UNMASKED

#21

To say Adria was displeased would be an understatement.

A more accurate way to word it would be to say that she was positively enraged. Which, incidentally, was probably why she was sitting across from them, glaring at both Matthew and Eli as if they were the ones at fault. Honestly, Eli wouldn't be surprised if she started hissing at them.

It wasn't like his life was going to get any less strange by that point.

If it were, then he wouldn't be sitting in Adria's very nice warehouse—hands down, the best one Eli had been in, even if it was Adria's. She'd called them in way too early, considering the night they'd had, which was probably why Eli was having a hard time focusing. Still, whatever Adria had to say had to be important. And so, Matthew had shoved a PB&J sandwich at Eli and dragged him into the car sent to pick them up along with some men Eli recognized from his little escape the previous night. The jerks hadn't even given him time to get out of his pajamas. Which, he supposed, was to be expected when he'd tased them less than twelve hours prior.

And that was why Eli was sitting there, wrapped in a blanket and still eating his sandwich.

"We found our informant," she said in what was definitely too threatening a tone.

"Isn't that a good thing?" Eli asked. Maybe if he weren't sleep deprived he would have understood that no, that was most certainly not a good thing. Not with how pissed off Adria looked.

"Oh, I'm sorry, what I meant to say is we found his body." Well, she really should have been more specific. Eli just took a bite of his sandwich. "Seems our mercenary friend was well aware there were some of my father's men keeping an eye on him."

One of her employees walked in with a cup of coffee and set it on Adria's desk. She raised the cup to her lips and took a drink, her expression smoothing out just the slightest bit. Eli was still amused at how much people depended on coffee.

"And he used it to his advantage," Matthew said with a frown. Adria nodded, now looking slightly less murderous.

"Yeah, looks like he had plans that night and wanted you out of the way. He made sure we got wind of his supposed deal at the docks and set things up to at least keep you occupied. Then he got rid of our informant to make sure we didn't get a warning until it was almost too late and went about his merry, murderous way."

"So the guy's an asshole," Eli said through a mouthful of sandwich.

"A smart one, unfortunately," Adria added, looking thoughtful. "And now that he's killed and taken over the territory of so many well established cartel leaders, well, let's just say it'll be even more of a pain to deal with him."

"Yay," Eli muttered and Adria just ignored. Like usual.

"We're still looking into him, trying to get a good idea of who he is, where he comes from. Maybe that will give us a clue about his next move. Unfortunately, it's been more of a challenge than I'd thought, considering the limited resources available."

"Didn't your father know that information?" Matthew asked.

"Dear old dad didn't bother. Probably thought it was of no use to him as long as the guy got the job done."

"Well, that came back to bite him in the ass." Eli finished off his sandwich and wished he had another.

He also did his best to ignore the look Matthew was shooting him, probably meant as a warning to not piss off Adria. But Eli figured it would take Adria a second to jump over the desk and strangle Eli, so it wasn't like Matthew wouldn't have a chance to do something to stop Eli from getting killed.