“What is it, Paulo?”
“You remember Hector Moran?”
“Same Hector I met at El Lagarto?”
“That is the one. Hector is dead, amigo. Shot in the back last night.”
Jase’s trouble-instinct crawled up his spine. “Who did it?”
“I am not sure. Surenos, maybe. Or MS-13. It gets worse.”
“Tell me.”
“Word on the street is whoever went after Hector knows someone paid him for information. He died before he had time to talk, but they know someone was asking questions and they are determined to find out who. You and your woman are not safe. You are in very great danger, amigo.”
His pulse was hammering. Kate was in danger. He had to get to her. Find a way to keep her safe.
“What about you? Will you and Rosa be okay?”
“No one knows I spoke to Hector. He can’t tell anyone now, so we are safe.”
“Thanks, Paulo, I owe you.”
“Take care, amigo.”
“You, too.” As he packed up his laptop, Jase phoned Kate. When the call went to voice mail, he phoned her office.
“Kate had a meeting with a client,” her assistant said. “But she planned to be back in the office before five.”
“If she gets there before I do, tell her not to leave. Tell her it’s important. Tell her I’m on my way.” He ended the call and grabbed his laptop, spoke to Mindy and told her he was headed out but he’d be checking in. He rapped on the door to Chase’s office and went in.
“What is it?” At the look on Jason’s face, Chase came to his feet.
“Someone ordered a hit on an informant of mine in Houston. Word is, they know Hector was being paid for intel. Now they’re gunning for whoever was asking questions. People saw us talking to him that night. They know what we look like. I’m a bounty hunter. I’m not hard to find. Add to that, we’ve been asking questions all over Texas. Sooner or later, someone’s going to put things together, figure the connection and come after us. I’ve got to talk to Kate, find a way out of this. I’m heading over to her office now.”
“You need help, you know where I am.”
He nodded. “I’ll keep you posted.”
In minutes he was on his way down Blackburn Street. He couldn’t stop a thread of eagerness mixed with the fear trying to cloud his brain. By the time he reached her office, his Kimber was in his holster covered by his T-shirt.
Kate was standing at the reception desk. She looked good. Beautiful. Better even than he remembered. He wanted to touch her so badly his mouth went dry.
He glanced around. Almost closing time. The receptionist was already gone. “We need to talk.”
Kate gave him a phony smile. “Hi, Jason. It’s nice to see you, too.”
“No time.” He grabbed her arm, ushered her into her office and closed the door.
“What is it?” she asked, picking up his anxious vibes. “What’s going on?”
He didn’t want to tell her. He had done his best to keep her out of danger, but he had failed. “We didn’t quit soon enough, Kate. They killed Hector Moran last night and word is, they’re looking for whoever paid him for info. I need to get you somewhere safe. We’ll go by your condo, pick up whatever you need, then find a place to lay low till we can figure this out.”
“Slow down. You’re telling me the people who killed Chrissy are looking for us?”
“They killed Hector, so yeah. It won’t take them long to figure out we were the ones talking to him at El Lagarto. Once they do, they’ll come for us. Get what you need and let’s go.”
She looked as if she might argue, but in the end, she closed her laptop, grabbed it and her purse and they left the building.
