activities, he is a very religious man. Fanatically so.”
“Why didn’t he just ask you to divorce Peter and live happily fucking after?” Declan snarled. That would have spared everyone a lot of grief as it looked like Ortega and Claudette deserved each other.
“He said I could never be his queen because the cartels can’t be trusted. A wife and a son would be his weakness. That I had to be patient. But my baby died a month before I was to deliver. I panicked.”
His jaw clenched. “So you lured Gabby to Van Nuys that night. Took our baby instead. Who did you bribe, Claudette?”
She didn’t answer and looked out the window.
“Answer me!”
“I’m not telling you anymore until I know you’ll help me,” she said.
Declan lapsed into silence as he concentrated hard not to floor the gas. They reached the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and he made the turn to head to the Valley.
“Where are you going?” Claudette asked.
“What did you think was gonna happen?” he asked. “That we’re gonna have a cozy breakfast on Rodeo Drive?”
She gave a nervous laugh. “I wouldn’t dare be seen there.”
“What’s the matter, Claudette? Ortega found out you were a lying bitch and put a hit on you?” Declan cast a glance at her. She was staring at her linked fingers on her lap, twisting them in a sure sign of anxiety.
“He did, didn’t he?”
Her chin trembled. “It’s quite the opposite. Raul used me and now Andrade thinks I’ve connived with him, and I think he has the cartel looking for me.”
“Andrade?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Her mask of perfection cracked and revealed a very frightened woman. Declan almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
“But it was all Raul, I swear,” she continued. “I thought the shipment I brought in was XZite pills.” At his snort, a defiant look crossed her face.
“You’re a drug mule.”
“That’s harsh. The XZite pills are a perfectly acceptable party drug in Europe.” She crossed her arms and hugged her biceps, giving a sniff. “I don’t do cocaine or the heavy stuff. Oh, I still gave Raul targets, but I stayed far away from trafficking or using. I was a good mother to Theo. Peter didn’t see that and had to ruin everything. He had suspicions about Theo being his son, especially when the boy started losing the baby fat. And then in one of our fights, I threw Raul at his face.” She laughed bitterly. “Peter couldn’t divorce me fast enough. Packed up and moved back to Los Angeles. Left me in Paris, scared that Ortega would come after me.”
“Did he order the hit on Peter?”
“It’s very possible,” she whispered almost too softly that Declan wasn’t sure those were her words. “The reason Raul wanted Theo to grow up with Peter was to shield him from his enemies. Before the fentanyl attacks, Raul used to be more visible in public. He and Peter were acquaintances. Peter confided in me that Raul had been inordinately fixated on Theo in the common gatherings they attended. Only Peter already knew that Gabby was Theo’s mother because he’d run a DNA analysis after our divorce three years ago.”
“When was the last time you talked to Peter?”
“Three months before his death. He was pissed. Told me to tell Raul to fuck off or he would.”
“Ortega was harassing Peter? He was in hiding by that time, right?”
“Yes. He’s a crime lord, Declan. He has people.”
“They threatened Peter?”
She shrugged. “I told him to leave well enough alone. Let Raul continue to believe that Theo was his. That’s all I really know.”
“Not everything. I want to know about you, Andrade, and Ortega.”
She looked out her window. “I found out from my bodyguard that I’ve actually handed a dangerous prototype to Ortega.”
“What prototype?” His voice was low and controlled.
“Some kind of biological weapon.”
“Jesus Christ!” Even when he expected her to say this because Garrison had already given him a heads up, it was still too much to be having this conversation and driving around. He scanned the road up ahead and looked for an exit. He pulled into a Denny’s parking lot, put the Porsche in park but kept the engine running. He twisted in his seat and faced her. “Why the hell would you do that?”
“I told you I thought it was the XZite pills. Even Andrade found out too late it was a biological weapon.”
Declan was confused. “Wait a minute. Back up. It wasn’t Andrade who sent the bioweapon?”
Claudette laughed bitterly. “I don’t know what to believe anymore. I’m in