“You sent Luis to San Marcos to watch over Leighton,” I noted, slowly running my hand underneath the kitchen counter. “So, you must have trusted him.”

“Why are we rehashing this?” Brody called out from the living room. “He never gave me any reason to doubt him. I had no idea he’d gotten as close as he did.”

After seeing the pictures on Luis’s computer, I wanted answers, but I sure as hell didn’t need to be reminded of what had gone on between them. “Well, obviously, now we know Luis was a traitor, but how well do you really know your sister?”

I could feel the tension radiate from the other room.

“What the hell are you saying, Cortes?”

I was about to give up my search when something dark caught my eye under the toaster.

“Brody, have you considered the fact that Leighton just shot him?”

“My sister is the victim here,” he insisted. “You don’t know her like I do.”

Oh, that’s where you’re wrong. I know her better than you do.

I shook my head. “If you say so.” Pulling the small, round device from underneath the toaster, I dropped it into my pocket just as Brody stormed into the kitchen.

“Look, just focus all your energy on the burner phone and stop wasting it suspecting Leighton. If you’d get to know her, you’d realize how innocent she is in all this.” Stalking itno the kitchen, he grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair and held up his phone. “I’ve got to go to the warehouse downtown. A shipment arrived in Corpus Christi, and it’s fucked up. I’ll be back later.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“No,” he said, dropping his phone into his jacket. “Leighton should be home any minute, and I don’t like the idea of her being here alone.”

“You want me to babysit your sister?” I tried to keep my face impassive, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded. “I’m not sure I like how things turned out for the last guy you tapped for that job.”

Brody stopped at the door and smirked. “Yeah, he’s dead, so I’d keep my hands to myself if I were you.”

I said nothing because I knew I couldn’t keep that promise, and he took my silence as compliance. I thought Brody was smarter than that.

After watching his car leave, I inspected his apartment, but I couldn’t find any other devices. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind who planted the bug, and not just because she was the only one with access to the place. Anyone with an ounce of experience would never have been stupid enough to bug a fucking toaster.

I was restless. As minutes ticked off the clock, I paced by the window. What the hell was keeping her? Dark thoughts loomed in the most jaded parts of my brain. The parts that had seen and participated in the torture of witnesses who thought they could escape our reach. The more I thought, the tighter my chest became. Frustrated, I stopped mid-pace and ran my hands through my hair, tugging on the strands as if to force some sense back into my head.

She’s a job. She’s nothing but a job.

Just as I reached for my phone to break down and call her, tires squealed in the parking lot, followed by the slam of a car door. I didn’t bother moving to the window again to look. Something inside me knew it was her.

I braced myself, determined to stand my ground, when the door flew open and the brutal reality of what I lost came barreling inside and ran full force into my arms. I barely had time to register what happened before she wrapped her arms around my neck, her small body trembling uncontrollably. I couldn’t help tightening my grip, dipping my nose in her hair and inhaling the intoxicating scent of wildflowers.

My chest squeezed in agony. I drowned in longing as two sides of me fought a losing battle. The monster inside me demanded I make her pay for turning her back on me, while the man who lost her screamed at me to take what belonged to me.

I didn’t have to make the decision. In the end, it was her who pulled away first.

“I’m—I’m sorry. I expected my brother to be here.”

My head knew that, but my heart ripped a little more with her confession. A small part of me wished it was me she looked for when she came in, and it was my arms where she sought solace. “It’s fine,” I said, forcing indifference in my voice. “Brody had to leave.”

“So he left you here instead?”

I smirked. “Lucky you, huh?”

Her slender fingers trembled against my chest, eventually sliding down my shirt until they dropped by her side. “Is he coming back soon?”

“I don’t know. It could be a few minutes, it could be a few hours.” The disappointment in her sigh was audible, and I stiffened. “Of course, you’re free to stay here by yourself. I have better things to do than hang—”

“No!” she screamed, bunching both hands around my shirt and pulling herself against me again.

“What happened to you?” I asked, sensing something had happened.

“Somebody rear-ended me. It was just a little accident, that’s all.”

“You seem pretty shaken up for just a little accident.”

“Let it go, Matty.”

No matter what she said, I couldn’t let it go. “You can tell me, or you can tell Brody. Your choice.”

I expected her to fight me. Instead, she drew in a ragged breath, and her shoulders sagged. “Fine, someone followed me from the cantina. I thought I imagined it at first, but every time I sped up, they did too. I tried to lose them, and they ran into the back of me.”

“Why would someone follow you?”

The familiarity in her eyes hardened a little. “Maybe because I’m consorting with known cartel members.”

Her words cut through me. Logically, I realized she might be right. She easily could’ve landed on someone’s shit list from her ties to Luis and Brody alone. However, the loathing in her voice when she spoke of the organization I’d pledged my life to stirred the darkness within me.

“That didn’t seem to stop you in San Marcos.”

The tension in her shoulders returned at my accusation, and she stepped backward. “I’ve already told you once that’s none of your business.”

I was a fool to think I could be civilized with her. I couldn’t pretend this was just a job when it was nothing more than a test of my willpower—fate’s way of seeing how far it could push me before I broke.

Well, fuck this. If she didn’t give a shit, two could play the same game.

“You’re right, Star,” I said, stalking toward her. “Whoever you fucked in the last four years is none of my business. However, it becomes my business when you try to fuck us all at once.”

“I—I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“No? Well, that’s understandable. I mean, you’ve been through a lot, putting a bullet in one of our men and all.” The more she moved away from me, the more I stalked forward. She paled, and my blood rushed. “So, how about I jog your memory a little.” I pulled out the bug and held it in front of her face while grabbing her wrist. “Care to explain what kind of shit you’re trying to pull?”

At first, she attempted to play dumb, shaking her head like she’d never seen it before. “I don’t know what that is.”

“You know exactly what it is, and you’re going to start talking, or I start calling people you don’t want me to call.”

“How do you know it was me who did it?” The contrast of the challenge in her voice and the red flush painting the skin above her tank top made my rage soar and my cock throb with savage need.

“Because everything was fine until your name was mentioned,” I hissed, jerking her against me. “Now everything has gone to shit, as usual.”

Her palms pushed against my chest once again. “I’d never intentionally hurt my brother.”

“Just sell him out, right? You spent time with the Muñoz Cartel then shacked up with a Carrera. Seems to me you know more about our life than anyone thinks.”

“What are you implying?”

Lifting the bug, I held it between us. “Who sent you? What really happened with Luis?”

“What?” she screeched, glaring up at me. “Nobody sent me. I’m the victim here.”

“No, the victim is dead, and if you keep pulling shit like this,” I yelled, tossing the bug across the room, “you and your brother will be too.”

Leighton’s eyes followed the bug as it bounced on the floor, her chin tilted away from me. “Is that a threat?”

“It’s a fact,” I answered, trying to shock some sense into her. When she continued to stare at the bug as if she didn’t hear me, I gripped her shoulders and gave them a firm shake. “You could cost Brody his life.”

“All right!” she screamed, covering her face with her hands. “I’m being blackmailed.”

“What? By who? How?”

She sighed in defeat, dropping her hands by her side. “The DEA. They know about Luis.”

The last three letters I ever wanted to hear.

“DEA? What the fuck?” I expected to have to pull the information out of her. However, it was as if the entire night had shaken her so much that once those three letters fell from her lips, the dam broke and the truth came rushing out of her.

“Agents caught me coming out of my apartment,” she admitted. “They’d been watching me and knew everything. They had me on tape calling Brody and threatened me with jail if I didn’t agree to become their informant.”

“Is that who was following you tonight?”

“No. Yes. No. I don’t know, Matty.” She frowned, moving out of my hold and crossing her arms over her chest. “I didn’t really see the person’s face. I don’t think so. I mean, why would the DEA try to run me off the road?” She glanced up at me with those sad brown eyes full of questions.

She had no idea what she’d done withholding this information. We were used to being on the DEA’s radar, but this was another level of ruthlessness. The one week that Val gave me just shortened.

“Damn it, why didn’t you just go to Brody?” I roared. “He could’ve protected you. We could’ve protected you.”

She shook her head. “Not from this. You don’t understand what’s at stake. I had to do it this way.”

“By selling him out because you were too scared to face a self-defense charge?”

The frightened look morphed into a half-smirk. “It has nothing to do with that and everything to do with the fact I have family in politics and law. I know firsthand not everything is fair and just, Mateo. Look at what happened to you.”

Adrenaline pumped through my veins, and I wound a hand through her tangled hair, jerking her against me. “You don’t get to talk about what happened to me,” I ground out through clenched teeth. “You have no idea what I went through.”

I wanted her fear. I wanted her to feel every moment of hell I went through while I prayed she was safe and would wait for me while I rotted behind bars. But it wasn’t fear on her face as she gazed up at me. It was something far more disturbing.

A challenge.

“No, Matty,” she whispered. “You have no idea what I went through.”

“What do you mean?” I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer, but I asked anyway.

She took a deep breath, as if she were about to put me out of my misery. However, at the last minute, she puffed out her cheeks and exhaled, dropping her chin to her chest and slowly rolling her neck until she faced me again. This time the liquid honey-brown in her eyes had hardened and the armor she wore as a shield returned.

“Nothing,” she said finally. “It’s nothing.”

“Star—I mean, Leighton, come on. Obviously, it’s not—”

That was as far as I got before headlights flashed below the window then quickly extinguished. Glancing outside, I noticed a dark colored sedan sitting out front that I knew wasn’t there before.

Remembering she’d been followed, I grabbed her wrist. “Come on.”

She stumbled after me. “Where are we going?”

“Out the back.”

“The fire escape?”

“Unless you prefer to walk out the front door where we’re being watched. Personally, being run off the road once would be enough for me, but if that’s your thing, be my guest.”

Pulling Leighton behind me, we climbed out the window and down the fire escape outside of Brody’s apartment. Luckily, since I was always cautious about being seen, the Tahoe was parked out back. Flinging open the driver’s side door, I pushed her inside, quickly climbing in after her. Just as I turned the ignition, I saw her pull her phone out of her pocket.

“What the hell are you doing?” I yelled, knocking it out of her hand. “You can’t call anyone. You said the DEA is blackmailing you. You don’t know who you’re dealing with, Star, and you don’t know what you’re doing.”

She flattened her lips and swiped the floorboard for the phone. “I don’t need you.”

I suppressed a groan while weaving in and out of traffic. “Stop being so fucking stubborn. This isn’t just about you anymore.”

“I can handle this on my own,” she argued, attempting to dial again.

Fucking hell, it’s like arguing with a brick wall.

Reaching over the console, I took the phone out of her hand and tossed it in the backseat.

“We have to tell Brody!”

I didn’t have time for this shit.

Pulling my phone from my pocket, I called him. As soon as his voice mail picked up, I rushed through my message. “Hey, it’s me. Your apartment has been compromised, so you need to stay at a safehouse or RVC tonight. Don’t worry about your sister. She’s safe and with me.”

It took Leighton fifteen minutes to speak to me again. “You can’t just take me,” she hissed, her hands crossed over her chest. “This is kidnapping and it’s illegal.”

“Nothing is illegal in my world. I’m not who you think I am. I never have been.”

“Well, at least you got one thing right,” she muttered, staring out of the dark window. “You’re definitely not who I thought you were. You left me when I needed you most. You sacrificed me, and that’s not the person who told me he loved me.”

That’s it. That’s fucking it.

Jerking the wheel, I pulled off a darkened side street and threw the SUV into park. Bracing my forearm against her seat, I leaned in so close our noses touched. “Let’s get one thing straight. You don’t know the whole story. You never did.”