“Yes, yes, I’m okay. What’s going on? What was that explosion? Mark, please answer me!”
I slumped back against my seat, the relief pouring through me an indescribable feeling.
She was alive.
I had a second chance.
Sirens blared in the distance, and I could hear Hannah and Layla talking in the background as Leo said, “Stay where you are. I have your GPS signal on the banks of the arroyo behind Layla’s property. Some of our men should be there soon to get you.”
Dazed, I stared at her burning house. “She’s safe.”
Leo’s voice lowered as he replied, “Yeah, my brother. She’s safe. Did you see what happened?”
“I saw two people creeping around her house. I only spotted them for a minute before they lit some kind of incendiary device, and I got blinded by my night vision binoculars.”
“Shit,” Leo muttered. “Our cameras didn’t catch much, either. The car they used was stolen, and they wore full-face masks. Whoever it was, they moved like an efficient unit. Like professionals.”
In the distance, firetrucks arrived at Layla’s house, but I already knew it would be a total loss.
A black SUV rolled to a stop on the small bridge that spanned the dry creek bed.
“Mateo and Benson just pulled up.”
“I see ‘em.”
“I’ve got shit to handle,” Leo said in a distracted voice. “I’ll see you when you get here.”
After he hung up, I waved to Mateo, who’d stepped out of the passenger side. Then I grabbed a few things from my fucked-up Land Rover and made my way across the rocky terrain. Smoke began to sting my eyes as the wind shifted, and I felt like I moved through a fog. As I climbed into the car, I ignored the guys questioning looks as they took in my torn tux and bruised up face. So full of relief I was almost giddy with it, I closed my eyes and thanked God over and over again for sparing Layla’s life.
The second we arrived at Leo’s place, I burst from the SUV and stormed into the house, blowing past the housekeeper. She called my name, but I ignored her. My heart slammed against my ribs as the morning sunlight streamed in behind me from the open doorway. “Where’s Layla?”
“Mark.” Leo, holding a mug of coffee, appeared from one of the many halls branching off from the two-story foyer. “She’s sleeping.”
“Sleeping?”
“We gave her a pill to help her relax. The news of her house catching fire was most…upsetting.”
“Glad to see you didn’t barbeque yourself,” Diego’s voice came from my left.
Looking a little worse for the wear, with a giant black eye and bruised cheek, he joined us. Diego had changed into jeans and a button-down black shirt at some point, and he also held a mug of coffee. The small, thick, silver and turquoise hoops he wore in his ears gleamed as he tilted his head, stretching out his neck with a grimace. As I took in his fucked up face in the bright morning light, I let out an internal sigh at his swelling eye. Mrs. Cordova would give us both a ton of shit about our public scuffle. She hated when we marked up each other’s faces, claiming it made us look like common thugs.
The knowledge that a massive ass chewing loomed in my near future did not improve my mood.
Leo lifted his chin, and we followed him into his study. Even in the blazing early morning sun, the dark wood of the bookshelves dominating three walls seemed to absorb the light. Two big black couches sat situated around a red and black Navajo rug, and a large black and white portrait of Hannah from their wedding hung over one of the couches. In it, she peered up shyly through her lashes, but her smile sparkled brighter than the diamond choker around her throat.
As I settled into the couch, I shifted, trying to ease the various aches and pains shooting through me. At almost thirty-one, I discovered that my body didn’t bounce back quite as quickly as it used to. After my mad drive down the creek bed, my back was pissed. The pain helped clear way some of my exhaustion, and I unbuttoned the collar of my shirt as I watched Leo.
Standing before the windows, he looked out over his massive landscaped backyard for a moment before he turned to face me. “Layla’s in danger. We believe someone is trying to kill her.”
I exploded from the couch. “What?”
Diego gave me a sympathetic look, then he took a seat across from where I stood, setting his coffee mug down on a nearby table. “You were right, someone tried to burn her house down. It looks like someone also disabled the alarm and broke in. After they found the house empty, we think they made an impromptu decision to burn the place down. Out of anger, as a warning, as a way to intimidate—we don’t know.”