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But that shit couldn’t happen. Not now, not ever. Because watching her at that fucking party, I’d realized something.
I’d realized that I liked that she cared about what she did and that she’d go out of her way to send stupid messages to my baby sister. And that she wasn’t afraid to put Leeri in her place when her comments got out of line. It turned out, Greta wasn’t just an adrenaline junkie, she was a woman possessed by the gruesome images that plagued her. She had heart, one a hell of a lot bigger than I ever would have imagined.
I’d gotten to know her too well. Well enough that it wasn’t just her I worried about breaking the breakfast policy. And that was just the craziest fucking thing ever.
“Nothing at all, darling,” I said, then I put down my glass and left the room, heading up the stairs for what was sure to be a long, sleepless night.
Chapter Thirteen
Greta
“The hospital was close to closing when Javier resurrected it with a big donation,” Leeri explained as we stood outside theHospital Ángeles del Lázaro Cárdenas, watching as twoparamédicosrushed a middle-aged woman covered in blood in through the emergency department’s bay doors. “He’s kept it running ever since.”
Javier Domínguez had saved the hospital. He’d built a park in the center of the city. He’d kept a half dozen small businesses from going under. According to Brute’s sister, Domínguez was pretty much a saint.
She’d taken us on a tour of all his “monuments”, but I still wasn’t buying it. Nothing about the man, his girlfriend, or this city rubbed me the right way.
“What does he get out of all this?” I asked, because the doe-eyed act I’d been putting on was getting old.
She shrugged. “Satisfaction, I guess.”
Uh-huh. The paragon Good Samaritan? I so wasn’t buying it.
“So, what do you think?” she asked, addressing Deo with a flirty little smile.
Interesting. She’d been pretty damned straight-faced talking to Vito and me, and even Brute. It could be she was harboring a bit of a crush on Deo, but that didn’t sit right either.
My phone rang just as we were getting back into the limo Leeri had arrived in at the villa this morning. I stepped back and grabbed my phone out of my pocket. The number from Gabe’s latest burner phone flashed on my screen.
“Un minuto,” I said, making eye contact with Deo.
He nodded and turned back to Leeri, keeping her occupied with conversation about… something.
“It’s me,” I said as I answered the phone, “but company’s close by.”
“I had some company of my own,” Gabe said, though he didn’t sound terribly distraught. He seldom did. Pretty sure he was the most level-headed person in the western hemisphere.
“Oh? That sounds exciting.” Level-headed, maybe, but I also knew this housesitting shit was making him restless.
“Three of Domínguez’s men showed up about thirty minutes after you left. They spent a while snooping around but were careful not to make any mess.”
Poor Gabe. He’d wired up the villa with cameras the minute we arrived, and he and Vito had transformed the back of the main floor’s closet wall into a faux wall. Worse than housesitting, he’d spent the past few hours hanging out in the tiny cubicle behind the wall, watching Domínguez’s men snoop around.
“There was nothing for them to find, but they spent an awful lot of time trying to crack the laptops’ security. Dumbasses got nowhere with it.”
Of course not. Gabe had been at this shit for five years. And five years was a long time to get pretty damn good at… well, just about everything involved in our super-sleuth lives.
“All right, good to know. I’ll talk to you later,amico,” I said, then hung up the phone.
I looked up at Leeri, who was still talking animatedly to Deo.
You slimy, little hottie.Suddenly, I liked the girl a whole lot more. A deceptive little actress was far more interesting than a prickly cactus.
“There’s one more thing Javier wanted me to show you,” Leeri told Deo.
More distractions? I wondered what Domínguez was planning now.
I typed a quick message to Gabe.“Keep an eye out. She’s still giving us the run-around.”Then I slipped the phone into my pocket and hopped into the limo.
