Page 32 of Everything We Found

“Kane.” Thomas’s tone carried an edge to get on with it.

“Your brother has been murdered.”

Shock rippled through him and a gut-wrenching sense of vertigo tilted the room. His mind immediately flashed to James. They’d only spoken hours ago, his brother’s voice still echoingin his ears. Nadia’s hands flew to her mouth, covering a gasp. “James.” He heard her agonized whisper under her hands and their eyes locked.

“Which one?” Thomas demanded, his stance unsettled as he met the agent’s somber gaze.

Kane flicked his upper lip. “Sorry. Phil.”

Thomas briefly closed his eyes. For a moment there, he thought he’d lost James. That his nephews were now orphans. Although, hopefully they would still have Natalya, their stepmother.

Nadia’s breaths grew shallower.

“Tell me what happened,” he asked, moving closer to Nadia.

“I just learned of it this morning on my way over, but what I was told is that a neighbor reported hearing gunshots from his house. She called the police. He was already deceased when law enforcement arrived at the property.”

“The Hidalgos?”

“It was.”

Thomas simmered with rage. “What did they do him?” he asked, recalling the condition the cartel had left James in. Phil had been a thorn in Thomas’s side since they were kids. But even after everything he’d done to take down the family, he didn’t deserve anything remotely close to the torture inflicted on James.

“I’d rather not?—”

“What did theydoto him?” he shouted, losing hold of his control.

Nadia flinched.

Kane retreated a step, patting the air with his hands. “All right, all right. They found him tied to a tree in his backyard with an H carved on his stomach and a bullet hole in his brain.”

“No!” Nadia wailed.

“What else?” Thomas demanded.

Kane’s gaze skittered to Nadia, whose already pale complexion had bleached to a ghostly white. “I’m not going to say?—”

“For god’s sake, Kane. What did they do to him?” There had to be more, so much more. The Hidalgos wouldn’t have left with just a carving and a single bullet to the head. That was too easy of a death for one of the most brutal cartels in existence.

“Christ, Tom.” Kane ran an unsteady hand over his head. Sweat beaded along his hairline. “The bastards cut off his hands and feet. He almost bled out before they shot him in the head. They wanted him to suffer.”

A sick, twisting feeling cramped Thomas’s stomach. Nadia whimpered.

“They weren’t at the scene,” the agent solemnly added.

“What weren’t?” Nadia asked before realization sank in. “They took his hands?” Her question held a high, strained quality.

Kane nodded, eyes downcast.

Nadia’s eyes blazed with untamed intensity. “What are they going to do with his hands?”

Thomas shook his head, having reached his own limit. She didn’t need to know that the Hidalgos used body parts as calling cards. One of them—James, Claire, or Thomas—would receive their message. It most likely would be all three of them given the number of parts they’d removed from Phil.

“There’s more,” Kane said.

“More?” Nadia covered her mouth with a trembling hand.

Thomas clasped his fingers behind his head and looked up at the popcorn ceiling and braced himself.