My stomach dropped, because he was right. The cartel didn’t care about the truth. They cared about their money. And right now, I was standing in their way of making it.
“So what now?” I asked, my voice scratching out of my too tight throat.
“They want their route back, and you’re standing in their way.”
Tex’s arm tightened around my shoulders. “They’ll have to come through me if they think they’re hurting her,” he said, his drawl thicker.
JD studied the desk in front of him like the answer might be carved into the solid wood. Then he said something that made the back of my neck prickle.
“There’s another problem.”
I wiped my eyes and tried to steady my breathing. “What problem?”
JD looked at Tex. “What I can’t work out is why? Why now. Why would Matteo decide to do all this now? Just to make a name for himself? Seems like a lot of trouble changing an existing plan that had been working for them for years. Matteo can’t be more than thirty, and the Cartel have a lot of hands in a lot of business. Why’d they pick this one to go after?”
The room went very, very still and a cold wave rolled through my chest.
My property was on land that was used as a route…for drugs.
The ranch my parents had raised me on. The ranch I had fought to keep after they died. I felt sick.
“So someone pushed them towards this one,” one of the bikers behind me muttered.
“Not just pushed,” Tex said, “they took it to them and they encouraged it. But who? The only other people that could have known about it were other members of the cartel or…”
“One of ours,” JD finished for him, “one of ours wants in on the deal. Possibly had in on the original deal all along.”
Something flickered in my memory. Something from a while back. I’d come back briefly and had woken up to my parents arguing.
“Wait,” I said, and everyone turned to look at me. I remembered something. Something I hadn’t understood at the time. “My dad was scared the last year of his life,” I said quietly.
JD leaned forward. “Scared of what?”
“Or who?” one of the other bikers said.
I hesitated, uncertain. Then the memory came back in full.
“Late night.
The kitchen lights on.
My parents arguing in low voices.
My dad pacing the floor.
My mom crying.
I could hear his voice as clearly as if he was standing beside me now.
“He’s given them everything on us, it’s too late now.”
My father’s words left my mouth before I could stop them, the story of what I’d overheard echoing off the walls.
The reaction in the room was instant.
Tex’s entire body tensed beside me and JD’s eyes went cold.
“I’m guessing he didn’t say who?” Tex asked.
