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Fear spiked in her, turning her legs to jelly. “What did you leave out?” she demanded, distress causing her voice to be sharp.
He hung his head in shame and closed his eyes. “I haven’t been handling the shipping orders. I was more interested in building my prototype and supervising the new plantings.”
She gasped. “You turned it over to someone else?”
The look on Diego’s face had her stomach dropping. “Sort of. Juan’s second in command. He’s been doing the shipping for a month. Juan was grooming him, and I should have promoted him to shipping manager, but I was so busy and distracted.”
“Okay, so no problem. Promote him now.”
He was trembling and panic flashed in his eyes, along with a stark fear he couldn’t conceal no matter how hard he tried. “I can’t. They’re digging into all the records, financial, shipping, and production. If there’s something off—they’re going to blame me.”
Utterly chilled to the bone, Mari knew she had to do something. “Oh, my God,” she said on a sob. “Why didn’t you tell Buck this information?”
“Well, because they were investigating me, and I didn’t want it to get back to Dad. He’s going to be so angry, Mari. I didn’t want to let him down. You know? But I was so busy with every?—”
“Okay. I get it. I’m questioning a lot with my own role in the family.”
He nodded, his eyes full of compassion.
“You work so hard, Mari, and have sacrificed your own happiness. We all see it, and we all want more for you.”
She reached out and hugged her brother tightly for a few minutes, blinking away tears, realizing how blind she’d been. She needed to allow herself the space and time to understand how she felt. Feel all her emotions and realize that she could trust them to guide her. Something would have to change in her life. She didn’t want to conceal her unhappiness anymore. But right now, she had to deal with this latest problem. “Who is this man?”
Diego released her and said, “Kevyn Sanchez. Juan taught him well. He knows everything.”
“I’m going to need his address,” she said firmly.
“Mari—”
“Don’t argue.” Her mouth tightened into a hard line. “We need him on board. I can offer him the management position. We’ll work this out.”
Diego dragged both hands down his face and released a rough exhale of breath, and she could see his concern. “Do you want me to go with you?”
“No, I’ll go. You stay here.” Diego hugged her hard, and she hugged him back. Her first instinct was to tell Buck, confide in him, but she just couldn’t be sure of his loyalties, and it would put him in a bad position. She would fix this. Everything would be all right.
14
As Buck was leaving the police station after wrapping up the reports with the local guys and the PCD, Russ stopped him.
“Hold up, Buckard.”
Bracing himself for another contentious exchange, he turned.
“Look. I was out of line in trying to exclude you from interviews and in general, giving you a hard time. You were right. Losing my man, the crash, you guys in danger, and now the Navarros caught up in this drug trafficking crap just got to me. We work so hard to get these guys, and it’s frustrating to know more will most likely take their places. It becomes a never-ending grind full of violence and greed with innocents caught in the crossfire.” He shifted and scrubbed his weary face. “This country is beautiful, the people friendly and hardworking, and it’s slowly being chewed up and demolished. I let it get to me, and I’m sorry for the way I acted. You were right about leadership.” He reached out his hand and Buck nodded and shook.
“Thank you, Russ. We will continue to fight the good fight. It’s all we can do, and we’re persistent bastards.”
Russ laughed softly. “You got that right, Buck.”
Russ pushed out of the station, and Buck found that exchange to be surprising and unexpected. There wasn’t one of them who didn’t feel that frustration during any given mission. Once outside, he headed for the SUV and climbed inside.
“How did it go?” D-Day asked.
“Diego and Mari were cooperative, but I got a bad feeling Diego is still holding back.” He rubbed his face like Russ had a few moments ago. “We’ll know more when the FBI finishes with the shipping and processing records.”
Most of the guys looked grim. They all had a soft spot for the Navarros for obvious reasons, and none of them wanted the family to lose their livelihoods and maybe face prison time. The Costa Rican government was ruthless in meting out their punishments.
When Joker emerged and climbed inside, Blitz put the vehicle in gear, and they pulled out. His boss slipped him a glance, then looked away and Buck got the distinct feeling there was something on his mind. Hell, he was sure there had been something brewing in Joker ever since he woke up in the hospital.
