Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 96167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“Wait. Hold up.” Brown eyes full of spark, she anchored her hands on her hips in the feisty pose he’d loved since they were kids. “You said there’s another cartel waiting to ambush you?”
“Yes. Los Córdoba.”
“How do you know this?”
“I set it up.”
“You what?”
He smirked, enjoying the angry flush in her cheeks.
She cast her gaze heavenward. “Santa Madre de Dios, give me the strength to not strangle this man.”
The crunch of tires on gravel sounded in the distance and grew louder up the driveway just as Nico stepped out of the house.
“We’re on our way,” Nico said into the phone at his ear. Ending the call, he strode down the steps past Matias.
As the black sedan pulled up behind Camila, she pointed at Matias. “Keep talking.”
“In the car.” He moved off the porch, toward the driveway, and opened the rear door for her.
Burd relinquished the driver’s seat and headed into the house. As a lower-ranked member, he’d been vetted for the vigilante portion of this trip, but not for the next part.
“Are the others coming with us?” Camila stared after Burd as she slid into the backseat.
“Frizz and Picar will stay with the girls for a couple days.” Matias latched her seatbelt, trailed a finger across her bottom lip, and shut the door.
He met Nico’s eyes over the roof of the sedan. Matias preferred to be the fake bodyguard and chauffeur—the guy no one paid attention to or targeted. But as Nico climbed into the backseat beside Camila, Matias reconsidered the whole decoy thing.
It was purely an emotional reaction after a godawful night. He didn’t want anyone else protecting her or sitting by her. He sure as hell didn’t want people thinking she belonged to Nico.
Fuck, that sounded ridiculous, even in his head.
Wiping a hand down his face, he lowered into the driver seat, cranked up the A/C, and drove away from the house. He only had about ten minutes to prepare her before they reached their rendezvous point.
“Last week, you gave me an idea.” He adjusted the rear-view mirror and found her steady brown eyes. “I decided that we didn’t have a mole, but we needed one.”
“I’m not following.” She shook her head.
Nico powered on his tablet, and the glow from the screen brightened her face.
“We know Gerardo leaked information to a cartel.” He eased onto a dirt road, watching the side mirrors for other vehicles. “We just didn’t know who he worked with or if he exposed our two biggest secrets.”
“I assume one is your identity. The other…” She frowned in concentration. “The location of your headquarters?”
“Yes. For the past week, I kept all our lieutenants congregated at the estate and inconspicuously beefed up security, all while giving whoever was watching our business activities the impression that we were still focused on finding a spy.” He hit the gas on a straight empty road surrounded by fields. “We kept our ears to the ground, listening for whispers about an attack against the estate, and uncovered nothing. Not a peep. The location of our headquarters remains a secret, but…” He propped an elbow on the console. “The information Gerardo leaked put our smuggling routes at risk.”
“They’re going to attack your supply lines?”
“The most profitable ones. Our rivals want that business more than anything.” He clenched his jaw. “I’ve let them think we’re too distracted to notice what they’re planning. And I gave them a different distraction—another Gerardo.”
“You gave them a mole? Inside your cartel?” She leaned forward, watching him in the mirror with wide eyes.
“A fake one.” Mierda, he loved her interest in his business. “Chispa sent out feelers, making contact with our enemies under the guise that there was unrest within our ranks and he wanted out. He dangled valuable secrets, trying to lure the group that turned Gerardo.”
“I bet your enemies crawled all over themselves trying to recruit him.”
“Of course. But only one cartel could confirm their involvement with Gerardo.” Matias drummed his fingers on the steering wheel.
“Los Córdoba?”
He nodded. “They know things only Gerardo knew.”
“That’s the group you set up to ambush you?” Her voice pitched with disbelief. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“Oiga,” Nico said. “He’s getting to the good part.”
“Chispa made a deal with Los Córdoba.” Matias veered onto another dirt road. The lights of the nearest town glimmered on the horizon, but he made another turn, driving away from it and into the darkness of barren landscape. “In exchange for their protection, Chispa gave them the names of our liaisons and security details on the narcotics business we run through our El Paso compound. He gave them everything they need to steal that operation from us.”
“What?” She gasped. “You forfeited your entire El Paso division?”
“To convince them to trust Chispa.” Matias shrugged. “The Feds are days from taking it anyway. Los Córdoba doesn’t know that. Besides, someone suggested we start looking at new smuggling routes like Australia.”