Hearts and Aces (Kelsey's Burden Series Book 7) by Kaylie Hunter (great books for teens txt) 📗

Nightcrawler grinned. “You thought I’d be jealous?”

“Jealousy is a common trait amongst the men in my life.”

“I have my eye on someone else. It’s all good.”

“Who?” Maggie asked, nudging him with her elbow. “Tell me. Tell me.”

“No.”

Tyler laughed, looking over at Nightcrawler and shaking his head.

Bridget and Bones came down the stairs. Bridget was carrying a stack of papers.

“What’s all that?” I asked.

“Tech was too lazy to walk upstairs to get the pages he printed,” Bridget said, dumping the stack on the coffee table in front of me. “He texted me to pick them up on our way back.”

“That’s pathetic, Tech,” I said, shaking my head.

Tech continued working on his computer. “I’m not lazy. It was more efficient for Bridget to get the papers on her way through so I could keep working.”

“Efficiency isn’t heart healthy,” Maggie said, moving to the floor and starting to sort the papers.

Katie and I moved to the floor as well.

“What are we doing?” Wild Card asked, sitting in the chair behind me and leaning over my shoulder.

“We need to get Miguel’s attention. I figure the best way to do that is to attack one of his companies in some way.”

“How does that help?” Bones asked, sitting on the couch as Bridget sat on the floor in front of him.

“Based on what Charlie was able to dig up, I’m betting Miguel Remirez cares more about his companies than whether his baby brother, Santiago, is dead or alive.”

“You’re kidding,” Wild Card said from behind me.

“Nope. I already suspect Miguel was the one who killed his older brother and his uncle. He needed them out of the way so he could focus on his legal businesses.”

“What if he wants Santiago to still run the cartel?” Maggie asked. “Seems Miguel has never wanted the figurehead role.”

“He’ll have to decide which he wants more—the convenience of having his brother handle the drug trade or me not destroying everything he’s built in the last decade.”

“How hard are you planning to go after him?” Donovan asked, the worry lines appearing on his forehead.

“I’ll start small. A disruption of some kind. If he doesn’t play ball, then I’ll strike again. I’ll keep going until he has nothing left on this side of the border if that’s what it takes.”

“But you don’t think it will go that far,” Maggie said, reading my mind.

“I don’t. I think one very strategic plan could convince him to green light any action we take against his brother. Miguel’s ruthless, but he’s a businessman. The last thing he wants is someone like me to come after him.”

Maggie tapped a finger to her temple. “You want him to know you’re an ex-cop with contacts extending from a mafia family to a crime boss in Miami and even to the FBI.”

“I sound scary on Google.”

“Not just on Google,” Wild Card mumbled behind me.

I turned to the side and slapped his calf.

He laughed as he shoved my shoulder. “Put us to work. What do you need?”

“Everyone except for Donovan, grab a pile and start taking notes. I need a cheat sheet on everything important.”

“What’s my assignment?” Donovan asked.

“You are going to go check on Lisa and Abigail. If Lisa sees you changing a diaper or two, maybe she’ll thaw some about the whole sleeping with Sebrina thing.”

“That’s actually a good plan,” Donovan said, heading for the tunnel.

“Tyler and I are going to make the rounds,” Nightcrawler said, leaving the basement with Tyler.

“I can only work for a couple of hours,” Maggie said. “I need to get my beauty sleep tonight so I look fresh when my man hunk gets here tomorrow.”

I laughed as I grabbed a tax report and started reading.

“I sent Billy an email explaining the grand plan and printed a bio for you to read,” Tech said to Maggie. “It’s on the printer upstairs.”

“Get off your ass and go get it!” Katie ordered him, pointing toward the stairs.

Tech sighed but set his laptop on the coffee table and walked off to get the papers.

“Maybe we should get both Tech and Genie Fitbits,” Maggie said, referring to her analyst at the FBI. “She spends too much time behind a monitor, too.”

“Maybe Carl can link them so they get alerts when the other one reaches a new goal,” I said.

“That would require Carl coming out of hiding,” Bones said. “You really did a number on him.”

“He didn’t leave me much of a choice.”

“Agreed,” Katie said. “We all understand why you had to scare him, but he can’t live the rest of his life in his bedroom. This weekend is just as much about Carl as it is about the guards at Aces.”

I narrowed my eyes at Katie. “He bought chemicals used to make bombs!”

“And you haven’t spoken to him in over twenty-four hours!” Katie snapped back. “In Carl’s world, that’s an eternity.”

I sighed, throwing the tax report onto the table, before I stood and walked away. I walked through the tunnel, down the hall, up the stairs to the main floor, hollered at Haley and Alex who were making out on the couch, and then walked down the hall to Carl’s room. I knocked twice. Carl mumbled something incoherent, so I entered.

“Aren’t you done pouting yet?” I asked Carl as I walked over and sat on the bed next to him.

“I was bad.”

“Yes, you were.” I tipped my head back and sighed. “We all screw up, though. It’s time to move on.”

“Are you still mad at me?”

I shook my head. “I’m not mad at you, but if you do something like that again, we’ll have to find somewhere else for you to live. I have to protect the kids and keep them safe.”

“I wasn’t