Page 32 of LA Reign

ALEJANDRO

The sound of my cell phone ringing on the nightstand wakes me from my already troubled sleep. I roll to answer it and frown when I see it’s only 5am on my bedside clock. I know that if someone is calling me at this time it must be for something important, but that doesn’t stop me cursing under my breath. I get so little time with Alana these days, I resent any intrusion. Our time together is sacred, especially right now, and part of me wants to smash the damn phone to pieces. I remember our trip to my beach house, just the two of us escaping the world, and wish we could go back there.

Picking up my cell, I see Anton DeLuca’s name flashing on the screen. He and his team are still looking for Lucia’s ex-boyfriend, Blake Fielding. He’s been on the missing list since he assaulted Alana almost four weeks ago, and I am completely stumped as to how some punk from Philly could evade some of my best soldiers. I could get Jax onto the case, but we’re both tied up dealing with the Ortegas, among other things. There is too much shit going on right now, and all I really want to do is fuck my wife and be happy.

“You’d better have something for me,” I hiss as I press the phone to my ear. Alana turns in her sleep and drapes an arm over my stomach. Damn. I’d hoped not to wake her.

“Who is it?” she mumbles sleepily. Fuck, she’s adorable, eyes half-open, curls tumbling over the pillow.

“Just work, princesa,” I say softly as I cover the mouthpiece. “Go back to sleep.” She makes a little noise that fills me with love. It also reminds me why this call is important — that asshole laid his filthy hands on my wife, and I need to end him.

“We’ve found him, Boss,” Anton says, sounding triumphant.

“About fucking time,” I reply as I slip out of bed and pull on my sweatpants. I wouldn’t normally bother, but with Lucia in the house these days, a few things have had to change. I walk out of the bedroom and close the door behind me, waiting until I am out of Alana’s earshot to speak again. “Now, bring the motherfucker here to me so I can deal with him.”

“That’s going to be pretty difficult, Boss. He’s already dead. He’s just been chiseled out of a cement block and is on his way to the morgue as we speak.”

“What?” I snap as I walk down the stairs and head to my office. I feel like punching something.

“He’s dead. That’s the reason we haven’t been able to find him. He was busy forming part of the foundations of a new apartment building in Philadelphia.”

I step into my office, closing the door behind me, and sit at my desk. “What the fuck? How long has he been there? And how the fuck did you find him?”

“The cement was poured two days after Blake was in LA, so he must have gone straight back to Philadelphia . He obviously upset someone else, too, because he was supposed to be buried down there forever. It would have been the fucking perfect crime. You know we’ve used the same method, and it’s a solid choice when you want a problem to disappear. Except this time, there was some screw-up with the way the foundation was laying, so they dug part of it out to reset it. Found a little more than they bargained for. We’ve had feelers out all over Philly looking for this prick, so as soon as they identified it was him, someone let us know.”

“And it’s definitely him?”

“Yep. Had his ID on him, plus I got a contact at the PD there to send me a photo. I mean, he’d recently been covered in cement, but you could see it was him. They’ll confirm with dental later, but I have no doubts.”

I’ve given my men a hard time for not finding Blake Fielding. I think I may even have threatened to castrate them if they didn’t find him soon. Now I know it wasn’t their fault, but I’m in no mood to apologize. I never am.

“Fuck! Any idea who wanted him dead?”

“Other than you, boss? No. It seems he didn’t have many friends, but he didn’t have any real enemies either. Not that we’ve been made aware of, at least none that would have gone to these lengths.”

“What’s the name of the construction company?”

“Lambert and Hall. They’re a local Philadelphia firm. Completely legit. We’ve spoken to the foreman and we’re meeting the CEO later, but there seems to be no connection to Fielding and the company. They’re freaking out about it.”

“That can’t be pure coincidence. Someone must have had access to that site when the concrete was being poured. Someone knew about this.”

“I know. It doesn’t make any sense right now, boss, but we’ll get some answers”

I frown as I hold the phone to my ear with one hand and fire up my laptop with other. “At least that cabrón is dead, anyway. I just wish I’d been able to get my hands on the fucker before.”

“Yeah,” Anton agrees, and leaves it at that. He knows death by cement would seem merciful in comparison to what I’d have done to him for touching Alana, and for the way he treated Lucia, too.

Fuck. Lucia. She knew he was an asshole, but he’s still the father of her kid. I shake my head. That’s a problem for tomorrow.

“As soon as you’ve found those answers, get yourselves back to LA as quickly as possible. We have plenty of trouble to deal with here that I could use you and your team’s help with.”

“Will do, Boss. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

“Good. And nice work, Anton.” It’s as close to an apology as I’ll get, and he knows it.

“Thanks, Boss.”

Two hours later, I am frowning at my laptop screen when Alana walks into my office carrying a tray. The smell of coffee and freshly baked croissants fills the room, and my stomach growls in appreciation. It’s only seven, and I already feel like I’ve done a full day’s work. Still, if anything’s going to give me a boost, it’s this. Breakfast, hand-delivered by the most beautiful woman in the world.