Page 19

Kade

Stop it, Rico. Stop egging him on.

I know his game. Draw the attention, sacrifice himself. But one of us needs to make it out alive for her. I can’t let my best friend die for me. Not when I’m the one who fucked up.

I didn’t want to leave our girl, he’d insisted I stay. My gut was screaming almost from the moment he left that he needed me to be there. Roja came as soon as she could. The minute I walked into the casino I knew something was off. I’d lost my chance to assist.

I got a mayday off to Diego’s burner phone before they grabbed me. He’d already promised his first move would be to get back up on Fancy. He’ll keep our girl safe. Our friends at HARDCORE will relocate her, watch over her.

They throw Rico and I in the back of an SUV. I refuse to count us out. This isn’t the first time we’ve been in a tight jam. Neither one of us are quitters. Besides, now we have a reason to stay alive.

“Freaking Freddie,” Rico hisses near my ear.

“What?” I whisper back.

“Freddie’s the leak. I never liked his nerdy clothes.”

What the fuck? We’re on our way to our last breath without a miracle and he’s talking about the jerk Freddie. Freddie with Urkel’esk pants. I snort at the irony.

That’s Rico, taking the chances, lightening the mood. I relax a fraction. “What’s your plan?”

“One of us has to play wimp. Sorry it’s you. I already showed my cards as the asshole. There’re three of them. We don’t know how many more where they’re taking us.”

When the car stops and the hatch opens, I see the quarter moon and trees waving in the wind. The scent of water is on the wind. Seriously. Lake Mead? Could they be any more unoriginal?

They drag me out first. I glance up at the large cabin, surrounded by trees. Rico puts up a fight and ends up on the ground with a kick to the gut. He moans and rolls to his side. Shit, I wonder if he’s already got broken ribs.

Dragging us inside, we’re greeted by DeStefano himself. “Wow. That was fast. You fly here?”

“Sit down and shut up. I ask the questions. DEA? How did you guys get involved?”

“You know how.”

“Damn, Phil. He was nothing but a second-rate bookkeeper, how the hell did he figure it out? All he did was come in, pay the bills, make the deposits I told him to and go home. He never dealt with anything big.”

“Pretty sure he always knew about the money laundering. He stayed because someone he cared about was hanging around your family. But you knew that didn’t you?

I bet you played with her in front of him because you’re an ass-hole.

Then you killed her, that’s what set him off.

He set out to destroy you. And you know what, he has. ”

“No. I’ve got important contacts who owe me, this will all be cleaned up. Two weeks and business will be back to normal. I’ll get rid of you two and all the evidence is gone.”

Rico snorts. “Man, you are so out of it. Your little business is so exposed they can see your tiny little balls. There are four different agencies aware of what you’ve been doing.

No way is this being swept under the rug.

I’m pretty sure your contacts are spilling their guts to get reduced sentences as we speak.

Two days, you’ll be in custody and all over the news.

Anyone left that they haven’t picked up as accessories will be long gone.

It’s over. You’d be better off and safer to turn state’s evidence.

Talk to us, give us names and numbers you may live through this.

You might want to plan for a little solitary time while you’re at it. ”

Rico takes a few more hits for his outburst. Now I get to play mediator to keep us alive until Diego shows up.

“Let’s talk this through. We can help come up with a plan to save you jail time for cooperating, maybe even get you off altogether with a new identity and location. I’m sure you’ve got enough offshore assets to live off of. Your cousin, Adorno, was the one involved in the sex trafficking, correct?”

Knife snorts. DeStefano gives him a dirty look.

The rage simmering in my gut threatens to explode. “You were the one who put the cameras in her room. We thought it was Adorno. You’re the sick sonofabitch.”

I launch myself off the chair knocking DeStefano to the floor. Knife pulls me off and both Rico and I end up tied to the chairs. It’s going to be a long ass night.