Page 52 of Toxic Devotion

“How?”

Rome’s silence had his heart tripping.

“Rome,” he snapped.

“They’re cartel. Nuevo León.”

“Fuck,” he breathed. He sank into his chair, a dejected sigh escaping him. He’d hoped this wouldn’t happen. Had he cared when he’d taken out several of the cartel’s men? Fuck, no. Those fuckers decided to walk into his city and shoot at their enemies right on the road Dante’s school was on. While he wasinschool. Those fuckers had gotten what they deserved.

Of course, it would come back to bite him. He wasn’t even surprised.

“What do you want to do, Boss?”

“Make sure everything is secure, then meet me at home.”

He needed to be there with Dante, and he needed Rome there as protection because he wasn’t sure who the hell else to trust. No wonder his own people were turning on him. The cartel had that kind of power and sway. They had that kind of money.

What he didn’t understand was why they weren’t attacking him head-on. If they wanted payback for the deaths of their men, why would they do it this way? Why turn his men against him? Why steal from him? It made no sense. Unless… unless they wanted him to suffer before taking him out. It seemed almost silly, though. That wasn’t the cartel’s way. They acted swiftly and mercilessly. They would simply kill him. So what the hell was going on?

Neil

He ran his gaze over the grand house, lips twitching for a second when he noticed the tall dog fence around the woods by the house. He’d had the displeasure of meeting Colt’s wolf dog before, and she did not like him. The feeling was mutual, though. This was the last place he’d expected Stanton to end up after finding him in that prison. He’d been on quite a journey since then. The Raiders had reunited, and Hughes was dead, his terrorist cell completely dismantled. It was finally done. His biggest failure had finally become somewhat of a success.

He leaned back against his car and waited, unsurprised when Stanton walked out of the front door a mere two seconds later. Stanton walked toward him, his jaw clenched and fire in his eyes. Stanton stopped a good distance from him, and he couldn’t exactly blame him.

“Stanton.”

The man glared at him. “Neil.”

The annoyance lacing that one word almost made him smile.

He pushed away from the car and stepped closer to Stanton, eyes roaming over the man, something almost soft spreading inside him at what he saw: a happy man. Despite the daggers his eyes were throwing at him. It was pretty easy to tell that Stanton had ended up in a good place.

“This is not where I expected to find you.”

Well, a part of him had known that putting Stanton and Colt together might end like this, and he was glad it had, even if those two were undoubtedly going to cause him a whole lot of trouble.

“I’ve made sure your record has been expunged. Both the one on and the one off the books,” he said, voice lowering slightly at his next words. “I owe you that much.”

“Do you expect me to thank you?”

The growl in the man’s voice was to be expected. He couldn’t fault Stanton for hating him. In fact, he was used to being hated and blamed. It was a part of the job, though the worst didn’t come from his work, it came from the man he loved.

“Take good care of Colt. He deserves that,” he said and meant it. Colt had been through his fair share of shit, and he was glad he’d found someone who saw him as he was and didn’t want to change him.

Stanton crossed his arms and growled, “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

Hearing that commanding tone from the man brought him back to the Raiders and exactly why he’d created the black ops team around this man He’d always known Stanton was the right man for the job.

He was going to need Colt for an extensive operation so staying on his partner’s good side was probably smart. He’d been working on taking down a cartel for a few months. They had spread deep into the States, and he had managed to flip an asset who was deep in it.

He pulled a business card out of his pocket and handed it to Stanton.

“I know it might go against everything you’ve done the past decade, but just give it a chance.”

He’d had to pull a lot of strings to get Stanton that opportunity, but he thought the man would do very well in the FBI, so he had to at least give him the option. He was squarely out of favors now, though.

He turned and walked back to his car, smiling to himself as he got behind the wheel. As he drove down the driveway, heglanced in the rearview mirror and saw Stanton walking up the porch steps to Colt who was standing in the door.