Page 34 of Breached

The door clicked shut, and the room was suddenly silent.

“I’m sorry⁠—”

“No! Let me speak.” My hand flew to my stomach as it rolled. “Tell me this was just a one-time thing, to trick Bruno?” My last hope fizzled as Paul cleared his throat and looked away. “So, you are Eric Noah.”

“No, I’m Eric Paul,” he corrected, and I fought the ringing in my ears and the pain in my stomach. “I was part of Blackstone before I got shot,” he went on. “I was asked to stay dead and go undercover to help my brothers. So, I embedded myself into the Cartel as a human trafficker. I spent a decade without my family,” he waved toward the door, “with them thinking I was dead. It was terrible for me. Worse than if I’d actually died.” He dropped his head. “Then years later, I had to help someone again, and it brought me home.” He took a step toward me.

“No!” I held my side as my world tilted. “Don’t come any closer. I want it all. Why this? Why now?”

“I needed to go back undercover and find out information from Bruno since he thinks we’re still friends.”

Suddenly, everything became too much, and pain hit like a baseball bat. I cried out as the burn in my side became too much. Paul’s face fell when he realized what was going on and lunged for me, but I stepped back, putting out my arms to hold him at bay.

“Nicole,” his voice was urgent, “you’re bleeding—you need to see a doctor.”

I looked down and saw my shirt was blooming red from the old gunshot wound, and my head throbbed.

The last thing I remembered was being swept up in his arms as he shouted for John.

EIGHT

BRUNO

“Fifty states in this God-forsaken country, and they show up here?” I couldn’t believe Rafael Cruz was even still alive. I would have thought Jerry and Elva Canos would have taken him out after they realized he was auctioning off their grandkid. Now, Cruz soldiers were in New Mexico, just miles from where we were.

That meant I had three different families to deal with since Rafael had branched off on his own. Everyone wanted the Canos’ territory—especially since they had my Uncle Martin killed. I knew the Canos Cartel held the most property in all of Mexico, and the largest piece that bordered the US, and with that boy being their only heir, he was the ultimate bargaining chip.

I wondered who else might see the benefit in capturing that child. In our line of business, there were always people sniffing around the sidelines waiting for a chance to make a move. And it could be anyone at any time, and none of us might see it coming.

“I don’t think they know about your mother’s compound—” Armondo stopped when I gave him a nasty glare. “Your compound. They might have been passing through and simply ran into the military.”

I scrubbed my face with my hands and left my office with him following.

“Did they at least kill any of the Americans?” My mind whirled. “Were they at least useful?”

“I don’t know.” Armondo held up his hands.

“Where did this happen?”

“I don’t know,” he repeated.

I took the stairs and headed down to the lower level. “How many of Cruz’s men were killed?”

“I don’t⁠—”

I whirled around, jumping to the step above him and staring down at him. “For my right-hand man, you sure don’t know much about anything, do you?”

“One of the hired men who works the grounds told me about the attack. I didn’t wait for him to give me the details as I thought you would want to know right away.” His face twisted, and I knew he was embarrassed and annoyed with how I’d been treating him lately, but he was fucking up left and right.

I moved past Armondo and crossed the entryway where two of my hired security were standing. They were paid mercenaries, and I knew they were well trained. One of them, Hinge, stood beside another man, with just as ridiculous a name—Viper.

“Mr. Perez, I take it you heard about the attack?” Hinge asked.

“And how do you know this information?” I took in their physiques. They were built like tanks, fully dressed like they were ready for battle with their sunglasses and chewing gum. They looked like they stepped right out of one of those American movies Hollywood loved to make.

“It’s our job to know.”

I studied him for a moment. “Why the sunglasses all the time?” I had to ask.