He was no longer smiling.
The stranger leaned forward and said, “I heard you’ve been wanting to meet me.”
“Tobias.” His voice wasn’t working right. His tongue was thick and his mouth was dry.
The man smiled. “It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Garza. But then you stole from me and thought you could take down my operation. Ironic, perhaps, because Marquez has always worked for me. You ran to him and he played his part perfectly. I got my money back—the money you and Adeline stole—and had all my detractors silenced in one beautiful slaughter. I’m going to tell you one more thing.”
Tobias leaned closer, his grip stronger, and Rob’s knees shook as his muscles painfully tightened. “I’ve had this planned for a lot longer than two months. You have a federal agent undercover on your campaign, and if I didn’t kill you, you’d be in prison soon enough. But the feds were getting too close to how our agreement worked, and honestly? I never trusted you or Adeline not to talk if the FBI swooped in. I know when to walk away.”
Tobias dropped his hand and disappeared into the crowd of travelers.
Rob couldn’t talk. He couldn’t move. He fell to his knees, unable to breathe. His muscles constricted. He was having a seizure.
I’m dying.
He collapsed onto the carpet as people buzzed around him, but he couldn’t hear anything, and soon his vision faded to black.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Sean didn’t tell Brad Donnelly everything he’d said and done to Mona Hill—Brad was still a federal agent—but he gave him enough of the highlights that Brad could fill in most of the information himself. The only thing he completely left out was the information about the video of Lucy. No one needed to know about that.
Brad sat down, his head in his hands. “Sean, you just put a big fucking target on your head.”
“Like I care? His people shot Lucy in the back! That girl isn’t the target, Lucy is. Or maybe both of them. But I can’t tell Juan how I know this.”
“Kane.”
“I’ve been trying to reach him. He was at my house this morning, but hell if I know where he is now. I even called J.T.—Kane’s partner—and said it was urgent. I’ve never done that before, so hopefully Kane gets the message.”
“No, what I mean is we tell Juan and Sam that the intel came from Kane. We have to get a protection detail on Lucy.”
“I’m her protection. She’s not leaving my sight.”
“Barry Crawford will love that,” Brad snapped.
“You’re not helping. I’m trusting you with this, Brad. It’s not easy for me.” He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake clueing in the DEA agent.
Brad let out a long sigh. “Look, I have no doubt that you can keep her safe, but you’re also a target, and if Tobias wants to take you both out, you won’t be able to stop him. We have to get a detail on you both—maybe it’ll draw him out. If we can get one of his people in custody, that gives us leverage.”
“You do. Nicole Rollins.”
Brad reddened. “She wants witness protection or fucking immunity and I’m not certain she knows much of anything. We can’t give her a free pass.”
Sean sat on the edge of the desk. “You’re right. I’m sorry—I hate having Lucy in the crosshairs just for doing her job.”
“It’s more than her job,” Brad said quietly. “You know that.”
“No—we saved your ass because you’re one of the good guys, and you’d have been dead and buried a thousand times over in the time it would take to cut through the bureaucratic bullshit. It may not be a job we get paid for, but it’s our job nonetheless.”
“Based on what Nicole told me—if I can believe her—Tobias orchestrated the murders of those nine people. What does that tell you?”
“He didn’t trust Trejo’s operation. Or he blamed them for what happened in Mexico.”
Brad shook his head. “They weren’t his people, Sean. That’s all I can come up with. Tobias wasn’t part of Trejo’s group. But Tobias blamed Trejo for losing the guns, and Sanchez for not killing me.”
“What do you mean by that? They tortured you.”
“For no reason. It was fun for Sanchez. It was punishment because I’d fucked with him, tore him down in front of his amigos. Got his sister to turn against him. But Trejo was furious. He said something, I don’t remember all of it, but something like, ‘You were supposed to kill him.’”
“So Tobias blamed Sanchez because you’re alive—maybe more because if he hadn’t taken you to Mexico, we would never have gone down there. And they would never have lost the guns.”
“Bingo.”
“Tobias is cleaning house. Taking out the gang, going after Lucy. But how does this connect to Adeline Worthington and her husband?”