Page 22 of Targeted By Vengeance

According to his file, Jules was running a covert crime operation, selling whatever he could get his hands on: drugs, weapons, women. The latter, no matter how common I’d learned it was, never failed to make my skin crawl.

I think that area of expertise was what brought death knocking at his doorstep. Included in his file were crime scene photos of deceased women, riddled with bruises and cuts. Some were barely recognizable. All had been pulled from the ocean like scraps of trash.

I had to take a break from the folder when I saw them. The last thing I wanted was to cry - or puke - on the jet. I couldn’t look weak in front of Mateo - not when he was finally giving me a chance to prove myself as an asset.

Shutting the folder, I looked up at the man sitting across from me.

As expected, his eyes were on me, scrutinizing every single inch of my face. I know he saw the brief twitches of my brows, the slight curve of my mouth - the glassy film threatening to cover my eyes. He was in full on trainer mode, which I could appreciate if that was the sole purpose of our relationship. But, after seeing such brutality, I wished he could let the mask of apathy down for just one second.

He tilted his head. “What did you notice?”

“Nothing I haven’t seen before,” I tried to play off the disgust festering in my chest with a shrug. “Infamous crime king who thinks he’s invincible - and untouchable.”

“How should we go about reminding him that he’s not?”

“His parties aren’t as exclusive as he’d like to believe. It wouldn’t be hard to snag an invitation and infiltrate one of them. The hard part would be finding a way to get close to him - and getting him alone.”

“I disagree. What’s his weakness?”

I shrugged. “Doesn’t seem like has any. He has a tight circle of friends, few family members, but they don’t live on the island, and-”

“You’re thinking too hard. Remember the goal: get close and get him alone. What’s the easiest way to do that to any man?”

I couldn’t stop my face from scrunching up. “Don’t tell me you’re sending me in there to seduce his ass.”

“Not you.” He jutted his chin towards the other end of the plane where Maria and Miles were curled up together on the couch, watching a movie on the laptop sitting in front of them. “Her.”

“What?” I couldn’t help but exclaim.

Miles and Maria looked up from their movie, scrunching their brows at me.

I offered an apologetic smile before turning back to Mateo. Lowering my voice, I continued. “You’re not really going to send her into the lion’s den, are you? I mean, she’s barely five feet tall!”

“She’s five one,” Mateo corrected. “And she’s taken down men bigger than Briones. One thing you’ll learn is that underestimation is our best friend. Our most effective strikes are when the target least expects it. Your fancy FBI training didn’t teach y’all that?”

“They emphasized the element of surprise.”

He shrugged. “Same thing, different name.”

“But, won’t you worry about her? I mean, so many things could go wrong.”

“Which is why she’ll have ears on her the entire time. Maria and I never go into a mission completely alone. One of us is always a few steps behind the other. Take our first date for example.”

“That was not our first date. You tried to kidnap me!”

“And then you made me chase you through the woods and whooped my ass with a stick. You didn’t think that was fun?”

I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. “Not at all. But, back to your point: I remember she was posing as the hostess - blocked me with a gun to my head when I tried to leave.”

“And when she left us alone, she didn’t go far.” He tapped his ear. “Kept an ear out in case you started any trouble I couldn’t handle.”

“Oh, so she heard me kick your ass?”

“Yup - and laughed about it too.”

A smile tugged at my lips. “Well, when you think about it, it is pretty funny.”

“Yeah, yeah wipe that smirk off your face. Can’t have you walking around acting all cocky because you won one round.”