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“Half lied,” he corrected. “I’ve only attended a single party where everyone of importance attended, but I’ve been to Marco’s house outside Bogotá a few times. And I’ve been right here, assisting Tania with background support.”
Nevertheless…
I struggled to see how he could be confident. Once Carillo had agreed and asked Adrien to schedule a sit-down—and Adrien had received the invitation to Luca Blanco’s summer residence—he’d been so sure. Just because he’d been here once before?
“Are you hiding something from me?” I had to ask. “We’re going to this massive estate, where every other face we’ll see is a guard with militia training, and the boss you wanna kill surrounds himself with children.”
He dumped two MREs into a skillet, then turned around to face me. “No, I’m not hiding anything, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Do you remember the civilian woman I told you about?”
I scratched the side of my head and nodded slowly. Yeah, he was going to protect her or something.
“She’s the assistant chef at Luca’s estate,” he explained. “Tania grew very close to her. She’s a woman in mourning—she’s lost all her sons to the cartel. Mindless shootings over fucking nothing. So she spent years getting close, and she eventually got a job there.”
A mother on a revenge mission.
“You’re, what, gonna poison everyone’s dinner?”
He chuckled under his breath and turned around again. “She would’ve done that without our involvement years ago if Luca didn’t enjoy feeding his great-grandkids food from his plate. No—but she’s become part of his inner circle of staff that always travels with him, and she believes she can get me closer.”
Fucking hell. I rubbed my forehead, and the only thing I saw was us getting killed. Closing in on a target, even eliminating the target, was just one part of the job. You still had to get out!
“All right.” I cleared my throat and focused on the phone. With a tiny screwdriver, I got the back off the phone, and I could take a closer look at the battery and— “But all the others…? It’s one giant-ass snake whose head you wanna cut off. How do we get out? Who’s gonna die? What are we doing about Luca’s sons? Will we even get past Marco? You said he’s unpredictable.”
“Because he’s not entirely pleased with Vincente,” Adrien responded. “He never got over losing his brother—Vincente’s old man. And something you must realize, Crew, is that Southern California is only one turf for the Blancos. They have operations all over the world, so everything they hear from California comes from Vincente. As far as Marco’s concerned, the shitshow back home is Vincente not being able to keep his management in check. Carillo going rogue will have consequences for Vincente.”
That made sense, so it was no wonder Vincente was eager for Elliott to hunt down Carillo.
“And you’re comin’ in as a freelancer who’s worked extensively with Carillo, so you’re just one more Vincente goon?” I guessed.
“More or less, although I do uphold a better reputation,” he added. “Otherwise, they’d never agree to meet with me.” He paused as he shuffled around the goo in the skillet. That was my brand of goo. MRE goo. Smelled like spaghetti and tomato sauce. “Enzo likes me,” he said. “He’s Luca’s eldest son.”
Finally, some promising news. Being liked by the next man in line had to be good.
I held up the phone and brushed the battery off on my tee. Condensation spotted—pleaselet that be the reason it hadn’t started.
“As for us getting away safely,” he continued. “The trick is to not reveal yourself as the killer.”
What an amazing trick. Sounded magical and awesome and not at all impossible.
“I didn’t know my new boyfriend was a wizard,” I muttered.
He laughed softly. “I’m hardly a wizard. But, Crew? I know what I’m doing. I’ve been working to get to this point for four years, and I will not blow it. I will not get us killed, and I will not miss out on my son’s life—or making you mine good and proper.” He glanced at me over his shoulder. “Have faith in me, please.”
He had a point—and I did have faith in him. But it was okay to be nervous, wasn’t it? To me, this wasn’t a mission until I had my orders. I needed to know who to shoot at, how to plan our escape route, and…I simply needed to know more. Otherwise, I’d be useless.
“I’m good for more than being a dummy,” I felt the need to say. “Intel might not be my jam, but combat and recon are. I’m a decent profiler, I’m an expert at logistics, and…” I trailed off when Adrien left the stove and sat down next to me.
He put a hand on my leg and squeezed it. “How’s this, sweetheart—I will ask for both forgiveness and patience. This is my case, and I’m not used to having backup. Especially not when he invited himself along about five minutes ago.”
Those werelongminutes, but he had a point there too.
“I do need you, though,” he went on. “I’m man enough to admit it’s a high-risk mission, and having you by my side has settled some worries for me. From now on, I’ll include you more.”
Damn, that was easy. I released a breath of relief, and it felt weirdly good to hear him be so upfront.
Plus, I wanted to be of use.
“You really need me?”
