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“How are Willow and Maven?” Ace asks as soon as I enter the room, Wild Man right behind me.
“Shaken up but unharmed. Pissed off,” I assure them. “What do we know?”
Ace turns to Dix and motions for him to speak. “There’s a bigger connection between the Iron Kings and Morgan International than we realized.”
I perk up at his words and lean forward. “Yeah? How so?”
He smiles at me and then at Wild Man, who is equally interested. “Turns out, Hector and Nogales were middlemen between Geoffrey andLos Tres Colombianos.”
“Who the fuck are they?” Preacher asks with a dark scowl.
“The assholes who killed Devon and Jordi,” I growl.
Ace explains, “LTC is a small cartel, at least compared to the bigger, more well-known cartels. Made up of a father and two sons. Maybe a daughter. Some soldiers. They’re ruthless and driven only by profit. No dogma or ideology and they don’t give a fuck about competition.”
Dix nods gravely. “And now they’re here. We need to find out why.”
“I have some idea,” Wild Man adds with a tired sigh. “Getting rid of Hector and Nogales was bad enough but ending the Kings has created an economic problem for LTC and Morgan International, which puts us right in their fucking crosshairs.”
Shit. That’s the last news I need to hear right now.
Nova blinks and shakes his head, the tension in the room almost suffocating. “Are we in a place, mentally or physically, hell literally, to go against a cartel right now?”
Ace sighs and drops his fists on the table. “No. We need to get the probies up to par. I know it’s not ideal, but we have no fucking choice right now, brother. It’s fight or die.”
“What if we take over what the Kings were doing for them?” Shades is the voice of crazy reason, but it settles the room down. “I mean, we have to find out what the fuck they’re into, of course, but maybe this can be an opportunity to come together rather than to die. Right?”
“Yeah, and what if what they’re into is human fucking trafficking?” Coop’s angry question has several other brothers nodding their agreement. “Then what?”
“We’ll figure it out,” Ace promises, his temper rising.
“We have to figure it out beforehand,” I say, even though I’m not sure I have the right to say shit at the moment. Sure, I have a patch but compared to some of the guys with seniority, I’m just a newbie here.
“These guys, LTC, they don’t play fair,” I say. “They don’t know how to do anything without using threats, violence, and brute force. If we don’t have a plan going into this, whatever the fuck it is, they’ll overwhelm us and make us their bitches.”
“I get what you’re saying,” Dix begins, his gaze full of concern. “But you don’t know they’re the same assholes from your childhood.”
“I do. I know what they do for non-payment, and I don’t want to find out what they’ll do for worse sins. One of their men walked intoFor Goodness Cakesin broad daylight and threatened Willow just because he can.”
It’s a bad omen for us, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried as fuck, at least about Willow and the other women.
“Okay, brother, I hear you.” Dix nods, and he and Ace communicate silently for nearly a minute before turning back to the rest of us. “We need to be proactive.”
He smirks and says, “I’ll start with Aria.” Nobody disagrees. We get his meaning. The girl is hot, so he continues. “Find out whatever I can to see if there’s a way to turn Morgan into an ally. He might be pissed off that we fucked his connection to the Kings, but he’s a businessman, meaning his primary concern is keeping the Benjamin’s coming.”
“Isn’t that what you were supposed to be doing?” Wild Man asks the question with a hint of amusement.
Dix grins. “Yeah, and I’ve learned some stuff. Aria thought I was a potential customer and gave me a tour of the whole damn facility, so I have a pretty good idea how things run that should make it easier if and when we decide to pitch our services to the asshole.”
Ace nods, looking more pleased by the second. “Okay, yeah. That’s good, Dix. Keep pushing Aria for details, and get all the intel you can. Wild Man, I need you to gather every bit of information there is on Geoffrey and on Morgan International and anything you can find onLos Tres Colombianos. I want to know everything about the people at the top. Strengths and weaknesses. All of it.”
Wild Man gives him a thumbs-up and adds, “The sons both have side chicks on this side of the border if that helps.”
“It might,” Ace says ominously, and I know exactly what he’s thinking. It’s not our game, kidnapping, but if it comes to that, we won’t hesitate. I know this, and I’m all right with it.
“For the rest of us, it’s business as usual. Make a big show of being around, being present, and keeping our businesses protected. We don’t need any more fucking surprises.”
That’s for fucking sure.
