It’s early morning, almost twenty-four hours since we left Colorado and I’m already jonesing to be back home with my woman and kids. Time can’t move fast enough as I exit the interrogation room without so much as a drop of new information.
It turned out that Cárdenas had been holding el Jefe and most of his leadership, killing all the rest. And the only reason he’s kept these fuckers alive for this long is because they have something he wants.
Unfortunately for me, I don’t know how much longer he’s planning on keeping them alive, and I’m nowhere near getting the details I need.
Jack grunts beside me. He’s in the same foul mood, and I can’t really blame him. “At this rate, brother, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting answers.”
I shake my head and sigh. “We have to keep trying. Only they know what went belly up with Dad and I’m betting it’s tied to what they thought I was hiding. They wanted it bad enough that they were willing to kill for it.”
Jack raises a brow. “They’re a lethal cartel. It doesn’t take much to make them go all machete happy.”
“Were, brother. Past tense. After Daniel’s through with them, there won’t be anything left but a memory.”
Jack opens his mouth to say something, but we’re interrupted by Ernesto, one of WRATH’s security detail. “Austin. We’ve got Mary on the line for you.”
My brows push together, wondering why Mary is the one calling. If something happened at home with the kids, then it should be Anaya making the call, shouldn’t it? Oh fuck. Unless something happened to my girl.
With quick fingers, I take the phone from Ernesto’s hand. “Talk to me, Mary. Is Anaya okay?”
A strangled sound comes across the line and my stomach knots, unwilling to accept any bad news when it comes to this girl.
“Mary. Answer me.”
“She’s fine, Austin. She just had to go back home, is all.”
I stop breathing, the room starts tilting, and I swear I see double. “What the fuck do you mean, she had to go back home?”
Her words make little sense. Anaya wouldn’t leave the kids like that. She’d grown so attached to them and I’d even dare say grown to love them.
“I’m sorry, Austin. But she said this was something she had to do. She didn’t want to leave the children, but she said they were in good hands with me, and that things had to be this way.”
My mouth is hanging open, unable to make words. Taking my silence as incredulity, Mary tries to explain further.
“She said she had to do it while you were away, that she wouldn’t be strong enough to do it if you were here.”
That is the only thing that makes sense, because there is no way in hell that I’d let her leave. Over my dead fucking body.
“Did Anaya say why she had to go home?” That last word has to be dragged from my lips, tasting of rancid, decaying flesh. Her only home should be with me, not wherever the hell she’s gone off to.
“She said she owed it to her marriage.”
She’s with Ray.
Mary’s words replay in my head, splitting me in two—the one half being the man who would chase Anaya to the ends of the earth and the other the one who would send it all to hell, letting it all burn down around him as he clung to the only thing that mattered, his children.
I want to hurl this phone against a wall, watching it splinter into a million tiny pieces, but I can’t. I have vengeance to seek and two children to care for. Losing myself in this anger for yet another woman who couldn’t stick around. First my mother, then Blanca, and now her. They’re all the same. Fuck them all.
“Austin, I didn’t mean to upset you. I just wanted you to know since I’m the one caring for the kids now. It’s your right to know any changes when it comes to them.”
Her being so candid gives me pause. “You’re so close to the vest about things considering your daughter’s personal life. Why tell me all this now?”
There’s a beat of silence before she finally answers on a long sigh. “Because even though she’s my daughter, she was your nanny, and this is a conversation she should’ve had with you. I support her in everything she does, but I can recognize when she does wrong, and leaving you like this is wrong.”
Leaving me like this, not the kids. Interesting choice of words, but I can’t let myself linger on them. Not for a woman who left me for another. One who’s already proven himself unworthy of her love.
Shaking my head, I vow to not spend another second thinking of the woman who turned my world upside down in such a short time. She’s clearly made her choice and I’m no fool to go chasing after wasted dreams of happily ever after. If she wants that asshole Ray, then she can have him.
“Thank you, Mary. I’ll see you when I get home. Please give the kids a hug and a kiss for me.”
“Will do,” she answers as I hit the button, ending the call and needing to put as much space between me and this new development as possible.
A hand claps on my shoulder, and I turn to see Jack wincing. “Sounds like you can use a drink. Good thing we’re due a break.”
I nod. “Sure. A drink sounds good.”
“Come. Let’s head to Daniel’s office. That’s where he keeps the good shit.”
“If by the good shit you mean the stuff that will numb my soul, then I’m down.”
“Ooof. The nanny really did a number on you, didn’t she?”
“You have no idea, brother. No fucking clue.”
I SLOWLY LOWER MY rocks glass, savoring the tang of Cárdenas’ tequila. “What do you mean?”
Daniel raises a brow. “I’m surprised you didn’t know. el Jefe’s brother was your dad’s primary contact.”
His words have my heart threatening to beat out of my chest, my ears ringing with this new revelation. I’m about to ask him for more when Jack beats me to it.
“How are you so sure it was him?” Jack is skeptical that we could miss such a big detail in our recon, and I don’t blame him.
“I could see why you wouldn’t catch that. They look nothing alike. While el Jefe is all tattoos and rough edges, his brother Raul is nothing but sophistication and smooth edges.” Daniel signals to one of his men before continuing. “We hadn’t seen it at first either, and the only reason we ended up finding out is because one of my men lived in Tecate where the two brothers grew up.”
“Wow, so anyone on the outside looking in would think that Dad was just having a regular business meeting. Just another cut-throat businessman.” Jack rubs at his stubble while I’m still at a loss for words.
Daniel chuckles, but there’s nothing light about the look on his face. “You got the cut-throat part right. Raul is one of the deadliest men in all of Mexico.”
This piques my interest. “Oh? How so?”
The cartel Don takes a sip of his drink, his eyes misting over. “There’s only one man that’s ever been able to make a dent to his body. In his early teens, when he was still green in the family business, one of his father’s men tried to kill him and his brother. I guess that shit was really the beginning. What triggered the killer in him because the man who took him on was left nothing but piles of shredded flesh… and Raul? All he ever got was a nick to his upper lip.”
Daniel’s words have my body stilling. “Where is he now? Raul? He wasn’t among the detained below.”
I’m sitting there, praying that by some miracle he’s one of the dead. That this is why he’s not here on this compound.
“No. He’s not here.” Daniel takes another sip of his drink as the man he motioned earlier hands him an envelope. “Raul is a slippery fucker. A ghost. Only seen when he wants to be seen.”
“So, is Raul the only one you haven’t been able to track down?” Jack asks, oblivious to the horror show running through my head.
I’m about to ask if Daniel has any more information on Raul when the Don throws down the open file, pictures spreading out across the mahogany table. Motherfucker. There, right in front of us in black and white, lay photos of our father with el Jefe’s brother.
As I stare at the photos, my heart stops beating, and all air is sucked from my lungs, all while Jack releases a string of curse words.
“I take it you two have met Raul before?” Daniel looks between us, his brows furrowed.
“Fuck!” I push off the table, my chair toppling over before I pace in front of the two men. “Yes, we’ve fucking met him.”
Daniel is still confused, his eyes shifting back and forth between Jack and me when Jack finally decides to clue him in, because lord knows I can’t voice the words.
“Daniel, Raul is the nanny’s husband. He’s been at the ranch.”
