Page 60 of In a Perfect World

“What?”

“I’ve been calling Benicio Cortez’s office all afternoon to talk to him, see if he can get footage from their body cams or the security surveillance along the fencing, but his secretary refuses to put me through,” he went on.“She just keeps promising to pass on my messages.”

It wasn’t hard to deduce what he was asking.“You want my father to call him, I take it.”

“Your father, you...I don’t really give a fuck as long as he takessomeone’scall,” he bit out.“Every second that my sister is in that jail cell is another second where a woman’s worst nightmare can come true, and doing nothing about it is not something that I’m willing to live with.Now, while I have no problem with her paying for the consequences of her actions, when she got arrested, she hadn’t been breaking any laws, and that’s the difference.That’swhy she doesn’t deserve to be sitting in a Mexican jail cell.”

“If my father isn’t willing to make the call, then I’ll make it myself,” I promised him.

“If your father isn’t willing to make the call, then he’s just a big of an asshole as you are,” he spat.“And no matter what happens with my sister, over my dead body will I ever let you near her again.”

He hung up before I could say anything, but I couldn’t blame the man for being as angry as he was.Tomasco was worried about his sister, and I was positive that he was still reeling from being blindsided by all of this.

Knowing what I had to do, I dialed my father, and he answered on the second ring, probably worried that I was going off the rails, which I was close to doing, admittedly.

“Kairo?”

“I just got off the phone with Triana’s brother,” I said, not pussyfooting around.“He said that she was arrested while on Rancher Hills, sitting under a sand cliff.”

“How does he know this?”he asked, all business.

“He was able to speak to her earlier today, and she insisted that the agents’ body cams and surveillance cameras on the fence can prove it,” I answered.“Tomasco called to tell me that he’s been trying to get a hold of Benicio Cortez to plead on the behalf of his sister, but Benicio isn’t taking his calls.His secretary just keeps assuring Tomasco that she’ll pass on his messages.”

“So, what are you asking, Kairo?”

“I’d like Benicio Cortez’s direct number, so that I can call him myself,” I said, deciding against asking my father to step in the middle of this.“I’m also prepared to deal with the fallout from letting him know what’s going on.”

“You can go to prison,” he reminded me.“And you’re not the only one.Just because she might be innocent of crossing into Mexico, she still traveled with you to the border.She can still be arrested for crossing over into Sterling Acres.”

“Then I’ll lie,” I told him.“I’ll tell Benicio that I crossed over and traveled with her on Rancher Hills territory.”

“Kairo-”

“Are you going to give me his number or not?”I snapped.“That’s all I need from you, Dad.I don’t need any lectures on how I screwed up my life or any advice on how to fix it.I just want Triana home, and I don’t care if I have to sit in prison to make that happen.”

“Says the man who’s never had a hard day in his life,” he shot back.“It’s easy to say that you’re willing to spend the rest of your life in prison for this girl when you have no real idea of the horrors.”

I was quiet for a second before saying, “If you want to talk about horrors, then let’s talk about how every second of every day, my mind is conjuring heinous images of Triana being raped and beaten in her jail cell.Do you honestly think that sleeping comfortably in my own bed at night is easier than sitting in a jail cell right now?Because I’m not sleeping comfortably, Dad.I can barely stand to exist, so don’t talk to me about the horrors of prison when they can’t be any worse than what Triana might be experiencing right now.”

He didn’t say anything right away, but when he finally spoke, he said, “I’ll make the call.As emotionally invested as you are in all this, you might cause more harm than good.I can tell Benicio that I heard a rumor, and he’ll be more apt to listen to me and take me seriously.”

“While I appreciate the offer, I’d rather take care of this myself,” I told him honestly.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t trust you,” I replied bluntly, and not to hurt him; it was the truth.

However, instead of taking offense, he said, “Which is why I need to do this.”

“Dad-”

“Kairo, I am not going to lose you over this, and even if that weren’t the case, if she wasn’t breaking the law when they arrested her, then this situation needs to be remedied as soon as possible,” he said, cutting me off, and as much as I wanted to argue, Triana coming home was more important.

Pride could go fuck itself.