throat was almost closed off to the point of suffocation.
I’d already been able to tell that Lindsey was attracted to him. And the way Diego looked at her? Like she was the woman he’d been searching for his entire life. That also fueled an entirely different kind of fire burning in my belly. I could sense he’d hesitated, hovering in the shadows. “Somethin’ you want, Diego?”
“She’s pretty shaken, uncertain why this is happening to her.”
“She knows why,” I countered.
“And you’re going to push her to the brink in order to find the information.”
“If that’s what it takes. This is all about the care and maintenance of the package we were sent to retrieve.” I hated the words the second they came out of my mouth.
“God. You don’t give a shit about anyone. You are one cold motherfucker,” Diego hissed.
“That’s why I’m still alive. Maybe that’s something you should think about.” I made certain he could see my eyes in the moonlight. The stream of light also allowed me to see the hatred on his face. Another line had been drawn in the sand and it had Lindsey’s name written all over it. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was falling in love with her.
Poor bastard.
She’d eat his heart out with a spoon.
The quiet was deafening.
“For the record, I didn’t know there was another operative involved or I wouldn’t have agreed to taking the assignment,” Diego finally said.
Chuckling, I held up my glass in the slender stream of light. “So you’ve said. Well, congratulations, buddy. That makes two of us. Same here. Nothing against you, of course. I like working alone. Saves time wasted talking.”
He inched closer, forcing me to bristle. “There’s a reason we were shoved together. You know it. I know it.”
“Yeah, I also buy that. Go ahead. I’d be curious to know your theory, Spaniard.”
He snarled, and I could feel his anger increasing even from where I was standing. “You don’t have to like me, Jack. I certainly don’t like you, but as I said, we need to work together. Every operation that’s gone wrong has been because the operative got cocky or the assholes in charge thought they had it made. I might have been nothing more than a lowly drug dealer to you given your stellar reputation in Black Ops, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have to face the same kind of assholes. Or use the same tactics to try and stay alive. Maybe we were put together as a team to use different strengths.”
“And maybe they wanted us to kill each other off.” I laughed after saying the words, although I wasn’t certain there wasn’t some level of truth in them.
“Whatever chip you have on those wide shoulders of yours has expanded to a boulder. That makes you a danger to this operation, Jack. When I found out who I would be working for and after I did some checking, I tried to back out of the deal. I wanted nothing to do with you. Your reputation is shot, Jack. You might be the best at what you do, but you’re one damaged fuck. You can talk about my life as if I don’t deserve to be here. Maybe you’re right.”
I simply waved my glass at him.
The tension was thick, and the man still remained where he was. What the hell did he want from me, an admission that I gave a shit about the woman? Maybe so. I took a swig, refusing to give in. While my assignments hadn’t gone so well during the last few years, I’d gotten the jobs done. That was all that mattered.
“Do you know that the first time I saw Luis Diaz kill a man was two days after he’d taken me into his house? Two lousy days. I thought I’d found nirvana then blood was spilled in the aisle of a damn grocery store. Hell, I was just a kid. I was buying soda pop and candy, because the man who’d given me a room of my own had also provided me with some money. Stupid, huh? I will never forget the screams of the other customers inside or the horror in their eyes when Luis dragged me out of the store. I could also hear their curse words when I passed. ‘Pecadore de Dios. Monstruo.’”
“Sinner of God and monster,” I muttered.
“Very good, Jack. From that minute on, I knew what my life would be like and maybe I should have run, but I knew