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“I’m already not happy about it, so there’s no harm.”
She played with the wrapper of her long-gone snack. “I think he’s somehow involved in Santiago Cruz’s murder.”
My eyes snapped to her, who was still not looking at me. I stopped breathing for a beat. It was so much worse than I imagined.
“Why do you think that?”
“During our...chat, he mentioned something about making up for lost money, being here to put losers to rest, and he let it slip he’s been in town for a few months. He was probably here to receive the drugs. When they never came, he was part of the murder. The guy had lost that huge shipment, which cost them millions of dollars. Remember? The one with nearly two hundred bricks of cocaine and the horses?”
My heart was galloping, and my stomach was in knots. “You mean the shipmentyouwere responsible for stopping? Damn it, Mia, he’s here after you!”
“We don’t know that.” Even she didn’t believe this.
“Really?” Myeeswere too long and myellestoo pronounced even for my ears. “So let’s recap, shall we? Almost twenty years ago—"
She rolled her eyes. “Man, this is gonna take long.”
I ignored her. “You hit Michael—repeatedly, I might add—and stopped him from hurting me...”
“Killing you.”
“Then he threatened to kill you.”
“He didn’t say itper se. He said he’d be the last thing I saw.”
“And that’s a lot better.” My sarcasm was oozing from me. “Years later, you arrested Pablo Salazar—Carlos Gomes’s right hand. You know, the same Carlos Gomes who’d been supplying the better part of the country with cocaine and is suspected of being involved with human trafficking.”
“In my defense, I didn’t know he was so close to the kingpin when I arrested Pablo.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Yes, I did.”
“And I don’t think they care if you knew or not, especially since he spent the last few years in jail.”
“They don’t know it was me, I don’t think they had my full name. They probably even thinkThe Bryant Prodigy,” she made a face as she said it, “is a man. You know because women are so inferior and all.” She huffed in disgust, and despite being an infuriating and misogynistic notion I was sure they had, I chose to ignore that as well.
“Fast forward to months ago, when for some crazy reason you figured out an unassuming truck transporting two horses that were just supposed to breed or whatever was also transporting a huge amount of cocaine, evaluated in millions of dollars in market value. The money they lost.”
“They were bringing the horses from down the country to little ole here for breeding and training. Please.” She scoffed, not at all fazed by my retrospective.
“If that wasn’t enough, the guy transporting the animals was arrested, and Santiago Cruz, the one who sent them and was responsible for the drugs, was murdered in the countryside nearby, when Michael, the same Michael who threatened you almost two decades ago, came to this town to ‘put losers to rest’ and ‘count his money.’” I made quote signs with my fingers. “Am I forgetting something?” Before she could respond, I resumed. “Michael already has a vendetta against you for what happened when we were young, now you’re wanted for inflicting on them this huge financial loss. That arrest was significant, and people heard about it all over the country.”
“Instead of being mad, you should thank me. We’ve closed a lot of missions with the government after that. Besides, my name wasn’t on display on the news. Again, they probably don’t know it was a woman.”
“I can assure you Michael knows. And if he doesn’t, he most certainly doesn’t care.” When I saw the change in her demeanor, her eyes becoming sharp and her clenching jaw, I knew there was something she wasn’t telling me. “What did he say to you?” She nibbled the inside of her lips. “Mia. What did he say to you?” My voice was clipped.
“Please, don’t go all ballistic about it. As I said before, we know how to deal with this kind of thing, and we’ll solve this. To say Michael’s words, we’ll put it to rest. That’s an interesting expression, don’t you think? ‘Put it to—”
“Mia!” I interrupted her babble.
She took in a deep breath. “That was another point of suspicion for me. He was paid to do whatever he did. He said he was already counting his money, but he was more intent on making good on his old promises, then he said...you know...something about watching my back.”
She wasn’t looking at me, which was a good thing. I was sure I was about to transform into an evil gremlin. “Fuck.Fuck! I can’t believe he’d...I’m gonna...” I stood up and started pacing as I vomited every bad word I could remember.
“Good Lord, you kiss Izzie with that foul mouth? You’re hurting my proper and prude ears.”
I was still huffing and pacing her back yard as she watched, still seated on the porch steps, her arms draped on her bent knees. “I’m sure you’ve heard worse.”
