“Did Ortega ever do business with Colonel Hubbard?” Trevor asked, his voice sounded harsh.
“Ortega said they did a couple of arms deals. He also stated that Hubbard tried to push the sale of flesh and his nieces onto him. But you know as well as I do how Ortega feels about that,” Lana answered when something Trevor wanted her to ask struck her. “Trevor, Colonel Hubbard and Dennis Hubbard aren’t related, are they?”
Lana heard Trevor grumble something through the phone. When she heard him cursing several seconds later, she knew her answer.
“Senator Dennis Hubbard is Colonel Hubbard’s father. Not biologically related, but the senator adopted two of Eugene Maylan’s sons. Colonel Hubbard and a Russell Hubard. Lana, all are not only connected that way, but to Hellburn Falls.”
Lana turned to look at her team in shock. “Rocky, send Ryan a message on your burner phone. Ask him if he knows a Russell Hubbard or Maylan.”
“You mean to tell me that motherfucker is related to the man I had in my home and lied to me when I asked if he knew the senator?” Ortega seethed, his anger rising again.
“If he told you no, then yes, he lied to you. Apparently, it’s not well-known, apparently, that those two are related. Things are falling into place now. Still a few missing pieces of the puzzle.”
“What do you mean, Ice?” Imogen “Athena” O’Doherty questioned, standing up straighter.
“Trevor, Elroy Maylan was the mayor of Hellburn Falls when I was in high school. See who the mayor is now. Jaymetold Roderic Torrez, Jesus Vargas, and Angelo Guzman that her father was the mayor. But her father is Elroy. He divorced her mother and moved to Hellburn Falls. Six months later, he married Ashley’s mother and legally adopted her. He never mentioned Jayme as his legit daughter, only Ashley.”
“But why target my Diego?”
“Ma’am, you said it was Senator Dennis Hubbard who ordered your kidnapping and the horrors you faced from his men and the former cartel leader’s hands. Did you or Ortega ever go after the senator before now?”
“I attempted to go after the senator a few years ago to avenge my mother. I could not get to him sadly. His son showed up at my hotel room to take me out. Instead, the son and two of his men lost their lives.”
“Hubbard had a biological son?” Viper asked in shock.
“Si. He made his son w-watch when they were hurting me and then would watch as his son took his own turn with raping and beating me,” Ortega’s mother said softly.
“Umm, Lana, Russell Maylan is Rusty. The owner of Rusty’s Bar. He’s well-known in town and is the brother of Ashley and Jayme’s dad, who is still on record as the mayor of the town.”
“Okay. More pieces falling into place. But why Hellburn Falls? It’s small enough that people notice things. They talk,” Lana responded, puzzled, as she scratched her head.
“Colonel Hubbard’s mother was from Hellburn Falls. She was run out of town when a young girl committed suicide after a high school dance. It looks like the junior/senior prom. It seems like Hubbard’s mother and several others bullied the girl really bad. Mrs. Hubbard believed the other girl had the hots for the football captain who was her supposed boyfriend. They embarrassed the girl at prom, ruining her dress, ripped it off of her and threw red paint on her. They also stood bywhile two of the football players raped her and then graded her performance,” Trevor informed Lana over the phone.
“So, they did a Carrie?” Viper murmured, shaking her head.
CHAPTER
FIFTY-FIVE
Lana’s mind went into overdrive at what she’d just learned. She needed a board and pens, asap.
Yeah, she knew she was weird, but it helped when her brain was spinning like it was right now. She looked around the space she was in before looking back at Ortega.
“Do you have an office we can go into? I need to work something out that’s floating around in my head. I think I know why you are being targeted. I don’t give two shits about your drugs or your arms deals. The only thing I know is that you don’t deal in the flesh trade. You despise it with every breath that you breathe. But you’re being used as a scapegoat to boost ratings for Senator Hubbard’s election campaign. The fact there are still five soldiers in your possession means they will call a strike on you. Help me not only save their lives, but yours and your mothers,” Lana honestly admitted to Ortega.
Lana waited several minutes as she watched Ortega stare at her before looking down at his mother. When the woman nodded at him, Lana let loose the breath she’d been holding.
Lana, Rocky, and Viper went into Ortega’s office with him, his mother, and two of his most trusted men. They spent the next two hours hashing out what Lana was thinking, whatOrtega and his men knew and worked out an agreement that Lana would push through with the C.I.A.
Three hours later, Lana and her team were loading all five soldiers into the back of the SUV and exiting Ortega’s compound. Cullen and the Delta team left the perimeter and hoofed it back to the rendezvous point.
Five hours after they had landed in Mexico, Lana and the entire team were on the plane, headed back to Ft. Bragg with their packages. Two of the men needed immediate medical attention once they landed safely.
All they could do right now was make them as comfortable as they could and pray they made it to the hospital in time. Especially Bryan.
Ortega admitted Bryan took the brunt of the beatings because he was told the man was the one who gave the false intel to his command for them to attack. The man’s anger at himself for falling into the perpetrator’s trap was admirable.
Ortega even went as far as apologizing to the five men for his actions when Lana explained to them what happened and why they were ambushed. The men were furious.
