CHAPTER 14
DIESEL
Blood and I head to the back room, but all I can picture is Martina holding the prospect’s hand. I have no fuckin’ clue why it bothered me so much, and then that bothered me too.
“Looks like Smoke and I won the bet.” Blood grins at me.
“Fuck no, I call interference. I didn’t even get a chance to work my magic until you came over cock-blocking me.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Blood laughs. “You got magic?”
I throw Martina one more look before we leave the main room.
“Hey.” Blood stops outside the door. “You ready to do this?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Head in the game, right?”
“What are you sayin’?”
“We’ve been waiting for this meeting for two weeks, and I wanna make sure our Enforcer is on point and looking for any problems.”
“Let’s get this done.” I barrel through the door, pissed at Blood’s questions.
I’ve never let down the Bastards, or given less than a hundred and fifty percent. I resent his doubt, but I keep all that bullshit to myself ‘cause, like Blood said, we got business—and business always comes first.
I slap on my game face and saunter into the room all bad-ass and ready to throw down if needed. Smoke is already at the head of the table. Blood sits to his right with me at Smoke’s left, then Ricky, Manny and Bolt. Benito throws Eduardo a dismissive look and sits at the opposite side closest to the head of the table.
I do a quick scan of our guests, but something seems off. Eduardo is our main contact, which made us believe he would be calling the shots, but their body language says different.
Benito continues to ignore Eduardo, who twitches like a junkie about to jump out of his skin. All along we thought Eduardo and Benito were equals, but obviously Eduardo is nothing more than a lackey.
When we were all seated, Smoke stood. “I’m sure none of us wants to be here on a Friday night, but since things got screwed up last time,” his gaze slides to Eduardo, “here we are.” Smoke sits and makes eye contact with everyone in the room. ending with Benito.
Benito clears his throat. “An unfortunate miscommunication.” His gaze flits to Eduardo.
“No miscommunication,” Smoke corrects. “Your boy was thirty minutes late, and I don’t do late. You set a time; you honor it—anything else is bullshit and disrespectful.”
“I’m in total agreement.” Benito lowers his eyes to the table, then looks up. “But now is the time to move forward.”
I already got this bastard’s number. Typical cartel boss, all manners and soft words on the outside, while they’re plotting your death on the inside. It took a while to get used to the way things are done down here, but we were all quick learners.
“For the benefit of all of us,” Smoke adds.
The good news is Smoke and Blood have already taken down two cartel kings in as many years. Word travels fast in Tijuana, so they’ve developed a rep, and everyone knows they are well versed in the way the game is played. The Royal Bastards also made it clear problems are handled quickly and efficiently. We don’t fuck around when it comes to business.
“The deal we propose is solid and straightforward.” Benito steeples his fingers. “We need to expand our business interests, and we have the perfect location for a casino. We have the money for keeping the authorities in their place, making sure they look the other way. What we don’t have is the protection from our enemies.”
“And for this protection, we get—” Smoke already knows the deal, but he wants Benito to confirm it.
“You get a place to exchange your money.” Benito smiles, and I’m reminded of a rattler I saw out in the desert last month.
“And there’ll be no cap on the amount of exchange?”
Smoke could be just as smooth. The fucker hardly ever lost his cool, which in most cases, was even more frightening. He knows how to work a room, and his stone-cold expression can’t be matched.
“That’s the deal we made.” Benito shrugs. “Why all the questions now?”
