Page 87 of No Mistake

“You made her pay for what her boyfriend did.”

Tracer had learned that from the lawyer. The boyfriend had gotten lured in to the cartel by money, to do one simple trade. Then he’d got cold feet and wouldn’t go through with it.

Alejandro shrugged. “She paid because of what he failed to do. She paid for his incompetence. That is the way it works here. You mess with the Vitelli Cartel, we mess with your family. You should think about that.”

Tracer thought about his mother. No one other than the Navy knew her location. Could Vitelli get that information? He swallowed. There was nothing he could do about that if he didn’t get out of this alive.

“You killed him, too?” He presumed the boyfriend was dead, although a body had yet to be found.

“After he finally placed the trade. Yes.”

Tracer pressed the muzzle harder against Luis’s head. “Well, then I guess we will call this payback.”

Alejandro looked at his son and then back at Tracer. “If he dies, he dies.”

“That’s not what you said when he got shot in Mexico.”

“I have a reputation to uphold. In this country, reputation is everything. Reborn and I had a mutually beneficial agreement for a long-term contract. If I cannot fix this situation, then that contract ends, and my reputation will suffer. I do not plan to let that happen. Someone has to take the fall. If that is my son, then so be it.”

“You’d seriously let your son take the fall? Why not Perez? You wanted him taken care of anyway?”

“Perez has surprised me these past couple of days and is now helping me fix the situation.”

Tracer’s gut clenched. “How?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.”

“You would have him shoot me? Your own son.” Luis had stopped struggling, looking at his father, shock plain on his slack features.

“You were never cut out for this. If you were a true Vitelli, you would have had Tracer take Perez out or done it yourself. He was meant to protect you and he failed. But this sense of loyalty you have? There is no room for that in the Vitelli Cartel. Your loyalty has backfired. I was going to make an example out of Perez, but instead, I think I underestimated him, and he deserves another chance.”

Unexpectedly, Alejandro pulled the trigger, shooting his son in the chest. Tracer recovered quickly. Quicker than the other men in the room. Keeping Luis’s slumped body in front of him, he fired, taking Alejandro out with one shot to the head. The two guards fired, but they only succeeded in putting more holes in Luis. Tracer swung his arm around, depressing the trigger efficiently, and took them both down.

He let go of Luis, who slumped to the floor. He wasn’t dead yet, but he had to get out of there fast. In a matter of seconds, more men would converge on the room.

Bending down, he snarled at Luis. “Where is Perez? What is he doing?”

Blood seeped from the man’s mouth. He had two bullet holes in his chest and a couple in his legs. The guards were not great shots, but he was going to be unconscious or dead in seconds.

“Tell me,” Tracer demanded. “Your own father was going to put him in your place. I want him dead, and so do you. Tell me where the fuck he is, and I promise you I will kill him.”

Luis’s glazed eyes stared back at him and fear filled his face. Running footsteps and shouts were getting closer in the hallway outside the room.

“Listen to me. You can survive this. You can lead this fucking empire for all I care. My beef was with your father, not you. Tell me what Perez is doing and let me walk out of here, and you will never see me again. The other option is we both die here today, and Perez gets it all.”

Armed men burst into the room and froze. Their boss was dead and the next in line lay on the floor in a pool of blood.

“Somebody get a doctor, he’s down bad. The guards turned on us,” Tracer said. The men lowered their weapons at his certain and commanding tone.

Tracer turned back to Luis. “Tell me.”

It was barely more than whisper, but he heard it. Letting Luis go, Tracer pocketed Luis’s phone, then strode from the room. Nobody stopped him.

“IT HAS TO BE RELATED to the Cartel or Reborn. That can’t be a coincidence.” Dex braced against Bertha as the team gathered around. He’d heard the explosion on the phone and Raven had sped to Sophie’s house, only to find it empty.

“But Perez and Vitelli are back in Mexico,” Tyler said.

“We only have Tracer’s word for that, and I am seriously doubting him right now,” Steve muttered.

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