Chapter Five
The afternoon sun was a burning orange ball overhead that matched the firestorm inside me as I climbed into the SUV in the driveway, closed the door, and all but punched a hole in the dash hitting the ignition button.
There were times I had to be a hardass with Leland, but I’d never anticipated the interlude of hot sex in the bedroom ending with me drawing the proverbial line in the sand or for him to have brought home members of the cartel to our house.
Had he fucking lost his mind?
True: Leland was arrogant.
True: he was unpredictable.
True: he was a warrior in the corporate world and with his philanthropic causes.
True: he was a warrior in bed. No, not letting myself get diverted from the more important crisis—he’d brought cartel members to the same house Ella lived in.
He was often impractical and reckless and over-the-top high-handed in our relationship, but this was beyond the limit even for him. And without a doubt beyond the limit of my tolerance.
I needed to take control of him and us pronto.
Damn him.
I planted my foot on the accelerator and maneuvered around the clutter of vehicles crowding our driveway post Leland’s return. I was halfway out the circular loop when my eyes locked on additional un-fucking-believable in my universe.
Who the hell were these dipshits walking a patrol carrying submachine guns just out of sight of the front door? Why hadn’t I run into them—or better question: why hadn’t they run into me when I’d returned from the school drop-off and stopped me before I stormed the house?
I waited for traffic to clear at the end of the drive and studied the men in the rearview. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The goon squad had a goon squad.
These had to be Hector Ramos’s body men. Leland hadn’t only brought home three members of the cartel, but he’d brought home their protection detail. They were little more than armed militia.
Fuck.
I merged into traffic and tried to form a plan to rapidly clear the scene of the criminal element intruding on our home. Then I remembered Leland had talked to Jared about whatever the concern was—still not fully explained to me in detail—that caused him to hire a bodyguard for his own protection.
After hitting the voice button, I commanded, “Call Jared.”
My fingers tightened around the steering wheel with each ring. He better fucking answer…
“Buenas tardes, mi amigo. Lo que está sacudiendo?”
Cute.
Very cute.
Lo que está sacudiendo: What’s shaking?
Jared was lucky it wasn’t him shaking from the force of my hands clutching his worthless secretive hide. He should have called me the second Leland called him. What kind of friend withholds vital intel?
“Fuck. You. Jared.”
Silence through the phone.
Good.
I had his attention.
“What’s got you pissed off, dude? You and Leland fighting again?”
Did he think I’d call him with my personal shit?
“One word. Emilio.”
“Oh.”
He sounded surprised, but then lapsed back into not talking and it was infuriating that he followed up with the sound of something tapping his desk. He was trying to figure out how pissed off I was and how to handle it.
“That’s it. Oh? That’s what you have to say?”
“Leland is my client,” he began awkwardly.
“And I’m part owner of Black Star Security,” I countered, cutting him off. “Don’t pretend not telling me Leland consulted with you for a bodyguard and you staying silent is about business relationships and not about you going behind my back.”
“Whoa. All I did was put a second man on the job in Rancho Asoleado without consulting you first. You can’t be in two places at once. I got a job order from a client. It needed to be filled. I filled it. Emilio is first rate. Wouldn’t have signed him on if he hadn’t been. You couldn’t have hired a better Mexican national as part of the team yourself. What’s got you so ramped up?”
I ignored the part about Emilio being first rate since he had gotten the better of me during our first introduction. Cringing, I pushed away the mental picture of being pinned on the tile by him. And the second part—ramped up?—personally, I didn’t think I was half as pissed off as I should have been given the situation. Jared was either missing the point because he was dense or doing it deliberately to try to sidestep my very rational disappointment in him.
“Don’t try to blow by this with your fucking Graham, it’s no big deal spiel.”
“You know I wouldn’t do that. We’re partners. When you have an issue with Black Star I always take it seriously. But Graham—”
I hit my turn signal and started backing into a parking place. The clock on the dash warned it was only five minutes before the bell rang. That gave me seven more minutes to find out everything from Jared before the principal had Ella at the front gate.
“—I think your issue is with your other partner. Not me. I told Leland we should tell you everything. Keeping you in the dark about the security risks in Guadalajara is on him. I suggest you go home and yell at Leland.”
Holy. Fucking. Hell.
Had everyone fucking lost their minds?
Did he think to get out of this by dismissing it as a relationship issue? I had to slam on the brakes to avoid crashing into the wall behind me.
I swung forward again in my seat and put the vehicle in park. I inhaled several steady, deep breaths and then said, “The full report. Now, Jared. What happened in Guadalajara? What spooked Lee enough that he called you?”
“Fuck,” he growled into the receiver and my nerve endings went on alert. This was not going to be nothing.
Jared was a pain in the ass to run a company with, but he wasn’t a make-drama kind of guy. Now on top of my simmering anger, there was worry slashing through my veins.
“If there is something I need to know, Jared, out with it.”
“Are you on your regular cell or a secured line?”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. “Regular.”
“Hang up. Call me back.”
Click.
Silence.
Oh fuck.
I sprang from the driver’s seat, clicked open the hatch, and opened my silver case that was my emergency grab bag. It held the standard shit a guy in my profession who often worked black ops for the government carried on assignment with him: extra passports, cash, contacts for safe houses in foreign countries, secured laptop, extra portable charger, guns, ammunition, safety vest, and the secure phone.
After hitting Jared’s number in my contact list, I listened to each ring that stretched my nerves more until finally he answered.
“That you, Graham?”
“Of course it’s me. What’s going on that you’re worried about discussing it on our cells?”
My question was answered by a strange sound like teeth buried in lower lip while sucking followed by a ragged release of breath.
Not good.
Jared’s trademark audio warning was like the tone before an Amber Alert that preceded shit about to get serious.
“Leland should have told you this when it happened, Graham. Someone put out a hit on him in February. Three months ago the contractor got off four rounds at him as Lee left Grupo Azul headquarters in Guadalajara. It was a fucking miracle they didn’t get him. That’s why he called me.”
My stomach dropped to the floor.
I started pacing in circles, running my hand repeatedly through my hair. How could Leland have not told me this? His life was my life. He was my man. A threat to him was a threat to me, and he had to know I’d move heaven and earth to protect him.
“Do you know who put the contract out? Does Lee know?”
“No. He said he didn’t have a clue why anyone would want him dead. So I contacted Jena Garret after Leland spoke to me. She’s digging around, working the case on the quiet, but hasn’t come up with anything useful yet. All I know is the contract is ongoing because they haven’t gotten him yet.”
Jena Garret.
My contact at the CIA.
If Jena was working the file and couldn’t figure out who was targeting Lee—oh fuck, that meant this threat could be one of a dozen equally dangerous since she hadn’t discovered the threat source of yet. Jena’s expertise was in a wide range of hot groups from cartels to terrorist cells, and she was the best of the best intelligence analysts. Jena knew the geopolitical landscape and its regional threats better than anyone.
My fingers clawed in my hair. “I can’t believe he didn’t tell me.”
“Maybe he was afraid of dragging you into something you didn’t want to know. You are rather selective in the contracts you’ll take and your list of no-go assignments.”
I froze in mid-step and stared off into the distance, shaking my head. Way to spin Leland not being forthright back on me, Jared. And worse, his logic held a ring of truth. I hadn’t been hot on the Mexico gig—even as hot as I was on Leland when he offered me the job guarding Ella—because of the cartel angle.
But I was here, wasn’t I?
All in, with him and the job.
Leland should have told me this.
The school bell rang and I shifted my gaze toward the entrance. “Don’t keep me out of the loop again, Jared. If Leland calls you, you call me. You don’t want to be you if that doesn’t happen.”
I spotted Ella, hit end of call, and shoved the phone into my pocket. She was waiting for me, smiling, holding onto Mrs. Roberts’s hand.
The sight of her sent pure panic rocketing through me. Cartel in the house with Ella. Leland home with a contract hit out on him. Undefined danger hanging over all three of us.
Hell no.
It was time to take control over my family.