I guess he didn’t know that there was little I could find out that would make me not want him.
“Maverick.”
He held up his hands and sat back in his chair, resigned. “Fine, fine. This business… this cartel… technically speaking, if you wanted it, it’s yours.”
The words hit like a gunshot. A slow, suffocating weight settled in my chest, the room seeming to shrink around me. I blinked, my grip tightening around the stem of my own wine glass. “What?” The word barely scraped past my lips, thin and disbelieving, foreign to my ears.
“Your father? Yeah, he built this cartel from the ground. And once he died, once he—” Maverick paused and shook his head. “Well, let’s just say, the loyalty of all our dealers and distributors lies with the Reyes family. They’re only following us because my father stepped into your father’s shoes after he passed.”
Rubbing my throat, I blinked away tears. “My father was… a cartel leader?”
The irony that I pursued a career in criminal justice to catch my father’s murderers only to find out that he was a crime lord himself was hysterical. It hurt to breathe. This couldn’t be… but maybe—just maybe—it made sense? The parties, the close familyfriends, the late night visits from men packing heat, the hushed conversations…
My head spun as pieces of my childhood clicked into place.
My mother, poised and standing at the head of the table with my father.
The both of them hushing me and my sisters into obedience when company was around.
Objects in hands during shady exchanges. Whispers. Our home always guarded, except the night he was murdered…
Maverick dipped his chin, bringing me back to the present. “He was. He and my father had been working closely together. Naturally, the Mercer family swooped in to hold it all together before it could fall apart. Something your mother was eternally grateful for at the time, because she knew it took her husband’s life.”
I didn’t want to believe it, almostcouldn’t. But the more I thought about it… “Fuck, how did I not see it sooner?” I muttered, more to myself than to him as I put my head in my hands. “It makes perfect sense. I even knew that Chavez was part of a cartel, I just didn’t have more details because, well, this isn’t my jurisdiction and my resources are limited over here.”
“Yet you have your friends on the force here.”
Shaking my head vehemently, I scooped a bite of the pasta in my mouth and refrained from moaning. It was still delicious even if my world was falling apart. “Callie and Liam are as by-the-books as it gets. Callie more so than Liam, even though Callie has apparently been turning the other cheek on my indiscretions for years.” I huffed out a sardonic laugh. “I’m not interested in involving them in my messy family drama. They have enough going on.”
A low chuckle rumbled from Maverick's chest as he leaned back, running a slow hand along the rim of his glass. He swirledthe deep red liquid absently, amusement curling at the edges of his mouth. It was distracting.
“What?”
He took his time, tilting the glass slightly before taking a slow sip. “I wouldn’t be so sure about those two,” he murmured, his voice edged with something unreadable. He set the glass down with a soft clink. “They’ve got your back.”
To an extent.“Yeah, well, whatever.” I traced my fingers over the smooth surface of the table, trying to ground myself. “So, my mother was aware of my father’s business?”
Maverick nodded. “I do remember her rather hands-off involvement. She occasionally made appearances but didn’t say much. It was evident that your father’s never-ending loyalty to his wife and children was more important than the cartel. That’s why she was always so supportive.”
My throat burned. “So how did Chavez get caught up in all of this? What did my father do to deserve death?”
Man didn’t answer right away. Instead, he gathered our dishes and rinsed them in the sink before placing them in the dishwasher. I waited, content to stay silent until he gave me the answers I knew he was avoiding.
When he returned to the table with another bottle of wine in one hand and the other extended to help me up, he said, “Come. Let’s finish this on the terrace. It’s a beautiful night.”
16
Maverick
It was cold outside, but the sky was clear. The stars twinkled above as I turned on the gas fire pit, grateful for the excuse to share a blanket with Sophie. She was watching me intently as I settled in beside her, refilled wine glass in hand.
“To be clear, by no means is what I’m about to tell you true. I have yet to get to the bottom of it and obtain proof. But, essentially, there were rumors that your father was wanting to expand into human trafficking. Long story short, it didn’t sit right with my father, and he put a hit out on yours.” I held my breath, gauging her reaction. This was the worst of it—the truth of why he had been killed.
Her dark eyes misted over, and oddly enough, it made my heart twist in my chest. “No,” she whispered. “I’m telling you right now that’s not true. My father was a lot of things, and yes, I see now that he was hiding a drug cartel from me, but he wouldneverhave engaged in trafficking. It would’ve put a target on hisdaughters’ backs. He abhorred any kind of child abuse or abuse toward women.”
For the sake of her feelings, I wanted to believe her. But the reality was, I didn’t know who or what to believe at this point. “I’ll find out the truth, Sophie.”
She blinked, as if realizing who she was talking to, and those tears in her eyes disappeared. “Promise me.”
