Page 65 of Tico

Chapter 31

Tico

AssoonasIshut Chief’s office door, I let myself fully feel the rage at Ashley’s betrayal. I signal to Taco and then Wire before heading down the hallway and into Wire’s cave after he unlocks it for us.

The door shuts behind us and I clench my fists. Both Taco and Wire look at me expectantly. Though, from the look on Taco’s face, I think he might be catching onto my train of thought.

The same train of thought Ember picked up on as well.

It still surprises me how accurately she’s able to read a room and pick up on details like that. But then again…she grew up in an environment that required her to quickly learn and adapt to those traits.

Something I’m extremely looking forward to correcting when I get my hands on the Chrome Vipers.

“Who was Ashley looking at when she refused to tell us where the money went?”

Wire sits down in front of his computer, his keys clicking as he pulls up the footage. He rewinds it and then, on his other monitors, he brings up different angles of the footage and presses play.

We watch the feed and when it gets to the part where I ask her where the money went, he freezes every single frame, then marks her line of sight in each one. Somehow, I’m not surprised when there were two instances where she hesitated for a couple seconds.

Zane.

Corvus.

“We have to keep an eye on both of them,” Taco says. “We need to see if they’re in this together, or if it’s just one of them and they’re trying to pin it on someone else.”

“That’s not all,” Wire says. “Earlier, I found these while I was reviewing past feeds.”

Wire plays several clips one after another, but none of them explicitly points a definite answer.

“Fucking hell,” I mutter under my breath as I scrub a hand over my face. “Keep going through the footage and let me know if you find anything else.”

Turning on my heel, I stalk out into the hallway and out into the main room. At the bar, I take a beer from Liam and look around. Ember is sitting on a couch surrounded by Daemon,Cobra, Radar, Corvus, and Draco. I’m about to head over when Xochitl sidles up to the barstool next to me and we clink bottles.

“You’ve got a special kind of woman there, T,” she says and both of us look over at Ember, who throws her head back, laughing at something Daemon says.

“That she is,” I reply.

“I for one am just happy she’s someone who will call you out on your shit,” she teases and my lips twitch, knowing Ember will for damn sure be doing that in the future.

She shifts a little closer. “She sees more than she lets on too,” she says quietly, giving me a pointed look. I fight not to snarl at the reason behindwhyshe’s able to do that so easily.

“She does. I think that was one of the few ways she was able to survive for so long in their grasp.” I take a drink of my beer.

“Well, I’m glad she got out of that hellhole.”

We clink bottles to that.

“Once she’s settled in more and this mess is over,Mamá(Mom) wants to have her over to introduce her to everyone.”

I huff, not at all surprised.Nuestra familia(Our family) is extremely close-knit. Sometimes I feel likemis primos(my cousins) are more like my siblings. We were always around each other growing up so our bond is extremely close.

I turn to her, waggling my eyebrows at her teasingly. “What about you? Is there anyone that’s caught your eye? Will you be bringing company to the gathering?”

Normally, Xochitl would scowl and snap at me, saying she doesn’t need a man in her life, but the look of hesitation that crosses her face makes me pause.

“Is everything okay?”

Again, she hesitates.