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Brute turned to look at me, his brow furrowed. He said nothing, but the look in his eyes was clear. He was looking for how to proceed, and I appreciated that. I think that little talk we’d had about hard calls and objectives and killing those people who got in the way had really sunk in.
I shook my head discreetly, because something felt off here—‘off’ with a capital ‘what the hell is going on’.
Brute turned back to look at Leeri. “A piece of paper with nothing on it but symbols. Those symbols,” he said, motioning to Leeri’s arm.
She shook her head, brow furrowed.
With the two of them wearing matching expressions, I could see the familial resemblance now. Something in the shape of their eyes and their long, straight noses.
“I never sent you any message, Brute. And how the hell did you know I washere?”
He sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, moving a little carefully, like he hadn’t quite… recovered from what had been taking place right before his sister showed up.
“I didn’t know you were here, not until you told Greta about your tattoo,” he said, nodding in my direction. “She put two and two together. When she told me… well, after getting that paper, I knew you had to be in trouble.”
He looked up at her, eyes searching.
“You shouldn’t have come. I’m not in trouble, Brute,” she said, as prickly as ever.
I’d had enough. Maybe it was the prickly cactus; maybe it had something to do with having been moments away from finding out all that Brute’s jacked flesh could do to my body. Whatever the reason, Leeri was pissing me off.
“You do realize that even though you up and disappeared on him years ago, your brother just flew two thousand miles to get to you, just because he thought you might need his help,” I snapped.
Something in her eyes flickered that didn’t look quite so prickly, at least when she looked at Brute. When she turned to look at me, the prickles were there in spades.
Still, she shook her head. “You should go home, Brute. I don’t need help.”
Brute scoffed. “This was on purpose? You disappeared fifteen years ago, leaving me to tear apart New York looking for you, and you were running here? Was this the dream, Leeri? To be the girlfriend of that cartel asshole?”
She scoffed right back at him, amping up the sibling similarities. “Says the president of a goddamned motorcycle club.”
“Damn right,” he shot back.
She sighed, suddenly looking tired. “You don’t know me, Brute; you know nothing about me.”
“So, enlighten me,” he said, throwing his arms out.
Leeri shook her head. “I can’t,” she said, and something about the way she said it made the back of my neck prickle.
“What do you mean, you can’t?” Brute asked.
“I mean, what I’m doing here is none of your business, and it has to stay that way. So go transport your goddamned guns and don’t come back. Javier can’t know—”
“Uh-uh,” I said, shaking my head. “Secrets get people killed. I don’t know what you’re hiding, but pretending you don’t know him is not a smart move,amica.”
“What the hell do you know? Fucked enough bikers and mafiosos that you think you know how the cartel thinks?”
I laughed. “I suppose you could say that. If you’re trying to offend me, don’t bother. My skin might look damn good, but it’s thicker than you think.”
Because what did she think I was going to do?—run and cry over her snarky insults?
“So, if you’re done trying to slut-shame me, then letmeenlightenyou,”I said, getting right in the woman’s face. “Brute is the associate hauling your boyfriends’ guns across the US. I’m sure Domínguez already has people digging into Brute, looking into his background. If he doesn’t already know that Brute had a sister, then he will pretty damn soon. Can you tell me with one hundred percent certainty there isn’t a single picture of Valeria Hastings floating out there somewhere?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Because if there is one, he’ll find it. And then he’ll catch you in your lie and probably carve you up into tiny, bite-size pieces.”
All right, probably not bite-size; just small enough to dunk in a big-ass barrel of acid.
I shrugged. “Whatever it is you’re doing here, the more truth you give, the less chance of being caught in a lie.”
She heaved a sigh, but it felt like it was more for show this time. “So, what is it you propose we do?”
