I just don’t trust her, and I don’t want you to fall for her shit. She’s very good at manipulating men to get what she wants.”
He smirked at me. “Babe, she’s not gonna get anythin’ over on me or my boys.”
I wanted to shake him and tell him about all the brilliant men she’d conned, but I was trapped in my own lies and had to stare at him in mute misery.
With a sigh, he closed the distance between us and tucked me into him. “I’ll have someone keep an eye on her.”
“Thank you.”
“You okay?”
No, not in the least, but I couldn’t tell him that.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“It’ll be okay, Sarah. You’ll see.”
While I highly doubted that was true, I prayed he was right.
Chapter 6
Seven Weeks Later
Carlos “Beach” Rodriquez
My hands shook with anger as I gripped the handlebars of my motorcycle, unable to believe the sight I was seeing across the street.
One of the bars we owned was going up in flames, the second property of ours this week that had met a burning end. Firefighters did their best to keep the flames from spreading to the other businesses on the south side of Austin, but I knew our place was a total loss. I’m sure they’d find signs the fire had been professionally set, just like the last one, and I had to grit my teeth to try and keep my calm.
Someone was fucking with us, hardcore, and so far we’d been unable to find out who it was.
Sledge stood a few feet away talking to one of the firemen, nodding as he pointed to the building. My VP’s family members were all firefighters and Sledge had a ton of contacts, as well as a knowledge of fires I didn’t possess. The headache that I’d been nursing all night throbbed harder and I lifted one hand from my motorcycle to rub my eyes. It was six a.m. and I hadn’t been to sleep yet, called away from my bed and my woman by emergency after emergency.
It was making me irritable as fuck and when Sledge came back to me, I snapped, “Let me guess, they don’t know shit.”
Looking equally haggard, Sledge ran his hand over the minute stubble on his bald head while staring at the fire. “Got that right.”
“Yo, Prez,” Vance called from somewhere behind me.
I turned to find him coming up to us holding cups of coffee, the chain on his wallet chiming softly with each step. While the guy could be a major fucking prick, he had his moments. I gratefully took one cup and sipped through the small hole in the lid, just the scent of the brew waking me up a little. Thankfully Vance got me a super dark roast, ’cause I needed every ounce of caffeine.
“ Gracias .”
Lifting his chin in the direction of the smoking building, he asked, “Learn anything?”
“No, other than it looks like it was deliberately set just like the last one.”
“Fuckin’ hell,” Vance muttered. “Can’t seem to catch a break.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Sledge sighed. “At least we haven’t had any more sweet butts turn up dead.”
Guilt at not being able to protect those women clawed at me but I shoved the emotion away. I didn’t have time to feel guilty, not when I had to put an end to this shit. For the past month or so someone had been for sure fuckin’ with the club, and I was pretty sure I knew why. In two days, we were gonna do a major run with cargo that included fuckin’ missiles for the Russians and a bunch of shit for the Israeli mafia—including a bunch of fuckin’ plants, of all things. The trucks carrying the load were in Louisiana right now, that part of the transport being handled by a different group. Once it arrived at our warehouse, our leg of the journey would begin.
“Go home,” Vance said in a sympathetic voice while he looked at his phone. “Me and the boys will deal with this shit. You need to get some sleep.”
“I’m good.”
“Beach,” Sledge interrupted with a yawn. “They’ve got it handled and he’s right, we both need to grab some shuteye. Know I’m gonna grab myself a
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