Page 93 of More Tricks

“Ladies,” Cam cut in. “This isn’t going to help the situation or get your daughter back. What would help is if you walk us through what you do know. When was Elena get taken? Where was she? What information have you gotten and how do they communicate with you?”

Gabriella let out a sharp laugh. “What are you, the FBI or something, asking questions like that as if it will do a goddamn thing.”

“Actually, I am the FBI,” Cam answered, pulling his badge out of his back pocket. “I’ve been assigned to work with Dax and her crew to help bring down criminal terrorists just like the man who has your daughter. We’ve found it’s better to work alongside the underbelly that knows how to interact without getting caught instead of infiltrating.”

Fuck me sideways. I forgot how good Cam was at manipulating people. Seems there’s far more of his dad in him than I ever realized.

Gabriella just looked at him skeptically, but it was Demitri who stepped up to do the right thing. “Mom, he’s right. It’s time for us to stop thinking we can handle this on our own and ask for help. He’s with the FBI. He’ll have connections we could never get doing this alone.”

“Fine,” she said with a sigh. “Where do you want to start?”

“Let’s take a seat on the sofa, get comfortable,” Cam suggested. “Can we get you coffee? Something to eat?”

“I’ll take a glass of Jack with some ice,” Gabriella answered.

Okay, maybe I might actually like my inevitable sister-in-law after all. If the woman wanted a glass of whisky at ten in the morning, having a bad day, then she’d damn well get one. Hopping off the counter, I grabbed a glass, put ice in it, and poured her a healthy dose of the liquor. I brought it over to her, where she’d taken a seat on the couch, but when I handed it over, she looked suspiciously at it.

“For fuck’s sake,” I muttered and took a swig of the burning liquid, then handed it over. “If I wanted to kill you, I’d do it to your face. I’m not a poison girl. Far too impersonal if you ask me. I like them to know who ended their life.”

“I suppose I can respect that,” Gabriella begrudgingly admitted, then drained the glass.

Wes grabbed my hand and tugged me to sit next to him a little farther down on the couch. He had his laptop open and ready to go on the coffee table. If there was information out there to be found, Wes was like a bloodhound. He’d find it.

“Are we sure we shouldn’t wait for Eagle?” Demitri asked, fidgeting nervously.

Ah, so this story wasn’t going to paint him in a good light at all. Why would he want Eagle around then? He’d be the first to beat his ass. Unless when it came to family, he was a big softy?

Picasso shook his head. “We don’t know exactly when he’s coming back, and Eagle isn’t in the best condition to handle news like this.”

“That, and do you really want him tanning your ass until you can’t sit for a week?” Void asked.

Demitri deflated in on himself as he shook his head furiously. “No. God, I’d hoped none of you would have had to find out about this.”

“Yeah, sorry, but that ship has sailed, Demitri. You just need to be honest with us about everything from this point forward,” Picasso warned. “Let’s start at the beginning when they first contacted you?”

Chapter six

Dax

Demitri took a deep, steadying breath and then began to tell his story. “It started when I went to see Elena during spring break. She wanted to show me around New York City to prove to me that she could handle herself. While I was there, she still had lots of work to do on an end-of-the-year project. Some big article she was writing about the slums and how mental health and homelessness were a big problem. Which meant as we toured the city, we also visited some really shady parts to interview people.

“For the four days we stayed in the city, she wanted to check out a few shelters, a local drug house, and some spots that were common for the homeless to panhandle for the day. Ellie is as stubborn as anyone in our family, so I knew she was going to do this with or without me. It was gonna be safer if I went along and kept an eye on her. Problem was, Ellie picked the wrong day and the wrong time to visit the drug house. Seems there was a turf war over the spot between the De León’s and another smaller gang getting too big for themselves.” Demitri paused, picking at the skin around his thumbnail, trying to collect himself.

He raised his gaze to meet Picasso’s. “I should have never let her go there, it was a dumb idea, and I was too cocky for my own good.”

His uncle reached out and squeezed his shoulder. “We all make mistakes, D. You know my story and the hell we went through with our uncles. While I can’t promise I won’t be disappointed, you’re coming clean now, and we’re going to fix this, but I need to know what I’m up against first.”

Demitri nodded and continued, “It was some time after five when we went to the spot. It was abandoned and falling apart with cracked-out people lying around all over the floor. She was taking pictures with her phone and that’s what did us in. One of the dealers thought we were with the gang, trying to sneak intel so they could take the house back from the cartel. He grabbed Ellie and snatched her phone, demanding answers from me. I didn’t know what to do, so I used the only leverage I could think of and said that I worked for Tricks, and if they messed with us, he’d come down on them.”

“Fuck,” Cognac groaned, knowing exactly how wrong of an answer that was.

Hell, it would have been better for him to be honest and say he was related to the leaders of the Phantom Saints. They were a known name out here and would have added some backlash if they got hurt. Instead, he chose to use my name, and Diego and I had been enemies since I stopped his import of drugs from Mexico the easy way. Now he had to go through Texas or take the long route by boat to the East Coast.

Everyone knew that Texas wasn’t a state to fuck with. They didn’t like it when people broke the law, and everyone had a gun to do something about it.

“Yeah, that’s a pretty accurate response to that situation,” Demitri agreed. “Using Ellie as motivation, he got me to zip-tie myself, then her, and took us back to one of their warehouses. That’s when I met Anthony, Diego’s oldest son. He was the one to question us, and he figured out pretty fast that I’d lied and that made him furious. Anthony gave me two choices, take a bullet to the head or find a way to get myself in with the Hidden Empire. If I managed to do that, then the next part was to find out who Tricks really was and tell them.”

I leaned forward, watching Demitri, and something told me he’d managed to do the first part. “How?” I asked, knowing he would understand.