Kasey was thrown forward, hitting her head against the seat in front of her. Being covered in soft leather, she only had a headache when she snapped to. She noted Layla was alive, holding a hand on her head probably for the same reason her own pounded. Looking into the front seats, she saw Hendrix slumped over the steering wheel, hands dangling.

“Hendrix!” she yelled, splitting her skull down the middle. She ignored the pain and struggled to get the damn seat belt off. When he didn’t reply, she shouted his name again. He couldn’t be dead. He’d been around too long and cared too much to die.

At that point, a policeman was at the window, hand on his holstered gun. “Help him!” she screamed from the back seat. The belt didn’t give, and she was unable to move. The officer’s face appeared through the window on Layla’s side.

“Everyone all right back there?” the officer asked.

“We’re fine!” Kasey yelled and pointed to the front. “Help Hendrix. He’s shot.” Next she knew, the driver’s side window shattered into small nuggets of glass. The policeman spoke into his radio, calling for backup and an ambulance.

Finally sitting up, she saw why the cop was on the scene so quickly. Hendrix had managed to plow the car into the back side of a police cruiser. Smart. That meant the shooter in the chase car was gone.

From that moment, things became a blur with officers pulling all three of them from the car, an ambulance taking Hendrix away while a second checked over her and Layla, and the officer asking them a million questions she could barely comprehend at the moment.

Then she remembered Hendrix told her to call her dad. She rushed for the car, avoiding grabby hands and ducking under yellow tape, and pulled her purse out. Her hands still shook so badly, the officer volunteered to make the call for her.

All she remembered of the call was that Layla’s dad was coming to get them and to stay with the policemen until he arrived. He’d wait for them at her apartment.

All too soon, yet seemingly forever long, Roberto parked in the apartment complex’s handicapped parking spot close to the front entrance, opening their doors and ushering them upstairs to their door.

Kasey took a deep breath and reached for the doorknob, knowing another car wreck waited inside. This time there was no doubt what her father wanted. He knew, he’d sent Hendrix to her work. It was time to face the piper about her coworkers.

Her father threw open the door before she could. He wrapped her in a bear hug similar to how Roberto had greeted his daughter at the crash site.

“Are you all right?” her father asked her. For the first time in a long time, she felt safe and loved in his embrace. After her mother died, her dad had retreated into a dark shell where she was afraid of the man he’d become. He acted the Hollywood version of a cartel lord, anger fits and all. Then when Artemis came into his life, he changed into a person she could put up with until she was old enough to move out on her own. Now, he was the man she knew before her mother passed.

“We’re okay, Dad. Just shaken up. They took Hendrix to the hospital.”

“I’ve contacted his wife,” he replied. “What happened? Why was someone chasing you?”

She had no answer, not that she was thinking all that clearly yet. “I don’t know.”

Layla spoke for the first time since the accident. “I think it was road rage.” They all looked at her. “What else could it be? You see it all the time on the news.”

Her father guided her to the sofa and said, “I have another idea I believe to be more likely.” Kasey stared at him. What did he know that she didn’t? He lifted a bottle from the coffee table and poured a liquid into waiting glasses. That was strange. She’d never seen the label before.

“Kasey, Layla, how was work?” The change in conversation startled her as did his tone. “Hope you don’t mind I brought a bottle and helped myself.”

“Of course not. We’re just surprised to see you considering we’re having dinner tomorrow and all,” Kasey replied cautiously. He handed each girl a glass.

Layla held up a hand. “That’s okay, Mr. Mercado. My father and I’ll leave you to talk with your daughter. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“Nonsense. Take a glass and have a seat. We have a few things to discuss and they involve you as well, my darling niece. And please, stop calling me Mr. Mercado. We’re family. Call me Isaac or Uncle or even Uncle Isaac. I don’t care which to be honest.”

Kasey sipped from her glass as Layla sat beside her on the couch across from Isaac. She knew that smile on his face—it meant trouble for whomever didn’t pay heed. So much for his concern over the wreck. Was it road rage as Layla said? Had Hendrix cut someone off in traffic and she wasn’t paying attention? The taste of the drink took her mind off the wreck for a moment.

“This is good,” she murmured after taking a sip.

Isaac’s smiled grew at her words. “Yes, it is, isn’t it? My understanding is it’s a fairly new product on the market. Maybe you’ve heard of the company,” Isaac said as he made eye contact with Kasey. “It’s called Call of the Wild and it’s made by Mountain Spirits.”

“Mountain Spirits,” Kasey repeated. “Yes, I’ve tried a few different types and I haven’t been disappointed yet.”

“That’s a good word. Disappointed, wouldn’t you agree?” Isaac asked in mock innocence. “I mean, it conveys so much in one single word.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Kasey saw Layla open her mouth to reply. She quickly placed her hand on her thigh and gave a gentle squeeze. Her father didn’t need any encouragement. He was having too much fun as it was.

“So, Layla, tell me, how do you like your living arrangements now? Everything going okay for you?”

“It’s been wonderful. I’m loving it here. Kasey has been so welcoming.”

“Good, good.”

They lapsed into silence as they all stared at each other. Kasey for her part was doing her best to act nonchalant and wait her father out. All she wanted was to crawl into bed and sleep and forget about this night.

This had to be driving Layla nuts, but it was life with her father. She’d get used to it quick enough.

“Aren’t you curious as to why I’m here unannounced?” he finally asked with a quirk of his mouth.

“You mean it’s not because you missed my sparkling personality and wit? I’ll have to make sure I let my therapist know, so we can work through the disappointment.”

Isaac threw his head back and laughed at her words. “Feisty as ever. You never let me down, daughter.”

“I am my father’s daughter, at least, that’s what Mom always used to say.”

“You’ve taken after me in a few other ways, too, it would seem. I understand the apple didn’t fall far from the tree after all.”

It was Kasey’s turn to cock an eyebrow in question. “Oh?”

“Sure, I mean you’re working for Rakida Construction, and on top of that, you’ve become close friends with them. I must commend you for keeping it so well hidden under all our noses this whole time. You’ve impressed me a great deal.”

“I won’t spy on them for you, Father. Don’t even think of asking me,” Kasey blurted before she could think better of it.

“Like I said, feisty. But don’t worry. I wouldn’t ask that of you. I actually came here for a different reason than you’re thinking. I want you to set up a meeting with your friends. I want to talk to them in person. And before you say anything, just hear me out. Can you do that?”

She wanted to demand he leave her friends alone, but she knew it wouldn’t work. He’d decided on something and the only thing she could do was listen and then decide what to do. One thing was for sure, she wouldn’t stand by and let him hurt her friends in anyway if she could help it.

“I want to clear the air with them, apologize for the things that have happened in my name. When your…I mean, when Artemis told me about the baby a few weeks ago, it got me to thinking. I was young and caught up in the family business when you were born. I want to do things differently this time. I want to build a legacy you and your half-sibling can be proud of.”

“I’m sorry, what?” She must’ve hit her head harder than she thought in the crash. Her dad didn’t say what she thought she heard.

“I have to work out all the details still, but I’m set on my course. The Mercado Cartel is changing its ways. We’re going to become upstanding citizens or die trying.”

Kasey frowned and stared at her father in confusion. “Have you been checked for a brain tumor? Are you dying? Alien abduction and you’re a pod person?”

“Funny,” Isaac said with a roll of his eyes.

“Why do you want a meeting with my friends?”

“One, to apologize, like I said. Two, to promise those days are behind us. Three, to make a business deal with them.”

“What type of business deal?”

“I want to hire them, all of them, and their companies in one fashion or another.”

That was it, she was done. This was officially the most fucked up, whacked out day she could ever recall.