“I need to go in there, and I need to stop her from doing this now. Please, Moves. If this doesn’t go well, I can’t imagine the trauma that Mona is going to have to live through after it is all said and done.” Hawk pleaded with Moves, who tried to get him to understand that we were going to keep a close eye on her.
“Hawk, I understand how you feel. If it were Lacey in there now I would be storming through there ready to beat El Diablo to the ground, but he’s so close to so many of his minions right now we don’t stand a chance unless we manage to get him in a much more secluded spot,” said Moves, and I agreed. One glance around the club told me everything I needed to know about how much danger we were in, and I was already shaking in my boots at the possibility that none of us would be making it out of here.
“Guys, I think we have a problem,” I chimed in, glancing back behind the curtain to see that Mona and El Diablo were nowhere to be found.
“We need to find her. You see! This is why we should’ve stormed in there a long time ago,” Hawk said, brushing the curtain aside as the three of us rushed to the back where El Diablo had been sitting on the velvet tufted couch, enjoying the show.
There were drugs everywhere, and the place smelled like sweat and cheap cologne. The back area of the strip club was much bigger than I thought it would be, and that told me there were probably a lot of terrible things that were happening here that we weren’t even aware of.
My heart was beating so loudly in my chest, because I had been so sure that we were keeping a close eye on Mona, that she had been right there, and nothing bad was going to happen to her, but now they were both gone. I could only hope that El Diablo didn’t leave the building with her, because there would be a very slim chance we’d be able to find her after that.
I watched the boys run down the hall searching for her, busting into rooms where there were women having sex with their clients, even though that was technically not allowed. I supposed they bent the rules for some of their best clients around here, and I didn’t want the same thing to happen to Mona.
I’d heard horror stories from her in the past about what she and her other friends had gone through while they were working as strippers, being coerced into doing things they much rather not do, but the men that would walk into their clubs had an incredible amount of power, making it nearly impossible for them to get out before they would start demanding more from them.
I didn’t want Mona to have to relive those situations just because she wanted to get a confession out of El Diablo, because the after-effects of what that would be like for her simply wasn’t worth it. I wanted nothing more than to get her to safety, and it hurt my heart that in the single moment I took my eyes off of her, El Diablo had taken her away, farther into the depths of the strip club, with a plan of his very own.
I could feel myself start to get a little lightheaded at the thought of what a majority of these women must be going through, and now that I was aware that El Diablo was heavily involved in sex trafficking, I could only imagine how many women’s lives he’d stolen away from them to make a quick wad of cash. It made me sick, but I had to stay alert, because I needed to find my best friend, and I needed to make sure that we all walked out of here unscathed.
Thirty-One
Moves
Hawk was going to kill Lacey and me for arguing when we should’ve been keeping a close eye on Mona, and now she was nowhere to be found. I knew that Hawk’s mind was racing with thoughts of what could possibly be happening to her, and it hurt to see him so distraught. I had promised him that no harm was going to come to Mona, that we were going to get her out before anything bad happened, but now I wasn’t so sure I was going to be able to keep that promise.
We were searching for clues, trying to get into doors that were locked and resisting the temptation to bust out our handguns because the minute we opened fire in a place like this, they would have us surrounded.
We managed to fly under the radar for the most part, staying out of everyone’s hair, and none of the other Las Balas members seemed to catch on to what we were doing. I couldn’t understand how El Diablo had managed to get Mona out of the main area so quickly, leaving the evidence of drugs and alcohol behind, but no sign of where they could’ve gone.
As we traveled deeper into the back of the strip club, we happened upon a lot of rooms that had signs telling us not to disturb the activities that were going on inside, and we knew that it was just a way for some of the girls to earn a bit of extra cash.
I had a feeling that El Diablo was trying to use that to his advantage. Mona would never take it as far enough to sleep with him to get the confession, but I worried that we were not going to be able to reach her in time to keep him from forcing her.
Hawk was frantically searching through the few open rooms, glancing around at the traces of alcohol, drugs, and lingerie that littered every corner of the hallway, and I could tell that he was starting to feel sick to his stomach.
“Where the hell could they be?” Hawk asked, and I watched as Lacey ran to him, placing both of her hands on his shoulders, trying to get him to calm down.
“Listen, we’re going to find them, and we’re going to make sure that Mona is okay. I know that you’re angry, I know that you want nothing more than to blow this place up looking for her, but we have to be smart about it. Any wrong move and El Diablo is going to have no choice but to hurt her to protect himself, and that is the last thing we want.” Lacey certainly had a point.
“Okay, okay. We just need to get her back. I need to get her back,” he said, and I could tell that he was starting to lose it, but I also knew that he would be able to control himself for Mona’s sake. There were just a few rooms left that we hadn’t searched yet, and it wouldn’t be long before we had El Diablo right where we wanted him so we could get that confession and get out.
Something told me that he didn’t bring his minions back here, and they were probably stationed outside for a reason, to catch any one of us strolling in asking too many questions. El Diablo had chosen the wrong venue though, because his men were far too busy enjoying the show outside to pay any sort of attention to him or protecting his little rendezvous with Mona. We just had to get to her in time, to steal her away before El Diablo really had the chance to hurt her, because we knew how terribly this could turn out.
I thought back to all the terrible rumors that had traveled amongst the Outlaw Souls, hearing the kind of things that Las Balas did without any repercussions, and it really made me sick to my stomach. To think that El Diablo believed that he had enough power to be invincible, that no one would ever be able to touch him, made me even angrier. The blood boiled beneath my skin and adrenaline coursed through me while I helped Hawk tear the back rooms of the strip club apart looking for his girl.
I knew he wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms again, to tell her that everything was going to be okay, and she no longer had to worry, but judging from the look in his eyes, he was worried he wasn’t going to be able to get that chance.
I wanted to do my part, to let him know that everything was going to be okay, but I was starting to think that El Diablo must’ve gotten the upper hand with this one, because it looked like he'd disappeared into thin air.
I looked at Lacey, who was so filled with determination that she couldn’t let her emotions get the best of her, because I knew that she was hurting too. I would’ve probably acted out much worse if it had been her in there, but I was starting to think that I had made the wrong call asking us to wait, hoping that she was going to get that confession.
Now, Mona was really in danger, and there was no telling what El Diablo was going to do to her if he ever found out that she had any sort of connection to us. He was the kind of man to get rid of a threat and not have a care in the world, not even bothering to get the whole truth before he took someone out, and that’s what made him so dangerous.
I didn’t want Mona to have to suffer through any of that, and so we continued our search to find her.
* * *
I could’ve swornI heard a noise coming from the very back of one of the rooms, the ones that were the closest to the exit, and I listened closely at the door, motioning for Hawk to join me while Lacey followed suit.
