by Cora Kenborn
“So is murder.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He opened his mouth to say something, then stopped and shook his head. “Step inside, Miss Harcourt, or we can have this conversation in a place you won’t find as appealing.”
Time stood still. My apartment was small—the living room blending into the kitchen in one modest open area. There weren’t many places to run, and with three against one, the odds weren’t in my favor.
Out of patience, he pointed toward my kitchen table, waiting with his arms crossed over his chest while his two henchmen stayed by the door like a couple of guard dogs. He sighed again, which turned into a rattling cough.
“You should quit smoking,” I blurted out, dropping into the chair. “Those things will kill you.”
“Not as quickly as those things.” Sliding into the chair beside me, he tilted his head backward at the open trash bag, the butt of Luis’s handgun sticking out. “Miss Harcourt…”
The adrenaline that had rushed through my veins all night finally stalled, sending me careening into a wall of sadness and annoyance. “It’s Leighton,” I snapped. “Let’s drop the formalities, shall we? If I’m about to die, I’d rather do it on a first name basis.”
“Okay, Leighton,” he said, leaning back in his chair. The fact he didn’t dispel my fear of dying didn’t escape me.
“Don’t I get to know your name too?”
He held my stare. “Alex Atwood.”
I continued with my false bravado, motioning to where his men still hovered against my door. “Well, I’d offer for you to come in, but it seems you’ve already—”
“Drug enforcement officer.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a leather wallet and dropped it open, flashing official looking credentials.
I gasped. Screw the bravado. “DEA? You’re…you’re a government agent?”
Brody’s voice echoed in my head.
Admit nothing. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.
As he studied my face, I wondered what secret he hoped to find hidden there. I’d never been a particularly good liar. I tended to wear my emotions like a second skin.
Finally, he rested his forearms on the table and whispered, “I know everything about you and everything you’ve done.”
He can’t. He couldn’t.
“You’re bluffing.”
“Look, Leighton,” he said, watching me closely. “I’m going to do you a favor and spell this out for you. We’ve been watching since you, shall we say, began fraternizing with a known cartel member.”
“Luis was a student.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Leighton, Leighton, Leighton,” he groaned, drawing my name out like I was a child. “Delgado was never a student. The Carrera Cartel sent him here to keep you in line after the Muñoz Cartel stalked you.”
My world tilted and spun. I’d convinced myself I’d just been robbed, nothing more. I’d be damned if Alex Atwood would storm in and destroy my perfect lie.
“A cartel? No, I had a few break-ins, that’s all. As you can see, I don’t live in the best part of town.”
“You didn’t believe that any more than your brother did.”
My nails dug into already scratched wood. “My family is none of your business.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong,” he corrected. “Everything you do is my business since you just committed a homicide.”
“No,” I whispered. “It was self-defense.”
Alex smirked. “It could be. Or it could be premeditated murder. That’s all up to you. Wake up, Leighton. You’re just a pawn in their game. I tried to warn you, but you wouldn’t listen. Now, because of you, the best shot I had of getting anything on the Carreras is in stage two rigor mortis.”
I shot him a disgusted look, and he sighed.
“I need you to tell me everything that happened tonight. Did you hear anything? Was there a conversation?”
“Why should I trust you?”
“I’m the only one offering you a way out.”
We stared at each other, a cold sweat breaking out across my forehead. With my back against the wall, I retold what the man in the hoodie had said from my hazy memory.
“No names?”
“No, we weren’t formally introduced, if that’s what you’re asking.” He rolled his eyes just before Luis’s voice raced through my head. “Hector,” I blurted out. “Before he saw me, he was talking to a guy named Hector.”
“And?”
“And nothing. That’s all I know.”
His icy blue eyes hardened, and he said nothing. My gaze caught on the bloody rag, and vomit gurgled in my throat. That was the moment I broke. The bravado shattered, and I went with it.
“Why are you torturing me?” I screamed, launching myself from the chair. Turning both wrists up, I pressed them together and shoved them under his nose. “Arrest me and get it over with!”
Alex stared at my wrists before lowering them to the table. “Personally, I don’t want to see you pay for ridding the world of scum.”
“Then what do you want from me?”
“I want you to help me bring down the Carrera Cartel.”
“Me? I only knew Luis, and obviously not well. I had no idea he was a criminal.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “I was sure you were covering for him, but you really don’t know, do you?”
“Stop talking in riddles and just tell me what you mean for fuck’s sake!”
“Your brother, Brody, is second in command of the Houston leg of the Carrera Cartel.”
I couldn’t comprehend the words coming out of his mouth. It was as if wires had crossed in my brain and sent an electrical shock down my spine. I tried to sit down, but it was more of a stumble—a fall from innocence that left me unstable—in more ways than one.
“No. You’re lying. My brother works for the DA’s office.”
“Which makes him all the more valuable to a man like Valentin Carrera.”
I’d heard the name before. No one lived in Houston for any amount of time and didn’t know the legend of the Carreras. However, my big brother would never betray the law he swore to uphold and protect.
“Fine,” he growled, obviously taking my silence as disbelief. “Some people need to hear shit for themselves—twice.” He pointed a finger at the taller of the two guards. “Play it.”
I knew the voices immediately and recognized the words. I heard the panic in my own voice, forcing me to hear the iciness in his tone I’d ignored before.
“Brody?”
“Are you on your own phone?”
“Yes.”
“Have you called the police?”
“No.”
“Good, don’t. Listen very carefully. Don’t touch anything. I need you to get anything out of there that’s yours or that has your information on it. Anything, Leighton. Pack your bags and come to Houston now. I’ll take care of it.
When it was over, Alex tapped his finger against his dimple again. “Why do you think he was so calm, Leighton? You admitted to murder.”
“You bugged my phone?”
“I told you, we’ve been watching you,” he replied impatiently. “Having Swenson over there install spyware on your phone while you daydreamed over coffee wasn’t hard. You don’t pay attention for shit.”
I covered my ears. “Please stop.”
But mercy wasn’t on Agent Atwood’s agenda, and he jerked a hand away from my head. “I’m finished with the kid gloves, so here’s how this is going to happen. You’re going to take that bag of shit over there, get in your car, and drive to Houston like Brody told you to. What you’re not going to do is speak a word of anything that happened here tonight.”
“What? I don’t understand.”
His eyes darkened. “You’re going to hand me the heads of the Carrera Cartel on a platter. I want Valentin Carrera, Mateo Cortes, Emilio Reyes, and your brother, or we’ll take you in right now and charge you with
murder.”
Sweat trickled down my neck at the thought of being locked away, but my stomach curdled at being the cause of damning Brody to the same fate. “No matter what he’s done, I won’t be the one to ruin my brother.”
He loosened a button at the top of his white collared shirt and cursed under his breath. “What if I arranged immunity for him? He’d have to turn on the rest of them, but if you get me Carrera, Cortes, and Reyes, I’ll go easy on him.”
I failed to see how this was any better. “You want me to lie to my brother?”
“He’s been lying to you.”
I weighed the consequences. “I have family here. How can I be sure they’ll be safe?”
“We can protect them.” The response came too quickly—as if he’d been expecting it and came prepared.
“You know about them?”
“I’ve told you, I know everything about you, Leighton, and that includes the people around you. We can take them into protective custody.”
The thought ripped me apart. “They’ll never go.”
“I’m sure you can be quite convincing,” he said, giving me a condescending wink.
He was right, and he knew it. A couple of promises and they’d do whatever I told them to. Blind trust was deadlier than any weapon.
“I guess you haven’t given me much of a choice, have you?”
A slow smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “I knew you’d see it our way.”
I watched the guard dogs gather the trash bag and my other belongings when my thoughts cleared. “How the hell am I supposed to do this?” I asked, scrubbing my palms down my face. “I’m not exactly on the best terms with my relatives in Houston. What do you expect me to do, just show up and say, ‘Hey everyone! I haven’t been home for four years, but guess who’s back?’”
Alex rubbed his brow as if deep in thought. “I’m sure your brother has a spare bed.” Stopping in the middle of the room, he cocked his chin at me. “How are your waitressing skills?”
His question threw me. “Huh?”
“I’ll explain on the way.” He pointed toward the door. “Time to go, Miss Harcourt.”
I gaped at him. “If you think I’m leaving without saying goodbye to my family first, you all can go fuck yourselves.”
Alex clucked his tongue. “Such ugly language from such a pretty girl. Fetters and Swenson will accompany you to explain the situation to them, then I’ll offer you an official escort back to Houston.”
“Why?”
“We can’t take any risks, Leighton. After all, you’re quite volatile. Look what happened tonight.”
I stormed out without looking back. I didn’t have to. I knew all three were right behind me. They’d be there from now on, watching my every move. My life as I knew it was over. Luis had forced me into unchartered waters and the government watched as I made the choice to sink or swim.
For my soul, I’d sink. For those I love, I’d swim.
So, I put my beat-up red Honda Civic in reverse to say goodbye to everything I knew and loved.
I’d always heard that every ending was also a beginning. Unfortunately, I never forgot my past, and because of it, I knew two things in life were absolute: knowledge accompanied tragedy, and history always repeated itself.
Four
Leighton
Houston, Texas
It was somewhere between the middle of the night and the early crack of dawn when I finally pulled up in front of my brother’s second-story apartment in Houston. I never bothered glancing in a mirror after lugging my duffel bag inside and dumping it on the floor, but by the expression on Brody’s face, I looked like something left on the side of a highway.
I wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for the rest of my life, but Brody insisted on hearing word for horrifying word exactly what happened. I contemplated lying, but in the end, I told him the truth, only stopping at the part where the government stormed into my apartment and threw down the gauntlet. I’d anticipated his initial barrage of questions concerning the fact I'd arrived alone and met it head-on with a rather convincing excuse of not wanting to uproot the only innocent family we had left. Especially since I had no plans to make my stay permanent.
Unfortunately, restful sleep never came for me. However, both Luis and Matty did—over and over in sweat drenched nightmares until I finally gave up around six in the morning and dragged myself into the kitchen.
After mulling it over the whole drive from San Marcos, I decided not to tell Brody I knew he worked for the Carreras. It felt wrong, but as much as I loved my brother, I couldn’t trust him. My good guy had taken off his cape and donned a mask. If I confided in him, I couldn’t be sure which version I’d be talking to—the hero or the villain.
And that really sucked.
I decided my best course of action would be to play both sides. I planned to pump him for as much information as I could and find enough damning evidence to sell out my future boss, the head of the whole cartel, and that Cortes guy. Whoever the hell he was.
So, I psyched myself up to bug my own brother’s apartment with the surveillance equipment Alex had given me—as disgusting as it felt. My first attempt ended with me pacing outside the kitchen, chewing off what little fingernails I had left as my brother leaned over the sink, gripping the edges and barking orders at someone.
I’d only managed to get one bug planted in the kitchen before he walked in.
“No, don’t come here. Because Leighton’s here and I don’t want you scaring her, that’s why. No, look, just do what you need to do, and we’ll meet up later. I’ll call you.”
I coughed discreetly as he threw the phone across the counter. “Everything okay?”
The hardened look on his face softened when he saw me. “Nothing you need to worry about.”
“Are you sure? I heard my name.”
“Just an associate from work. I’ll deal with it at the office.”
“Right.” He could never look me in the face when he lied.
An awkward silence settled between us, and he glanced at the clock, scratching the back of his dirty blond hair. “There’s no easy way to say this, but were you able to bring anything from Luis’s apartment?”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, why? First of all, we have to pull your information off it. Secondly, maybe it’ll help us find out who else is involved.”
I considered refusing, but where would that get me? I barely knew how to operate my own phone, much less knew what to look for when hacking into a criminal’s software. As long as Brody didn’t suspect I knew about his cartel affiliation, he’d share whatever information he found with me. I had to believe that.
“Yes,” I admitted. “I have his laptop and his phone.”
“What about the gun and bloody clothes?”
“I threw them away.”
Well actually, Alex took them, but he didn’t need to know that.
His face tightened. “You did what?”
“You said to clean up my mess, so I did. I dumped them.” I had no idea how I forced my mouth to say such a lie.
He clasped both hands on top of his head and tilted his chin up. “Jesus, Leighton, of all the stupid—”
“Don’t yell at me, Brody. I just did what you told me to do, and I wiped everything down first. Don’t get all sanctimonious on me. You try standing over a man you just shot and see how fucking clear your head is.”
“Okay, calm down,” he said, dropping his hands. “Eventually, we’re going to talk about this, Leighton. I still don’t understand why it happened in the first place.” I opened my mouth to argue, but he held up a hand silencing me. “In the meantime, we’ll just concentrate on pulling whatever information we can off Luis’s computer.”
“Fine.”
Guilt ate at me as a worried frown settled across his face. “Hey, how about I drop you off at Mom’s today? I don’t like the idea of you staying here by yourself.”
“I’d rather take my chances back in San Mar
cos.” That wasn’t an exaggeration. I’d sooner walk back into Luis’s apartment and call in my own confession to the police than step foot inside my mother’s house. There was a reason I hadn’t been back to Houston in almost four years.
Brody pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Leighton, come on...”
I fisted my hands by my side, poised in battle-ready stance to take on this fight when I replayed Alex Atwood’s parting words.
“Emilio Reyes owns Caliente Cantina.”
“You think a cartel member is going to hand me a job just because I ask for it?”
“No, he’ll hand you a job because your brother asks for it.”
The last thing I wanted to do was crawl out of the safety of my brother’s four walls, but if I was going to get both of us out of this mess, I had to play by the DEA’s rules.
“I’ll go stir crazy cooped up in this place all day, Brody. It gives me too much time to think, about...well, you know. Besides, I need a job. I can’t sponge off you while I’m here.” I waited. I bit my lip. I shuffled from foot to foot, praying my constant fidgeting didn’t give me away all while wondering how long it would take him to cave.
The answer? Less than half a heartbeat.
“A friend of mine owns a cantina not far from here, and I know he’s short staffed,” he offered. “I could get you a job waitressing. I know it’s not much money, but—”
“I’ll take it.”
He leaned against the wall and studied me. I immediately wished I hadn’t sounded so eager.
“It hasn’t been offered. I still have to talk to Emilio.”
“You’re the assistant district attorney, aren’t you?” My brother was no idiot. I walked a fine line that could trip his bullshit detector with one false step. Taking a deep breath, I crossed my fingers behind my back and balanced on my high-wire of lies.
Moments of silence passed before he grinned. “I’ll give him a call and set it up while you get ready. However, until we get this straightened out, the only two places I want you driving to are here and Caliente.”
“But—”
