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“I’d rather you wow me with something else,” I told her and pushed my laptop away, scooting closer to inhale her sexy, tough girl scent. To press my lips to the delicate skin of her neck because every minute I wasn’t touching her was a minute wasted. We’d been apart for too long.
“Let me finish this and I’ll show you all of my prowesses.” She laughed and shook her head. “Or whatever the plural of prowess is, I’m gonna show you all of them. Big time.”
A deep laugh bubbled out of me at her weird string of word salad, but I wasn’t deterred, not when there was all this delicious skin for me to taste. “Then make it snappy, woman.”
“Hey, this kind of genius takes time.” She stuffed a pretzel in her mouth. “Besides, I prefer to be thorough and believe me, the suits I worked with, they love redundant levels of thorough.”
She hadn’t said much about her time back on the east coast and i
f I had to guess I’d say it was deliberate. What I didn’t know was if it was because she couldn’t talk about it or because there was some underlying issue between us. “Okay, all done.” She turned and pressed a kiss to my nose. “Want me to tell you and you can pass the info on, or do a whole presentation for your bros?”
I snickered. “My bros?” She nodded and it made me laugh even harder. “You can tell the bros.”
“Great. Gather up the bros, then!” She smiled at me, her gray eyes soft and so filled with love I couldn’t help but lean forward to capture her lips in a slow, sensual kiss that probably wasn’t the best idea considering how packed the clubhouse was these days.
“Have I told you how glad I am that you’re back?”
Vivi smiled against my lips and nodded. “Maybe a time or two. Good thing it never gets old to hear.” She pulled my bottom lip between her teeth and tugged gently. “I’m glad to be back. I missed the hell out of you.”
“No need to miss me anymore, babe.”
“Damn straight. And if we can get this little presentation on the road, I could show you my other prowess-es,” she said on a snicker, giving me a gentle shove.
I was already on my feet in search of Cross. I found him and Moon getting hot and heavy in his office. “Vivi’s found some info she thinks we need to hear.”
He groaned but Moon only smiled, giving him one final kiss before pulling back and smoothing her hair. “Hey Jag.”
“Lookin’ good, Moon.”
“You too,” she laughed. “Being in love agrees with you.”
I smiled and whispered a quick, “Thanks,” as she breezed out of the office. Moon seemed a little too hippie dippy at first, but the truth was she was as solid as they came with her good advice, spirituality and keen insights. “So, where do you want to do this?” We didn’t allow women or non-members in the Merry Mayhem room, and this wasn’t information for everybody’s ears.
“We’ll clear out the main room for a while and let the prospects keep an eye on the women and children.” Cross stood and raked a hand through his hair, blowing out a deep breath. “Tell me it’s good news.”
“I don’t know, man. I didn’t find anything on Reed. Other than a few protests against wars and animal testing and drug laws, the dude is ridiculously clean.”
“Shit.” Cross grimaced and let out another frustrated breath.
“I know what you mean. Come on. No point in worrying until we have a reason to. Right?”
“Yeah I guess,” he grumbled and followed me back into the main room which we cleared out in under three minutes and with minimal protests. When everyone was gathered, Cross turned to my girl with a grin. “Okay, Vivi. What did you find?”
She smiled and let out a deep breath, swiping a hand over a mass of messy pink curls. “A lot, actually. First, Marisol. I found two in Reno but one of them is a fifty year old widow. The other one, Marisol Luna, is twenty-six years old and lives in an apartment paid for by Carlito Esteban.” She blew out a breath and looked around the room. “I guess none of you have ever heard of him?”
Everyone, including me shook their heads and she nodded. “Okay. Well Carlito Esteban is the head of the Salinas Cartel and has been for the past fifteen years. His uncle, Cadre, sat at the top of the cartel for more than three decades before dying in a mysterious accident, which is widely believed to be caused by Carlito, who was just sixteen at the time.”
Savior let out a low whistle. “Fuck.”
“Shit, Stitch never does trouble halfway, does he?” Lasso’s words added levity to the atmosphere but he wasn’t wrong. Not this time, anyway.
“That’s not all,” Vivi said, her voice growing wary. “Since Carlito took over, Salinas has become one of the deadliest cartels on the planet thanks to pequeño diablo, which is what the Mexican papers call him. Little Devil. They peddle in drugs including pot, heroin and their biggest money maker, synthetic drugs, but they also do well in human trafficking and illegal gun sales, with earnings estimated by the FBI to be in excess of a billion dollars.”
Cross smacked one hand against the metal table, his anger palpable. “Why the fuck don’t we know this guy?”
“’Cause we don’t fuck with the cartels, man,” I answered back.
Cross asked, “So what are we up against, Vivi?”
