Page 10 of Possession

“For some reason, I don’t think my main man here gives a shit,” Carson drawls.

My eyes shift to CIA Officer Cole Carson. He’s my other boss. The DEA doesn’t do this anymore. No one goes this deep undercover for this long, but the CIA does this all the time. Seeing as how Carson’s wearing a shit-eating smirk while splattered in blood is a testament to the fact I chose well two years ago when I took a chance and approached him about this case. He’s a crazy fuck who doesn’t mind pushing the boundaries as much as I do.

Which makes me the perfect asset for him. I had no problem taking this assignment between the Drug Enforcement Administration and Central Intelligence Agency. It’s the only way I can get this shit done the way I need to.

Professionally and personally.

I shrug. “Bullets were flying, Tim. Half the people in that church pulling triggers aren’t trained in firearms. You think they’re good shots? How am I supposed to know who took him out? I’m just glad it caught Damian and not me again.”

“This changes everything,” Tim bites. “Without Damian, you lost your main advocate. He’s the one who trusted you, and he’s the reason you got as far as you have. You lost your leverage.”

I look around the room that’s just as wired as it was when I got here even though it’s closing in on midnight.

“I’m not leaving. I’ve got two years invested and one hell of a scar. The way I see it, we’re in a better position than before.”

Cole crosses his arms and loses the smirk. “You know I’m down for anything, but you’ll need to convince me we’re in a better position than we were. Damian was one of our main targets.”

“And we still don’t have enough on Alba to take him down for good,” Tim adds. “His books are tight. If we move on him now, his attorney will have him out on bail and the charges dropped within days.”

After everything went down at the church, I didn’t move from old-man Marino’s side until he gave me the order to find the Alba girl. I fed Alamandos the information I needed him to believe. In his state, it wasn’t hard to convince him this was a war on his family. Dennis Alba is a slimy fuck, but the attack at the church today isn’t his style. Not to mention, he’s a pussy. Any man who’d auction off his only daughter to save his own ass is.

“It’s taken a long time to get to this point. Too fucking long,” I argue. “Alamandos may hate Dennis Alba, but I was able to convince him that the attack on his family today was orchestrated by the Lazadas, and he bought it. This is what we need, and I’m in the perfect position to see it through with Damian out of the way.”

If Alamandos Marino hates anyone in this world, it’s the Lazada Cartel. They’ve been flirting their way into Marino territory for years. The Marinos keep delivering warnings in the form of shallow graves, but that hasn’t stopped them.

Alba’s deal for his daughter was the catapult we needed. We created a war that will distract everyone’s attention, so they won’t see what’s going on right under their own noses. Blaming today on the Lazadas is brilliant.

“You still haven’t explained … how the hell are you in a better position?” Tim demands. “Without Damian, you’ve lost all access.”

I look from Tim to Carson. “Damian might’ve been my advocate, but he was also my biggest barrier. I spent hours this afternoon with Alamandos to make sure I’m cemented in the family. He might be old and distraught from losing his son, but he’s not stupid. He needs his business up and running in the U.S. I convinced him I’m the person to make that happen until he finds a more permanent solution. Damian’s death might not have been the goal today, but this puts us in a better position than we’ve ever been in. Everything will go through me.”

Tim gapes. “No shit?”

The two men glance at one another.

Carson whistles as he crosses his arms and rocks back on his heels. “Why the fuck did you wait to tell us? This changes everything.”

I shake my head before angling my eyes to the neighboring room where the next topic of conversation is being held. The woman in the bloodied wedding dress is the bomb that could ruin years of work and fuck up my one and only chance to do what I need to do. “Alamandos might be mourning his son, but that didn’t soften him. He lost millions because of Alba. Just because Damian is dead doesn’t mean the deal is off. He wants the girl, and I was tasked with finding her. And just to throw a wrench in the plan, I need to return with the girl if I want a chance to run his business in the U.S.”

“Fuck,” Carson bites.

“What the hell is he going to do with her?” Tim asks.

What I did not anticipate was for the girl to get wrapped up into the deal. That’s a problem none of us anticipated. We planned to grab her, get her out, and turn her against her father.

I shake my head. “That’s the million-dollar question. I tried to convince him she would be a pain in the ass, but he wants her. What he really wants is to fuck over her father. There’s no way he’ll let her go, and there’s no way I can finish this if I don’t bring her back.”

“If we let her go, they’ll find her,” Carson says. “And if she goes home, her shithead dad will hand her right back over like a dirty five-dollar bill. He did it once, and that was to marry Damian fucking Marino knowing what he was capable of. He won’t blink an eye doing it again.”

I cross my arms and turn to look out the window. I shouldn’t give a fuck about Landyn Alba. I have to watch my back twenty-four-seven. I don’t need anyone else to worry about. With the shit I’ve seen since I’ve been under, nothing shocks me anymore. But the last thing I need is an organized crime boss’s high-maintenance daughter to babysit.

Fuck that.

I’m a man on the clock with one goal—revenge. And even though I just hit the gas pedal on my personal project doesn’t mean that the figurative clock isn’t a ticking time bomb that could blow up in my face at any moment.

“The way I see it, you have two choices,” Carson says. I know my choices, but since the man likes to hear himself talk, he spells them out for me anyway. “One, you leave her fate to chance. The Marinos will find her eventually. They’ve got the track record to prove it, and it’s not like the sorority dropout looks like she has the wits to run from a cartel or her father. Two, you take her back, let them sing your accolades for finding her so fast, and do what you can to make sure they don’t make her life a living hell. If you really think this could be wrapped up sooner rather than later, she can try to live her shallow life on her own without Daddy’s money since he’ll be in federal prison and everything attached to him will be confiscated.”

I turn back to the men in the room and state the obvious. “Those aren’t great choices.”

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