Page 122 of Mouse Trapped

“She did fuckin’ good,” Peg observes.

“Thought fast, too. Only option she had was to bring him back here.”

Brave, intelligent, quick thinking as well as sexy.My lips curve as I run through her qualities in my head.

“Any news, Wraith?”

“Spoke to Prez, updated him. Sam’s got a ways to go yet. He said do what we have to do and bury the body.”

Succinct and precise. That sounds like Prez.

“You want to scalp him?” Blade’s looking hopeful. “Or want me to?”

“I just want him gone.” That’s the truth. Out of our lives for good. So I can get on with mine. Mine, Mariana’s and Drew’s.

“Peg him out and let the ants eat him?” Shooter enquires eagerly.

Wraith’s watching me.

“Dead’s dead, isn’t it?” I jerk my chin toward the VP. “Don’t think he deserves us wasting time on him. Got better things to do. Some of us should be at the hospital to support Prez, and I want to look after my ol’ lady.”

Beef’s tilting his head. “It was a long ride today. Could do with a bit of torture myself.” Rock reaches across the table and they bump their fists together.

“Ah, come on, Mouse. I haven’t had a chance to play for ages,” Blade whines like a two-year-old.

“Okay.” Wraith bangs the gavel. “Mariana wants him to disappear. I’ve got a suggestion how we can do that. We won’t even have to get our hands dirty.”

Minutes later we’re ready to put the VP’s excellent idea into action. I wink at Mariana as we pile out of our meeting room, and head out the back of the clubhouse. She’s resting on the couch, Drew’s got his arm around her. She’s in good hands.

In the storeroom Matt’s looking bored, flicking through a bike magazine while the formerly fearsome Colombian cartel head is trying to bribe him to let him loose. When we walk in, Mariana’s father turns his attention to us.

“Who’s in charge?” he snaps. His face contorts with pain, but his voice has regained some strength.

“That would be me.” Wraith steps up in front of him and folds his arms.

“I can make you a good deal.” His eyes zoom in on our cuts. “You’re a biker club. Probably in the same trade as me. I can send good drugs your way, make it worth your while. Good women too.”

“In the same trade? We’re not even in the same ballpark,” Wraith sneers. “We earn our money legit. Don’t need to get ourkids hooked on heavy stuff, or trade in women. Nor guns before you offer them. You’re not a man, you’re a snake that needs to be put down.”

El Procuradorisn’t used to being spoken to like that. His eyes flare. “Let me go. I’ll pay you cash.”

“Thing is,” Wraith hooks his leg around a chair and pulls it to him. “We’re rather fond of your daughter.”

“Thatputa,” he snarls.

“I object to her being called a whore,” Blade tells Wraith casually.

The VP nods. “You can show him how much in a minute. Yeah, we like her. And her brother too. They’re both under our protection. Way I see it, the best way of protecting them is to remove a vengeful bastard like you from their lives.”

El Procuradortries to stare the VP down, it doesn’t work. In the end, he sighs. “Alright. I’ll leave her and the boy alone. I’ll go back to Colombia.”

“Yes,” Wraith says, enigmatically. “You will leave her alone. She has no wish to see your fuckin’ face again.” He nods at Blade. “Get him down.”

Blade does, and not too gently.El Procuradorlands heavily on his knees, overbalancing as his hands are still tied together behind him. The man’s slowly bleeding out, though he doesn’t seem to know it. The back of his shirt is soaked, his pants too.

He pulls himself to his feet, grimacing as he straightens. “Glad you’ve seen sense.”

While Blade removes the zip tie Drew had used, I think to myself,Gonna have to have a word with him about why he thought a fifteen-year-old would need them.I watch as he ties a blindfold around the man’s head. Then, quick as a flash, has his hands held together again, this time to his front. He slips a rope betweenEl Procurador’s wrists and knots it.