Intimate Enemies (31 page)

Cassie nodded, glanced around the patio for Paco, looked at her watch.

“Relax. He’ll be fashionably late.”

She smiled, but it didn’t last long. She liked Javier but didn’t feel nearly as safe with him as she did with Rio.

The thought of Rio made her stomach twist and grind. Married. God. She couldn’t stand to contemplate. While he hadn’t confirmed it, the fact that he hadn’t denied it, that he’d chosen that moment to stop arguing with her, was confirmation enough. And, Lord, the thought of him having a wife somewhere just sliced her down the middle with shame. With guilt. With jealousy.

But…if he wasn’t a cop, as he so adamantly and genuinely claimed, he might not be married, though she’d been so sure. When she’d seen him draw that weapon, set his stance, heard him use those words, that tone, she could have been transported back three years to that horrible, life-altering night.

This might not be the smartest way to go about taking back some control of her situation, but without allies, without information, and without ways to achieve either, she had to take drastic measures. She only hoped they weren’t so drastic that she ended up lying in the cemetery beside Mamà and Santos.

Paco’s dark head drew her attention as he ambled onto the patio, two men following. Cassie straightened, gripped her hands tighter. “He’s here.”

She lifted her hand and waved to him. Paco inclined his chin and started her way.

“Relax,” Javier crooned. “He’s not going to do anything with all these people around.”

Cassie wasn’t so sure. She had a way of pissing men off.

Javier stood once Paco approached the table and offered his hand. Paco took it and pulled Javier into a chest bump with a one-armed shoulder grip that passed as a man hug. They exchanged casual hellos before he turned an amused grin on Cassie.

“You traded Santana in already? I mean, I like Javier, but Rio, he was so into you.”

“I understand there is a growing kidnapping threat against me,” Cassie said. She wasn’t about to discuss Rio with him, and she wasn’t going to make small talk.

“That so?” he said, his smile drifting off his face.

“I’d like to clear up some misconceptions so no one ends up wasting time and endangering their freedom by committing a felony against a US citizen.”

Paco grunted. Considered her. “And you want to tell me because…?”

“I hear the greatest interest in me comes from the gangs, and the two largest and most powerful gangs are the
Muertos
and the
Diablos
. I’d rather not turn into a pawn in a worthless game. And it is—worthless.”

Paco hesitated. His jaw shifted to the side as if she were a tedious element in his day, but signaled toward another table, and the two men with him took it. He pulled out the chair he’d been leaning on and sat.

“Well, now you’ve got me curious, Doctor. I’d like to hear how the daughter of a recently passed multimillionaire is a worthless kidnapping victim.” He lifted his palms and shrugged with one shoulder. “Not that the
Muertos
are interested in kidnapping.”

“Of course not.” She drew a breath into tight lungs. “And the answer is legal trusts. My mother’s
fideicomiso
assigned all her assets—real and financial—into trusts. No one has direct access to those trusts—not me, not Saul, not the trustees, not her attorney. The withdrawal of funds, especially a large sum, say…a kidnapping ransom…would never get past all the gatekeepers. There are just no liquid funds available within the estate.”

Paco sat back and simply watched her with those dark eyes. Cassie’s heart throbbed against her ribs. Her head ached. Her muscles were tight with tension.

“Interesting,” Paco said. “Though, if I were a kidnapper, which—”

“You are not,” Cassie filled in for him, making him smile.

“Very good, señorita. I would be considering your stepfather’s lucrative enterprise as means of payment for your safe return.”

“I’m not sure what sleight of hand Saul has used out here in the community to create the illusion that he has a credible business, but I can promise you he is living off the estate’s operating fund. He has no income of his own and no control over the estate’s funds nor any of the trusts. All my mother left him was the right to reside at the estate. Nothing more.”

Paco looked down at the table, hands resting clasped in his lap. A strange smile lifted his mouth—part cunning, part suspicion. “Señorita Christo…” A soft laugh punctuated the pause after her name as if he were trying to choose his words carefully. “I agree that his business is far from credible, but
I
can promise
you
that while he may be living off the estate’s operating fund, he
does
have his own source of income.”

Icy fire roiled in her belly. She wanted to know what it was, and before Paco left, she’d try to get it out of him, but first things first.

“Be that as it may,” Cassie said, “Saul and I have never been on good terms. We share a mutual loathing for one another. He would rather pay you to take me than pay you to get me back. Receiving a ransom payment from him is even less likely than bleeding money from the trusts, the chances of which are nil.”

“I see.” He rested one hand on the tabletop. Tapped his fingers. “Then what
do
you have to offer?”

Cassie stared, confused. “Excuse me?”

“Let’s say…hypothetically… your potential kidnappers see the dilemma and are willing to make a deal. Say they were willing to trade something up front, you know, not to kidnap you.”

“I’d call that extortion,” Cassie said, crossing her arms on the table, leaning forward, and meeting his gaze directly, her temper simmering. “And it wouldn’t change the fact that I have nothing to give before or after, unless of course, you’d like my student loans. They’re all yours.”

Paco chuckled. “Student loans. Why would someone with your family money need to incur student loans?”

“Because I’m independent,” she said. “I like to stand on my own.”

His smile changed, became more serious. “I can respect that. But I was thinking more along the lines of information.”

“About what?”

Paco mirrored her position until their faces were less than two feet apart. When he spoke, his voice was barely audible. “You see, Saul has an uncanny ability for slipping through authorities’ hands. His goods cross the border without fanfare or detection. Granted, Rio is good. Very good. But there is more to it, and I want to know what that is.”

Cassie’s throat closed. Paco had just fed her the verification she’d been searching for. One she had hoped she would discover didn’t involve Rio the way she feared.

She looked at Javier. He gave her an easy smile. It didn’t help.

She cleared her throat before asking, “And what goods are we talking about?”

The corners of Paco’s mouth twitched. “Well, we think we have an idea, but that’s another thing we’d like you to confirm. There have been…rumors. And I wouldn’t want to influence your information by telling you what we think. Just get those answers for us, and I’ll have something to take to my boss. This could solve the problem I talked about with Rio this morning.”

“Who is this boss?” Cassie asked. “Knowing may help me develop information that would interest him.”

Paco’s chin came up. “Suarez. Marco Suarez.” He said the name with both reverence and arrogance, as if working for Suarez made Paco powerful and worthy of respect. “Do you know who he is?”

“I’m sorry, no.”

“You should.” His expression had gone from congenial to cold granite.

“And why would Señor Suarez begrudge Rio a favor you owe him?” Cassie asked.

Paco’s dark gaze sparked with surprise. He smiled again. “I like your cojones
, chica
. Señor Suarez is a businessman. He bases his decisions on the value of an asset, and some assets are worth more than others.”

“Are you calling me an asset?” Cassie interrupted him, not effectively keeping her frayed temper in check.

“You could be,” he said. “As to your other question, Rio took care of something very important for me. But a favor owed by one man is not owed by another out of association. I repay my debts, and Rio has made it clear that keeping you off upper management’s radar is where he’d like my repayment focused.”

Cassie was trying to piece out the cryptic messages, the language, the innuendo to find the true meaning in Paco’s words, but was sure she ended up more confused than when she’d sat down.

Before she could ask him to clarify, his gaze drifted up and past her, and the warmth disappeared from his eyes, leaving them as flat as black glass.

“There you are,” Paco said. “I was starting to think your señorita traded you in for a new model.”

Oh, shit.
Cassie tried not to cringe, but her shoulders climbed closer to her ears as she felt Rio’s heat close in around her from behind. His big hands covered the arms of her chair and he loomed over her. His familiar, sexy scent floated on the air around her, making her blood heat and her body crave. But her heart hurt—with disappointment, disillusionment, loss.

“Thanks for the cover, man,” Rio said to Javier.

Of course, Javier hadn’t been covering for Rio; he’d come at the request of his new employer, Cassie, but Javier picked up the hint as smooth as molasses. He pushed his chair back, stood, and bumped fists with Rio. “Anytime, bro.” He smiled at Cassie. “Thanks again. See you tomorrow?”

She nodded, and Javier exited the patio.

“Paco,” Rio started, his voice low in warning, “how many times do I need to tell you—”

“
She
called
me
, man.” Paco gestured between them. “And I’m glad she did, because it looks like she’s got something you don’t. A way to allow me to look the other way. We have an understanding, don’t we Señorita Christo?”

Cassie didn’t respond.

“Would you excuse us, Paco?” Rio said.

Cassie pulled the inside of her cheek between her teeth and gnawed on it. This was going to be so unpleasant.

“Of course.” Paco stood and smiled at Cassie. “We’ll stay in touch. Talk soon.”

A long moment of silence followed before Rio’s, “So…you really
do
have a death wish. That would have been nice to know
before
I fell for you.”

Bittersweet emotion squeezed her chest. She pressed her lips together and tightened her threaded fingers.

“Why in the bloody hell,” Rio said when she didn’t respond, his voice far more angry, “did you meet with Paco?”

She took a shaky breath. “To explain that all Mamà’s assets, all my assets, are in trust and that there is no way to get to them directly, so a ransom demand for me would never be met. And I explained that Saul would just as soon pay them to keep me, so they wouldn’t be getting anything from him either.”

Rio put his mouth to the top of her head, pressed a slow kiss there. The sweet gesture pulled hard at her heart. “And what understanding did you come to with Paco, princess?”

“We didn’t.”

“You might as well tell me, because if you don’t, Javier will.”

Shit
. Javier. She hadn’t thought of that. Protection had its price.

She turned and looked up at him. A white bandage peeked out from underneath the sleeve of his T-shirt. Guilt spread through her chest. “We need to get your arm stitched up. Some antibiotics on board.”

“Done. I went to the ER. The doctor wasn’t near as pretty, but his disposition was way better.”

She scowled, crossed her arms, and slid down in her chair.

He rounded her chair and crouched, placing both hands on her knees. The warmth of them burned into her skin, and his heat spread up her legs, pooled where her thighs met. His thumbs caressed the insides of her thighs as he watched with hungry, intense eyes that turned up the heat in her body like an inferno. She should push them away. She should.

“What did he want, Cassie?”

“He wanted me to get information on how and why you are so successful at getting Saul’s
goods
over the border. And we’re not talking art pieces here, Rio. We’re clearly talking something of an illegal nature. You told me you weren’t smuggling drugs or weapons. Another lie?”

His hands had stopped moving and gripped her thighs tighter. “No. I didn’t lie to you.”

“Then
what
are you smuggling?”

Rio’s lips tightened.

Cassie’s temper frayed. She leaned toward him and, in an attempt to keep her voice down, rasped, “Stolen goods? Women? Babies? Black-market organs?”

“Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“What else am I supposed to do? You won’t tell me. All I have is my imagination.”

“Which is amazing,” he muttered, “but I’d rather you keep it in the bedroom.”

Her anger rose, and she pushed from the chair, forcing Rio to stand. “Just…fine.” She was drawing stares, and it took all her willpower to keep her voice down. “I don’t want to see you waste yourself. I don’t want to see you get hurt. But I can’t force you to let me help.”

She turned and walked out of the enclosed patio and started down the sidewalk toward the clinic. Rio took her arm lightly. Cassie, expecting the move, pulled away before he could get a firm grip.

“No,” she said. “If you can’t trust me, if you can’t open up to me, we’re done. I’ve already invested enough. I’m not going to spend three months down here falling in love with you only to watch you throw your life away or, God forbid, find out you’re married, or worse, get yourself killed out of pure stupidity. I’ve had enough heartache.”

The Jeep was within sight. She would not cry. She would
not
cry. A few more steps and she could escape.

His strong arm wrapped around her waist from behind and nearly lifted her off her feet. Before she could get her breath back, he’d twisted her around to face him and circled her into his arms, pulling her up against his body. One hand slipped behind her neck and tilted her face up to his.

“I’m. Not. Married,” he said, his determined gaze shining bright green. “I’ve never been married. I’ve never even been with someone I wanted to marry. Let’s just get that off the table now.”