Page 26 of For the Love of Animals

“True. And I’ll tell you one day, but not right now.” He gave his head a little shake. “We need to go over our schedule for the rest of the week.”

“The mysterious ‘plan,’ yes?” I used my fingers to make little quote marks around the word. “Should we be discussing that here?”

“As long as we keep our voices down, it’s probably safer than anywhere else. Harder to bug a restaurant.”

“You think the apartment’s bugged?”

“No, but why take the chance? How about you order us what’s good, and we can get started?”

Ten minutes later, Pedro had served up corn tacos filled with refried beans, carne asada, and a topping of cheese. Not something I ate every day, but delicious when I didn’t want to cook. Or when I was with Nate, whose rented kitchen held only protein shakes, coffee, milk, half a bag of flour left over from the chicken tamale pie I’d made there, and a single can of beer.

But there was no beer tonight, not when we needed to concentrate on plotting.

“Come closer,” Nate said as he pulled my chair towards him and tucked his arm around my shoulders.

I couldn’t even be mad, because there was an unseasonable chill in the air tonight and he was warm. Hot, even. I leaned into him, and to all the world, we must have looked like two lovers having a deep and meaningful conversation rather than a pair of warring assassins discussing murder.

“So,” I asked. “Which of us is doing the deed? Who’s going to get up close to Lozano and pull the trigger?”

He smiled, not his usual arrogant grin, but a cunning curve of his lips that sent a shiver through me.

“Neither of us.”

“Neither of us? How is that possible?”

“Lozano’s going to do it himself. How much do you know about binary poisons?”

“A poison? But we already discussed that—he won’t eat food until a minion’s tried it first, and we’d never get close enough to inject it.”

“We don’t have to.”

“What are you going to do? Spray it from a distance? Someone else might get in the way.”

“Anything’s possible, but it’s unlikely. Binary poisons work in two parts, and until they’re put together, they won’t do any damage. And even combined, it’ll dissipate before anyone who matters gets close. At worst, we’ll damage a few of his henchmen, which is no bad thing.”

“I guess. But that still doesn’t answer the question of how we get it near Lozano.”

“Tonight, I was out with the lady who’s making Lozano’s costume for the Day of the Dead parade. Verónica Camacho. She’s due to deliver it on Saturday morning, except you’re gonna take it instead, along with the first chemical agent.”

“How? I don’t even know her.”

“Because I’ll keep her occupied.”

“You’re going to kidnap her? But she hasn’t done anything wrong. What if—” Then it hit me. Literally, like a punch to the stomach. Nate’s tequila breath. The lipstick on his face. “You plan to fuck her?”

“I wouldn’t put it quite so crudely. I plan to keep her entertained.”

“All through Friday night and into Saturday?”

“Better to start sooner to allow for any hiccups.”

Now my stomach dropped into my shoes, although I didn’t know why. Okay, I did. I just didn’t want to admit it. I liked Nate. Despite him being bossy and a know-it-all and generally annoying, he lit me up from the inside out with an intoxicating fire of anger and lust.

I didn’t want him to fuck Verónica because I wanted him to fuck me.

“What happens if you’re not her type? Kidnapping her would be safer.”

“Trust me, I’m her type. She was all over me this evening.”

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