“That is what I said.” Dimitri waves him off. “And you should simply tell Eleanor that hers is inferior because Wesley is in charge of making the trackers and obviously he is saving the best ones for his own woman.”
Madison giggles in delight, clutching the heart around her neck. “Being in the van with you guys issomuch fun.”
Pulling us off to the side so we’re out of sight of the rearview mirror, I hook a finger under the collar and tug her in. Her pupils dilate, eyes flashing with heat as her chair rolls forward with her body, her knees fitting perfectly between my own spread legs.
“Do you know what this collar means, my love?”
She pretends to think. “That you think I look good in diamonds? I agree.”
I hover over her lips, close enough to feel her warmth. “Try again.”
“That it’ll be way easier for you to stalk me?”
I shake my head. “One more time.”
“That I’m yours?” she guesses, tilting her head up and saying it against my mouth.
“There it is.”
She fists my shirt and tugs me down. As we kiss, we ignore the hooting and groaning from the front of the cab, pulling apart before either of us can really get too involved. It won’t do to meet Felix with a hard-on.
Playing with the pendant, Madison studies the spy case. “Going all out for this, huh?”
“It’s all just a precaution. And Mac and Dimitri are simply backup—we know better than to do this sort of thing on our own by now, even though it’s a white-flag ceasefire. We’re helping him; he’s helping us. We have the same goal. We’re sharing information.”
Dimitri huffs but doesn’t disagree. Even though Nicole sanctioned this forgiveness, he holds a grudge.
“And that’s why he’s in the van,” I mutter to Madison, who giggles.
Mama B’s Tamalesis just as delicious-smelling and bright as I remember. The short, elderly woman seated at the first table behind the host stand shouts in Spanish when she sees Madison, hauling herself to her feet and opening her arms for a hug with a warm, deeply lined smile.
They start speaking to each other too rapidly for me to follow reliably, and as soon as I hear the heavy pounding of boots against travertine tile, my attention is on the door anyway. Felix emerges from the back room with a large man shadowing him.
Madison and Mama B turn when he enters. Mama B hisses at him, admonishing him for his empty hands when there are guests. With a deep sigh and a roll of his eyes in response to her chiding, he turns on his heel and disappears. When he returns, he’s got a plastic basket of tortilla chips and a cup of salsa.
A truce that comes with snacks? I could get used to this.
We all settle at a table of Felix’s choosing, on the other side of the restaurant from where Mama B is humming to herself as she runs a wet cloth across the plastic faces of the menus. The large man next to Felix looks comical trying to shove himself into the booth. His jacket flap opens briefly, displaying the handle of his piece. I suppose it makes sense that they’d come armed, though it makes my stomach twist uncomfortably. Or perhaps that’s just the flat expression of the man’s stony face—he’s a killer. No doubt about it.
Madison waves at him and makes a motion with her hands that takes me a second to recognize as ASL—one language sadly not in my repertoire.
This woman is so full of surprises, it really ought to stop surprising me.
The man nods and settles back in his seat, turning dark eyes on me with a flat expression.
“Leo,” Felix introduces with a jerk of his thumb.
“Where’s Isaac?” Madison asks, leaning across the table and dipping a chip into the salsa.
“Fuck if I know. Let’s get this over with. You said you figured out what the connection was between SmarTech andEl General? Share with the class.”
Madison claps her hands, brushing off the salt from the tortilla chip, and nods. She digs into her pocket, unlocks her phone, and pushes it across the table. “It’s a program using personal data to isolate criminals and threats and then pushing out hits to a network on their privately hosted platform. AI run.”
Felix and Leo exchange a look. Leo makes a circular motion with his index finger. “Fuckin’ hell,” Felix mutters. “That’s… fuck.”
“Madison said you mentioned knowing something about the SmarTech servers in your message?” I ask.
Felix takes a chip, regarding me thoughtfully as he eats it, as if trying to decide how much to reveal. It feels like he’s just posturing when he takes the second and shoves the basket towards me with the tips of his fingers. “Eat,gringo, or you’ll offendmi mamá.”
