Page 99 of LA Reign

I watch the two of them. They’re edgy. Nervous. Their boss must be making an appearance. Maybe I will finally get some answers.

I don’t know how much longer we wait until the door at the top of the stairs opens, letting natural light flood the basement. I see the outline of a figure stepping into the shadows.

I hear a familiar voice breaking through the silence. “I hope my men have been treating you both well, ladies.”

My heart feels like it stops beating in my chest. It feels as though all of the air is being sucked from the room. Surely my eyes and ears are deceiving me. I’m tired, stressed, I must be imagining it. This can’t be true, not this kind of betrayal. “You?” I stammer. “You’re behind this?”

“Yes. Me,” he replies with a wide smile, proud of himself.

“But why? I don’t…” I shake my head. This makes no sense at all. “How could you do this?”

“Quite easily actually, princesa,” he sneers.

Chapter

Forty-Six

ALEJANDRO

Ilook up as my office door opens, and Jax walks inside. He has a look in his eyes that I haven’t seen for days.

“Please tell me you have some good news for me,” I plead.

“Hugo is awake,” he says with a smile.

An hour later, I am walking into yet another hospital room. Hugo is sitting up in bed, and a nurse is dressing his bandages. She turns as though she’s about to ask me to leave, and then she must recognize me. There are few people in this city who don’t know my face or my name.

“I’ll just be a few minutes, Mr. Montoya,” she says.

I nod and watch her work, chewing my lip, willing her to hurry the fuck up. After what feels like five hours rather than five minutes, she finally walks out of the room.

“I’m sorry, boss,” Hugo says before I can speak. “I let you down. I…” He shakes his head as tears fill his eyes.

“I know you are,” I offer him a reassuring nod. “But there’s no time for that now, my friend. They’re still missing. Can you tell me anything? Anything at all that might help me find them?”

He closes his eyes for a few seconds, reliving the memory. “They came out of nowhere. A huge black SUV. They knew we’d been at that clinic, they were in place, there at exactly the right time. They didn’t follow us. I always check, boss. They knew we would be turning into that junction on Seventh and they were waiting for us.”

“How many of them?” I snap. I know this already from the CCTV, but his memories might come back more vividly if he describes it.

He frowns, desperately trying to remember. “I saw three, I think, but there could have been more. There probably were. But as soon as they hit us, well, I was in and out. I heard three gunshots. And I heard them talking to each other. At least one of them was Spanish.”

I swallow as my heart hammers in my chest imagining what Alana and Lucia have been through. What they are still going through.

“What did they say? Think, Hugo. Anything is important.”

“I heard snippets mostly. They referred to the boss,” he says, and then he looks up at me and opens his mouth as if to speak. But for some reason he’s hesitating.

“What is it? What else did they say? Anything, no matter how trivial.”

He swallows. “One of them said the boss said do what you want with his puta, but don’t touch the girl.”

I feel like someone has hit me in the solar plexus with a baseball bat. My knees buckle. All I can see is Alana’s beautiful face, her gentle smile. Her soft and willing nature. I imagine what those animals might be doing to her, and I can’t fucking breathe. Jax puts a hand on my shoulder and squeezes, grounding me back to the present. I nod at him in thanks.

“We’re going to find them, amigo. I promise you,” he growls.

I take in a deep lungful of air. Now is not the time to think about these things. Now isn’t the time for fear or worry. Only my rage and anger are of any use to me right now. That is all I can focus on, because to think about anything else will make me completely useless to both her and Lucia. I’ve been working on the assumption that Lucia was collateral damage in all of this, but it sounds like I was wrong. She’s more important than I thought.

“If Lucia is part of this, then I want you to redouble your efforts in Philadelphia, Jax. Find out who the fuck has got my wife!” I snarl.