I walked into the old warehouse and nodded to the four men who had been keeping the gunman from last night hostage.
Jax, my oldest friend and my second in command, walked over to me, flicking his lit cigarette into the distance.
‘Those things will kill you,’ I said to him.
‘Well, something’s gotta,’ he replied with a grin.
‘What do you have for me?’ I asked.
‘Layton Cooper. Forty-four. Lives in Virginia. Wife left him last year. They had a daughter. She died a little over two years ago when she was sixteen. Suicide, apparently.’
‘Has he said much?’
‘No, Boss. As per your orders we haven’t interrogated him yet. And he’s been as quiet as a church mouse all night except to ask for some water.’
‘Gracias,’ I said and walked over to where Layton was bound to a chair.
I picked up a bottle of water from the table as I passed. My men had been there all night and had taken provisions, and I knew they wouldn’t have shown him any mercy by agreeing to his request for a drink.
I pulled up a chair and sat in front of Layton. ‘You thirsty?’ I asked him.
He looked up at me. ‘Yes,’ he whispered as his eyes lingered on the bottle.
‘Why did you try and shoot my wife?’
‘To hurt her father,’ he said.
I opened the bottle and held it to his lips, offering him the cool water. He gulped it greedily until I took the bottle away.
‘Why do you want to hurt her father?’
‘Because he took everything from me.’
‘Do you have a death wish, Layton?’
He shrugged. ‘I have nothing left to live for. Why don’t you just shoot me in the head and get it over with?’
I smiled at him. ‘I’m not sure you appreciate who you’re dealing with. I don’t just shoot people in the head, Cabrón. I like to torture them first.’ I watched as the color drained from his face and he suddenly realized the situation he was in. ‘Especially when they put a gun in my wife’s face,’ I snarled.
‘I’m sorry about that. I would never have hurt her,’ he shook his head. ‘I just wanted to scare her. I wanted her to tell him how terrified she was, so he would know exactly how it felt.’
‘What exactly did Foster Carmichael do to you?’
‘I told you. He took everything from me. He took everything from me,’ he started to cry.
‘Well, I’m going to need a little more than that. Or would you like me to pull out your fingernails to make you talk?’
He looked up at me, his eyes wide with fear. And then Layton Cooper told me all about why he hated my father in law so much.
I walked out of the warehouse and wiped the blood from my hands. Jax was two steps behind me as the rest of my men cleaned up the mess inside. In a little over an hour, there would be no trace of Layton Cooper left to be found.
Jax and I climbed into the car. ‘Take me to the hotel. Use the underground entrance. I need to get cleaned up,’ I said to my driver.
‘Of course, Boss,’ he nodded and put the car into drive.
‘Did you have any idea Carmichael was involved in that kind of shit?’ Jax asked me.
I shook my head. ‘I knew he was a nasty Cabrón, so nothing should surprise me.’
Jax let out a low whistle. ‘That is fucked up.’
‘I know,’ I said with a sigh.
If what Layton Cooper had told me was true, then I almost felt bad for killing the guy. But, nobody got away with putting a gun in my wife’s face. Cooper should have taken his grudge up with Foster Carmichael and not his daughter.
‘Do you think Alana knows?’ Jax asked with a cocked eyebrow.
‘No. No way,’ I replied. Alana thought her father was a good guy. I’d already known she was completely wrong on that front, but I hadn’t realized just how wrong she was.
I waited until I was alone in my suite before I called Alana. I didn’t intend to tell her anything about Layton Cooper and her father’s involvement with him, although I knew she’d ask.
She picked up on the second ring. ‘Hi,’ she said softly.
‘Hey. How’s the head?’ I asked her.
‘Throbbing,’ she groaned.
‘I told you to be careful with that Scotch,’ I laughed.
‘Yeah, well. You know if you tell me to do something, I’m likely to do the opposite, don’t you?’
‘I had noticed that.’
‘So, did you find out who that guy was last night?’
‘Just some guy your father pissed off one time, that’s all. He won’t be bothering you again.’
There was a few seconds pause. She knew better than to ask me about my business or the methods I used to deal with problems.
‘Pointing a gun in my face because he was pissed at my father seems a bit extreme. What exactly did my father do?’
‘I don’t know,’ I lied. ‘But he said he didn’t want to hurt you, just to scare you.’
‘What was his name?’ she asked and it didn’t escape my attention that she used the word was and not is.
‘Layton Cooper.’
‘Oh,’ she breathed. ‘I’ve never heard of him.
I certainly fucking hope not, I thought but didn’t say. ‘What are you doing today?’ I asked.
I shouldn’t care what she was doing, but I did. Images of her body pressed against mine forced themselves into my brain and I felt my cock getting hard.
‘Just going to lie by the pool and read. Maybe I’ll have a swim?’ she replied.
I pictured her in one of those tiny string bikinis and the twitch in my cock turned to a throb.
I cleared my throat to try and clear my head. ‘Sounds like a good way to cure a hangover. I have a meeting this afternoon, but then I’ll be done for the day. I’ll be home for dinner.’
‘Okay,’ she said and I was sure I could hear the happiness in her voice.
What the fuck are you, doing, Alejandro?
‘I’ll see you later then,’ I said.
‘Yes. Bye, Alejandro,’ she purred and the words bypassed my brain and went straight to my dick.
‘Adiós, princesa.’
One hour later, I was freshly showered, changed and ready for my late lunch with the mayor when I bumped into Malcolm Grant and his wife, Amelia, in the lobby of my hotel.
‘Alejandro,’ Amelia said as she approached me, kissing me on each cheek and enveloping me in a cloud of sweet, cloying perfume.
Malcolm walked up behind her and shook my hand. Malcom was an investor and he and his wife also spent a lot of money in my hotel. He loved the golf and she loved the spa.
‘Where have you been keeping that lovely new wife of yours?’ Amelia said as she batted her eyelashes at me.
‘I could ask the same of you, Amelia. She’s out doing charity work almost every single day.’
Amelia blinked at me and then I saw the hint of a smile on her lips.
‘What?’ I frowned.
She fiddled with her earring and pursed her lips while she looked between me and her husband.
‘What is it?’ I snapped, trying to keep a lid on my temper.
‘It’s not my place to say,’ she said coyly and I knew she was lying. Amelia Grant loved drama and any chance to cause some was a good day out for her. ‘But, Alana only came to one of our lunches about three weeks ago, and she left after an hour.’
‘What?’ I snarled.
‘Well, I suppose I can’t blame her. Some people just aren’t cut out for it, I suppose,’ she simpered. ‘It takes its toll. So, I wonder why she told you she was doing charity work then?’
I felt the anger surging through my chest and thundering around my body. If Alana wasn’t with Amelia and her crones, then where the fuck was she going every day?
‘I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding,’ I said with a forced smile. Then I lifted Amelia’s hand and kissed it gently. ‘Please excuse me, I’d better be going. I have a meeting.’
‘Of course. Bye, Alejandro,’ she called after me while Malcolm simply stood there looking like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole.
I stormed through the lobby and into the conference suite. Taking my phone out of my pocket, I dialed Jacob’s number.
‘Hi, Boss,’ he answered.
‘Where is Alana?’ I barked.
‘By the pool, Boss. Just saw her there myself.’
‘And yesterday? After her shopping trip? Where did she go?’
‘She went out to do her charity work.’
‘Who with?’ I snapped.
‘Just her and Hugo, Boss. You said she didn’t need a driver as long as he was with her.’
I gritted my teeth. I had said that, and now I wondered if I’d made a huge mistake leaving my wife alone all day in the company of her handsome, ex- Navy SEAL bodyguard. ‘And she goes there every day?’ I asked.
‘Almost,’ he replied.
‘Just her and Hugo?’
‘Yes, Boss,’ Jacob answered and I heard the confusion in his voice.
‘How long are they gone for?’
‘Usually about five or six hours, Boss. Sometimes all day.’
‘Where is Hugo today?’ I barked.
‘It’s Wednesday, Boss. It’s his day off.’
I ended the call without another word as my blood thundered in my ears.
Charity work! That lying, cheating, puta!
I knew she wasn’t to be trusted. She was her father’s daughter after all. And as for Hugo, once I was through with him, he would be begging me for a quick death.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and spun around to see Jax standing there. ‘Everything okay, amigo?’ he asked with a frown seeing the anger on my face.
‘No,’ I growled.
‘Can it wait until after out meeting? The mayor has arrived?’
I buttoned my suit jacket and flexed my neck muscles to relieve some tension. I had to take this meeting with the mayor. Maybe it would give me a chance to calm down before I confronted my lying, whore of a wife. Because if I went home now, I might just break my cardinal rule of never hurting a woman.
So, she felt like a prisoner in my house, did she? Well, she fucking would be from now on, that was for sure. She wouldn’t be stepping foot over the front door again. I would chain her to the fucking bed if I had to.
