9. Andre
ANDRE
T he cool air from the fridge in the main kitchen washed over me, and I stood there, enjoying the shock of temperature.
Amorette was alive and unhurt. Matías had seemingly taken good care of her, but to what end?
There had to be some hidden agenda I couldn’t see.
I had expected Vicente’s men to ambush us as soon as we walked out.
When they didn’t, I thought they’d drive us off the road.
When they didn’t do that either, I was left fucking confused.
He was Vicente’s golden child—the one who would inherit everything one day.
What was more surprising was the lack of staff at his house. He didn’t have a mansion, not like Vicente’s, though it was still a monstrous size. Usually, twenty to thirty men patrolled the area with the occasional maid or two.
There were two men. One at the edge of the property and one in the backyard on the roof of the detached garage. One of the detached garages.
I only knew that because I had a man on his team until last year when Vicente stationed him with Maikel. Still useful, but it left a blind spot where Matías was concerned.
He’d told me about how slim Matías ran his ship, but I hadn’t believed him.
“Are you going to share what happened? I’m dying for the details,” Parker said dryly. I turned and shut the fridge, finding him leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets.
He’d changed since they met us on the pad. Showered too.
“We got her back. It wasn’t a trap.” I went to walk past him, but he stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.
“Mm. No, hermano . We’re all on the block—” I raised a brow, and Parker’s nostrils flared, but he didn’t acknowledge that he was the reason why we were all there—” and we should all be in the loop.”
I pushed around him, heading to my office, nodding at a few of our men. Parker kept up with me step for step, with his hands clasped behind his back.
Once we were in my office, he shut my door and sprawled out in the chair in front of my desk. “Okay. Now that we’re alone. No ears to hear, tell me what happened.”
I sighed. “Then shouldn’t you call Lafe and Grey in so we can have a group meeting?” The question dripped with sarcasm, but I was fucking tired of being the only one who cared about saving their sorry asses.
He waved a hand. “Lafe hates this stuff. And he was there, so he knows what happened. Grey’s probably balls-deep inside Amorette right now. We can fill him in later.” A smirk hooked one side of his mouth.
Using my forefinger, I rubbed the skin above my eyebrow. Fucking Parker.
“We got her back. It wasn’t a trap. We need to keep our ear to the ground to see what Vicente’s next move will be. This could have been him just being his fucked-up self, playing with us.” I leaned back against the chair, the wheels creaking from the shift in pressure.
“Uh-uh.” He shook a finger at me like I was some kind of naughty fucking kid without a clue.
“That’s where you’re going off course. Vicente’s already making his next move.
” Fire flashed in his eyes. “Jorge called. His job was compromised, and some of my men were injured as a result. None dead, thankfully. He’s cleaning it up, although there’s no way this should have happened. Vicente’s circling.”
I stiffened. If Vicente was actually out for those men, at least a few would have died. This was a game of cat and mouse.
“What, you thought Vicente would just forget and forgive?” He scoffed in disgust.
That wasn’t what I’d been thinking at all. I had been enjoying the reprieve while also trying to find the fucking bane of our lives. We needed time to regroup. Do research. Build alliances.
“Matías said he didn’t harm her. He fed her and clothed her. Didn’t touch her. And to remember that.”
Parker jerked his head back. “No request for payment? No favor to call in at a later date?”
“No, unless you count that as a favor to be called in later,” I said as I shook my head.
I was just as confused. “When I asked if she’d been there the whole time, he said yes, straight from Vicente’s hands.
When I asked why he’d taken so long to call us, he said he had his reasons.
That was the extent of our very stilted conversation. ”
“Hmm. That’s a twist I didn’t see coming.” He rested his elbow on the arm of the chair and propped up his chin. “You think he’s trying to take over Vicente’s place without waiting for the old man to die?”
I blinked. Parker and I… didn’t have brainstorming sessions. I worked on keeping Vicente off our backs, and he did whatever the fuck he did on his own or with Mia.
“I already thought of that. If Vicente hand-delivered Amorette, he’d be pissed Matías gave her back to us,” I drawled.
“You’re sure he didn’t touch her? And you’re sure she didn’t know him before she came to us?”
I snorted. “I’m positive. He didn’t have a scratch on him.
If he’d tried to touch her, she would have fought like the devil.
Funny, she lets Grey get so much of her.
” I grinned, but it was short-lived. “And no, I don’t believe Amorette knew him before us.
She’s not a plant. Just knowing her is to know she’s a diehard for her beliefs.
She’s not a plant. You saw her background check just like I did. ”
“Just covering all the bases and playing devil’s advocate.” He tapped his fingers on his cheek. “You think he’s taken with her?”
“No. He wouldn’t have given her back if he was.” Matías was a lot of things, but noble wasn’t one of them. If he’d wanted her, he would have fucked her. And kept her.
“We need to—” He stopped speaking as his phone rang. He pulled it out and answered while holding eye contact with me. “Hello?”
His eyes widened a millisecond before he raced from my office toward the main doors. The fucker was fast, but I stayed on his heels. He put his phone away and slammed through the glass door so hard I was surprised it didn’t fly off its hinges.
A hummer idled at the curb and when the door opened, a long slender leg stepped out. Just from that leg, I knew precisely who it was. Mia appeared, looking no worse for the fucking wear, except for a bit of light color darkening her eyes like she hadn’t slept in days.
Dark red hair tumbled around her head as if she’d just left the spa, and her outfit was chic and crisp without a wrinkle in sight. Where the hell had she fucking been?
Her lips were pinched as her gaze roamed over Parker’s face, probably disliking the bruises he’d acquired while we went to get Amorette. Then her gaze snapped to me, and her lips flattened even more.
She threw her arms around Parker in a fierce but quick hug and stepped back. “We need to talk,” she said in a low voice. I could only hear it because I was now essentially riding Parker’s ass.
“My office,” I snapped, then led the way. Their footsteps quickened behind me.
I hadn’t wanted Mia to be hurt. Contrary to Amorette’s opinion of me, I didn’t enjoy hurting and killing people unless it served a purpose. My purpose. Nevertheless, Mia simply waltzing back into our compound like nothing had fucking happened.
It stank of suspicion. For more than a few reasons.
Inside my office, I waited until they filed in, then shut the door behind them. Seething with fury at the unexpected turn of events, I planted my ass against the wall and crossed my arms.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“Back the fuck off,” Parker growled. Then he turned to Mia. His gaze didn’t soften, even though his tone did. “Where the hell have you been? I was convinced Vicente had you.”
She dropped her head until her red hair fell in her face. After a little shake, she turned back to him, cutting her gaze at me every few seconds as if she wasn’t sure what I knew. That was right, they’d always had their secrets, but I knew about this suicide mission.
Their secret club was about to gain three new members.
“He knows. I told them what you were doing when I thought Vicente had you and took someone else from us. It’s too dangerous for them not to know.” Parker flicked his gaze at me, then back to Mia.
It was clear neither one enjoyed my presence here. Well, too fucking bad. Parker’s time of running rogue was over—if he wanted to stay with this family. If he didn’t…
A burning knife twisted in my chest, but my expression never changed.
If he wanted to leave, that was up to him, but I’d be damned if he took all of us down with him.
“I’ve been tracing Vicente’s childhood and visiting the villages.
There’s nothing crazy in his past. Nothing that we can blackmail him on.
” Mia inhaled and slowly let it out. “He was born to Mexican-American parents in Texas but moved to South America when he was ten. Parents died when he was fourteen and he joined the local cartel. The rest is history. I have the full, or as full as I could make it, report on how he climbed to the top then started his own legacy. He did some shady shit, though nothing that wasn’t expected or respected with a man taking over the cartel. ”
“Is there any way Vicente could have known what you were doing?” I asked.
Mia turned to face me. Her face was tense, like she wasn’t sure she wanted to share any details with me. “No. I’m absolutely certain that he couldn’t have known. I was disguised, went dark, and kept my probing to a delightful minimum.”
Delightful. Now she sounded like Parker.
I glanced at Parker. If Vicente didn’t know about Mia, then why the hell had he taken Amorette? He must have been thinking the same exact thing I was, because he touched her shoulder.
“Is there anything—anything—you found that was suspicious?”
She hesitated.
“If you have something to say, fucking say it.” I was losing my patience with them, fast. This whole time I’d been tiptoeing around Vicente. Maybe Grey was right, and he was just fucking around with us because, like idiots, we flaunted a woman in front of him. Something we’d never done before.