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I push off the island and step in front of her, lifting her hand around her cup to my lips and sipping. My eyes meet hers and heat simmers between us. The kind of heat that can bring a man to his knees, at least this man. “So much better when it’s from your cup with you holding that cup.”
She gives me a shy, sexy smile. “Yeah?”
“Yeah, baby. And you don’t need to worry about money. We have a shit ton and I mean a shit ton. We can travel the world for our architectural inspiration or work if you want. You always wanted to see the pyramids.”
“I do,” she says. “Have you?”
“Not intimately.”
“But you have.”
I stroke her cheek. “Don’t sound so disappointed. I saw a lot of things that would have been better with you. They will be better with you. And as a bonus for our travels, I already know how to tell someone to ‘fuck off’ in about seven languages. I can only speak three, and only two of those well, but ‘fuck off,’ I got that one down.”
She laughs and the doorbell rings. “That will be Blake. He’s on my approved list. Anyone who isn’t, can’t get up here unless the doorman calls us and clears the visitor.”
“Unless it’s an assassin who knows how to get around such things?” She tries to deliver that question as a joke but her voice lifts and her tone is bleak.
I cup her face. “Tell him to come on in. I’m waiting.” I kiss her and head for the door.
Blake and his wife Kara, are alone and holding bags of food. “We brought burgers from Joe’s,” Kara says. “She does like burgers, right?”
Kara’s a pretty brunette who’s not only ex-FBI, she handles a gun about as well as us Walker men. I figure her and Candace will get along just fine and I prefer Candace have friends who can kill the enemy, in between chit chat.
“Ask her yourself,” I say, motioning her on in the door so that I can talk to Blake.
“Rude,” Kara snaps, “but at least she can pick her burger before you two beasts chow down.” She hurries on into the apartment and Blake steps closer. “Nothing. Alejandro has simply disappeared. I checked all methods of transportation, and we’ve hit up traffic cameras all over San Antonio. He disappeared on foot after the shooting and no one has seen him since.”
I scrub the stubble on my jaw I never got around to shaving and curse.
“Maybe he took the money and ran,” Blake offers.
“He didn’t,” I say, and I leave it at that and so does he.
Candace and Kara are sitting at the island across from each other, each with a burger and fries in front of them, chatting away. Yep. These two are going to be peachy keen friends. That works, but the distraction of a new friendship doesn’t last long for Candace. The minute we join them on our respective sides, Kara’s attention is on me. “I hear she was craving a burger. I’m a mind reader and I have good news I already shared with Candace. Kelly called me on video chat.”
I arch a brow. “And?”
“Max was with her. He’s alive. I talked to him, too. He didn’t know how to reach you and they had to go dark. He said he owes you.”
“Did you tell him Tag was dead?”
“No. I didn’t know at the time.”
We talk back and forth through a few bites of our burgers before Candace asks, “How is my father?”
“Good,” Blake says, reaching for a second burger, as I do the same. “I’m having him taken to a safehouse, just until I know this is over.”
“Do we think he’s a target?” she asks, casting me a worried look.
“Tag wanted me, you, Gabriel and your father dead,” I say. “Until Alejandro is dead, and I’ve dealt with Pocher, he’s better off in a safehouse.”
“Can’t he stay here with me?” Candace.
“Not until he’s debriefed,” Blake says, saving me from that hell. I have issues with that man. I can’t focus on ending this threat and him, not when he and I have a history that divided Candace and I. “Talk to me about Pocher,” Blake says, downing a fry. “Tag wanted those who could expose his operation to die. I get that. But Pocher is out of this now. Gabriel’s dead. His involvement is dead, too.”
“Wrong,” I say connecting the dots for everyone else that I connected myself over my coffee. “First,” I add. “Pocher is the one who hired Alejandro to protect Gabriel. Tag supposedly paid him to turn on Gabriel but Pocher is the Society. They’re the deep state. You don’t outbid the Society. ”
“You think Pocher wanted to kill Gabriel?” Kara asks. “I thought he was his future presidential star?”
“He was,” I say. “But he had baggage. Lots of baggage. We never got the chance to take him down, but we would have. Pocher could easily have gotten wind of that and wanted to cut the threads.” I hold up a fry for emphasis. “Think about it. Even now, if that dirty laundry comes out, Pocher looks bad.”
