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Maven narrows her brows, thinking. Then she says, “Signs can be misread. They can make you see what you want to see. Words are explicit. They leave almost no room for mistakes.”
I hear what she’s saying, and I understand it, but I’m not quite ready to hear Joaquin’s answer if it’s not the one I want.
Chapter Sixteen
Joaquin
My brothers—Jordi and Devon—are dead. No, not just dead, but murdered.
Even Jordi’s kid sister Havana, stripped naked and murdered, and for what? That’s the part that doesn’t make sense. Why kill Havana? She was little more than a kid with no clue what Jordi was up to.
It makes me think that in all these weeks, we got it wrong about them. We pegged them as moles working with the Iron Kings. But, clearly, one or both of them was into some shit they didn’t want the MC to know about, couldn’t even tell me about.
Were they patsies set up by Hector and Nogales to make it seem like someone was snitching on the Reckless Souls? Or is it something worse, something more sinister? Like they were threatened with something?
“Shit.” I don’t know, and the more I sit and stare into space, I have more questions than answers.
I know I need to talk this out with someone, but the question is, who? Shades is my first choice, but he’s got his own, mostly legitimate, beef against Jordi. He’s firm that Jordi was a mole. I don’t blame him since Jordi’s action, or inaction nearly got Letty killed, so his bias won’t be helpful.
I know exactly who I should ask. The only man who knows more about Jordi and Devon than I do.
I walk into Wild Man’s high tech office and say, “Hey man, you got a minute?”
Wild Man looks up from his bank of computers and nods. “Sure. What’s up?”
“You heard about Jordi and Devon?”
A grimace crosses his face, all the answer I need, but he nods.
“What do you think? Moles, patsies, or something else?” I need a different perspective that I can’t brush off because of bias or just because I don’t want to.
He shrugs and asks in return, “What do you think?” motioning for me to grab a seat.
I sigh and shake my head, unsure what the fuck I think. “Honestly, I don’t fucking know. I don’t think either of them were moles, but maybe I just don’t want to. Patsies make more sense with the cartel angle, but why them?”
I close my eyes there it is again, the bodies of my murdered friends with numbers carved into their bodies, knowing they were likely tortured before they were killed.
Wild Man shakes his head. “I don’t know, Joaquin. I think it might be a combination of mole and patsy, and I know you don’t want to hear that.” He picks up his phone and taps out a message. “But we need to find out why, so we can be prepared for what comes next, so let’s figure it out together.”
Dix appears in the doorway with a grin. “You rang?”
Wild Man nods and motions him inside, explaining to him my concerns about Jordi and Devon. “Have you found out anything else on the Morgans?”
He shrugs and drops down into the seat beside mine. “Aria, the daughter, is a rich girl who works with daddy, but only because he won’t let her work anywhere else. She resents it but accepts it because she hardly has to work.” He nods and then shakes his head. “Geoffrey is the CEO of Morgan International, and they have more money than they should considering what’s actually coming in. You know what that means.”
Wild Man and I shake our heads.
Dix confirms, “He’s into some shady shit.”
Wild Man frowns. “Any specific shady shit? All I can find is mechanical parts for recreational and industrial vehicles, along with some unspecified food products.”
Dix taps his fingers on the arm of his chair. “No, but there was some grumbling about what happened to the warehouses owned by Morgan and Hector. I get being pissed about the building Morgan owns, but why give a shit about Hector’s building unless there’s something in it for him?”
Dix shakes his head again. He hasn’t figured it all out yet, but his mind is working overtime for answers.
Wild Man says, “All right, so we think Morgan is in some kind of deal with the Kings, but does he have any cartel connections?”
Dix laughs immediately, shaking his head as if it’s the funniest joke he’s ever heard. “No. This guy might have his hands into some shady shit, but he’s too straight-laced to get in bed with a cartel.”
