Xavier shakes his head. “There was an issue at the hotel last night. I stayed back to deal with it and sent Lance instead. You’re always telling me to delegate,” Xavier replies, his chin set stubbornly.
“What happened?” Mario asks as Gregor wrings his hands together in agitation.
“The FBI was there. Everyone was arrested, and the drugs were confiscated,” Gregor tells him. I can hear the stress in his voice, and it takes everything in me to keep my expression blank.
Mario’s face turns an alarming shade of red, his hands clenching into fists on top of the table. “What? Fuck! How?” he explodes, jumping to his feet.
Gregor shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know. Lance escaped with a bullet wound in his leg. He turned up at your place, bleeding on the front porch and muttering about a rat.”
Mario’s eyes narrow, and he turns to look at me. “Do you have anything to do with this?”
I hold my hands up in front of my body in defense. “How? I haven’t been out of your sight since the funeral. Also, why would I be dealing with the FBI?”
“Show him your phone,” he demands, waving at Colton. “I want to know if she had any incoming or outgoing messages to anyone. If you have, I won’t hesitate to take my anger out on your father.”
I swallow my anger and pull the phone out of my pocket, sliding it across the table to Colton. “I have nothing to hide. I don’t deal with the feds. I would be stupid to,” I tell him stubbornly, making sure he sees anger in my eyes at the accusations.
It’s obvious he doesn’t believe me as he starts pacing back and forth across the dining room. “So we have no drugs. Did Lance at least escape with the cash?” He turns his attention back to Gregor, who shakes his head.
“No, he was lucky to escape with his life.”
“Fuck!” Mario screams, picking up a vase of irises on the sideboard with the coffee and hurling it at the wall. The sound of shattering glass is loud in the tense atmosphere as water and flowers scatter across the floor. “Fucking fuck!”
I smother the scoff of amusement that bubbles up. So eloquent.
“It’s clean,” Colton tells Mario before holding the phone out for me, but Mario shakes his head.
“No. She doesn’t get a phone.”
I open my mouth to argue, but another goon hurries into the dining room. I recognize him as someone I’ve seen with Mario before, but I don’t know his name. Vienna suddenly sits up straight, her eyes shining with anxiety as the man leans in and whispers something in Mario’s ear. I thought Mario looked angry before, but his reaction to that news is even more extreme. His mouth drops open in shock, and his skin turns pale.
He mutters something to the man, and he shakes his head. Color returns rapidly to Mario’s face, and he’s so red, he’s almost purple. I wonder if he’s going to have a heart attack on the spot. “Fuck!” This time, he whirls around and picks up the chair he was sitting in and hurls it against the wall. The resounding sound is jarring, and Vienna jumps in her chair, putting her hand over her mouth as tears well in her eyes.
“What happened?” Xavier asks, jumping to his feet as Colton puts an arm around Vienna’s shoulders, giving her comfort. Tristan has become alarmingly pale.
Mario scrubs a hand through his thinning hair, his shoulders sagging ever so slightly as he faces them.
“The apartment that the nanny and Addison were living in burned down.” There is a small sliver of sympathy in his eyes. “It looks like it might be retaliation from the cartel. The bodies were all missing their hands.”
Vienna screams and shakes her head. “No, not my baby.”
Tristan lets out a shattering wail. “No!” Colton shakes his head, unable to compute the information, but Xavier is silent, and he looks at me with narrowed eyes before turning his attention to Mario.
“Was Addi’s body there?” he asks, and Mario bites his lip before shaking his head.
“No. It looks like she may have been taken by the cartel.”
Xavier exhales with relief, and I know he’s on to me, but he quickly hides it. “We have to get her back,” he says, and Mario shrugs.
“I’m not really sure how. They will see the raid last night as a betrayal and blame us. They will claim Addison as compensation.” Mario waves a hand like it’s none of his concern and starts pacing again. “Hopefully that will appease them for now.”
I blink, unable to comprehend the sheer depravity this man is capable of. I knew he was bad, but to not even care that a four-year-old has been taken by the cartel to be used is an all-time low.
“No, no!” Vienna wails, but he ignores her.
“You aren’t going to do anything?” I hear the shock in Tristan’s tone.
“I have more important things to worry about now. Our drug supply is dreadfully low. I need to increase production so we can flood the streets with our product. I need a steady supply of cash.” He turns a calculating look on me.
