Page 105 of Bad Men

The irony of the statement nearly had my eyebrows lifting. It took all my resolve to control my features. Instead, I reached for Mia.

“We need to get Mia to the hospital,” I told him.

“Who was it?”

His question broke into my attempts to leave. “Cortez. The guy you said was dead.”

He glanced past us to the building now snapping and crackling from the inside. Crimson flames leapt and danced, the roar of them drowning the screeching of the alarm.

“I said no such thing.” He didn’t let me respond. “He’s in there?”

I delayed my reply by helping ease Mia off the trunk. I kept a firm grip on her when leading her to the backseat.

“We’re leaving in a second,” I promised her. “Lie down.”

She shook her head, brown eye darting past me to Alejandro for a split second before returning to me. Her voice was low when she spoke. “Come with me. I don’t trust him.”

I tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Neither do I, but you can’t hear what I’m about to say.”

Her brows creased, but she didn’t argue. “Be careful.”

She spared the other man a final glance before easing gingerly into the backseat.

Once she was safely tucked inside, I closed the door and faced the assassin.

“You’re the mole.” I didn’t glance at Davien to feel his surprise at my accusation, a ballsy move given that I didn’t have any evidence to support my claim and could potentially get us both killed if I was wrong … or right. But something inside me knew it was him. There were key pieces missing from the whole picture, but I was beginning to understand Alejandro in a way that left me wary of him and his inexplicable ability to know things he shouldn’t. “You found out that Cortez was skimming off the top, ordering extra product on the side to sell without giving Eduardo the profits. You alerted the coast guard to the shipment and had it seized. Then you nominated me for the position.”

To his credit, Alejandro never so much as batted an eye at the claim. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Why?” I asked, ignoring his feigned ignorance.

He considered the question a long moment before answering, “Let’s not forget that I don’t answer to you. You only know what you need to know.”

“He took Mia.” My snarl was followed by a single stride forward, a driving momentum that took even me by surprise, but I caught myself before I could get close enough to wrap my fingers around his neck. “He hurt her. You are as responsible for what happened to her as he is.”

The other man’s eyes flashed, a sure sign of danger, but I wasn’t backing down. He wasn’t the only cold-blooded killer in the group. If he thought I wouldn’t take him and Eduardo out, he had another thing coming. I was pissed enough to destroy the entire organization, burn the whole fucking thing to the ground. I didn’t give a shit if he thought he was a bigger bad ass.

“You’re treading on thin ice, Diaz,” he warned carefully.

“He was going to kill her,” I replied with the same quiet. “Because he thought I turned him in to get his seat. We both know it was you. I want to know why.”

To my surprise, he closed the space between us with slow, measured strides. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Davien hand twitch towards his pocket. I motioned him down without taking my focus off the man now a foot away, studying me with a dark emptiness I recognized from the mirror.

“I do my job,” he hissed, voice just low enough for me to hear. “Whatever the means. Cortez was a liability. No one steals from Eduardo and lives. You know that.”

“You lost him,” I challenged.

“I lost nothing,” he hissed. “I do not make mistakes.”

“He got away from you and you put Mia in danger by not telling me Cortez was still alive and on the loose.”

Alejandro bared his teeth, the first real sign of rage I had ever seen on his face. “Be very careful what you say next, Nero. I have thus far overlooked your disrespect, but I will only tolerate so much.”

I didn’t blink. “Why are you here?”

Something in his features shifted, a subtle discomfort that seemed out of place in his usually confident features. His chest expanded with a sharp inhale that flared his nostrils. Eyes that had been watching me with cold fury swept over my shoulder in a flick he immediately averted as if he hadn’t meant to give that much away, but I knew. I knew even without following his direction where he’d been looking, where his attention had redirected, and his response prickled my unease. Fueled my annoyance. It painted possibilities I refused to acknowledge, realizations that I would not allow.

“She’s mine.”

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