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around the small room, resituated her wig and huddled close to him. “He came from your room after the graduation ceremony, enraged,” she whispered. “He said after all of these years you wanted her back, and he wasn’t giving her up. He wouldn’t let the drug life have her. A month before she returned from Europe, you were arrested for murder.”
    David remembered him and Ernesto celebrating Rosa’s graduation from college perfectly. He’d gotten drunk and said lots of things he didn’t mean to follow through on. He pushed away from the table. “Hijo de puta!”
    He’d clung to the reports of Ernesto’s innocence because he couldn’t bring himself to admit his lifelong friend, the man whose life he’d saved time and time again, the man he’d trusted to raise his child and handle his money, would betray him like this. Why hadn’t Ernesto come to him for clarification when David was sober? Didn’t Ernesto owe him at least that? This shit must end!
    He drew in several breaths and released them slowly. Harriet hated Ernesto so much that she would lie, and she hadn’t said what “danger” Rosa was in. In his heart he knew Ernesto loved Rosa and would never hurt her, and if Ernesto did set him up, it was because he was protecting Rosa. He smiled internally. They’d changed a lot over the years. All and all, none of this mattered. Rosa deserved to know the truth. “I’ll take care of everything.”
    Harriet’s lifeless hazel eyes sparked to life. “Very good.” She peeked at her watch. “My time’s almost up.” She stood to leave.
    “Clean yourself up.”
    She rolled her eyes as she quickly exited the room.
    David, hands re-shackled behind his back, shuffled along the darkened corridor with his guard escort. “How would you like to make a quick hundred grand?”
    “It depends on what I have to do,” the guard replied.
    “If you can get me a disposable phone within twenty-four hours, the money is yours.” David always used throwaway phones when he didn’t want his calls traced or bugged.
    “Two hundred grand.”
    “A million if you hand me a disposable phone within five minutes.”
    The guard stopped in his tracks and looked around for eavesdroppers. Harriet’s money had ensured they were alone. “Are you serious?”
    “Dead serious.”
    He was just as serious as when he’d decided to allow Ernesto to raise Rosa. Ernesto had tried to convince him that the baby might not be his. He’d reminded David that Harriet wasn’t the most faithful of women. But David knew in his heart the baby was his. It had to be. He could see himself lying across his bed after he’d broken the news to Ernesto…
    Chicago, thirty-one years ago
    First his whorish mother tried to destroy him, then the foster care system tried to destroy him, then society tried to destroy him. He dragged his hands over his face. His rivals thought by killing his son that they’d destroy him, and now this. David closed his eyes. The baby Harriet carried was a part of him. He wouldn’t allow her to destroy him or his son.
    He reached into his back jeans pocket and pulled out his wallet. Lying on his stomach, he sorted through the scraps of paper he found in the slits. He unfolded a picture of him holding his three-year-old son and hugging the love of his life, Rosa.
    He brushed his thumb over Rosa’s image. She’d survived the drive-by physically, but died emotionally. He couldn’t let the world know Harriet was carrying his child. He smiled, knowing he’d be having another son. This time, he’d do it right.
    Using Ernesto would be perfect. This way David would have access to his son without the drug world ever discovering his secret. Then when his son was older, he could run the cartel at his real father’s side. And if Ernesto ever got out of line—David folded the photo—he’d be handled. He replaced the picture, then stuffed his wallet into his back pocket.
    * * *
    Samson and Alton circled the desk officer like sharks