Page 33 of Tango

Shit. This was exactly why Frank had told me to tread carefully with what I shared.

“He was my cover.” I let out a worried breath. I knew Denton was Cole’s one weak spot, and no one blamed him for it.

“Tell me he’s dead! Tell me this isn’t another one of Frank’s sick setups. If he lied to me on that, I’ll…”

“He’s very much dead,” I interrupted. “We said he was my cousin and that he sent me to Rosarito to work for him. The fact that he was in prison and could only communicate a little worked in my favor. It got even better when he was killed because then I could say I was the only one who could reach him while he was in,” I finger quoted, “hiding.”

“Jesus.” Cole paced, as he tried to get himself together. “Go on.”

“I was able to work my way in quickly thanks to Frank. We played our scam on them and learned a lot about Denton and what he’d been planning before he went to prison.”

“Which was?”

“Run his operation from Columbia.”

“Anything else?” God, it was like he could see inside my head.

“Cole, some things are better left unsaid.” I glanced around the room.

“I disagree.” He held my stare, and I knew Frank might kill me for this, but I could never lie to my brothers.

“Let’s just say he had other plans in motion to flush Savannah out.” Cole’s jaw ticked. “We shut it down, you guys got him killed, and anything he had in the works was quickly stamped out.” I moved close to him. “There’s a recorded call to Frank, of me sayin’ that if I found out there was any chance at all that Savannah was at risk, I’d be on my way home on the next plane with any and all information in hand.” He held my gaze a moment later, and I could see he fought against the pain that this information brought to him. I knew I’d opened old wounds with what I’d shared. Savannah was his life.

“She can never know,” he growled.

“Understood.” We stood in silence until Keith broke it.

“So, ten years later and my wife is taken.” I could hear the pain in his voice. “There was a lot of risk there. Were you going to return home with her?” Keith’s tone was low but highly charged.

I knew I had to tread lightly. I knew Keith had barely had time to process Lexi’s death and my part in it. I pressed my hands into the table and took a moment to think. He deserved to hear it all, and I prepared myself for it. I could hardly blame him. I’d known it wouldn’t be easy with the way things had gone down. It would take time, but these were my brothers, and I needed them to know I’d always had the family’s safety at heart.

“I broke countless rules with Lexi, Keith, and I’ll prove that to you, I promise. I wanted to get her back to you. You know that. When we fell into trouble, my sole purpose was to return her to you.”

“And you did.” Frank’s voice stopped me short, and our attention flew to the door. None of us had heard him come in. “I wasn’t aware we’d started our meeting yet.”

“We just needed to clear a few things out of the way first,” Cole jumped in. His clipped tone wasn’t lost on anyone.

“I see.” He looked at Moore, who sat quietly at the back. “You able to follow what’s happening?”

“Yes, sir. Just soaking it all in.” He quickly rejected a phone call.

“Good.” Frank addressed me. “I’d like to jump in with the fact that your buyer called in this morning. Give him a call and hear what he has to say.”

Mike moved the speaker phone in front of me as if to say to make the call in front of them.

“Outside,” Frank ordered.

“With all due respect, Frank, I think it’s time Blackstone hears it straight up.”

“Paul—”

“I may not have a place on Blackstone anymore, but we need to take these fuckers down, so they need to know all.” Frank bit down on the side of his lip. I knew he disagreed, but I also knew he had some trust to regain with these men. If he didn’t fix things, we’d all have bigger problems in the long run. Cole turned the light outside to red so no one would bother us and locked the door to frost up the glass.

“Make the call.”

Cole glanced at Keith, and I dialed the number from memory.

“Chili,” he answered.