A mottled red suffused Adam’s cheeks. “I didn’t force her to marry him.”
“I know how you operate. Don’t try to pull anything over on me.” Clay rolled his shoulders as if to gain control of his emotions. “Did you know Jimmy and his gang were double-crossing Las Moscas?”
Adam held out both hands. “Hey, I had no idea until he told me today. That’s why Jimmy wanted that flash drive. It contains tunnel locations along the border for the cartel’s drops. I’m telling you the same thing I told Jimmy. I don’t have it. Do you think the cops killed Jimmy?”
April perched on the arm of the couch, wishing she and Clay were wrapped around each other again. “The cops are not going to kill a drug dealer and leave his body on the floor of his house...or anywhere else.”
“That’s where you found him?” Adam’s skinny neck worked as he swallowed hard. “Las Moscas.”
“That’s what we’re thinking.” Clay strolled to the couch, the gun still tucked in the waistband of his shorts, and put his hand on April’s shoulder. “It’s over. Don’t involve April in any of your crazy schemes again. Don’t ask her to search for your father in Mexico or anywhere else. Or you’re gonna have to answer to me. Got it?”
Adam’s gaze darted between April and Clay. “Are you two back together?”
God, she wished.
Clay must’ve felt the stiffening of her body. He dropped his hand from her shoulder. “We don’t have to be together for me to look out for April’s interests.”
“Okay, whatever, man. I’m done with this stuff. I just escaped with my life.” He rubbed his arms and sauntered to the table behind the couch. “Did you happen to find my stash here?”
“Disposed of it.” Clay widened his stance, as if Adam would dare to take on him and his muscles.
April gestured toward the kitchen. “What happened here, Adam? Kenzie called me in a panic and told me there was blood all over my place. We didn’t exactly find blood all over, but we did find smears of it in the kitchen and droplets in the sink.”
“Yeah, um, Jimmy attacked me here.” Adam danced from foot to foot, already missing his fix. “Hit me on the head and hustled me out. He must’ve cleaned up my blood before he left.”
Clay tapped the cheekbone beneath his eye. “Outside of that shiner you’re gonna get, you look in remarkably good shape for just being abducted by an angry drug dealer.”
“Yeah.” Adam traced his fingertips around his eye socket. “He roughed me up. Blood must’ve come from my head wound.”
“Where did he hold you?” Clay narrowed his eyes.
“I don’t know, man. They put a hood over my head. Then they got some calls, had some discussions and then stuffed me in my car... I mean, your car, April, and dropped me off in the desert. They loosened my ties so that I could get out, but not before they took off. I knew there was trouble with the cops.”
“You’re lucky they didn’t kill you.” April tapped her head. “Do you need some ice or treatment for your head?”
Adam’s hand darted to the back of his head and he shoved his fingers into his long hair. “No, it’s okay.”
Clay asked, his face still tight, “Did you ever convince them you didn’t have that flash drive?”
“I don’t think so. That’s probably why they let me live. If they offed me, they’d lose that information. They figured they could always pick me up again if they wanted.”
“I wonder why they didn’t just tie you up and leave you while they dealt with the cops.” Clay rubbed his knuckles along the edge of his jaw.
“How am I supposed to know? I didn’t have a clue how that guy’s mind operated.”
“And yet you were willing to marry off your sister to him.” Clay’s hands curled into fists at his sides.
April hopped off the couch. “Did they say why the cops were looking for Gilbert?”
“I didn’t get all of that.” Adam tucked his hair behind one ear and made a wide berth around Clay on his way to the kitchen. “You got a beer?”
She shifted a glance to Clay and took a deep breath. “We do know.”
Adam ducked his head in the fridge. “Why were the cops after Gil?”
Clay strode across the room and hunched over the counter. “The guy you set your sister up with sent two mules—women—into one of those Las Moscas tunnels, but they didn’t make it. Las Moscas caught them, beheaded them and proceeded to leave their body parts around Paradiso.”
“Damn.” Adam took a long pull from his beer. “That’s brutal.”
“Do you remember Gilbert’s girlfriend, Elena?” April came up behind Clay and put a hand on his back. His rage at Adam kept bubbling to the surface and she didn’t want to clean up any more of her brother’s blood from this kitchen.
“I remember.” Adam held his hand about chest-high. “Cute little Latina chick with a tight little body.”
“That cute little Latina chick doesn’t have a head on her tight little body anymore.” Clay smacked his hand on the counter.
Adam jumped, and the blood drained from his face. “Are you kidding? Gilbert sent his own girlfriend into the tunnel?”
April set him straight...in case he didn’t already know. “His name isn’t Gilbert. It’s Jesus, and he and Elena have been quite the Bonnie and Clyde over the years. That’s how the cops traced her to Gilbert.”
“Unreal.” Adam shook his shaggy head and gulped down some more beer.
Clay fell back on the stool at the counter, straddling it. “You wouldn’t happen to know the older woman Elena was working with, do you? White, maybe in her forties.”
Adam rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “Doesn’t ring a bell. Damn, can’t believe they used women. Did they think Las Moscas wouldn’t kill a female mule?”
Clay
