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“The others,” my tone becomes as solemn as his.
“He’s checking in on them now,” Alejandro shakes his head. Both of us know that the chance of any of them being found alive is non-existent. The cartel world isn’t full of forgiveness. It’s full of brutality, every man trying to prove to the others that there is no line he will not cross to remain in control of his empire. Or to take someone else’s.
“I’ve already increased security around Izzy and Jorge. And I’m not taking any precautions with myself either,” he lifts his shirt to reveal the gun tucked into his waistband. “I recommend you do the same with Alexys.”
Alejandro’s phone rings and he immediately answers and places it on speaker phone. “We’re both here, Raf.”
“They’re all dead, sirs,” his voice sounds pained as though he has just walked through a gruesome battlefield. “Every last one of them.”
“Tell all the men. Get their families somewhere safe. Send them all to Isabella’s shelter in Todos Santos. It’s well-guarded.”
Isabella’s shelter for victims of sex trafficking was never supposed to be a refuge for our business. From the beginning, Alejandro swore to her that it would only be hers; somewhere entirely separate from the seedy side of our lives.
“She’ll understand,” he mumbles to me.
* * *
Today, while we are at the office, Alejandro and I are both fully focused on observing the Padilla situation in Mexico. We’ve been so busy that I have barely spoken a handful of words to Alexys today, most of which were her transferring calls to my office.
I need to tell her.
For now, I’ve been able to keep her busy enough to mean that she took lunch at her desk and will have to stay late to finish everything.
Both keeping her in this building and within my line of sight.
“Mr. Ramirez,” Alexys’s professional voice buzzes through my intercom as the sun is setting over the skyline. “There’s a Rafael on hold for you.”
“Put him through,” I stand from my desk and promptly shut the door.
“Just a second,” I answer the phone and connect Alejandro.
“We have a problem,” Rafael is abrupt. “The Los Cangrejos warehouse was just attacked.”
The phone goes silent for a moment, before Rafael continues, “It gets worse.”
My cell phone buzzes on my desk and the sound of Alejandro’s dinging comes through the phone call. Opening up the message from Rafael, I’m met with pictures of both Alejandro and me pulled from the Marcano Enterprises website. Both are tacked to the wall of the warehouse. Bloody letters are smeared across them both.
You’re next.
“Cerecita,” Alejandro’s voice is laced with terror, and he immediately calls her from his cell phone.
thirty seven
ALEXYS
“Lex,” I look up to find Andres standing in the doorway of his office. “Come stay at my place tonight.”
“Andres,” I whisper his name in a scolding tone as I walk into his office. “You can’t do that. And really, is that the best line you had for inviting me over?”
“It’s not like that,” he sounds serious. “I’d feel much better knowing you weren’t alone in your apartment right now.”
Does he know?
He couldn’t know…
“So, you aren’t trying to have sex with me?”
“I’m being serious, Lex,” his seriousness, coupled with his complete lack of flirtatiousness, is starting to concern me.
