact the next week and the entire class burst into laughter, well, let’s just say, I was never that gullible again. I needed proof. Facts. I had to see it with my own eyes,” she finished, pointing at her eyes with two fingers.

I didn’t really have a response to that babbling story. This woman was fucking quirky as hell. The fact that she was a DEA agent was shocking. How did she stay focused enough to do anything? Her inability to stay on topic seemed like it would be a negative in that department.

“How do you think a woman can be married to a man that many years and not know something like that?” Liam asked, not being sidetracked.

She leveled him with her stare. “He adored her. From all my sources, it was well known that Eamon Murphy worshipped the ground his wife walked on. He must have known she’d never be okay with his drug cartel life. Therefore, he hid that from her.”

He adored her. Those three words had me on edge once again. I should be glad she’d been loved and taken care of. But he wasn’t me. He had done what I hadn’t.

“I see,” Liam said. “You don’t have any proof that she didn’t know. You just believe that’s the case because of your interaction with her then.”

Marlana’s mouth tugged at the corners as a smug gleam lit her eye. “I’m not stupid, Mr. Walsh. I may be DEA, but I don’t want to piss off Hughes by lying to him. He asked if I had proof, and I said I did.” She lifted a shoulder, looking somewhat regretful. “Salem considered me a friend, yet I lied to her from day one. I’mdoing this for her too.”

Then she took out her iPhone and placed it on the bar in front of us. I glanced down at it as she pressed play. A man’s voice began to play loudly in the empty bar.

“That’s not something I’m willing to do, Brady.”

“It’s fucking time she knew, Eamon. You’ve been married for fourteen goddamn years. It’s our life, and as long as you keep this from her, you can’t do your job. Not fully, and I’m tired of having to step in to handle something when it’s your responsibility,” another man said angrily.

“Until you love a woman enough to take a bullet for her, then don’t tell me what you think I should do. If Salem knew this, knew about us…I’d lose her. And I can’t lose her.” His last words came out in a harsh, gravelly rasp.

There was a heavy sigh on the line. I wasn’t sure which man it was.

“She loves you, Eamon. When are you going to trust that?”

He was silent for a moment. “Not enough. Not the way I do her.”

“You don’t think her not knowing is putting her in danger?”

“I’d never allow anything to touch her,” Eamon said with a growl. “I protect her.”

“This can’t go on forever. At some point, she’ll find out. Something will slip. Or happen. You think you’ll lose her if you tell her, but if she finds out that she’s been lied to, then she will walk out the fucking door.”

Silence.

I thought it was over, and the relief, mixed with possessiveness, churned inside me at listening to another man talk about Salem as if she were his to protect. Love. And she had been. But it didn’t make hearing it any easier.

“I won’t let her. If that day comes, I’ll find a way to keep her,” he finally said, sounding weary.

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