Risky (Torn Between Two Lovers #2)(74)

Instead, she felt a sting in her neck, then a burn that spread down her arm. In seconds she was boneless, sliding against the door in a heap. All so fast. They’d been having such a wonderful time. Had such a good thing together.

And now it was gone.

Someone had tried to kill Joaquin. Had poisoned him. He might be dead by now. They’d planned this and had taken her in the chaos, knowing that nobody would notice her absence for some time.

Joaquin.

She saw his handsome face in her mind before consciousness slipped away.

***

His brain awoke, the world returning in fragmented shards.

He wasn’t sure what had happened. Why he hurt so badly, even down to his bones. Or where he was.

Sometimes he felt like he was liquefying, his body simply melting away until there was nothing left. People talked around him, but he couldn’t catch all of what they were saying.

There were doctors. Words like heart, oxygen, resuscitate … and poison. He’d been poisoned? At a party. He remembered! But there was something else vitally important, and he couldn’t grasp it. So tired, he had to sleep.

When he awoke again, someone was sitting beside his bed. Turning his head made him sick, and he breathed through his nose for a few minutes before he could speak without vomiting. “Rio?”

His brother’s head snapped up from the magazine he was reading, and his face broke into a smile as he grasped Joaquin’s hand. “God in heaven, don’t ever scare me like that again! I thought we’d lost you!”

“I’m sorry,” he offered.

“Not your fault.” Rio looked haggard, dark circles under his eyes.

“You’re still wearing that stupid shirt.” Even whispering hurt.

Rio gave a sad laugh. “Yeah, it’s hideous. I just wore it last night to get to you.”

“I know.” Joaquin’s eyes searched the room, and he frowned. “Where’s Anna?”

His brother swallowed hard. “She’s not here right now.”

Something about the way he said that made Joaquin’s blood go cold. “Where?”

“She’s, um, missing, bro.”

He tried to sit up, but the pain drove him down again. “What? Tell me!”

“She went outside to wait for the ambulance after you were poisoned. She didn’t come back,” Rio said miserably.

“Why would she go outside?”

“Santos sent her.” That statement said it all.

“He had his men take her,” he rasped. “As insurance.”

“That’s what everyone thinks, but there’s no proof he was involved. Especially since he was right next to you on the floor, making a big show of helping out.”

“Alibi.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to kill him.”

“You’ll have to wait in line.”

“No. Santos is mine,” he informed his brother, rage fueling his recovery. The need for revenge would be his sole reason for getting out of this bed long before anyone thought he could.

“All right, agreed. But we’re going to need more help than our men can give. We need something big to bring him down, and it has to be legal.”

“I said I’m going to—”


“Kill him. I know, but it has to be done right. Santos has to be drawn out, into our web. Our actions must be above reproach. The question is, who do we turn to?”

The obvious solution was staring him in the face, and it just about killed him to admit it. But he did, however, because Anna’s life depended on it. She was counting on him.

“Grayson Sloane.”

His brother stared at him, then nodded. “I hate to get the feds in here, but that’s the best choice. They’ll help us if we help them.”

“Did I hear my name?”

Joaquin looked to the doorway, where the agent stood grim-faced. “That was fast.”

“I received a report about the attempt on your life and I got here as soon as I could.”

“For once, I’m glad. We need you here.” Admitting that was hard.

Gray glanced around, nodded at Rio, then met Joaquin’s gaze again. “Where’s Anna?”

He paused. “The person responsible for trying to kill me has taken her.”

“What?” Gray shouted, taking a menacing step toward the bed. Rio placed himself in the agent’s path, hand on his chest, but that didn’t halt his rage. “I warned you this would happen! But you just had to impress her, be the big man, didn’t you? You dragged her into your shit and got her caught in the crossfire, just like I knew you would!”

“I didn’t know it would go down like this!” Joaquin shouted back. “I never thought she would be taken!”

“Well, congratulations,” the agent sneered. “You were wrong. How did this happen? Who is it? I’ll f*cking kill him!”

“We believe it was Deno Santos, but I don’t have proof. We have to get her back before he does something bad to her.” The image of what the sick f*ck could be doing to her even now was almost too much to bear.

“Jesus Christ.” Jaw clenching, Gray glanced away. His fist closed, and he looked about two seconds from punching the wall. “I’ll make some calls.”