Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
“Why do you have a different car?” Marie asked when he closed her door behind her. He’d been surprised that she hadn’t asked him when they got in at the hospital. The car he’d driven that morning had been a dark red SUV. The one he was driving now was a silver SUV.
“I can’t believe it’s taken you this long to notice,” he said as he opened the door from the garage to his house. He waited a few seconds to make sure the roller door went down before he followed her inside.
“I guess I had other things on my mind.”
Like wondering why I hadn’t texted.
He didn’t say the words out loud, but he’d been pleased when she’d blurted them out.
It had tested his resolve not to send all those messages, but he’d been determined not to bother her.
The day had been a combination of boring and busy.
He’d also wanted to go into the ER a few times to check on her but had stayed where he was.
Walking around the parking lot looking for anything out of the ordinary, as well as staying close to the ER entrance for the exact same reason.
“Come into the kitchen, I’ll get you a drink and explain everything.
” There was so much he had to tell her, and it wasn’t going to be an easy conversation.
What he wanted was going to be a tough sell, but he’d negotiated with some of the toughest assholes in the drug world when he’d been undercover, he’d be able to handle this—at least he hoped he could.
“What would you like? I’ve got soda, juice, sparkling water, still water, cider, and beer. Coffee. Tea. Hot chocolate.”
“What are you, a bar or something?” She placed her bag on the counter before sitting at the two-seater table in the breakfast nook of his kitchen. He had to admit he liked seeing her in his house.
“I like to have options. And I got Eveline to stock my fridge while I was with you today. My fridge and cupboard were rather bare.”
“You always get other women to shop for you?” Her eyebrow arched.
“Just today. So, drink?” Once he explained what he wanted, she would understand why he’d gotten Eveline to stock up for him.
“I’ll have a soda, thanks.”
He pulled out two cans as well as glasses, before opening one and emptying most of its contents into the glass. “Here you go. Do you want ice? I should’ve asked before I gave it to you.”
“No, it’s fine. Thanks.” She took a sip then placed it back on the table. “Now that you’ve got the pleasantries out of the way, want to tell me what’s going on? Because I know something is.”
He took the seat opposite her and reached for her hand. She didn’t resist when he laced their fingers together. “After I left you at work, I went back to the car and called one of the guys from the team to come meet me with a device to check to see if there was a tracker on the car.”
“I’m sure he was pleased with being woken at almost six in the morning.”
“Nah. Fox was about to get up anyway and go to PT with the other guys, he was happy to get out of it.”
“PT?”
“Physical training. All the guys who work at Alliez are all former special forces. They like to keep up their fitness and train most mornings. The married guys tend to miss the odd morning, but because of the nature of the jobs they take on, it’s important that they don’t let their physical levels drop. ”
“Do you join them?” Marie took a sip of her drink, but he could swear that her cheeks looked a little pinker than they had a few seconds ago.
“Some days. I’m more of a consultant these days, but I also don’t want to get out of shape.”
“I see.”
Yep, her cheeks were definitely rosier than they were.
What was she thinking? Was she thinking about the other guys running on the beach?
A shaft of jealousy swarmed through him, and he pushed it away.
She was in his kitchen. She’d kissed him as if she couldn’t get enough of him.
Not to mention she hadn’t really talked to any of the other guys to even wonder about them.
“Anyway,” he started, needing to get the conversation back on track. “Fox and Deal arrived and we checked the vehicle and found a tracking device on it. Our best guess is they placed it on my vehicle while I was parked outside of your place.”
He paused, letting the implication of his words sink in. It didn’t take long for her to understand what he hadn’t said out loud.
“That means they know where I live. That they are after me.” Her eyes drifted shut, the hand within his shaking slightly.
“It looks that way,” he said gently, wishing that it wasn’t.
Her eyes snapped open. “What am I going to do? They know where I live,” she repeated, and her reaction was everything he expected it to be.
“You’re not in this alone. I want to make that clear. Even if you weren’t Yolanda’s daughter, there’s no way we’d leave you to work this out by yourself. We are doing everything we can to find out who they are and what they want.”
“I don’t—it’s all too much. Why is this happening? It makes no sense.”
Needing to be close to her, he went to her side and tugged her up, wrapping his arms around her. “I don’t have the answers to those questions yet, but we will.” He didn’t want to scare her, but she needed to know what he was thinking. “I feel like this is related to what happened in San Carlion.”
“What do you mean? Are you talking about Alfredo and his threats? Don’t you think if he was going to follow through on them he’d have done it while I was still there? Why wait till I’m on American soil? Wouldn’t that be more dangerous for him to do that?”
Isaac led her to his living room. “With these men they think they’re untouchable.
They are powerful and influential men where they come from.
They are more in control than the leaders.
Corruption is rife in a lot of these places.
Hands get greased for authorities to look the other way.
It happens here as well. He probably believes he’s got enough people in his pocket that it doesn’t matter. That he can get away with it.”
“This all seems like a movie and not real life.”
He pulled her into his side, and she curled up on the couch next to him.
For the first time since he’d woken from his coma after getting shot while saving Irish, a sense of contentment consumed him.
The restlessness that was a constant companion had stilled.
And it was all because of the woman in his arms. He wished they weren’t sitting on his couch under these circumstances.
Then again, maybe this was how they were meant to meet up again.
However it happened, she was right next to him and that’s all that mattered.
“A lot of real life mirrors fiction, or fiction mirrors real life. I’ve got Cass looking into Alfredo Vargas and his connections. If there’s anything that ties him to what happened to you and the attempt to take you, then she’ll find it.”
“Has she been able to find out anything about that yet?”
This was the thing that Isaac couldn’t understand.
It was as if the guys who’d attempted to kidnap her were unidentifiable ghosts, and he said as much to Marie.
“Cass was able to pull footage from the highway cameras this morning. But because of the time of day and that the only light came from the streetlights, it was hard to get a good visual on them. This isn’t a group of amateurs, we’re dealing with professionals. ”
“They know where I live and where I work. They would’ve tracked us to the hospital. I can’t not go to my job, I’ve just started, and I love it.”
The distress in Marie’s voice cut him to the core, and he wished there was an easy way to make it better for her. “I know, and we’ll work something out. As I said, you’re not alone and there’s no way we’re going to let anything happen to you.”
“That’s a mighty big promise to make considering you have no idea who these guys are or what they look like.
” Marie jumped up from the couch and began pacing around his living room.
He wanted to reach out and pull her back to him, but he let her move knowing she needed to work through this, because the whole conversation wasn’t going to get any easier, especially with what he wanted to tell her.
“I know it’s a lot to ask, to trust me and the team I work with, but this isn’t anything new for us.
I may not have been trained in the way the others have.
Nor have I had to deal with the life-threatening situations they’ve found themselves in, but I worked for the DEA for a long time.
I spent years under cover in a drug cartel.
I know how things work.” The very thought of having to dip his toe back into that world didn’t sit well with him, but for Marie he would do it.
Of course, he couldn’t go back as Javier Cortez–that man was dead and if he miraculously came back to life and popped back up in Mexico he wouldn’t last the day because of the enemies he’d made.
He could, however, create a new persona.
Or he could be Samuel Rodrigo again, because if it came to light that Alfredo Vargas was behind all of this, he was well acquainted with Samuel.
Their one and only interaction in San Carlion wouldn’t be one Alfredo would forget.
“This is just all too much!” Marie sat back down on the couch, her head in her hands. Her distress was plain to see, and he hated seeing her in such pain.