He was fucked up, but he was alive.
And we all stared at him as if a ghost walked straight through the front door.
Chapter Nineteen
EDEN
Iopened my mouth, but no words came. In the distance, I vaguely recognized Mateo calling his name, demanding to know what had happened and that he see doctor. However, the noise faded into the background as his lips parted, and a labored breath fell from his chest.
The relief I felt scared me.
I’d always shook my head at the concept of Stockholm Syndrome. Who the hell could fall for someone who’d kidnapped and kept them prisoner from their friends and family? Those women were weak and stupid.
I rationalized that this wasn’t Stockholm. Val had uncuffed me and walked out. I could’ve escaped. Why didn’t I?
Weak and stupid…party-of-one, your table is now available.
Obsession was a nasty little word.
I’d been obsessed with being who Davis always expected me to be, no matter how much it went against everything I believed. I swore after our divorce, I’d never allow myself to fall that deep under someone’s control again.
“Val…” Before I knew it, I’d cleared the room. Flinging myself into his arms, I wound my hands around his neck, desperate to reassure myself he was real, and that I wasn’t imagining him out of desperation.
As I clung to him, he stiffened, his eyes trained across the room. Eventually, he dusted a hand across my lower back, giving it a light pat.
A pat? He freaking patted me like an obedient puppy?
Slowly releasing him, I swallowed hard, my face flaming with embarrassment. Risking a glance up at his face, something shattered inside as I took in his tightened jaw, cold eyes, and emotionless expression.
How could I have been so wrong?
Backing up as if he were fire, and I’d just blistered a finger, I suddenly wished for my own clothes and a blanket. The inherent chill in the room froze the life out of me, and I folded my arms across my chest in self-preservation mode. I had no clue what I hoped to accomplish with it now. I’d already tipped my hand.
“You look like shit.”
There we go. Change the tide with flattery.
“Long day.” With a quick nod of acknowledgement, he moved stiffly toward the kitchen table. “What do we know?”
A flicker of emotion clouded Mateo’s face before official business wiped it clean. “Waiting for a report now, but it looks like a bomb. How about you tellus?”
“Hell, if I know,” he said, palming the back of his neck and wincing. “One minute I was threatening to blow Enrique’s dick off, the next I was eating asphalt. I blacked out and woke up three hundred feet away from my car…or what the hell was left of it, anyway. Two steps to the left and I’d probably fit in a Ziploc sandwich bag right now.” His laugh came off dry as he eased himself onto the chair next to Emilio. “One of your men gave me a ride. I think it’s a given where this is coming from. It’s the second shipment in days to not make it to a stash house.”
Emilio sat up, his hand still pressed to his side. “You’re shitting me? Another Columbian drop is gone?”
Val nodded, his eyes glazed and tired. “I don’t know how those assholes are getting inside information. They seem to know exactly when and where the drops are going to be made, and not only that, how the hell did they know I’d be in Corpus Christi tonight? For that matter, how’d they find the other safe house?” He glanced at Mateo. “Did you search for a leak?”
“Everyone checks out, boss. Every lieutenant went to extremes too.” Mateo shot a glance at me before lowering his voice. “They went old country persuasion, if you get what I’m saying.”
I got exactly what he was saying. You didn’t live in Houston your whole life without knowing a little drug cartel folklore. They were as much of an urban legend as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. Except, these legends didn’t just come down your chimney and take your teeth. They also took your family and life, splattering both across all four walls of your bedroom.
Old country persuasion meant the soldiers under each lieutenant most likely had a family member on their knees with a gun to the back of the head as incentive.
Nothing prompted action quicker than watching your flesh and blood die.
I knew that first hand.
“What about outsider infiltration, boss?” Emilio mumbled with a sharp side-eye in my direction.
