But as always, it wasn’t the right time. I cleared my throat and smiled while her seat reclined.
“Get some sleep, okay?”
She nodded as I took my seat again.
It took a while, but eventually her breathing evened out.
Not long after, Thomas parked next to me. “This guy, Colter Briggs, makes Gabriele Moretti look like a choir boy. I’ve got a dozen of my guys that will be in Valle Perdido before we get there. Just to make sure we’ve got backup in case we need it.”
Knowing what that guy was into, it said a lot that Colter was worse.
“Good to know.” I crossed my arms over my chest, flinched, and dropped them to my lap. I let out a soft groan of frustration as I rubbed my still sore arm. “I hate this.”
“The doctor said it would take time. The muscle was torn. Have you been doing the exercises the physical therapist gave you?”
“Yes… sorta.”
“Don’t make me tell Cora.”
I shook my head. “What did you find out about Colter?”
“Fine.” He tapped the screen on his tablet. “He was dishonorably discharged from the Marines about nine years ago. Mostly stayed in Thailand for the next four and a half years. Looks like that was an abrupt departure. Seems the government wanted to talk to him, and the feeling wasn’t mutual.”
“Likely drugs.”
“I think he was doing the same thing the next few years in Korea. Looks like the local police also suspected he was dealing in weapons.”
“Okay.”
“He returned to the US about two years ago when his best friend, Kane Black, was hurt in an artillery explosion in Iraq. A little less than a year later, Colter was crowning himself king of the Grave Sons. There’s not much I could find about where orwhat they were doing during that year before arriving in Valle Perdido.”
“And the Grave Sons?”
“They’ve dabbled in gunrunning, drug smuggling, and providing escorts of merchandise across the border. They’ve increasingly dabbled in human trafficking, protection rackets, and violent intimidation. There are fractures within the club because of it.”
My lip curled. “What does ‘dabbled’ mean?”
Thomas touched the screen. “Colter has negotiated a few deals… worked with traffickers, but not large scale.”
Perhaps there’d be some carnage before I left. Would the world really care if there was one less trafficker? “Was it a dabble or testing the waters?”
“I can find out.”
Cora moaned in her sleep, rolled over, and shivered.
I stood, grabbed a blanket from a nearby seat, and spread it over her before taking my seat again.
Of course, Thomas watched the entire time, and when I looked at him, he had a wide grin on his face.
“Stop. She was cold. That’s all.”
“Jason,” he said, shifting in his seat to look me dead on. “You’re my best friend. You’ve been in love with her since the moment you saw her. I know that, you know that, and anyone with eyes knows that. Just tell her already.”
I scoffed. “What are you talking about?”
His eyebrows knitted together. “Really? I remember the day you hired her. You wouldn’t shut up about her.”
“Keep your voice down,” I said in a harsh whisper.
