Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52447 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
“I’ve been saying that since your chopper went down.”
“And now we’re in agreement,” he concludes.
“Yes, but for once I’m not going to point the finger at Pocher. Miguel all but admitted he tried to kill my father. Pocher wants my father alive. He’s his political titan.”
“The Society wants him alive,” he says. “Your father is walking all over Pocher, and Pocher doesn’t like to be beneath anyone’s foot. Let’s have this conversation elsewhere.”
“He can’t afford to lose my father’s political standing.”
“Pocher will do anything to protect himself,” he reminds me. “Think about it. If your father would have died tonight, and done so with Pocher by his side, no one, especially the Society, would suspect he had anything to do with it.”
“Then we’re back to my initial conclusion. Pocher and Miguel are working together.”
“While I didn’t believe Pocher would align himself as such,” Kane replies, “after seeing him with your father tonight, I changed my mind. Yes, I believe Pocher and Miguel are working together.”
“All you’re doing is making me wish I killed Miguel when I had the chance.” I hold up a hand. “I know. Not until your man is ready to replace him, so you don’t have to. You don’t have to put that on repeat, Kane. I know.”
“And yet, you had a knife in your hand, Lilah.”
In this case, it’s not what he just said to me that’s a problem, but what he didn’t say. Which is that he never knows what will happen when I have a knife in my hand. He’s not wrong.
I might have missed Miguel’s balls and hit his heart.
I can’t be sorry about that, but none of this tells the whole story. Kane is still not acting like Kane.
I narrow my eyes on him, “If you think it’s Pocher working with Miguel, why are you not inside right now?”
“Because you have a knife in your bra, Lilah.”
“I had a knife in my purse when we walked in the door.”
“That was then. This is now.”
Andrew irritatingly chooses that moment to remind us he’s present. He steps to our side opposite the SUV in confrontation mode, starting with Kane. “Can I just say, I both love and hate how obviously you are in charge of the cartel? Because I appreciate you de-escalating that shit, Kane, but this tonight is exactly why I didn’t want you to marry my sister.”
Kane’s lips tighten, but Andrew has already turned his joy and love on me. “Why can’t you and that damn FBI badge just take them down?” He holds up a hand. “Don’t answer. I know why. Because of Kane.”
“It’s called evidence, Andrew,” I snap. “I thought they taught police chiefs about that requirement but maybe they skip that for you small-town boys. Or maybe it’s just a Quantico thing.”
He comes right back at me. “You can be such a bitch.”
“Bitch meets brother. There’s a connection, Andrew. You make me a bitch.”
“What I want to make you do is your job. Are you even trying to take Miguel down?”
“What cartel have you ever known that was taken down and anything good came from it? They’re up again in a day. They kill someone for payback. That could be you. We have to control them. And that’s what Kane can do for us.”
“That’s a no. Listen to yourself, Lilah. You’re now burying bodies you murdered, and justifying who you married by some good he does for society by running a fucking cartel.”
“Listen to yourself, Andrew. You sound like a pussy.”
He scrubs his jaw. “I better stop before I kill you and then he kills me.”
Obviously “he” means Kane, and I truly want to bust my brother’s balls right now. “You are clearly melting down, Andrew. We were never in danger.”
“You’re family, Andrew,” Kane assures him. “That means you’re protected.”
Andrew’s gaze jerks to Kane’s. “I saw that tonight. It felt good, too, to be that protected brother-in-law and if you think I’m serious you shouldn’t be running a cartel or an oil company.” He motions to the door. “I’m going inside before the hordes of reporters find us and connect this situation to Dad’s attempted murder.” He starts walking toward the hotel. Apparently, my brother still believes he’s safer with my father than he is with us. Somewhere along the line, he forgot that those who are closest to us are usually the ones who kill us. Family is dangerous. And he’s a fool if he thinks Dad is the lesser evil than Miguel.
But it’s not Miguel or my father, or even Kane that scares Andrew.
It’s me. And I can’t help but wonder if that’s because I remind him of himself.
Burying Roger’s body bothers him a bit too much, considering he was a serial killer who tried to kill his sister. It’s fucking with him, much like me stabbing my own rapist to death, who intended to kill me, did me. Because it woke something inside me. I wonder if there is more to my brother than meets the eye.