AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I can't guarantee I can protect you from him,” Daniel said, drumming his fingers on the table. “That fucker is dangerous, and he's a damn ghost. It's rumored he doesn't exist.”
“I can assure you he does, and whatever you think you know about him, it's only the tip of the iceberg. If he were merely dangerous, there would be nothing to worry about,” I said soberly, crossing my arms.
Stone pushed to his feet, the chair scraping on the floor. “Is he looking for you?” he asked, glaring at me.
“Not yet. He doesn't know how to contact me anymore, though that won't stop him. The question now is whether to take down the beast or lie low and see what his next move is. Either one is a risk.”
Daniel ran a hand through his thick hair in frustration. “Can you keep supplying him? Would that keep him placated?”
I'd gathered Daniel lived on the fringes of the law, but I'd never in a million years believed he would have suggested I continue running cocaine. I wanted out of that shit. I'd never wanted to be in it in the first place. But out might mean six feet under, and I didn't want that either.
“I could have if I hadn't destroyed the coca crop.” I'd been on such a crusade to punish my father that I hadn't thought things all the way through, and with Rosca, it wasn't as simple as him finding another supplier and leaving me alone. He would expectmeto find it and deliver product to him.
“Fuck.”
“Exactly,” I said, the gravity of the situation leaving a pit in my stomach.
“How long before he comes calling?” Stone asked, hands braced on the table.
“A few weeks, a month at most. The last supply was enough to hold him a while.”
“Can you get him what he needs from somewhere else?” Daniel asked, leaning back. Stone paced between the island and the table. He'd always seemed easygoing. Even the other night, when I’d almost shot out his mirror, he’d kept his cool. But when it came to Muriella, it unraveled him.
“I might be able to use some of my contacts,” I said, already running through a list of possibilities in my mind. I'd forged a few alliances, some of them by imposing my will on weaker cartels. I wasn't a man they wanted to piss off, and I'd arranged it so they became dependent on me. If their survival depended on me, they wouldn't want me dead. Now I was afraid I'd cut off my nose to spite my face.
“You'll speak with Donato. I'll make the arrangements,” Daniel said firmly, and I nodded, though I didn't know who Donato was. I wasn't really in a place to argue, plus it was kind of nice to have people working with me instead of against me.
“We'll do what has to be done to keep that motherfucker happy until we can figure out how to take him out,” Stone said, extending his hand. I blinked at him in surprise and then shook it.
“One shipment. One deal. That’s all we’re giving this. I need my family safe, and that includes every person in this building,” Daniel said. He pointed at Stone. “You better not let your wife hear that language come out of your mouth.”
Stone shivered in mock fear. “That woman can be downright scary.”
“Camila—Muriellawas that way from the time she was born. She would boss me around like I was half her age.” I smiled.
Daniel snickered. “Even when she couldn't speak a word of English, she could put me in my place,” he confessed, and I didn't doubt it.
I steered the conversation in a serious direction once more. “Could we keep this conversation between us? For her own good. It's not like she doesn't know what I do, but I'd prefer to keep her as far away from it as possible.”
“I won't volunteer any information, but I won't lie to her either,” Stone said. Daniel agreed.
“Of course not.” I stood. “When can I see this dentist?”
Chapter Eighteen
Holly
“I’msorry to bother you at work.”
I clutched the phone at the sound of Muriella’s apologetic voice.
“Gabriel?” A thousand worst-case scenario thoughts zipped through my head at once.
“He’s fine. We went to the park for lunch and had a wonderful time.” I could hear her smile, and I instantly relaxed, but she grew somber. “Miss Ruby was life-flighted to a hospital in Austin.”
I touched the cross on my neck. Mulaney’s grandmother meant the world to her. “I haven’t seen Miss Jacobs in a couple of hours, but I’ll try to reach her.”
I dreaded having to deliver the bad news, but it was more important to be there for her in any way I could, the same as she’d always been for me.
