Colin shook his head and held his hands up. “I’m not reneging on Carlos. You know I’m not an asshole, Cain. I also don’t want to go through life being out of the loop. Meeting with people like Kalina lets me keep my head on my shoulders by knowing who’s out there.” He talked like he knew she was pissed. “I’m not going to forget my friends. Carlos and I have a good thing going, and that only ends if he decides that.”

“So how did this meeting make you conclude that Kalina wasn’t responsible for Hector’s headaches?” Cain asked. She accepted a glass of whiskey from Muriel and waited for Colin to take a sip.

“He was happy about whoever blew Hector’s world to shit, and he’s the kind of guy who’d be thrilled to take credit. All those guys love to take credit, and they don’t give a shit who knows, but he didn’t do it. Believe me, he wants to corner what Hector has, but he didn’t do it. He doesn’t have the cojones.” Colin seemed to sense she wasn’t convinced, so he calmed down and got down to trying to do that.

Cain wiped at the condensation on her glass as she mentally shifted the pieces around. “We ended up with the best deal when it comes to Carlos. The drug business isn’t something I’ll ever be interested in, but it won’t hurt if the new king of the cartel is friendly. It’ll go a long way to keeping the peace.” She’d always keep true to their heritage, and people like Carlos were doing the same thing. “Drugs are something we all have to contend with, but I’d rather work with a guy I can talk to if there’s a problem. So let’s try not to mess that up.”

“Agreed, and Kalina understood that when I turned him down. He wasn’t happy about it, but I was honest.” Colin held his glass up and Muriel poured him more. “That’s not our problem, but you might have one brewing back home.”

“What’s that mean?” Katlin asked. They had enough people on the streets that they should’ve heard if something was up.

“I’m late getting here because I flew to New Orleans to take another meeting. I should’ve told you, but I wanted to get what the asshole was about.” Colin used a lot of hand gestures when he spoke, and it made Cain smile. He really was hard to stay mad at.

“What asshole?” Finley asked.

“You ever heard of Jerome Rhodes?” Colin’s question made Cain, Remi, Muriel, and Katlin stare at him. Finley appeared curious but Rhodes wouldn’t have hit her radar when she was still with the bureau.

“That’s who you met with?” Muriel asked.

“Yeah, you know him?”