by Elisabeth Naughton, Cynthia Eden, Katie Reus, Alexandra Ivy, Laura Wright, Joan Swan
Cassie choked down her temper and painfully backpedaled with a perfect impression of a first-year medical resident, complete with contrite smile. “I’m sorry. Please excuse me, Chief. I’ve had a long day.”
He nodded. “And I assure you I’ll look into this accident you’ve mentioned.”
Rio walked in through the side entrance. He wore the clothes he’d been dressed in at dinner and a look that told Cassie he was restraining as much frustration as everyone else in the room.
He approached the group with a hand held out for Fermin. “Chief. What brings you out?”
The question reminded Cassie there could only be one other reason he’d come—the clinic. And Nina. Suddenly, none of this bullshit Cassie was dancing around mattered.
“Rio,” Fermin greeted with the shake. “I’m here to talk to Cassandra.”
Fermin turned back to Cassie, shoulders straight, a businesslike flatness to his expression. A familiar burn developed beneath her ribs—the anticipation of receiving the unbearable news she imparted to others far too often.
“We are investigating a missing person,” he said. “Caesar Nuñez.”
Shock zigzagged through her body first, then relief. Relief so clear, so beautiful her knees went weak. But she didn’t show any emotion on the outside. Just as she covered her reaction to the discovery of dire symptoms in a patient, she hid the knowledge of Nina’s safety behind a mask.
“Caesar?” she asked. “He’s not missing. I saw him this morning.”
“He went missing this afternoon.”
“A few hours is hardly missing.”
“Under normal circumstances, maybe,” Fermin said. “But we have witnesses to an altercation just before Caesar disappeared. And when I was told you were seen with him this morning, I have to admit, I found it very…odd. A woman like you with a man like Caesar?” A world of innuendo lay heavy in his words. “That and the fact his approach caused a confrontation with Rio, with whom you were sitting.” Fermin shot a look at Rio. “I have to say, I find it all very interesting.”
Don’t get defensive, she told herself. But the reminder didn’t work. Not only was she defensive, she was pissed.
“Forgive me for my bluntness, Chief, but I don’t appreciate the insinuation I’m hearing.” Cassie’s answer drew everyone’s gaze, which was what she’d wanted. For a reason she couldn’t explain, she didn’t want Fermin inspecting Rio. “Caesar came over to ask me out. I said no. Rio didn’t appreciate our conversation over estate business being interrupted. Any other questions?”
Fermin’s smooth skin gave way to a few reluctant creases with his deepened frown and a suspicious, peeved, “I see.”
“I made it clear to Caesar,” Rio jumped in with an annoyingly congenial tone, “that his kind was not welcome at the estate and then explained his past and reputation to Cassie. Seeing as she’s been gone so long, I figured she wouldn’t know.”
Cassie kept her gaze on Fermin, but her mind twisted to understand the alliances at work here. She and Rio were clearly on opposite sides of her mission, yet they were standing here covering each other’s asses against mightier forces. And she didn’t have any idea why.
“I’m worried about you. Why can’t you get that through your head?”
Why couldn’t she believe he cared? That he was sincerely worried? Working for Saul didn’t make Rio the same man as her stepfather. It only made Rio an employee. Yet…didn’t working for him imply Rio held the same values?
He wasn’t kidding when he’d said this was complicated. And his decision to stay uninvolved was looking smarter by the second.
“Well.” Fermin stood straighter, resting his thumbs in his gun belt as if to bring attention to his power and authority. “It’s good to know someone is watching out for you, Cassandra. This is a very dangerous place now. Really no place for a beautiful young woman such as yourself.”
“So I’ve heard,” she said.
Fermin laid an extended look on Rio, then turned a condescending smile on Cassie. “Thank you for your time.”
He didn’t turn to leave. All three men stared at her. That had been a dismissal, and she was expected to exit upon order like a good little female.
A huge part of Cassie wanted to step down from the challenge, but the rebellious part of her couldn’t go quietly. “And you’ll check into that accident, Chief? Clearly a case of human smuggling.”
“Absolutely, Cassandra.” That flat black vacancy was back in Fermin’s eyes, and it told her exactly what he’d do with her information—make sure it never saw the light of day. “There are certain types of activity I won’t stand for in my community.”
Saul fisted his hands as Cassie walked down the hall toward her suite. A red haze of fury rimmed his vision. Rio and Fermin remained silent until Cassie’s door closed and the locks clicked home.
A smile flicked the edges of Saul’s mouth. Those aren’t going to save you from me, bitch.
“Do you know what she was doing with Caesar?” Fermin barked at Saul like an irritating Chihuahua. “She was investigating you. She was sending Caesar after the whores you bring here.”
Saul instantly knew this would be a problem. Not insurmountable, but still, a problem. He looked to Rio, who shook his head, indicating he didn’t have any knowledge of it, then refocused on Fermin. “How do you know this?”
“How I know everything.” His chest puffed out, his chin lifted. Normally, Saul found the man’s arrogance entertaining. Not tonight. “People talk to my men. Caesar was working for Cassandra. She paid him to get information on what you’ve been doing. I told you not to bring those cunts here. Sheer stupidity, Saul.”
Fury struck like ice-lightning. Saul’s muscles contracted. His insides frosted. His mind pinpointed Fermin’s sidearm. His imagination already had it in his hand.
“You know better than to talk to me like that.” His voice emerged in a low, cold, flat tone, and the room went silent.
“Chief.” Rio took Fermin by the upper arm and pulled him toward the bar. “We all need another drink. What can I get you?”
Fermin went with Rio and downed his third lowball of whiskey since he’d walked in twenty minutes ago. Saul delighted in the knowledge that he unnerved a police chief to this degree. Which was why he continued to work with the man, because Fermin was smart. He damn well should be nervous around Saul.
Fermin slammed the crystal against the bar, and Rio handed Saul another drink on the other side of the room with a whispered, “Take it easy on the old man.”
Saul grinned.
Fermin turned, glaring. “What are you doing about her, Saul?”
“Calm down, Dominic,” he said, his voice as smooth as the pricey whiskey in his glass. “Cassandra can play all the little games she wants. Nothing she discovers about what I’m doing in my private life is going to hurt us. I have every right to utilize the estate funds as I see fit. This house is mine to live in however I want. She doesn’t have to like it.”
“You know her.” Fermin approached. “If she can prove you’re sullying her precious mother’s memory, she will go to her deathbed finding a way to ruin you.”
“Then that bed will be filled quickly, won’t it?”
“Not unless you want to lose this place altogether.”
Oh, why did everyone have to keep bringing that up? That was such a thorn in his side. The root of all his current problems. Fucking Alejandra. Fucking, lying, cheating bitch.
“You give Cassandra too much credit, Dominic.”
“You don’t give her enough.”
He jabbed a stiff finger toward Saul’s chest, just short of stabbing him. Damn good thing, because that weapon was within Saul’s reach again. And his fingers itched to grab it, stuff it in Fermin’s mouth, and blow the back of the bastard’s head off.
“We all know just what kind of power she holds over you,” Fermin said, “but her nosing around puts far more powerful people at risk.”
“More powerful people?” That li
ghtning struck again and snapped Saul back into darkness. His body tightened so hard, so fast, his muscles cramped. “You’re getting pressure? From who?”
“I’m giving you an opportunity to take care of this your own way, Saul. But take care of it, or someone else will. Then you’ll be screwed. I’ll be screwed. Everything we’ve planned will be screwed. How long do you think they’ll let us live then?”
Saul’s head throbbed, his shoulder and neck muscles spasmed, but he walked Fermin to the door, the manners ingrained.
On the threshold, Fermin turned, looked over Saul’s shoulder toward the living room, then lowered his voice. “You’d better start getting more involved in your enterprise, Saul, or it’s only a matter of time before it’s swept out from under you by someone more astute. Monitor what is going on with the tango transfer firsthand, not through Rio. Take a hand in managing your coyotes, or before you know it, they’ll only respond to Rio’s orders. If you don’t want Rio to simply put a bullet in your head and take over your business, start cultivating your own contacts.”
Fermin’s words pried open a cold well of distrust inside Saul. He hated that feeling. That clawing, sucking, drowning feeling of pending betrayal. Yet what Fermin said made sense. “I see your point, Dominic. I’ll consider your advice.”
“I’ll make some contacts. If they develop, I’ll pass them on.”
Saul nodded, but it was clear the chief simply wanted Saul to take control from Rio so he could then hand it back over to Fermin. The bane of Saul’s existence—he could never completely trust anyone.
“And if you can’t control or distract Cassandra from getting in the way,” Fermin said, “then strike where she lives. Take control of what’s most important to her.”
After Saul closed the door behind Fermin, he stood there a moment, rolling those words over in his head. “Take control of what’s most important to her.” There was a gem of wisdom there. He downed his whiskey, headed straight for the bar, and refilled his glass.
He turned to the windows and looked out at the night, as black and barren as his internal landscape.
“I’m sure I can convince her to go home,” Rio said. “If I need to, I’ll scare her into going.”
Saul refocused. Pulled himself together. He wouldn’t allow this bitch to beat him. Ever. He was better, smarter, stronger. He rolled the glass between his palms and imagined slamming the crystal into Cassandra’s forehead. Imagined the crack of her skull. The blood running down her face.
The vision opened a floodgate of relief, and a river of calm drenched him. Finally.
Cassandra’s time would come. Saul had to be patient.
“No, Rio.” His voice had leveled. “Fear will only make her fight back harder. I learned that the hard way with Cassandra. Scaring her will urge her to rally forces. Abducting her and stashing her somewhere would bring in federal officials from the United States. We can’t afford either of those right now. But…as we talked about last night, she does seem interested in you.”
A long moment of silence made Saul turn and look at his employee.
Rio was scowling. Saul almost laughed. Bedding Cassandra for anything other than violence was asking a lot of him.
“I was being sarcastic,” Rio said. “I promise you, I’m not her favorite person.”
“A woman doesn’t have to like you to want to fuck you, Rio.” He did laugh then. “You really don’t get out enough, amigo, which is entirely my fault for having so many demands on your time. Believe me when I tell you Cassandra is interested. I’m sure you could find many ways to keep her…preoccupied. I want her focused on you, Rio, so she stops focusing on me.”
Rio took a big step backward. “No, Saul, that isn’t going to work.”
Challenge was hitting from every direction tonight, and it was getting annoying.
“Yes, it will work, Rio.” Saul hardened his smile and his voice. “You’ll make it works because I’m telling you to make it works. Just do what I would do. Keep her mouth so busy she has to shut up and keep her head down.”
Chapter Ten
Rio backed into an alley three blocks up from the clinic. Down the street, Cassie paused before climbing from the estate’s Jeep, her gaze scanning the area and its new inhabitants.
Three groups of men loitered at various corners and in front of storefronts along the boulevard. Rio recognized them as Muertos, and the way Cassie was hesitating indicated she at least suspected they were some type of gang members.
Finally. Could he have finally gotten through that thick head of hers?
Her car door opened, and one long, bare leg extended as she stepped out. Shiiiit. Couldn’t the woman wear pants once in a freaking while? These guys didn’t need any more encouragement. Neither did Rio. His body was still blazing from Saul’s direct order to keep Cassie preoccupied with sex for the foreseeable future. And Rio still hadn’t figured out how he was going to get around that directive, or if he even wanted to, because his night had been packed with fantasies of exactly how he would fulfill the order.
Whether he did or not, he had to stay close to her. She wouldn’t like it, but she’d just have to deal, which was what he was going to tell her as soon as she was safe inside the clinic. He knew this would escalate into a yelling match, and he didn’t think the Muertos needed to hear just what either of them thought of their gang.
The brewing storm hadn’t yet broken, and the warm wind whipped her loose ponytail. She pulled the same light jean jacket closed at the neck with one hand and slipped a small backpack over the other shoulder.
Rio pushed his door open and stood, stretched. He surveyed the area, shut the door, and took a step toward the clinic before he looked up—and found Cassie heading the opposite direction.
“Goddamn girl. Can’t do anything the way she should.” He thought about waiting for her at the clinic, then spotted a group of four Muertos sauntering across the street in a perfect trajectory to intersect Cassie’s path.
“Shit.” He set out after her, growing angrier with the world by the moment. He hated the way his hands were tied—by Saul, by ICE, even by Cassie. He was starting to feel like he lived in a straitjacket. And he was getting damn sick and tired of it.
Halfway across the street, the Muertos got waylaid by some friends, and instead of colliding with Cassie, merely sent taunts her way, which she ignored.
Rio had just relaxed when she turned on Sixth Street. She stopped where he’d feared she would. Rio’s day turned to shit—and it wasn’t even eight a.m. yet.
While Cassie jiggled the door handle to the storefront Saul kept as an “office” for his “art exporting” business, Rio sank around a corner, pulled out his cell, and dialed Tomás. Rio peered around the edge of the building just as Cassie knocked on the glass door.
“What’s up?” Tomás answered.
Rio pulled back around the corner of the building. “Push Kollman again. I need to get this woman out of here.”
“He was solid. He’s not gonna to go for it.”
“Make him go for it.”
“What’s wrong?”
“She’s a walking nightmare. Within two days, she’s going to have Saul completely exposed. She is trying to get him tossed from the house. She’s investigating his business. She’s even got someone in San Diego looking into your accident. And what the hell happened with Caesar? Fermin showed up at the house last night asking questions, saying there were rumors Caesar was abducted. How could ICE screw that up?”
“If you haven’t noticed, Caesar isn’t the most cooperative guy.”
“Their fumble had Fermin grilling Cassie about being with Caesar yesterday. Now Fermin’s threatening Saul to keep her in line or he’ll take her out. And Saul’s solution is to have me seduce her and keep her preoccupied, for fuck’s sake. I swear this feels like it’s going to blow up in my face.”
Silence extended over the line. Rio was about to pull the phone away and look at the display to see if he’d lost the call when Tomás said, �
�That’s actually not a half-bad idea.”
Rio covered his face. “Jesus Christ.”
“Think about it man.” Tomás’s voice lowered as it did when they were together and they put their heads down to talk privately. “What are the alternatives if you don’t? She’ll keep doing what she’s doing and could not only get herself killed but get you killed. Screw that, dude. Get with her, man. It’s not like a hardship. I’d take on the job myself if I— Hey, maybe I could. Doesn’t really matter who distracts her, right? As long as she’s distracted. If you really don’t want the job, brother, I’ll take one for the team here. I’ll just set up a fake chance meeting, do my charmer thing—”
“Tomás.” Rio pulled at his hair. “This isn’t funny.”
“Who’s laughing?” Indeed, Tomás’ voice was coolly serious. “She’s seriously hot. I’d make the effort even if it were a stupid plan—and it’s not. It’s a valid option to keep her safe, keep your cover intact, and keep the whole mission secure until those tangos get here. We only need a week, two at the most to tie everything up, close this thing down.”
Two weeks of having Cassie in his bed? In the name of national security? A wave of lusty need expanded in the pit of his stomach and slid lower. It was so wrong…and so right…and shit. Rio was so screwed.
“I’ll call K,” Tomás continued, “but he’s already said no way. We’re in too tight. You’re going to have to find a way to deal with her, man. And I know you’re used to having the babes drop in your lap, but it wouldn’t hurt you to actually have to work at it for once.”
Rio pinched the bridge of his nose. “The best thing for everyone would be to get her out of here. When you call K, tell him that information on her didn’t come over the wire last night.”
He disconnected with a fresh sense of chaos kicking along his nerves and an extra dose of lust rushing his system. He glanced around the building edge and found Cassie with her sunglasses resting on top of her head and her hands cupped against the glass as she peered into the space.
“Dios mío,” he muttered.
