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“Vance—our club lawyer made a call to a high-profile judge, who made a call to the mayor, who called the sheriff.”
“Interesting chain of command,” I murmured, wondering what that conversation had sounded like and how the hell a judge was ordering the mayor to do anything.
“Anyway, Flynn and Ramsey met us at the station with our bikes. On our way to the warehouse, we got caught up in a firefight with Dev’s men. It was an ambush. If it hadn’t been for Knight and the Idaho boys, we wouldn’t have been able to get out of there.”
“I don’t understand.”
“There was a shooting. Knight and his boys took over the fight. Most of them are former military, remember? They covered us while we rode to the warehouse and they killed a few of Dev’s men. The Jackals were supposed to be riding with us, but they had an issue on their own turf. Someone in their club ratted us out to Dev, probably hoping to get in tight with the Iron Horsemen. Dev knew the rest of the Jackals would ride with us against him, so he created a diversion to keep the Jackals close to home. We lost them as backup.
“By the time we got over to the warehouse, we found you bleeding out by a van, the warehouse was on fire, and Dev was gone.”
My breath caught. “He escaped? After all of this?”
“For now.”
“Are you—” I exhaled. “Are you going to track him down?”
Colt shook his head. “Mateo Sanchez has Franco on it already. They’ll find Dev and then hand him over to the cartel and let Alejandro decide what’s to be done with him. He’s no longer our problem, and with the coke all gone, he’d be stupid to ever come back to Waco. Once Alejandro finds out that the coke is missing along with Dev, the entire crew is history.”
I shivered. “What about their wives and children? I know what cartels do. They murder entire families just to make a point. They’ve even killed people’s dogs before.”
“I’ve already asked Sanchez to negotiate for their safety.”
“What will that cost us? The price has been too high already!” I cried, hysteria rising in my tone.
Colt placed his hand on my shoulder. “Easy. Take it easy.”
“I can’t.”
“You need to take a deep breath for me.”
When I felt like I was calm, I had to ask, “Will Alejandro come after me? Us? We were the ones who burned his coke to the ground. It was worth millions…”
“Only after Dev let it slip through his fingers. No. Alejandro won’t come after us because Sanchez’s men are sticking close to Waco to ensure the peace. Even a few million dollars in cocaine isn’t enough for Alejandro to take on another cartel head to head. Especially not in the States. That’s bad for business. It’s better for him to wipe out the Iron Horsemen so his street cred stays valid and leave out the details that we’re now working with Sanchez. It will look like the Iron Horsemen fucked with a cartel and got obliterated, which is true. All the other shit will be swept under the rug.”
I wasn’t sure that gave me any comfort.
“How’s your pain?” he asked suddenly.
“What pain? Morphine is kind of swell.”
He didn’t smile at my light tone and I was instantly on my guard. “You’re going to yell at me, aren’t you?”
“You think I’d yell at you while you were lying in a hospital bed after having been shot because you willingly placed yourself in danger even though you had no business being in danger in the first place?”
I paused, pretending to look thoughtful. “Yeah, I think you’d yell at me.”
“Well, you’re damn fucking right I’d yell at you,” he bellowed. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
“I was thinking,” I replied, tone calm, “that you guys were in jail and I had no idea when you’d be getting out. I knew this stuff with Dev was a time sensitive issue and it needed to be dealt with.”
“What else,” he demanded. “What are you leaving out?”
“This was personal for me, and if I didn’t have a stake in taking him down, I knew I’d always regret it. And I’d never find peace with Shelly’s death. But you knew all that. So why do you seem so surprised?”
“Surprised doesn’t even begin to express how I feel. I was scared shitless knowing I couldn’t protect you.” He hung his head in near defeat. “You can’t always go charging into dangerous situations.”
“I didn’t charge. I sat down and planned with Gray, Torque, Flynn and the others.”
