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“I recognized him from the day we scoped out their old farmhouse. He was inside, watching them bring in the guns and drugs.”
“Since when is Los Sepultureros in the business of human trafficking?” I shook out a cigarette but didn’t light it. Most of the guys were nonsmokers, and I was their guest, so pinching it between my fingers would have to do. “The man Hunter recognized is the same one that Delilah says brought her to an abandoned barn and left her to be sold.”
“And how is any of that connected to Antonio?” Colt shook his head. “’Cause my money is still on that greasy fucker being involved. She was fucking taken at his club with his man watching. Or what he thought was his man.”
“What if they aren’t directly linked?” I asked, watching the cigarette roll between my fingers. “But they have a common ally or enemy. We still don’t know who sent Hunter the email inviting him to the auction.”
“Interesting,” Hunter hummed. “I think I need to look closer at Antonio. He might actually prove to be a worthy adversary.”
Gunner tucked the hair that had fallen into his face back behind his ear. “As long as you don’t torture or kill him without me. I owe him for the amount of metal the US government has had to remove from my body because of his greed.”
“Not so much of a Boy Scout now are we,” the prospect, Marco, purred.
Yup. He might not look like Valentina, but there was no mistaking his accent, the way he carried himself, or the glint in his eye. Now that I was looking for the connection, I could see his resemblance to their father, Miguel. Only, his dark hair was longer and had a wavy curl to it that most women would kill for, and his eyes didn’t have the same hint of cruelty.
“Shut the fuck up. You didn’t sweat your balls off in a foreign country only to watch your friends dying all around you.”
“Enough,” Ryder said with a bang of his gavel. He pointed it in Marco’s direction. “Make yourself useful and ask Diego to reach out to the CIA. Tell them it’s a courtesy call to let them know their asset has been killed and who did it. If they ask how we know, tell them one of our own witnessed it. I want to see if they do anything with that information.”
His gavel swung to Hunter. “Do what you do best, and for fuck’s sake take Gunner with you. It’ll be good for him to work off a little steam.”
Hunter inclined his head in Gunner’s direction.
“Colt, help Hunter by monitoring who comes and goes from Antonio’s club. If you need access to feeds or facial recognition, reach out to Brandy and see what she can do.”
“Roger that, Prez.”
“Val, Marco, and I will spy on Los Sepultureros and see what they’re up to. Dagger and Beast, you guys are to hold down the fort while Pops and Mad Dog take turns watching Hunter’s place. If whoever’s behind this figures out that we have a hacker and two of their former prisoners, Switch will need help to hold them off until the rest of us get there.”
Ryder’s gavel came down with a bang. “We’ll meet back here in two days.”
CHAPTER 23
STELLA
I stood in front of my bike, wiping underneath my eyes with the corner of my T-shirt as I stared down at it. Fuck. Why couldn’t I stop crying? This was total bullshit. It was Tweak, that asshole. He had me thinking they did something fucked-up to my baby. Got me all worked up. Then they turned around and blindsided me by actually doing something sweet.
Yeah, that was why I was crying like a baby. ’Cause I got blindsided. If I had been prepared for sweet, everything wouldhave been fine. The waterworks would have remained where they belonged, carefully contained.
She was a real beauty, though. What I could see of her through my tears, anyway. Definitely one of a kind. I could see why Ryder told me I’d have to stay away from her. She was a showpiece everyone would stare at, and by extension, they would see me.
The sides of her wheels and tank reminded me of the sky just before it stormed, which popped against the silver of engine parts, and the black of my tires and exhaust. They painted the center a blue so dark it almost looked black. Both colors were seamlessly blended together with a sparkly topcoat, the flecks of gray in it playing off the blues.
The Devil’s Deviants logo sat front and center on my gas tank. I’d always loved their logo. The skull that held the weight of the city atop its head with a raging storm at its back. It was fitting, really. There was always someone looking to take their crown, to topple the grip they had on this city, yet time after time the club only came out of it stronger.
There were some who would always see a criminal when they looked at my dad, but I saw a god. Still did, gray hair, bad hands, and all. He would always be larger than life to me. Maybe it was because he loved his family and his club with a fierceness that could never be matched. He’d stood by his wife until the very end, even when it sapped her energy just to run her hand over his beard. Pops and dad had been together longer than most of the club’s members have been alive.
I was proud of him. Well, of Pops and Dagger too. They were all that was left of the original members. Hell, I wanted to be them when I grew up, not doing dumb shit that put them all in danger. And for what? To forget about the man who’d broken my heart.
“Fuck,” I whispered to my beautiful bike.
“Well, we could, but we might smudge your shiny new paint job.”
I jumped, turning around, watching him as he materialized out of the shadows. “You’re getting to be almost as creepy as Hunter.”
My heart beat double time as he swaggered toward me. Yes, swaggered. His arrogant stride was as effortless as it was sexy. Honestly, how could a man look that hot in a pair of low-slung jeans, a white T-shirt, and a cut?
“Nah,” he said, his deep voice hitting me right in the pussy. Damn him and the chrome stallion he rode in on. “Nobody’s as creepy as that fucker. I was trying to decide whether I should wait to see if I’d get the pleasure of watching you straddle her. You know, seeing as how you can’t ride her.”
