Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 470(@250wpm)___ 392(@300wpm)
I said into the phone, “Keep track of Estrada. If we can isolate him, I’d like to do that first.”
“We?”
“You heard correct. We’re coming. I want to see this through to the end.”
“Will do, Boss. See you when you get here.”
I texted Boise.
Me: Wake the guys. Get ready. We’re moving now to Albuquerque. Estrada is on the move.
I also texted Roanoke.
Me: We’re leaving shortly if you or anyone from your club would like to join?
Boise texted back first.
Boise: On it. What’s your decision about Gloves?
Me: Give me a bit.
Boise: I do not envy you right now. Good luck.
The second guy to tell me that in less than two minutes. Yeah. I was getting it. No one would or should do what I was about to do, but I was still going to do it because it needed to be done.
Roanoke: We’re all with you.
49
KALI
“Kali.”
I didn’t want to wake up, and I started to roll over when who was saying my name got through to me, and then everything came back in a flash. I sat up, instant alarm pumping through me. “What is it? What happened?” My heart was racing.
Shane was sitting by me, and at my reaction, his eyes widened a little. He let out a breath. “We need to talk.”
No.
No.
I shook my head because noooo.
The alarm moved aside, and impending doom sank deep inside of me.
I closed my eyes, one second. “Why do I feel like I need to start crying right now? Just to get some of the tears out of me?”
There was no good look on his face. Nothing that was telling me to feel otherwise. No reassurance. Just resignation, like he was about to tell me someone in my family was dead. “Shane, you’re terrifying me. Tell me this feeling is wrong.”
“I can’t.” His eyes matched his tone, sad, but ready. He nodded to the bathroom. “You need in there? Maybe get dressed? You're not going to want to go back to bed when this is done. If you’re going to trust me on anything, it should be that.”
Enough said.
I shut down. Everything.
The gates came around my heart. The lock was turned. I went numb because that impending doom was a monster that took root in me. It was growing with each word he said, each look he refused to give me, each tone he used.
When I was finished, I came back to the room. Dressed. Washed up. Fucking ready for whatever was coming my way.
I stood just in the room, and crossed my arms over my chest.
“You want to sit?”
I ignored that. “You’re a dick.”
He sighed, and ran a hand over his face. “I know.”
Nothing I said or did was going to shield me from whatever he was going to tell me. I knew that, and my heart was already splintering. “Just tell me, Shane. Get it over with.”
He nodded, his head hanging down for a moment before he went and sat in the chair in the corner of the room. He leaned forward, elbows on his legs, his hands clasped together and his head was down again. “I gotta break the code in order to tell you what I have to tell you. I need to tell you club business. We’re not supposed to, but sometimes we enter into gray areas and I think we’re in one. Or, hell. Maybe I’m just saying that to deal with my own guilt. I don’t know, but you already know we’re battling with a cartel. What you don’t know is why or how it all started.” He lifted his head now, and his eyes were so haunted I felt them pierce through me.
A shiver went down my spine.
“We got in with them from the beginning. It was supposed to be one trip. We’d carry something for him, and by him, I mean Marco Estrada. One time trip, lots of money. It worked. Money was great. The guys were happy, but Estrada wasn’t. He wanted another trip, and another, and another until we find out that he’s using us as his pitbulls. He’s got a hold in the States because of us. We helped cement it. Then…” He stopped, and his Adam’s apple moved up and down. Once. When he continued, his voice was thick. “I don’t mind doing shit to bad people. Never grew up worrying about that. No skin off my nose. Had no family growing up. All I did overseas, couldn’t do what I did there if that was the case, but bad people. People who steal, kill, lie without a second thought. Got no problem taking them out. It’s another thing when it’s someone innocent.”
My heart felt like it was being crushed.
“The request came through, but it wasn’t a request. It was fucking blackmail. We had to kill someone, and who Estrada said to kill wasn’t who it turned out to be. They were innocents. Not even in this life, but it didn’t matter. Estrada is a snake. His whole cartel is set up in a way where it’s not just him at the top. He’s got other guys who can step in if something happens to him. They can make a call and end families. Lines of families. We know this because we’re the ones who set them up because they ain’t hiding down in Mexico. Oh, no. Marco was smart. He thought his ‘second-in-commands,’ that’s what he calls them, wouldn’t be safe down where he was, and he didn’t want to worry about them being free. Being able to walk around, infiltrate, take over before he was ready for them. I need to be real clear about these guys. They know the names, the codes, the bank accounts. If for any reason, someone takes Marco. He’s kidnapped, taken, whatever, these guys can be let loose and they will do what he’s already ordered them to do. He stashed them away and they’re making millions from him, but that money isn’t going to just them. It’s going to their families, extra insurance for keeping them where they are. Their own families want them there so even if they did get free, they got no one to turn to. Family is everything to them, and he was smart in who he picked.”