“My brother’s name didn’t remain on that paperwork by accident.”
Spike nods. “Agreed. If they were trying to keep this clean, they would have transferred ownership through half a dozen shell companies and buried the original records.”
“They wanted my name found,” I say.
Skip pushes off the counter. “Why?”
I already know.
So does Stefano.
There is only one reason this boy would be hauling a truck through Palm Springs when there were a dozen shorter routes he could have taken.
Someone wanted him here.
Someone wanted that truck close enough to my world that I would eventually see it.
Stefano looks at me, and for one brief moment, I don’t see my gentle brother.
I see the man who stood over Mark Dane seven years ago and ended him.
“Victor wanted us to know,” Stefano says.
“I agree,” I say. “He wanted us to know that his son’s business didn’t die with him.”
“Things must have escalated within the past week. He killed our man,” Stefano says. “You think maybe Elio caught on towhat they were doing right under his nose, so they ended him before word could get back to us?”
“The timeline doesn’t match,” Patch says. His attention shifts to Chris. “Kid says he’s been working for them nearly a year. Have you always driven the same truck?”
“Yeah,” Chris answers. “Same truck since I started.”
“So somehow,” I lean back in my chair, piecing the impossible together, “trucks we’ve had out of service and in storage for several years suddenly made an appearance a year ago, and Elio never knew?”
“Could he have sold the information?” Bones asks.
“No,” Stefano and I say together.
“Elio was loyal to me,” I continue. “I paid him more than enough. He didn’t need money.”
“Maybe he didn’t,” Foster says. “But what about the men working beneath him?”
My jaw tightens.
“They’re still my men.”
“I know,” Foster says carefully. “But are they your men because they’re loyal to you, or because your name signs their checks?”
“Brother,” Spike says, his voice low. “I hate to say it, but I think your Ohio chapter is compromised.”
I nod once.
Someone used my trucks.
Someone operated inside my territory.
Someone murdered one of my men.
And worse than all of that, someone took something my family built to save desperate people and turned it back into the very thing we once destroyed.
