“What kind of information?” Rever asked, scratching a few specks of dry blood off his neck.
Emanuel’s gaze drifted to the ceiling, and he cleared his throat. “Different stuff. Some of it was inconsequential. Some of it wasn’t.”
I tunneled my hands into my hair. “We need to know the details. Dates. Times. The information exchanged.”
Emanuel dropped his chin to his chest. “I don’t remember everything.”
Rever slapped him across his cheek. “Stop procrastinating. Tell us what you remember.”
“It started small. He wanted names of government officials who were open to bribes. Next, he wanted names of people within the Vargas Cartel who had issues with Ignacio.”
“Wait.” I sliced my hand through the air. “You were working with Dario, weren’t you?” I asked, referring to the man I killed when Hattie escaped from the Vargas Compound. Dario and three other men had surrounded us in the jungle. We killed them all and Ignacio killed Dario’s son as payback. Then, the war between the Alvarez and Vargas Cartels exploded, making news throughout Mexico and the US.
Emanuel licked his lower lip. “I facilitated the introduction. I wasn’t working with him.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “What else?”
He shrugged. “I persuaded Juan Alvarez to use Anna to manipulate Rever.”
“How the fuck would that help you?” Rever yelled.
“She got you out of the picture.”
“So?” Rever spat.
“When Ignacio’s successor abandoned him, it made him look incompetent. People were nervous about the future, which made it easy to find someone to kill Ignacio, but he survived.”
“You were behind Ignacio’s assassination attempt,” I confirmed.
“Yes, but the whole thing backfired. Juan blackmailed me for the name of Hattie’s hotel. I thought Ryker would rescue Hattie and flee the country, but Ignacio used the situation to solidify his hold on Ryker and find a new successor.”
“So you were working for Juan Alvarez all along?” Rever asked.
“No,” Emanuel scoffed, shaking his head. “I was working for myself. I wanted to weaken both cartels so I could unite everyone under me.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I paid my dues, but no matter how hard I worked Ignacio refused to change his mind. He didn’t think I was worthy of taking the reins.”
“You’re not. You’re a piece of shit,” Rever roared as his fist smashed into Emanuel’s face. His eyes rolled up in their sockets, and his head lolled to the side like a rag doll.
“What the hell?” I said, eyeing Rever.
“I couldn’t stand listening to him for one more second.”
“Didn’t you want to know anything else?”
“No.” He dipped his bloodied hands into a bucket of water. “We have everything we need. Get the camera. Let’s find Ignacio. He can finish this. I can’t stand to breathe the same air as him for one more second. I can’t believe I ever trusted him.”
A choked laugh tumbled from my mouth as I turned off the camera.
“What’s so funny?” Rever asked.
“All of Ignacio’s paranoia was pointless.”
“What do you mean?”
“He focused on everyone else while Emanuel snaked his way into every part of the cartel and betrayed him over and over.”
Rever laughed then too. “You’re right, and Ignacio accused me of being a dumbass.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Hattie
“I’m surprised to see you here,” I said as I cracked open the door to Ryker’s apartment.
“You haven’t answered my calls for two days,” my dad said as he shifted on his feet. Dark purplish circles stained the skin under his eyes. He wore a wrinkled t-shirt and jeans instead of a dark suit. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him dress casually.
I glanced to the side, unable to maintain eye contact with him. It hurt too much. I had begged him to come over and discuss everything that happened with Senator Deveron after the story broke, but he rejected my invitation.
“I don’t have anything to say to you or Mom.” My voice trembled, and I choked back a sob.
His nostrils flared. “Can I come in?”
“Is Mom with you?”
“No,” he answered, shaking his head. “I thought it’d be better if I came alone.”
“You can come in.” I opened the door wider and closed it behind him. “Do you want anything to drink?” I asked as we moved through the apartment.
“No. I’m good.” He settled onto the sofa in the living room.
I sat on the chair across from him. “What did you want to talk about?”
He ran his hands along the tops of his thighs. “Mostly, I want to apologize for not coming over after the story about Senator Deveron came to light.”
I raised one eyebrow, already feeling drained by this conversation. “An apology. That’s it?”
He pursed his lips. “This is hard for me, Hattie.”
I leaned back in the chair and folded my arms across my chest. “Yeah, I can imagine how hard it is for parents to support their child and believe them. I’d always thought it was something that came naturally, but apparently not,” I said, my voice laced with sarcasm.
My dad held up his hand. “To be fair, your mom didn’t tell me anything about your suspicions of Senator Deveron.”
“Really? I find that hard to believe.” I’d told my mom Senator Deveron had orchestrated my abduction by the Vargas Cartel, but she believed Evan over me and dismissed my accusation as a sign of Stockholm syndrome.
He exhaled and squared his shoulders, staring out the window. “She didn’t say anything right away. She mentioned it during your road trip when we couldn’t get in touch with you for a few weeks.”
“And you didn’t bother to talk to me about it.” The words tasted like ash on my tongue.
“For the most part.”
My brows scrunched together. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I did some digging into a possible connection between the Vargas Cartel and Senator Deveron.”
I unfolded my arms, and tapped my fingers on the armrests. “Did you find anything?”
“Nothing concrete. I found curious coincidences, though.”
“But you didn’t do anything about it.”
“I didn’t have the chance to decide one way or another before the whole story landed on the front page of a trashy grocery store tabloid. Did you have anything to do with that? The identity of the source is protected.”
My gaze darted to the side as I contemplated how much to tell him. “Yes.” I sighed. “I gave them the story along with the backup documentation.”
“Where’d you get the information?”
I rubbed my hands over my lips. “I lied. I didn’t go on a road trip a few weeks ago. I went to Mexico. I ended up at the Vargas compound. I got the information when I was there, and a friend helped me shop the information around. That trashy grocery store tabloid was the only place with enough guts to print the story.”
He opened, then closed his mouth in quick succession. “Jesus, Hattie. I don’t know what to say.”