Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71840 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
I knew he was right, knew this shouldn’t hurt like it did, but all the pent-up fear and rage and confusion poured out as he held me. Matteo rubbed my back and pressed his lips to the top of my head. “I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. I’ll take care of you.”
“I can’t lose you.”
“I know, baby. I can’t lose you either. I’m going to make this problem go away.”
Finally, the sobs ended and my breathing slowed. Matteo didn’t move. He just held me, and I knew he would for as long as I needed it.
I wished I could hold back reality forever, but a few moments later, I said, “We should check in with Miles.”
“He’ll call if he has anything for us. Let me get you some water.” When Matteo rose, our skin stuck together, and we both laughed.
“I love getting filthy with you,” he said as he pulled on a pair of sweatpants. “And it keeps getting better every fucking time.”
“If it gets much better, we might kill each other.”
“True, but what a way to go.”
I shivered without the warmth of him surrounding me, so I pulled a blanket up over myself despite the mess on my torso. While Matteo was gone, I checked my phone. Miles hadn’t called. Somehow, I resisted the urge to text him.
29
MATTEO
When I headed to the kitchen to get water for us, I heard my phone buzzing in my pants. Carter had grabbed them from the back seat and dropped them on the floor by the bed.
I grabbed my phone and saw that Miles was calling me. “Hey, what’s up? Did you find Landon?”
“We did.”
I looked at my phone again to make sure Carter wasn’t included in the call. “Why are you calling me?”
“How’s Carter?”
“Nice work avoiding my question.” A million things went through my head at that moment. What was Miles wanting to hear? What should I say? “He’s sleeping.” For all I knew, he had fallen asleep in the last few minutes.
“I called you first because I wanted to find out how you thought he’d react to the news and if he was ready to move out. I’ve got eyes on Landon’s location. I know Carter will want to get this over with once he knows, but I wanted to make sure he was mentally prepared.”
“I don’t know. What happened with his father took a hell of a lot out of him.”
“Do you think he’ll regret it if he kills Landon?”
“Maybe. He clearly wasn’t prepared to kill his father.”
“But you were,” Miles said.
“Fuck yes. I’ll go kill the son of a bitch right now if you want me to.”
“No, Carter is right. We need him alive until we’ve dealt with Landon.”
“Where is Landon?”
“In fucking Albany where no one expected him.”
That put him around two hours away. A plan started to form in my head. Carter was going to try and handle this himself, but I could prevent that. “What’s he doing there? What’s his location?”
Miles gave me the coordinates. “He’s in an industrial building but there must be living quarters there too. It took some digging through shell companies, but it belongs to Carter’s father.”
“So what’s the plan?”
“Give Carter a few hours to sleep. We’ll work out plans from here.”
“All right, I’ll check in with you then.”
“Thanks for taking care of him, Matteo.”
“Always.”
My plan would work out perfectly with Landon so close by. Why hadn’t he put more distance between him and Carter? Maybe he intended to come crawling back to his father, begging for assistance, but if he thought his father could get him out of this situation, why hadn’t he stayed in the city? I stared at the bottles of water I’d set on the counter and reviewed my options.
Was there any chance Landon would believe my loyalty was still with the cartel? What had he heard about me? How much reconnaissance had he done? Did he know I’d been with Carter this whole time? If I could convince him I wanted to get back in and retake my position….
Before I changed my mind, I hurried silently across the room, opened Carter’s go bag and pulled out the tranquilizer darts I’d seen when I had gone through the bag earlier. I grabbed a few—one for now and others if I were to need them later—and stuck them in my sweatpants pocket. Then I grabbed the water and pizza and hurried back too Carter. If I was gone too long, he’d start wondering what I’d been up to.
Even if he did, I’d convince him everything was fine, and I wouldn’t let him see how tense I was. I was a damn fine actor.
30
CARTER
Iwas dozing when Matteo returned with two bottles of water and the leftover pieces of pizza from the night before.
“I want you to understand how fucking blissed out I am to be willing to eat in bed.”