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Drink this and take these. I’ll call you later, A x
I blinked back a tear. He’d signed it with a kiss. Somehow that note felt more intimate than anything that had ever passed between us before. Even when I’d had my semi-naked body pressed up against his, it had been about getting a need met. It hadn’t been about either of us caring about the other.
I picked up the glass and noticed the water was still cold. He must not have left that long ago and that realization made me smile.
I took hold of the two pills and tossed them into my mouth before taking a large gulp of the cold liquid and laying back against the pillows.
The events of the previous night began replaying in my head. Who was that man in the restaurant, and why had he targeted me? He’d mentioned my father, but what the hell could that be about? My father was a politician, and I had no doubt he’d angered many people in his career — but enough for them to want to shoot his daughter in the middle of a crowded restaurant?
I was sure Alejandro would get to the bottom of it—it was what he did, after all. But whether he would tell me the truth about it, was another matter entirely.
ALEJANDRO
I walked into the old warehouse and nodded to the four men who had been keeping the gunman from last night hostage.
Jax, my oldest friend and my second in command, walked over to me, flicking his lit cigarette into the distance.
‘Those things will kill you,’ I said to him.
‘Well, something’s gotta,’ he replied with a grin.
‘What do you have for me?’ I asked.
‘Layton Cooper. Forty-four. Lives in Virginia. Wife left him last year. They had a daughter. She died a little over two years ago when she was sixteen. Suicide, apparently.’
‘Has he said much?’
‘No, Boss. As per your orders we haven’t interrogated him yet. And he’s been as quiet as a church mouse all night except to ask for some water.’
‘Gracias,’ I said and walked over to where Layton was bound to a chair.
I picked up a bottle of water from the table as I passed. My men had been there all night and had taken provisions, and I knew they wouldn’t have shown him any mercy by agreeing to his request for a drink.
I pulled up a chair and sat in front of Layton. ‘You thirsty?’ I asked him.
He looked up at me. ‘Yes,’ he whispered as his eyes lingered on the bottle.
‘Why did you try and shoot my wife?’
‘To hurt her father,’ he said.
I opened the bottle and held it to his lips, offering him the cool water. He gulped it greedily until I took the bottle away.
‘Why do you want to hurt her father?’
‘Because he took everything from me.’
‘Do you have a death wish, Layton?’
He shrugged. ‘I have nothing left to live for. Why don’t you just shoot me in the head and get it over with?’
I smiled at him. ‘I’m not sure you appreciate who you’re dealing with. I don’t just shoot people in the head, Cabrón. I like to torture them first.’ I watched as the color drained from his face and he suddenly realized the situation he was in. ‘Especially when they put a gun in my wife’s face,’ I snarled.
‘I’m sorry about that. I would never have hurt her,’ he shook his head. ‘I just wanted to scare her. I wanted her to tell him how terrified she was, so he would know exactly how it felt.’
‘What exactly did Foster Carmichael do to you?’
‘I told you. He took everything from me. He took everything from me,’ he started to cry.
