CARMINA
I struggle to understand.
“They’re using my sister to start a war with you?”
“That’s how it looks,” he mutters, tearing his eyes away from me.
Everything he’d warned me of became reality sooner than I thought.
I slump back in my seat, not knowing what to say.
“What are our chances of finding her alive?” I ask, knowing precisely what her chances are.
In theory, she has a fifty-fifty chance to be alive.
In reality, these are hot–headed, irrational men.
Even when using someone as leverage, they can turn that person into collateral damage at the drop of a hat.
I try not to focus on that right now.
If anything bad happens to my sister, I, myself, will finish this Lizard guy and Beau. I should’ve done it already when I had the chance. Maybe none of this would’ve happened had I given Damaso the green light to finish Beau Anthony when he asked me to do so.
I thought I’d do the right thing.
I even pleaded with Damaso to spare his life.
How stupid of me.
Truly, no good deed goes unpunished.
And now he’s brought this shit to me?
All the red flags… Jen’s concerns, the likelihood of him coming back, and the fact that my sister was such an easy target.
All the red flags meant nothing because things appeared to be quiet.
And this is what I’m dealing with now?
I can’t believe it.
“We’ll find her alive,” Damaso says, confident.
“What about Jen?”
He looks at me.
“They probably have both of them. They need her to calm down your sister. Their plan is to get me to them. For that to happen, they neednotto do anything to them.”
“So you’re saying this is more about you than it is about me and Beau Anthony being a vengeful dick?”
He crosses his arms over his chest and weighs his words before speaking.
“I think it all started with you. Anthony and you. And then you ex talked to these guys. And they know about me. Anthony knew about me back when we met. Not when we ran into each other for the first time but shortly after. And then it all became a crime of opportunity. This whole story is part of a bigger picture that involves me. Taking away Tina is his revenge, among other things.”
“Things could happen to her…” I murmur, studying his expression.
Nothing suggests he knows stuff he doesn’t want to share, although he must know more than I do.