Rage and exhaustion forced me to close my eyes. I rubbed my forehead several times as I attempted to hit the brakes on snapping his neck. When I crouched down in front of him, he scuttled just far enough away he ripped out his IV.
“Where is this girl?” I demanded.
Eduardo eyed me suspiciously. “How the fuck would I know that?”
I raised my arm and fisted my hand as if I was going to continue the beating. At this point, I doubt it would do any good. He was scared.
Eduardo threw up his arms. “Okay. Okay. I really don’t know for certain, but the fucker has a compound about thirty miles from here. I’ve heard people talking about it. Bandoles calls it his sweatbox. If you live here, you know about what the man does to people he doesn’t like. Let’s just say they don’t come back. He’s got wild animals out there, man, and they’re fucking well fed.”
This shit was getting out of hand. “You will provide me with the coordinates of this compound. If you don’t, so fucking help me God, I will rip your damn throat out.”
He nodded several times.
Jago remained quiet, but I could tell he was just as pissed as I was.
“Neither Jago nor I are trying to make this difficult for you, Eduardo. You were shot. You also betrayed your own family, but it’s up to Jago how he wants to handle your treachery. I need to know why an American girl with no background in drugs, no affiliation to gangs or a gang member, an elementary schoolteacher with special needs was taken from her home in Los Angeles. Who is the motherfucking chemist?”
His entire body was shaking. “I don’t know his name, okay? The girl was taken because he wouldn’t cooperate. Fucking Bandoles tossed her kidnapping in my face. That was the night I was shot.”
“Because you refused to play ball,” I threw in.
“Yes. See? I didn’t betray you.”
“You also didn’t warn us adequately,” Jago told him.
My heavy sigh was a clear indication there was no patience left in my system. At least I knew Fallon and Brooke’s father was more than just an accountant. “Then how the fuck did you get in touch with him?”
“I heard about him on the dark web. Okay? You can find anything you want on the internet. He’s supposed to be some brilliant chemist. I don’t know. All I can tell you is that I put a note out there and he contacted me.”
“You met with him,” I barked out.
Eduardo nodded. “He was in the warehouse several times. Fuck, the man knows what he’s doing.”
“What happened to him?”
“How the fuck would I know? He didn’t show up one day. Then I heard the Alcarez Cartel jerk paid me a visit. He asked the same damn question.”
At least I sensed the man wasn’t lying.
“But he returned.” Jago was barely holding onto his control.
Eduardo swallowed. “He was finishing what I hired him to do, but nothing more. He made it clear he wanted no part of working with me.”
“Meaning he became suspicious.”
“Man, the shit he made had return customers coming out of the woodwork.” Eduardo laughed like this was all just a game. “I didn’t know about Fassi. I swear to God.”
Whether or not he was lying didn’t come into the equation at this point. The prime target was the chemist. But why in the fuck would Fassi go to all this trouble for a goddamn chemist? They were a dime a dozen. There was much more to the story.
“What did he fucking go by on the dark web?” Jago gritted out.
Eduardo lifted his head. “The Brain.”
“You’re fucking out of my life, Eduardo. You fucked up bad this time.” Jago hissed, bristling the same moment I did when I rose to my full height. He turned toward me and I could tell memories were surfacing.
He took a deep breath, cocking his head and the look in my friend’s eyes was one of knowing. And heartache. And the same rage I felt, a burn so hot that I had difficulty breathing.
My joints stiffened as every muscle tensed, I lumbered outside the room and stood against the wall. How many nights had been stolen as nightmares had stripped me of sleep? How many years had been taken from me without family? How many men had I killed in vain searching for answers?
