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And then Mateo is moving, though I have no concept as to where he’s taking me. Off the island, I presume. Then again, maybe he’s going to leave me here for my father. Maybe I’ve proven to be too much of a liability. But I know that Mateo would never accept defeat so easily.
It isn’t until we reach that beach that my head starts to clear a bit. I’m still shaken, but it’s like the fog has started to lift and everything is too real.
Mateo sets me on my feet a few feet shy of the dock, leaning down so that our faces are level.
“Why did you go with him?” he demands, his words laced with anger.
It takes my frazzled mind a few seconds to catch up.
“What?”
“Why did you go with him?”
“I... I didn’t... I didn’t know what was happening. I thought you sent him. We found Niko...” I choke on the words, fresh tears pooling in my eyes. “I thought something had gone terribly wrong and you had sent him to get me out.”
“Did he hurt you?” His eyes examine my face, worry furrowing his brow.
I can’t get a grasp on what I’m seeing.
This man... He just shot someone in the head at point blank range yet he doesn’t seem the least bit phased.
Something tells me I underestimated what Mateo is capable of. I think I underestimated a lot of things.
I shake my head no, unable to get the word out.
“Fuck.” He lets out a slow breath.
“How are you here?” I ask after a long moment.
“I never left.”
I pull back slightly.
“What?”
“I only said I was leaving. I sent Martinez and Dax in my place.”
“You knew he’d make a move while you were away?”
He nods. “I didn’t know it was Danny. Though now that I think about it, he should have been at the top of my list of suspects. He was one of my father’s most trusted men. I should have known that didn’t mean his trust automatically fell to me after my father died.” He runs a hand through his hair, frustration and anger radiating off of him in waves. “Going after Niko though, that’s a move I didn’t anticipate. I’ve been distracted. Unfocused. And now my right hand man is dead because of it.”
He doesn’t say it, but I understand completely.
I am the distraction.
I am the reason Niko is dead.
I am the reason for all of this.
And yet, what have I really done?
I didn’t ask to be abducted and held against my will.
I didn’t ask to be used as a chess piece in this fucked up game of cat and mouse.
I didn’t ask for any of this.
Yet here I am, smack dab in the center of a war raging between two powerful cartels.
