His gaze narrowed and I saw the flash of anger before he hid it. “Don’t be cute, asshole. He was in this town looking for a bitch who stole from me.”
“Fuck that,” I said and took a step forward, not giving one fuck when his men raised their guns. “Yourmanhad a thing for kidnapping underage girls.”
Carlos laughed. “And you are what, the protector of those girls?”
I took another step forward, ready to pummel that motherfucker into next week but Diesel stepped between us. “Diego has a type,” he began slowly, his gaze met Carlos’ head on. “Our friend fit the type, petite and youthful looking, except she’s a grown ass woman.” He nodded over his left shoulder to Slate.
Diesel stepped forward. “You might also be interested to know about his other activities.” He gestured to Slate. “He was skimming.”
“Bullshit!” Carlos spat back but he hesitated for just a minute.
“It’s true. Off your gun and drug shipments.”
Slate pulled up the accounts, laying it all out and turned his screen towards Carlos. “I’m sure you’ll recognize the account numbers.”
“How the fuck did you get this?” he roared the question to nobody in particular.
“Irrelevant,” Slate waved a hand in the air. “What you might find relevant is all the information gathered by ten different law enforcement agencies in Georgia and Alabama, all implicatingyour manin the disappearance, death, and assault of a bunch of young girls.”
Carlos listened. Quiet. Calculating. Angry as fuck. “Where is Diego?” he asked again.
“Diego isn’t here,” I answered loudly, smiling and completely fucking unapologetic.
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means,” I began slowly, meeting his gaze without a hint of sorrow. “He put a gun to my woman’s head and that’s not something I can forgive.”
Carlos eyed me for a long moment, stared at me like he wanted to put a gun in my head. But eventually the fire in him extinguished itself and he nodded.
Rocky stepped forward with his hands up, the way he did when he was playing peacekeeper. “We do have something for you that I think could make us square.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze bouncing between Diesel and Rocky. “How?”
A smile spread across Diesel’s face. “Come with me.”
All six men moved as one the moment Carlos did.
“One of your men can come with you and that’s it.” Diesel’s tone left no room for argument.
Carlos nodded at one of his men and the rest fell back. They followed Diesel and Rocky across the lot and down into the cellar.
I stepped forward once the prospects closed the door behind us, shutting out the rest of the world. “Are you familiar with Detective Halloran?”
“I assume he is one of the cops in Diego’s pocket,” he said, waving dismissively at the man strapped to the metal chair.
“Not just one of his dirty cops,” I grinned. “The one who helped him steal from you. Who didn’t even bother covering up the crimes that still might fall back on you.”
Halloran’s eyes went wide. “What the fuck was I supposed to do? I ain’t tampering with evidence to cover for that freak!” He was scared now and dancing to save his ass.
“You should have come to me.” Carlos’ voice was smooth and deep. “But you didn’t.”
I watched, waiting for the moment Halloran gave up the fight. His shoulders fell and he let out a resigned sigh. “No, I didn’t.”
“Too bad.” Carlos held out a hand to his man, who quickly placed the gun in his palm. Without ceremony, he raised the gun, took aim and squeezed the trigger twice.
The gunshots echoed in the air, loud and final.
Diego was dead and now Halloran was dead too.
