Meg and Kyle had convinced her and Clay to come out to dinner, although neither one of them was in a festive mood.
After lunch this afternoon, Clay had shut down on her, and for the first time since she met him, she felt as if he had more secrets than she did.
The rotund cartel member who’d threatened her in The Melt hadn’t left that note. Now she had danger coming at her from two different fronts.
Or were they different?
Had Las Moscas been behind the warning delivered to her two years ago about marrying Clay? Adam could’ve already been involved with Jimmy and Las Moscas at that time and maybe his new associates didn’t want Adam to have a brother-in-law working for Border Patrol.
She covered her mouth, meeting her own eyes in the mirror as a little shiver rippled down her spine. Perhaps Adam had told Jimmy about his sister and his father, El Gringo Viejo, a long time ago and Jimmy had already determined the best way to get to the drug supplier down south was to marry his daughter, and to do that, she’d have to be single and available for his courtship.
She dropped to the edge of the bed and toed off the flat sandal in favor of the one with the low heel.
Adam had finally answered her text and agreed to fly out to Phoenix to meet her tomorrow. She planned to get to the bottom of this...and offer him her deal. All without Clay’s knowledge, of course. He’d try to stop her and she couldn’t allow that.
Meg tapped on her open door. “Oh, that’s a pretty sundress. If you’re wearing that for Clay, does that mean the two of you have patched things up?”
“Patched things up?” April rose and flicked the skirt of the dress. “We didn’t have anything to patch up. We’re fine...as friends.”
“Some friend. He sure seemed like he couldn’t get out of here fast enough last night. Picked up Denali and—” Meg whistled “—out of here.”
“We were both tired, Meg.”
“Blah, blah, blah.” Meg squared her shoulders in the doorway. “What’s the real reason you ran out on the wedding? What was the excuse you gave Clay? ‘It’s me, not you?’ ‘You’re too good for me?’”
“Ugh.” April covered her eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it, please. Can we just have a pleasant dinner without bringing up body parts or weddings?”
“Yeah, because both of those are equally horrific.” Meg rolled her eyes. “Kyle and I intend to have more than a pleasant dinner, despite you two.”
“It’s not too late to disinvite us.” April yanked a light sweater from the bed in case of overactive AC in the restaurant.
“Oh, no. You’re not getting out of it that easily.”
April breezed past her cousin and tugged on one chocolate-brown lock of hair. “When you’re in love, you want the whole world to be in love.”
A half hour later, the four of them were seated on the outdoor patio of Sinbad’s, a Mediterranean restaurant in the center of town.
If she were on edge, searching for the distinct outline of the man who’d threatened her today, Clay matched her in jumpiness.
She knew he had his weapon on his person. He always carried off-duty. Kyle was probably packing, as well. The big man would be a fool to make a move in a public place with two armed men at the table.
So, when would he make his move? Would he wait for her to come up with the flash drive...or else? And then what? Clay seemed to believe neither she nor Adam would be out of danger even if they no longer had the flash drive.
Of course, if her plan worked and Adam gave her the flash drive, the two of them would be long gone after she turned it over to Clay, anyway.
When they placed their orders, April swirled her wine in her glass and said, “Have the authorities identified the other body?”
Kyle groaned. “Are you really going there? Now?”
“You need more wine.” Meg grabbed the bottle of chardonnay from the bucket and attempted to top off April’s glass.
“I’ve barely had two sips of this.” April placed her hand over her glass. “It was just a question. One question.”
“Answer her.” Meg tipped her glass toward Clay. “And then that’s it. No more of this talk.”
“The short answer is no.”
Meg did a karate chop with her hand in the middle of the table. “Let’s keep it to the short answer.”
As Meg and Kyle relived their idyllic day in Tucson, April scooted her chair closer to Clay’s and dipped her head. “What’s the long answer?”
“They took her prints, but there’s no match in the database. They’ll start looking at some missing persons. She could be up from Mexico.”
“But she wasn’t Latina?”
“A lot of gringos live south of the border.” Clay shrugged. “How are you doing after your encounter this afternoon?”
“I’m okay. Just wondering when the other shoe is going to drop. How long is this guy going to give me to convince Adam to turn over the flash drive before he takes action?”
“You should be far, far away from here when he decides it’s time. Do your best with Adam and then go into hiding. Leave the country if you have to. You still have plenty of money.” Clay encircled her wrist with his fingers. “Start spending it to protect yourself.”
“I’ve been texting with Adam. I think he’s close to at least admitting he has the flash drive.”
“I didn’t tell you, but Detective Espinoza didn’t find Jesus, the man formerly known as Gilbert, in Albuquerque.” He pinged his wineglass with his fingernail. “But he did find Jimmy’s dead body.”
“Imagine that. Does he concur that Las Moscas can take credit for that one?”
“He thought it strange, as did I, that Las Moscas would use a knife to kill a rival instead of a gun with a silencer to the back of the head.” Clay put a finger to his lips as the waiter approached the table with their food.
Everyone got busy
