Page 103 of Beneath The Truth
My brother hung up before I could tell him tofuckoff.
“Who was that?”Ariasked.
“Rome.Apparently, my little brother knows a hell of a lot more about the cartel than we do.He’s working on his end.Now we needHeath.”
Ari shook her head.“I can’t trace him.He’s gone.I don’t know what elsetodo.”
“What aboutCarlos?”
“Nothing.He hasn’t used the number I have for him since he called andtextedme.”
“He has to have another.Or he just uses burner phones and swaps them outconstantly.”
“I can locate those.The numbers that were on Heath’s phone records ...if you think thatmaybe—”
“At this point, it’s worthashot.”
I needed to get out there and find him.I didn’t want to leave Ari alone, but without anyone on the streets looking, we weren’t going to find Heath.Shit, even that was a long shot.With the heat this was drawing, I wasn’t about to ask anyone else to step into the lineoffire.
My phone vibrated before I could figureitout.
Rome.Again.
“You forgetsomething?”
“No, I’m just really fucking good.One of the G6s that’s part of the Herrera family fleet filed a flight plan with New Orleans as a destination.If I were you, I’d get my ass to Lakefront Airport and get this fucker as soon as he hits thetarmac.”
“I’monit.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear to hang up, but Rome’s voice came through.“Make sure to bring the big guns.Guaranteed they’re cominginhot.”
“Done.”
I hung up, and Aristood.
“What’sgoingon?”
“Your ex-boyfriend is on hiswayhere.”
58
Ariel
I’d madeRhett promise to be careful and he swore he would, but that didn’t make me feel any better.Fear had settled into my bones and dogged my every step.There’d already been toomuchloss.
I wanted to curl into the fetal position and pretend none of this had happened.But that would accomplishnothing.
My eyes burned from tears waiting to fall as I thought about how terrified Erik and Jan must have been in their last moments.My chest felt like it had been crushed beneath an avalanche.The tendons in my hands ached from furiously typing, but I didn’t know how else Icouldhelp.
Lockdown got real this time.I wasn’t allowed to leave the panic room.No one would know if I tucked myself into a ball and sobbed.But what good would it dome?None.
The time for mourning was after everyone was safe.Until then, I’d hold it together and dig deeper, try to findanswers.
As I put my fingers back on the keyboard, an instant message popped up from a chat service I rarely used but had never bothered touninstall.
Heath:I really fucked up, Ari.I shouldn’t have tried to fix this onmyown.
Ari: Whereareyou?
