Page 68 of Married with Blood
“A fucking ambush?” Dean growled as he stood and fired when he could get the clearance to do so. Dirt and grime coated his skin, but the smear of blood over one eyebrow came from a gash that didn’t look too deep.
“It’s the Cartel.”
We both swung our gazes to her as we lowered when they fired again.
“What?”
She nodded at me before frowning at the wound on my side. “The truck is. I authorized the paperwork for the title.”
Fucking Arturo Garcia was behind this?
My fury only escalated, reaching a fever point as I battled with a scream that built in my chest.
I knew it.
I fucking knew that asshole was turning against us.
He’d broken our trade agreement, the one our fathers had made. With that “mistake” of sending our fucking arms into enemy territory, he’d shown us the first strike of his losing all interest in being our trade ally. He was showing his colors now, ordering a fucking ambush on us like this.
“Those are the Cartel runners? From your— They’re from the Garcia Cartel?” Dean asked as the driver of the van and the other guard sat up more, groaning and wincing at the injuries from the collision.
“No.” The driver shook his head, rubbing his brow as he sat up more. “They’re…”
“Not the Cartel,” Carina said. “It’s one of the trucks from the Cartel. I recognize it. But those men are rogues.”
That wasn’t any better. Unless Arturo could prove that this truck wasn’t stolen or missing, I was operating under the understanding that he was a part of this. That he was acting against the Bratva. Against the sister he handed over to me.
“Look out!” She reached for me as I stood, not seeing the man who barreled toward us, daring to run around the hood of the upturned van.
Too late.
He fired at us, and as I pivoted to shoot back, the driver of the van got up and lunged at him, tackling the attacker and pinning him to the ground with a spate of hand-to-hand combat.
Fury ticked higher again.
These assholes.
If they weren’t sent here to ambush us on Arturo Garcia’s command, they had been sent here from someone. For some reason. This might be nothing more than trying to get the arms we requested from the Colombians. Or maybe it was set up to kill me.
As I slumped back against the van, my head throbbing and my heart racing, I wondered if this could be part of Gregori’s plan.
We’d just been talking about it. If Gregori was forming his network to overpower us, he’d need to kill all four of us, me and my brothers.
No. That can’t be it.
To assassinate all four of us?
He’d have to start with Adrik.
But then I recalled how we’d questioned whether our father’s health records could have been leaked. If someone might have spread the news that he had cancer—before we learned about it. He’d been so secretive, keeping the news to himself, that it had blindsided us when he had his stroke.
Grinding my teeth and letting this rage coat me from the inside out, I tightened my grip on my gun and looked at Carina. Seeing her unflinching determination to stay with me and fight with me, I vowed to protect her regardless of whether anyone on this earth could try to kill me.
Because the thought of losing this woman scared me more than facing my own demise.
She wasn’t a Cartel princess.
She was awarrior. Mine.
