Page 130 of The Crowned Garza

“You okay?” Trent pulls back to study me. “How’re you feeling?”

“I’m fine. Just… Just get me away from here.”

~

TRENT SITS WITHme in Red Cage’s medical center and holds my hand like I’m a helpless toddler until my scratches and scrapes are treated. During which I detail what happened and he fills me in on all that went down on their end.

The short of it, Enrique Rojas, head of the El Depravados cartel, ordered my abduction merely as a tactic to get Red Cage’s attention. Nothing to do with me personally and everything to do with Sunny’s case that Red Cage has been working on.

“Sunny’s okay, though, right?” I ask in earnest.

“Yeah, yeah, of course. She’s at the house. We haven’t told her about any of this yet.”

“Don’t tell her,” I say. “At least, not yet.”

Tripp bursts into the room just then. Once his frantic eyes land on me and see I’m in one piece, he abruptly stops, his boots scuffing against the epoxy floors. Dropping his head, he plants his hands on his hips as though he doesn’t know what else to do with them, then blows out a long, audible breath.

“What, you think I’d lie to you thatoursister is fine?” Trent asks him.

“I just—” He runs a hand through his pretty, golden curls. “I’m sorry, T. I’m so damn sorry.”

“We’re helping Sunny,” I say. “That’s all that matters to me. If I’ve gotta get kidnapped for you guys to get to the bottom of it all, then I’m fine with that.”

Trent shakes his head at me with a belligerent grunt, not at all on board with that take. He shoves to his feet, grumbling, “That girl’s gonna be the death of you.” On the way out, he checks Tripp with his shoulder, telling him, “You, too.”

Once Trent is gone, I glower at my only full-blood brother. “Sunny doesn’t hear a word of this until you wrap her case, got it?”

“I don’t think this is something you should keep from her. She’s your—”

“Oh, so we’re picking and choosing what kind of secrets we keep from each other now?”

He eyes me warily. “What do you mean?”

I lower the icepack I’ve been holding to my cheek. “Youknowwhat I mean.”

We stare each other down. And not an ounce of apology crosses his face. What appears instead is anger.

“You wanna talk about secrets?” He steps toward me. “Tell me, who’re you messing around with? Who’re you fucking with that’s so dangerous not even Enrique goddamn Rojas wants to, and I quote, ‘trigger that psychopath into action’?”

Shit. Enrique Rojas said that? The last time I saw him, he was flat-out threatening Saint in a dark parking lot. What happened from then to now that would make the head of the cartel suddenly afraid of Saint?

Staring my brother in the eyes, I say, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He drills his golden glare into me and promises, “I’m gonna find out who he is. And when I do, neither of you will like it.”

“Oooh, I’m so scared.” I roll my eyes. “Nice way to deflect, by the way.”

He glares me down for another minute, then turns and storms out. Like the giant toddler he is.

A second later, he storms back in, strides right up to me, and pulls me into a bear hug. “So fucking happy you’re okay, T.”

I sigh into his chest. Sunny’s scent is all over him. “I want Sunny.”

“’Course. I’ll take you to her as soon as we’re done here.”

“Okay.”

After a long moment, he says, “I care about her.”