Chapter 271

“We have been over this. You could not have known. Emilo made sure of it.”

“But I should have guessed.” Valeria did not often cry, but she looked close to breaking down.

She had also inadvertently made the point Laila had been trying to. “You did not because you do not understand the criminals and degenerates of that horrible cartel.”

Her sister fell silent, gripping the side of the playpen as if she needed the support and strength. “If I could tear the whole thing down, I would. Today. In one fell swoop. I would wipe it off the planet and I would laugh.”

“I know.” Laila would like that, too. But she understood full well that something more violent would only grow and metastasize into that criminal space. Because she was a realist, she had been happy to settle for eliminating the people who wanted her and her sister dead. “Why did you send Trees after me?”

“I did not. He came to me, desperate to find you.”

Laila hadn’t expected that. “And you told