“Bullshit.”
“I didn’t!” he hissed. “I didn’t have a choice.”
I pulled back enough to glare at him. “Everybody got a choice.”
“No,” he whispered, voice cracking. “Not when your child is missing.”
The room went still. Even Ajani’s tapping stopped. My grip eased, but only slightly.
“Missing? Fuck you talking about?”
Ramón’s eyes filled with shame. I let him go and moved back to give him space to talk. He walked to the bar, fixed another glass of bourbon. I waited as he sank heavily onto the chair he had abandoned earlier. Finally, he spoke.
“My daughter,” he said. “Seven months now.”
Prime frowned. “Runaway?”
He shook his head violently. “No. She was taken.”
Braeden swore under his breath.
Seth’s eyes narrowed. “By whom?”
Ramón’s face twisted, the rage in his eyes clear. “By the people Trell works with… or controls. I don’t even know anymore.”
A sick feeling crawled up my spine. I thought about Trell’s fingerprints linked to the other missing women. An ugly picturewas emerging, even more reason for me to end this worrisome ass nigga.
“You telling me he kidnapped your daughter?” I pressed.
Ramónnodded. “My baby was sheltered. He dated her. Told her all the right things. Made her fall in love. Always had an excuse for why he couldn’t meet the family. She told us they were going to San Antonio, shared locations and everything. Then the calls stopped. The phone stopped moving. He popped up a little while later. Told me he was the guy she’d been dating, and he knew where she was because he sold her himself.”
“And he using that information to pull your strings,” Ajani concluded.
Ramónnodded, looking defeated. He kept talking, like a man confessing at gunpoint, like he’d been wanting to get shit off his chest and couldn’t. “He told me if I didn’t help him—didn’t let him borrow my men, my resources, everything, he’d never give me the location. He said she’d disappear into trafficking pipelines forever.”
Prime cursed low. “Trafficking?”
Ramón’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “You know how that goes. Women who go in don’t come out. Not… not like they were. San Antonio is on the I-10 corridor. She could be anywhere. She could even be in Mexico.”
I felt disgust settle in my stomach. Trell wasn’t just crazy. The nigga was evil.
“And you believed him? Believed he’d had her?” Seth asked.
Ramónwiped at his face. “He… he sent me proof. A bracelet. Hers. And a picture of her tied to a chair, crying. And another of a man… of her… Jesus, I can’t—” His voice broke. “You don’t understand. She’s my baby. My only daughter.”
The room fell into a heavy silence. I stepped back fromRamón,jaw clenched.
“Why you didn’t come to me?” I demanded.
Ramónlet out a hollow laugh. “How could you help? We have similar resources and I met dead end after dead end. What could you do that I haven’t, Mekhi? Even if we catch him, torture him… he says he’ll never tell. He’d die knowing.” His eyes closed for a minute. “All I know is I want my daughter back. And Trell promised to give me the location once he finishes… whatever this is.”
Seth muttered, “He lying. That nigga ain't giving nobody back.”
Ramón’s voice cracked. “But what if he would? How could I not take the chance?”
I couldn’t touch that. I don’t know what the fuck I would’ve done in a situation like that. I couldn’t see handing my shit over to a menace like Trell, though.Ramónwasn’t off the hook.
I stepped back, grabbing my jacket collar and adjusting it.
