She barged through the door and slammed it behind her, not looking to see if Axe followed.
The door rebounded with a thud, and Axe entered, rubbing his forearm.
“You almost nailed my nose,” he said.
She whirled around, raging like a category 5 hurricane. “Fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck you.”
“Is that all you can say?” He threw his sunglasses and advanced on her, muscles bulging under his tight stretch T-shirt.
“Fuck you, jerk!”
“Ah, she adds jerk.” He stood in front of her, blocking her way to the bathroom. “If I were a real jerk, I’d tie you up on that four-poster bed and leave you here.”
“You wish. You’ll never get near me and a bed. Ever.” She shoved him, but she might as well have been pushing a brick wall. “Out of my way.”
“Not until I read you the riot act. Do you know what you’re doing out there? Do you know who runs that neighborhood? Have you a clue who you’re dealing with?”
Leanna sneered, curling her lip. “You act like this is a gangster movie. Ana and Eduardo live in a nice, middle-class neighborhood. She’s a schoolteacher. He’s an engineer. Normal, regular folks like my family. The old lady I met, sure, she lied because you guys made her, but she was helping them feed the cat. It’s a neighborly thing to do.”
“Stop acting naïve.” He glared at her, eyes lasering into hers. “Each block, each plaza, each boulevard is controlled by someone. Everyone payspiso. Nothing happens without the local gang knowing. Every group reports up to the larger one above. It’s very hierarchical. You have the big cartel bosses on top, thecapos, all the way down the ladder to the lieutenants, local bosses, hitmen, streetfighters, thugs, and watchers, or falcons.”
Leanna pushed against Axe’s chest and made fists. She gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes. “I don’t scare easily. If I didn’t speak to them, how the heck was I going to find my daughter? They had information, and they were going to lead me to her.”
“Who? The kid?” Axe grabbed her fists and removed them from his chest, holding them in front of hers. “Where did you go with them?”
“Why should I tell you? You obviously know this El Bardo person who’s supposed to be the boss. Why didn’t you ask him where Carmelita went?”
“He’s on it. Says she went with friends.”
“Friends?” Leanna jerked her hands from Axe’s paws. “Gabriel’s friends showed me a picture of Carmelita. They said she went withpolleros. Human smugglers.”
“You believe them? How do you know it was Carmelita?”
She dropped her purse on the bed and emptied it. “See this letter? It’s addressed to her first and last name. Carmelita Bandera.”
“You going to open it?”
“Yes.” Leanna ripped the flap off the envelope and extracted a letter. She unfolded it and stared at the writing. “It’s a DNA test proving she’s someone’s daughter. Says high probability of a perfect match.”
“Let me see.” Axe grabbed the sheet of paper. “It doesn’t say who, just has an ID number of the sample.”
“They could have gotten my sample.” Leanna said. “What if someone stopped by the bakery and took my hairbrush?”
“It could be a paternity test,” Axe said. “Could Carmelita have contacted Joshua Cano?”
Leanna’s teeth chattered, and her scalp froze. “He didn’t want her to be born. What would he do if he found out she’s alive?”
“It would be dangerous,” Axe said. “You have any more pictures of her? I want to see if she resembles Joshua.”
“You know him?” Leanna took a step back.
“I know of him,” Axe said. “Everyone in San Francisco knows of the Cano kingpin.”
“The guys texted more pictures.” She tapped her phone and shoved the screen in front of Axe’s face. “See any resemblance?”
Axe took the phone and enlarged the picture. He squinted at the image and shifted his gaze to Leanna, then back to the image, and darting back to Leanna. “It’s hard to tell. She has your general shape and the eyes are big and gorgeous. The face shape could be Joshua. But the nose is the most telling. It’s longish.”
“Right, longer than my family.” Leanna glanced at Axe’s profile. “Like she has a Roman nose.”
