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Leo cuts eyes at O’Grady as he pulls his woman to him to look at the iPad in her hands. Though he does rest his hand on her ass. “You run a roughshod organization, O’Grady.”
“And you run a dictatorship. Look not that it’s anyone’s business, but my organization is meant to be organic. We work with anyone who doesn’t break my rules. Someone did, I’m here to find out who the fuck it was and who the fuck might be messing with us. The blockades don’t affect you, but they affect some of my people. And now this fucking Smith Group?”
He shakes and leans back on the table. “Someone pretended to carry word from the top. Me. I want them gone. And I’m beginning to think it’s someone who isn’t a Lowlander but did work. Or if they are one, they’re low down.”
“One of your organics?” Leo asks.
“Or a plant from one of your underlings.” A small smile forms on O’Grady’s face.
“And this is why you didn’t want to bring it to Leo without knowing everything,” Diego mutters in my ear.
I nod. The thing is, we can speak freely, but this situation is far from normal, and the two big bosses are pissing up against a wall. They discuss the pros and cons of why El Cabeza is doing this. Gains versus losses.
Losses could come if others band together.
They have gangs, yes, but gangs can be fickle. Then there’s the Smith Group, which we know nothing about when it’s put against everything else.
Suddenly, an ear-piercing whistle splits the air, and Mia puts her hand down and gestures to Karlee. “She’s trying to say something.”
“If every one of you big, bad men can stop arguing and seeing who’s got the bigger dick, then I’d like to talk.”
Oh, fuck yeah, that’s my Karlee.
Bemusement is all over O’Grady’s face, and even Leo has a curious expression in place.
And me? Fuck it, that’s pride, right there, swelling in my chest. She’s one hell of a woman.
She holds something black and glittering up.
“I was thinking about code and puzzle pieces, and when I looked up the missing girls, I decided to copy it and—” She stops. “Never mind. The important thing is this.”
She waves the thing around. It’s a thumb drive, and Karlee stares at me. “I said that sometimes it takes the code key or the right puzzle piece to pull it together?”
“Yeah, but?—”
“Fallon hid something. Mentioned Smith Group but nothing more to you. He had a reason.”
“Karlee, he might not have known?—”
“No, Tizio. Look at the whole picture, not the pieces. He wouldn’t hide something on me, but he might put it with things no one would notice, things that belong to me. I have a lot of USB sticks. This one I found it the other day. It’s got files on it. Encrypted.” She grins. “What if this is the code key and the puzzle piece?”
Right then and there, I think I could fall in love with Karlee MacNamara.
Chapter Twenty-Two
KARLEE
First, I’m standing in a room larger than any study I’ve been in before. It’s full of big handsome men, and the cutest little baby I’ve seen. A baby, I might add, who’s sleeping through it all.
Second, I need to crack the encryption, which I’m betting will be a cakewalk for me.
Not to blow my own little trumpet, but this is so up my alley. After all this time with Tizio calling the shots, I want to be the one in charge, even for a sweet moment.
Scarlett—I think that’s her name—pushes Leo aside and gestures for me to sit. So, I do.
My cheeks burn, and while I like the idea of being in charge, I’m not a fan of being the center of attention.
The moment I start working on the encryption, the voices and the people all fade away.
