Fractured Freedom(24)
“She needs money on her card for food,” I murmured to Dante as he was listing the items to Cade.
He nodded and added that to the list for Cade to work on.
Once he hung up, he disclosed, “She’s fine. She’s talked to Cade since you got out. Everything is on track. We get you home and get this finished up and she’ll be fine.”
“Get what finished up, exactly?”
“That’s classified information, Delilah.”
I rolled my eyes. I already knew half of the classified information. Izzy was undercover. “I’m not going home.” I cleared my throat and spoke louder. “I want to stay here. I have a job here, and I’m more than capable of handling myself, Dante.”
“Lilah, I know you can handle yourself …” He hesitated for a moment and then finished it off, “in a much safer, calm environment.”
“Oh, what the fuck ever.”
His eyes narrowed, and his grip worked that wheel like he was trying to strangle the life out of it. Good. I’d show him I’d grown way up, even if, at that moment, my maturity level was probably that of a teenager’s.
“Can you put aside your emotion for a second? I know you’re hurt, and that’s fair, but we have a government operation in play and a woman who is undercover in jail that looks just like you.”
“I’ve been here this whole time. No one cares what I’m doing, Dante.” I mean, I had to be right about that. Why was I all of a sudden a risk to their operation?
“Jesus, what happened to you just listening for the sake of your family?” he grumbled.
I could have told him my good girl rep wasn’t following me here to Puerto Rico with my whole family. I’d come here specifically for the opposite. “What happened is I have a life here outside of them. And what about you two? What happened to being honest with family? God, Dante, she made me think she was still using in there, and I even went as far as … My words to her were cruel. And she just let me say them all.” Remembering it stung, and my heart ached over it. I waited a beat before I said, “It’s official. I’m going to kill her.”
Dante sighed as if he was processing it all, and then he chuckled. “I’ll admit, it was a shitty thing for her to do. But in her defense, she’s been working on this case for years.”
I shook my head. “I’m not leaving. So you’d better inform me of what’s going.”
He cracked his neck both ways before he continued. “If it was anyone else, Lilah, I’d drug them and put them on a plane back home.”
He said it with so much honesty, like it was a normal thing to do. It should have shocked me, but I was just sad that this was his life. That the sweet guy I knew as a kid had been subjected to all this. It felt like a movie, like something out of a nightmare.
I cleared my throat. “Well, I guess I’m lucky to be me right now, then.”
He sniffed and glanced out the window before he continued. “Your sister is undercover. She got out of juvie and was running in the right crowds for it. She was struggling and I gave her something to strive for. I like to think it kept her clean and focused.”
“What? A job as an undercover agent where she was around drugs all the time, Dante?” I wanted to hit him.
“She’s always liked a challenge.” He shrugged. “Maybe it was the wrong move, but we were both green. I’d been honorably discharged from Delta Force, was given an opportunity for contract work, and recruited her under me. She’s been clean ever since, so something worked. Now she’s at a point where she’s been working her way up the ranks within a drug smuggling operation so we could get intel on larger shipments. It brought her here for the weekend.”
“So, her visiting me wasn’t even real.” She’d called a week before saying she needed a break from it all, and I’d been so happy to hear from her that I’d agreed. Sure, I couldn’t get off work and she’d just have to hang out, but I would still get to see her. “She lied about everything. And me going back home—”
“I’d like to think that was probably your family wanting you home and her thinking she could handle it. You can talk to her about that later. Right now, she’ll do time behind bars, make connections, and get out when your parents or the dealers get her out. She can maybe pull off getting a shipment location and we’re done. We got enough to arrest the main players and bring down the operation. This hopefully won’t jeopardize anything.”
“If I’ve been here the whole time, the only thing that would jeopardize it is if I leave now and don’t come back,” I pointed out. “You bailing me out of jail and forcing me home is what would call attention to your undercover work.”
“Lilah.” He shook his head because I think he knew I was right. “We’ll figure something else out. It’s not safe for you to stay. Izzy and I never wanted you to be a part of this.”
“Dante, please shut up,” I said, the vile taste in my mouth real at this point. We were nearing my hotel. “I need to get my bearings. How long will it take? Can you speed her bail process along?”
“No.” He rolled his eyes like I was an imbecile.
“I’m asking questions to make sure I’m on the same page as you. Don’t get irritated with me.”