If you don’t help me, I’ll tell Ethan we slept together. Her own words echoed through her head. She grimaced, and nausea pitched in her stomach. Okay, so maybe it had been blackmail. She hadn’t meant to put that on him, but she hadn’t been serious… well, not really. Besides, the delicacy of the case had made it risky to let the FBI in on their investigation too soon. Lieutenant Jack Davis had wanted to use his own contacts, but she’d insisted on working with Nate. There was no way in hell she’d trust anyone else in the FBI. The people within Carlos’s circle were like a scattered basket of snakes. One could be lurking anywhere at any time.
An apology burned her tongue like a match. “You’re the only person I felt comfortable asking for help.” Heat crept up her chest at the admission. It was as close to an apology as he would get from her.
Nate moved beside her and her body tightened. “You felt comfortable because you knew I couldn’t say no?”
Her patience sizzled. “No, damn you. You’re the only person I trust other than Ethan, all right? And we both know how he would feel about this.”
“And he’s right. He’d fucking kill me if he found out I went behind his back.”
Maddie rolled her eyes. “For god’s sake, where did this conscience come from? I’m a grown woman, I don’t need my brother’s permission for anything—nor do I need yours.”
“Yeah, I know.” He sighed. “Fuck, we can’t last five minutes without arguing.”
A lump hardened in her chest. Was that why he kept her at arm’s length? She wasn’t one of the frilly bimbos that normally filled his bed. She was strong-minded and sharp-tongued, and not many men could handle it. Was it the same for Nate?
He shifted in his seat again and rubbed his hands together. “All right, enough of that. We’re here now, and the sooner we get this shit done the better.”
“I agree.”
Nate’s hand closed around her bicep and gave her a light shake. “See, look at that, we agree on something.” His words took some of the bite from his last ones.
A smile tingled the corner of her mouth. She flicked her gaze over his long, dark fingers on her arm, and then up to his face. She snorted and lifted an eyebrow. “The night is young.”
The corner of his eyes creased. “That it is.” His hand fell away from her arm, and her skin ached at its absence. He leaned forward in his seat, his hand stretched in front of her face. “Turn in here, that’s my hotel.”
Maddie slowed the vehicle and pulled into the parking lot.
“Swing around to the side so no one sees us.”
She drove past a long stretch of cars and parked when she got to the end. One lone light hung from the side of the building, providing her a better view of Nate’s face. He unbuckled his seat belt and turned to face her.
“I don’t think you should be taking this baby to that raunchy club.” Nate ran his hand along the polished wood dash.
Maddie closed her eyes and opened them. “Not a big deal, I have insurance.”
His eyes sharpened on her face, and for the first time that night, her gaze didn’t waver from his. He crossed his arms over his chest and rested back against the door.
“I’m not worried about your damn car. That’s a shitty neighborhood, and you’re walking around like that”—his eyes slid down her body and back up—“and driving this. It’s only a matter of time before someone tries something.”
Maddie pressed her teeth together. He was worried about her? She was used to Ethan fussing over her. He always treated her like a child despite her skills and experience. Nate, on the other hand, hadn’t treated her like anything. She’d always just been… there. Normally when someone insinuated she couldn’t take care of herself, it pissed her off. But with Nate…
She chewed her cheek. Her eyes lowered to his body, comfortable and arrogant in the tight space. Her gaze stopped on the strained denim between his legs and a gentle throb started deep inside her. She brought her eyes back up to his face, not missing a single shred of his chiseled body. The Adam’s apple at his thick neck bobbed and his eyes blazed. Shit. He’d caught her checking out his junk. Her face warmed. She cleared her throat and forced her tongue to work.
“Carlos lets me park in one of his owner parking spots. No one in that end of town would cross him.” She rested her head on the back of her seat and her eyelids grew heavy.
Nate lifted his shoulder. “You still need to be more careful. I jimmied your door in thirty seconds.”
“Not everyone’s as skilled as you.”
“Not everyone’s as stupid as you think.”
She sighed. “What did you drag me here for? I’ve been on my feet all night and want to go to bed.” She wriggled her toes around in the black stilettos and the arches of her feet throbbed. God, what she wouldn’t do for a foot rub.
“How close are you?”
Her eyes burned with fatigue. She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Close. I’ve been working at the club over a month now. Three weeks ago, he started to show interest but I pushed him off. Now he’s lapping at my heels like a puppy.”
Nate guffawed. “Jesus. Do you realize he hasn’t had a serious relationship since his ex-wife Barbara?”
“Yes, Nate. I’ve been watching him as long as you have.”
“No, you haven’t. The FBI has been on his trail for four fucking years. No one’s gotten close. I don’t know what’s more terrifying, that you think you can, or that you have.”
“He invited me to go boating on Saturday. Just him and I on his yacht.”
Nate cursed. “That’s a bad idea and you know it.”
“I can’t get close to him if I keep pushing him away. Besides, if the rumors on the street are true, he’ll have another shipment coming in a few weeks. I have to get him to trust me between now and then.”
Nate bolted forward, his face stopped inches from hers. “You’re going to fuck him, aren’t you?”
Maddie’s body coiled into a spring. She closed the gap between their noses, her cheeks heated. “That’s none of your business.” Then more softly, “What choice do I have?”
The way she saw it—none.
His hand tightened into a fist and he punched the dash. Maddie winced. “For fuck’s sake, you’re crazy,” he wheezed. Shame crept up the back of her throat and hit her taste buds. Heat burned her skin. She flicked on the air conditioning, biting back the nasty words that singed her tongue, and inched away from him.
“Look, I know what I’m doing. If you had half a brain, you’d realize that he won’t let me get close to him while holding hands and pecking.”
Nate laughed, the sound was brittle and derisive. “And you think he’s going to keep you around after he screws you? C’mon Maddie, you should know better than that.”
“I’m not stupid. And believe me, once I sleep with Carlos, he’ll only want more.”
She lifted her heavy lids and met Nate’s gaze. His cheeks darkened and the solid lines of his face turned to stone.
“Your brother’s right. You’re too damn cocky.” He lifted his hips, dug his hand into his back pocket, and slapped a small black device onto her dashboard. “It’s an encrypted phone. Use this to contact me from now on.” His fingers closed over the door handle.
She gave one brisk nod. Tension crackled in the air between them. He cursed and leaned toward her, his thumb and forefinger gripped her chin.
“Be careful, dammit. If anything happens, call me. Don’t worry about the case, just call me. Got it?”
She swallowed and nodded. His eyes moved over her face, and then dropped to her mouth. His jaw tensed and his grip tightened on her chin. Anticipation froze her to the spot. Her eyes trained on his lowered lids. He shook his head and loosened his hold. His thumb smoothed over her lip.
“Don’t be stupid.” His fingers fell away. He climbed out of the car and shut the door. Silence
fell around her and her shoulders sagged. His tall, dark form disappeared from view and she rested her forehead on the steering wheel, tears stinging the back of her eyes.
She took a deep, shuddering breath. She’d been stupid to call Nate. He was capable and trustworthy… but that hadn’t been her only motive. Now she couldn’t back out. The sooner she put distance between her and Nate the better. He sure as hell didn’t want to be near her. Regardless, she needed to finish the job and get Carlos’s drugs off the street before more innocent people got hurt.
People like Leila.
Carlos would pay for what he’d done, and she’d make sure of it. If that meant sleeping with the enemy, then so be it.
Chapter 3
Carlos flicked the cigarette to the garage’s floor and ground it into the cement with the ball of his loafer. The acrid taste of tobacco spread across his tongue and he lifted the bottle of whiskey to his lips. He should have known better than to light one up. He’d always hated cigarettes.
He lowered the bottle to the table and lifted his gaze to the man wracked with shivers and bound to the chair across the room. Tony folded his arms across his chest and approached Carlos.
“What do you want to do boss? We know for sure he’s been talking to the feds. He even admitted it.” Another glance at the man showed blood leaking from a gash to his head, eye, and lip. Tony could be very effective at getting people to talk.
Fury surged through Carlos’s veins. He hated snitches. There was nothing worse than assuming you had an iron tight circle around you only to find out someone was relaying information. Carlos reached into his pocket, shook out a silk handkerchief, and brought it to his temples. The garage was hotter than a fucking sauna and he was sweating like a pig in one of the suits he usually wore to the club. He wore the suits so that no one would doubt him as the owner—as if most didn’t know who he was already. But some people were stupid. And besides, he had an image to uphold.
“What information did he leak?” He folded the silk material back into a neat square and stuffed it into his breast pocket. Tony ran his hand over his long locks, his face dripped with sweat, but it wouldn’t bother Tony.
“He says they questioned him about the club and that’s it. He swears he never gave anything else away, but I don’t believe him.” A sharp glint came to Tony’s eyes and Carlos registered it as his usual excitement for inflicting punishment.
Carlos trained his gaze on Fabian again. Granted, he wasn’t one that had been trusted into Carlos’s tight circle. Only Tony, Hector, and Ricardo knew all of Carlos’s inner dealings. And without a doubt, none of them would dare betray him. But he couldn’t let Fabian off.
Snitching was an unforgiveable crime.
And he had to pay the maximum penalty.
Tony vibrated on the spot. “What you gonna do?”
Man, Tony was a sick fuck. Carlos loosened the knot of his tie at his throat and moved around Tony. “I just want to talk to him,” he said, keeping his voice even as he reached Fabian.
Fabian’s tongue wet his bottom, bloody lip, and his pupils dilated. The warm scent of urine wafted to Carlos’s nose and it was all he could do not to take a sledgehammer to his cowardly face. No, that’d be much too quick.
“I didn’t say anything, Mr. Santiago. I swear to god, I don’t know shit.”
“Did you talk to the feds?” Carlos spoke each word slowly as if to a small child. Fabian’s eyes darted around the room and a low whimper sounded from his throat.
He nodded and sweat mingled with the blood at his short, dark beard. Carlos lifted his shoulders.
“Honesty always earns a reward.” He retreated to the table and lifted the bottle of whiskey, then brought it back to Fabian and raised it to his lips. Tony’s eyes rounded on him and his jaw trembled with unspent rage.
Fabian gulped greedily, but most of the liquid dribbled down his chin and coated his shirt.
“Th– thank you, Mr. Santiago. I swear, I’ll never do anything like that again—”
Carlos placed the bottle back on the table. “Oh, I know.” He shifted his gaze to Tony. “Tone, cut out his tongue and show it to the other guys. Let them know that’s what happens when you talk to the feds.”
Tony rolled in his top lip, revealing his stained teeth. A slick smile crawled across his face. “Sure thing, boss.”
Fabian jerked against the restraints in the chair. His head thrashed from side to side. Tony pulled a dagger from his back pocket and gripped Fabian’s jaw in his hand.
Carlos turned on his heels and headed for the door. Fabian’s screams carried behind him.
* * * *
Jesus Christ, you’d have to be psychopath to cut someone’s fucking tongue out.
Nate’s stomach roiled, making him want to spit out the beef jerky. He swallowed, forcing it down. He lowered the screen of his phone to lay face down on his thigh. The image of the young, lifeless snitch branded into his brain, his tongue found next to the body.
And that’s who Maddie had so fucking insistently gotten involved with. He sucked the hot, salty air in through his nose, but it did nothing to slow the frantic gallop of his heart. Carlos was a dangerous sonofabitch. He had a reputation for heinously murdering anyone who betrayed him—murders that rivaled some of the worst he’d seen in the past in serial killer cases Nate had worked on. Disgust turned the beef jerky’s flavor sour and he crushed the bag in his lap. So much for lunch.
“Did you see that, Dad?” A young boy next to him screamed with delight and yanked on his dad’s hand.
“Yeah, it was a dolphin. Let’s go to the pier and see if we can get a picture of him next time.” The boy raced ahead of his father and Nate brought the binoculars back to the sleek, pearly white yacht off the coast.
Carlos’s boat easily ran into the millions, all from money he’d made bringing drugs into Miami. It should have been easy to catch the bastard. He blew money like there was no tomorrow; he always had a small entourage of bodyguards. Over the years, Nate had spoken to some snitches—all of whom had wound up dead shortly after. His spine stiffened and the muscles in his face tensed.
Problem was, Carlos owned the Miami police, a handful of judges, and probably some people in the FBI. And Maddie had damn well bull-dozed her way into being an informant and accomplice to taking him down.
Carlos could kill her as easily as he had all of the other snitches.
No. He wouldn’t, because Nate wouldn’t let it happen. Not that she’d given him a damn choice. As much as it irked him that she was putting herself into the hornet’s nest, he’d protect her with his life.
He swallowed. He crumpled the wrapper and tossed it in the trashcan next to him and then stood from the bench. It’d look pretty fucking weird if he sat here all day staring at the same damn scenery. He could go out to the pier, but that might draw more attention to Carlos or his men.
What was it that had drawn Maddie to Carlos? He’d never asked her what had made her want to come after him, but there had to be a reason. His phone vibrated against his leg. He pulled it out and checked the screen.
Ethan.
He let out a breath and dropped it back in his pocket. He couldn’t deal with his questions right now. As it stood, he’d already had to lie to both him and Cal, telling them he was in Arizona working on a case. Ethan had finally found his groove in life as a private investigator. It seemed to be a habit he could never shake—even from his personal life.
He’d met his two closest friends while in the military and recon years ago. They had more than a decade of friendship between them, and Nate had never avoided either of them. Nate was born an only child, and Ethan and Cal were like his brothers. He’d do anything for them and vice versa. Sneaking around with Ethan’s sister didn’t fall under that category.
Maybe he should call Cal and fill him in on what he was involved in with Maddie. Though knowing him, he�
��d be pissed at being dragged into the middle of it. Cal had a thriving gym in Seattle, and he and Lana had just had a baby a couple months ago. That was something Nate had never expected from the hard, dangerous life Cal had led before meeting his now wife. He pushed his friends out of his mind and focused on the yacht. He’d return Ethan’s call as soon as he was done.
He sighed. He was wasting his time trying to watch Carlos and Maddie on the boat. He’d be lucky to view them at all, let alone know what they were saying. He strode another hundred yards and leaned against a palm tree. Its shade offered a reprieve from the heat. He brought the binoculars back to his eyes and swept across the heads of people bobbing near the shore, and zeroed in on the yacht. From here, he had a better sightline. The top of Maddie’s head caught his eye. The rich tones of her hair danced in the sun, and her bare, slim shoulder lifted. He bit his tongue.
Carlos stepped onto the deck, shirtless and in a pair of black trunks. Aviator shades covered his eyes, and his even white teeth flashed at her. Nate’s stomach lurched. His fingers tightened on the binoculars and he ground his teeth together. A bead of sweat rolled over his temple.
Carlos sank beside Maddie, his profile turned to Nate, and his dark, hairy arm rested on the back cushion of her seat. His fingers picked up a strand of her hair and tugged on it. Maddie shifted in her seat, and slid over his lap, straddling him. She lifted her sunglasses and rested them on the top of her head. The corners of her mouth lifted and she leaned forward and kissed him.
Rage shot through Nate’s veins. He tore the binoculars away from his face as if they burned him, the safety string yanked at the back of his neck. Sonofabitch. His temples throbbed. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose.
She was playing with fire, and to her it was a fucking game. If Carlos found out what she was doing, killing her was just the tip of the iceberg. Heat spread through his chest and he pushed away from the tree. He’d been stupid to come here. If someone had seen him, they were fucked. Maddie would be fucked…
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