Page 72 of Honor ’N’ Duty

Picking up on her distress, Smoke rose and sat close enough for her to pet his ears.

He took a deep breath, wishing there was another way. “I opened the door, and the cabana was empty.” Or so he’d thought. “There was a mirrored table with lines of coke and two straws. Tango picked up on something else and led me to the closet door. I pulled my gun, aimed in, and opened it.”

To this day, what he remembered most about that moment was the shock. On both their faces.

Kade dragged a hand down his face, feeling as if he’d aged twenty years, not two since that god-awful day. “Josh was hiding in the closet.” The drugs were bad enough. He really, really didn’t want to tell her the rest of it.

“You said there were two straws.” Her fingers on Smoke’s ears stilled. “Was there someone else there with him?”

Damn.

“A woman. They were both naked. She was a prostitute.”

When Laia hung her head and sighed, Kade fought his instinctive urge to haul her into his arms. He had a feeling that wouldn’t go over big right about now.

“You know,” she began, her eyes glistening with sadness, as he’d expected, “after Rosa was born, I thought she would bring Josh and me closer. As a family, I suppose she did. The three of us went everywhere together, and he seemed to be embracing fatherhood. But as a couple…as husband and wife…”

Did he really want to hear this? Yes. And no.

“Not too long after we brought Rosa home,” she continued, “the business trips started. At first, Josh would only be gone for a couple of days during the week. Then a couple of days turned into full weeks at a time and occasionally weekends, too. At some point, I knew. Then it was as if we both realized marrying had been a mistake, and we both stopped trying.”

Again she sighed, heavier this time, and she averted her eyes and began stroking Smoke’s ears faster. “We were civil enough to each other, privately and in front of company, but we hadn’t had sex for a very long time before he died, so I can’t really blame him for seeking it elsewhere.”

A selfish part of him had always wanted to hear something like that, but there was no joy in finally hearing it now.

She lifted her head, pinning him with her beautiful, almond-shaped eyes. “What happened next?”

The worst moment of my life. That’s what happened next.

Suck it up and tell her. She deserves to hear it. All of it.

“I told them to get dressed, then handed the woman over to a uniform to cuff her.”

“And Josh?”

Kade shook his head, his eyes glued to Laia’s fingers on Smoke’s head. As he began reliving every horrible second in his mind, his guts twisted in agony.

“Well?” Josh had said from the wicker sofa Kade had directed his brother to sit in. His brother’s eyes had been filled with a mix of fear and rage. “What are you going to do?”

Christ, he didn’t know. There was no protocol for catching your brother naked, with a hooker, snorting coke in a drug lord’s compound.

“What are you doing here?” he’d asked, then realized the stupidity of his question.

“I think that’s pretty obvious,” Josh answered, then pursed his lips.

He gripped Tango’s leash tighter. “I mean, what are you doing here? In Fernando Colon’s compound?”

Wisely, Josh didn’t answer the question. Even if he did, anything he said would be inadmissible. Any half-assed lawyer a day out of law school would successfully be able to argue that Josh was in custody and hadn’t been read his Constitutional rights.

No, this was a conversation between brother and brother, and they both knew it. But somehow, the personal and professional lines had crossed, and for the first time in his life, Kade was utterly and completely frozen into immobility.

Josh stood, then grabbed his slacks from a chair and began dressing. “I’m in deep shit here, aren’t I?”

“You’re damned right you are. The place is swarming with police and federal agents. If you didn’t have your head so full of coke and your dick so far up—” He drew in what was meant to be a calming breath. “How could you do this to Laia and Rosa? They’ll be devastated.”

Josh grimaced and began massaging his temples. “You’re right. I have to leave.” He snagged his shirt from the floor, then made a move for the door.

Kade grabbed his arm. “You can’t just walk out of here.” Much as he would have liked to allow it. For a split second, he nearly did and loosened his hold on his brother’s arm.