Page 31 of Blood Spilled
“What?”
“I have to check on Santiago.” I turn around quickly, running up the steps and hopping onto the patio. My brother follows closely behind me.
“What are you doing? Where is Santiago? Don't tell me you left him running around free.”
“I was only supposed to be gone for a short while and it's not him I'm worried about.”
I shove open the door and my brother grabs my arm, pulling me back. “What are you talking about?”
“Jason. The man in the photo is Jason. One of my recent hires recommended by Tony.”
“Why would Tony recommend a man like that?”
“Maybe because he didn't like the way I was handling things with Santiago. Look I don't have time to give you the rundown, I'm wasting precious minutes and need to get in the house.”
I hurry inside. My heart nearly jumps in my throat when my gaze lands on the empty spot by the fireplace. “He's gone.”
“Are you sure? We should check the house just in case.” Carlos runs to the stairs. “I'll check up here and you take the first floor and the back door. I rush toward the back door and it's left wide open and Jason’s car is gone.
“Son of a bitch!” He didn’t care about the fire or stopping it, he wanted to get Santiago alone by having me distracted.
I reach for my phone, quickly dialing Jason's number and of course the asshole had his phone disconnected. I slam my fist against the door frame and Carlos comes up from behind me,causing me to jump when he sets a hand on my shoulder. “Relax, we will find him.”
“How?” I snap. “How will we find him? The asshole could be anywhere.”
“You forget, finding people is part of my job. Never has anyone been able to hide from me for long.”
“Where do we even start?”
“We can start here,” someone says from behind me. When I turn around, Diego is holding his phone out to me, pointing to coordinates on a screen. “I had my suspicions about the guy when he was going through your computer the other day. He tried to make it look like he was looking for you, but he didn't play it off very well. I told Tony about it, but he told me not to alarm you, because your hands were full with other things. So, I planted a tracker under his car and slipped another inside the lining of his coat just in case he ditched the car.”
With relief flooding through my veins, I grab the phone. “Thank fuck. At least one of my guys is doing what he's supposed to and not screwing me over.”
“I'm sorry about Tony. I should have noticed something was wrong by the way he’s been acting lately. He kept talking about how weak and reckless you've become. Then shortly after that he hired Jason on. Only I didn't think much of it, because the guy was an amateur, not knowing his head from his ass.”
“Now we know it was nothing more than an act,” Carlos says from beside me. “We better get a move on if we want to catch up to this guy. We don't know what he plans to do to Santiago when he reaches his destination.”
“Maybe he will kill him, and solve one of our problems for us.”
“Is that really what you want?” Carlos has always seen right through me when no one else has.
“You and I both know it doesn't matter what I want. It’s about what needs to be done.”
“Do you even know what that is anymore?”
I shuffle in place, stuffing my hands in my pockets, knowing that Tony was probably right. I have been weak and reckless lately.
“That's what I thought. Let's go get your boy and get these asshole brothers of his to talk.”
I have Diego send me the coordinates to my phone and Carlos follows me to my truck. “What are you doing?”
“You're crazy if you think I'm letting you do this alone.”
I roll my eyes, knowing there is no sense in arguing with my brother. He is going to do what he wants to do no matter what. I don't care at this point as long as it gets me to Santiago in time.
Once in the car, I turn to my brother with my hand frozen on the ignition button. “You can't tell Gabriel, he won't understand.”
Carlos laughs, and his body shakes. “Pretty sure he'll understand more than you think.”
