That’s three out of eight guards.
Where’re Miguel, Tómas, and the three other guys?
I keep swiping the screen to run through the security feed. I watch in horror as one of our attackers point-blank assassinates one of our men. He puts a bullet through Miguel’s forehead as Miguel and Tómas try to approach a different invader. I’m evenmore blown away—for lack of a better cliché—when the man who shot Miguel staggers backward, blood geysering from his left eye socket.
All of this happened beneath the billiard room window, so I know it was Maddy who shot the O’Sheehan guy. It draws attention upward from the men Miguel and Tómas tried to approach. Before anybody lifts a weapon toward the upstairs window more men fall. This isn’t a spray of bullets with Maddy praying she gets lucky. She’s picking the men off methodically.
She’s evened up the numbers for us, but she’s left two men with their kneecaps blown out, rather than dead. She must recognize these as men of value, even though I have no idea who they are.
“NO!”
The wail fills the air, and I know José just discovered his brother’s dead. It might have been an O’Sheehan who put the bullet through Miguel’s forehead, but José pulled the damn trigger the moment he got in bed with the O’Sheehans.
I press the earpiece to put me on the right frequency with our men.
“Don’t kill them. Hold on to them.”
I wonder if my command will permeate the rage Tómas must be in right now. I know how infuriated I am that anyone’s endangered Maddy. I can only imagine the state I would be in if I watched her die. Tómas just had to watch his husband die right in front of him. It’s one of the most guarded secrets in our organization, since there are plenty of people who are still too old-fashioned for their own good.
Nothing about today is the way I thought it would be when I woke this morning.
Tómas storms up to José, who drops to his knees beside his brother’s body. Tómas puts the muzzle of his rifle to José’s temple.
“I have no choice but to letel patróndecide what happens to you, but you better believe I will find you in hell and make you pay for what you did to your brother all over again.”
My men can hear Tómas. They won’t think twice about it because some have likely figured it out, but others believe they’re best friends and roommates. They’re in their mid-twenties, so being unmarried hasn’t raised too many eyebrows yet. My family would have figured out what lies to spin to protect them for the rest of time if we needed to.
“We have to go out there.” I look over my shoulder at my brothers.
“Do you need to check on Madeline? We can do it.”
“Thanks, Joaquin, but we all saw who did the shooting. She’s safe.”
Chapter Eighteen
Maddy
Javi’s going to kill me for getting involved, but when I recognized the guy who’s a real DEA agent and Drew’s cousin, I knew I needed to step in. He’s one of the guys whose kneecaps I blew out. I’m certain Javi will have questions for him.
I certainly do.
The guy I killed, Derek, was a complete and total dickwad to me since the day I met him. It happened to be the day I met Drew. He was at the hospital with Drew and his family because he was Drew’s driver and is a close friend—was a close friend, I should say.
I found out later he played the asshole wingman, so Drew had a reason to step in and seem charming when he came to my rescue. It irritated me to discover how badly I’d been manipulated, but I didn’t learn that for an entire year. It was one of many secrets revealed to me too late to keep from having any attachment to Drew.
I don’t have a moment’s doubt I made the right choice killing him, but I’m certain Javi won’t agree. Not based on just that sliver of a story, but I don’t want to go into full detail about thethings Derek said to me over the years. It won’t bring a dead man back for Javi to kill all over again. They were just crude comments, but they’ve humiliated me every single time.
I also suspect he was the reason one of my deals went south. I think he ruined it on purpose, hoping I’d get caught in the crossfire. He didn’t approve of how much Drew came to rely on me. I would’ve been happy to follow Derek’s insistence that I not be as involved as Drew made me, but Drew insisted upon doing things his way as always.
I scan the scene outside the window and watch as Javi and his brothers emerge from around the side of the house. I pull myself away and go to the security screens and swipe through them. I see no more attackers lurking anywhere, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more hiding, waiting. It tempts me to leave the room, but I know Javi only has so much patience. I refuse to make today even worse by walking out of here without permission. I strain to hear the conversation below me, but it’s far too quiet.
I head back to the window only to shift my weight from foot to foot because there’s shit I know about Jacob that would be useful for Javi and his brothers. I don’t have my phone with me though. It’s in the bedroom. The only way to get that would be to leave here, which I just swore to myself I wouldn’t do.
Do I lean out the window and call down to Javi?
Do I gesture to him, hoping to catch his attention and potentially distract him from what’s going on around him?
I don’t know what to do.
