AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I tossed out a smart aleck remark I barely thought about and dug into my food again. All the while in the back of my head, my thoughts were spinning.
Even if things got really bad in Austin… would I be willing to take the help this guy had just offered me?
SEVEN
Rafael
A neon signin the shape of a beer bottle buzzed in the bar’s front window, flickering for a second as it cast its red glow across my eyes. I scanned the sidewalk around me and the view through the glass before heading inside.
There was no sign of any of the Deadly Rose lackeys I could recognize. This place wasn’t a typical hang-out of theirs, but I’d known a few people from my earlier life who’d frequented the place. Which was why I’d made it my first stop since arriving in Austin.
I stepped through the doorway into the reek of alcohol and surreptitious joints. The place was crowded with most of the seats around the table and the bar taken, raucous voices bouncing off the low ceiling. On the tiny stage at the far end of the main room, three dudes with scraggly beards were fiddling around with some instruments, squinting at their equipment as they tested the cords.
Maybe I could be done here before I needed to endure their musical stylings.
I didn’t want to leave the loft for very long anyway. Ithoughtthe figure skaters had taken my warnings to heart about sticking to the quiet neighborhood on the fringes of the city where gang activity should be nearly nil. But the prick who’d insisted on joining the three of us in our search for Lou struck me as both restless and not in the habit of following orders.
Hopefully Jasper and Niko could keep him in line. I really didn’t need another problem.
Lou would never forgive me if I got either of her other boyfriends too mixed up in the danger that waited for us here.
I moved over to the bar, ordered a beer since I didn’t want anything that’d give me a real buzz while I needed to stay alert, and continued my survey of the bar-goers. My gaze caught on a slim middle-aged man in an untucked pin-striped dress shirt and jeans, sauntering from the restrooms over to the curve of the counter.
“‘Nother Johnnie Walker on the rocks,” he called to the bartender loud enough for me to make out his voice over the din, with a rap of his hand against the polished wooden surface.
The bartender fixed the drink without a word, and I moseyed around the counter to where I could lean against the empty seat next to my target.
“Hey, Albie. It’s been a while.”
The man swiveled toward me, and his eyebrows arched. “Rafael! It has been. Where’ve you been hiding yourself these days?”
I smiled grimly, knowing he wouldn’t really expect an answer I wasn’t going to give him. You had to be careful with Albert Thimbal. The small-time scam artist didn’t pledge his loyalty to any particular gang, preferring to keep his ear to the ground and make use of any advantage he could get.
If anything major was going on within the criminal world of Austin, he’d know. And he wouldn’t tattle on me to any of my former associates unless it seemed particularly worth his while—which was more guarantee than I’d get from most of my old contacts.
“Here and there,” I said nonchalantly, and motioned to the bartender that I was covering Albert’s drink. “Been out of the loop. Got a little time to shoot the breeze?”
He shot me a grin full of teeth that wished they’d seen braces in his teens. “If you’re paying, I can talk.”
He picked up his drink and we drifted over to a booth in the corner, as secluded as any seating in this venue got. Albert took a tentative sip and eyed me with obvious curiosity. “What’s eating at you?”
I shrugged as if it was no big deal. “Oh, nothing urgent. I’m just trying to get the lay of the land now that I’m back. Any big news in the last couple of months?”
“I guess that depends on what you call big.”
I narrowed my eyes at him and decided I’d better stop beating around the bush. “Have the Cordovas been up to anything interesting?”
Albert swirled his glass, the ice clinking against the sides. “Heard a lot of guys came out of the head lady’s house worse for wear not that long ago. She was upset about something.” His focus on me turned even more speculative.
I kept my expression vague. “I caught a few murmurs about that. Got the impression it had something to do with her daughter.”
“Oh, yes, the heir. Whatever happened with her, Mireya Cordova is showing her off all over the place now.”
I had to will the tension that gripped my body not to stiffen my stance. “Really? Showing her off how?”
Albert took another gulp. “Trotting her out in front of this boss and that one, lots of little meetings she’s not being as secretive about it as you’d expect.”
My stomach sank. “Any idea what all those meetings are leading up to?”
