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The man gripped his coffee so tightly I thought the cup would collapse in his well-manicured hand. He was trying his best to keep cool, to maintain his composure. It wasn’t working.
“Don’t tell me you’re in control when you’re not,” I said smugly. “Look at your hand. It’s shaking.”
Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. The important thing was that he glanced down. I’d broken his confidence. Distracted him in ways he hadn’t anticipated.
“The Ancellasownyou,” I pressed. “And when they get up here—”
“The Ancellas are nothing!” Javi snapped. “A bunch of reckless savages; no brains, all brawn.”
My heart began beating double time. I leaned forward even closer toward the other side of the table.
“You’ve done something that you’re trying to hide,” I laughed. “And when they catch you—”
“They’ll knownothing,” the man snarled, “because you and your rats won’t tell them a thing. Besides, they’re already hamstrung by disloyalty. Half their connections have gone over to our side, and the ones that haven’t—”
“Crisco.”
“Crisco’s ours,” said Javi. “But Lucas Almon. He’s ours now, too.” His smile widened. “They might not know it yet, but we’re putting a cap on the cartel’s influence. Paring down their leadership to better suit our needs.”
“And stealing from them,” I added sharply. “Let’s not forget that.”
The lines of Javi Lozano’s forehead deepened. His lips went tight.
“What, you didn’t think we knew?” I quipped. “You act all high and mighty, like your organization is legitimate, but in the end you’re no better than any other drug thief.”
“If we took anything it was already ours,” said Javi.
“Tell that to the Ancellas,” I said, rather loudly. “Maybe you could explain skimming to them. Teach them how it works.”
My host shoved his coffee away with a bitter frown. Whichever way he expected this conversation to go, I was now completely off the rails for him.
Somehow though, he still tried to salvage it.
“It seems to me, Ms. Fletcher, that you’re not interested in getting your brother back at all.”
I stood up, gathering my things. Before leaving, I willed myself to bend forward and leaned in uncomfortably close.
“You don’t evenhavemy brother,” I snarled into his ear. Adding an evil chuckle, I turned away.
“You came here and brought nothing to bargain with.”
Forty-Seven
BRYNNE
I returned home empty-handed, without dinner or groceries. The guys were standing in the kitchen, arms folded.
“What’s wrong?”
For a moment none of them said anything. Eventually, Silas scratched at his chin.
“Our contacts in Mexico have gone silent,” he explained. “And that never happens.”
“So what does that mean?”
“It means we’re flying blind,” said Cody. “That any eyes we had on the Ancellas are gone, at least for now.”
I opened the fridge, reached in, and screwed the cap off a bottle of water. By the time I’d finished my first pull, it was already half empty.
