“Tann?” Beauty’s voice sailed to my ears. “Let me take her while you sort everything out. I promise I’ll look after her. You can trust me.” Adelita’s hands shook as they held on to my wrists. She looked at Beauty, and when I could tear my eyes away from Adelita, so did I. Beauty smiled at me, then turned to Adelita. “I’m Beauty.” She held out her hand. Adelita looked wary, but she shook it. “You have my word that no one will hurt you.”
“Go with her,” I said. Adelita still held on tightly to my wrist like she didn’t wanna let go. I slipped my hand into hers and kissed her again. “Trust me.”
Adelita nodded, then let Beauty lead her away. I fought a smirk when I saw her hold her head up high like the princess she was. My brothers stared at her as she walked past. AK and Smiler fell in line behind Beauty. My eyes tracked Adelita until she was out the door. My instinct was to follow her. But we needed to sort this shit. Once and for fucking all.
“That’s Quintana’s daughter?” Ky asked, translating for Styx. I nodded. The room was quiet.
“Time to explain,” Ky translated for Styx. “Right the fuck now. And no more fucking lying or missing shit out. This is your last fucking chance.”
My jaw clenched at the order. But then I thought of Adelita’s eyes filling with tears as Ky had hit me. Of how scared she was. It was enough to reduce the raging fire in my stomach to a low burn. I crossed my arms across my chest and spoke. “We met when my old man and Quintana struck a deal. I didn’t know it at the time, but it must have been the trafficking shit. He kept me out of it. Didn’t include me. That’s when I met Adelita.”
“And what? Klan Romeo and Cartel Juliet fell madly in love?” Ky’s shitty attitude pissed me the fuck off.
I fought it and explained, “She made me see things differently. She made me see that the shit I’d been raised to believe was all bull.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Got out after that.” I looked Ky square in his face, getting a sick satisfaction out of seeing his lip was still bleeding. “Remember? I came here and gave you the intel you needed to get your woman out of that fucked-up cult. So let’s not pretend you don’t get me and why I’ve done what I’ve done. That you don’t understand that you’ll do anything to get the one you love.”
“You should have said something,” Tank said. “You should have told us. Shit, brother, you should have told me.”
“It was too dangerous.” I exhaled and tipped my head back to stare at the ceiling. “I was planning to get her out somehow. Work out a way . . . then we went to war.” I laughed a humorless laugh. “Not only with my fiancée’s father but with my family too. Anything I thought could work suddenly went out the fucking window.” I glanced at the chair she’d been sitting on. “Believe me, I didn’t bank on her being the one taken. I never thought she’d be delivered right into my hands.”
“If she’s your old lady, why the fuck was she marrying someone else?” Rudge said, asking the one question I had been thinking myself. I knew they’d all be thinking.
My heart started pounding as pictured her in that white dress. That ring on her finger and that guilty look in her eyes when she saw who was before her, looking at the evidence of her betrayal. “I don’t know,” I said hoarsely.
“Shi-it, brother,” Rudge said, whistling low. “You walked away from the Nazi crown for her, and she gets hitched—or almost gets hitched—to someone else?” He shook his head. “That shit’s gotta sting.”
It did. It was fucking destroying me.
“We have Quintana’s daughter.” Ky moved to stand next to Styx, shaking his head. “Daddy dearest is gonna be pissed. It was bad when we thought we only had the cousin. He’s gonna bring the fucking rain now we have his little girl.”
Styx lifted his hands. “We’re going on lockdown,” he signed; Ky spoke. “Get your old ladies and anything you need. We go on lockdown in four hours. No one leaves until this shit is dealt with and we know where we stand.” The brothers started filing out of the warehouse. Styx, Ky, and Tank stayed behind. Styx stepped even closer to me. “You’re gonna tell us all you know about Quintana. Every fucking thing.”
“It ain’t much. I told you, I was kept out of the deals. Found out about the trafficking when y’all did.”
“You tell us who works for him. The tactics he uses. Anything you can.”
“What about Adelita?” I asked when the tension had grown thicker again.
“She stays in Tank’s room, under guard,” Styx said.
“I’m not leaving her.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’ve just got her back. I’m not losing her again. She can stay with me in mine.”
“The club you’ve joined just kidnapped her and is holding her against her will. You think she’ll be okay with you after that?” Tank asked.
I sighed, feeling fucking exhausted. “She doesn’t know what her father is involved in.”
Tank’s eyes grew suspicious. “You sure about that?”
“Yeah, I fucking am. She doesn’t know about the trafficking. The drugs, yeah.” I felt my chest warm. “Lita isn’t naïve. She was brought up in the cartel life as much as we were the Klan and you guys were the club.” I pointed at Styx and Ky. “She isn’t some young delicate wallflower. She’s a fucking queen who knows how to thrive in a fucked-up life.”
“Match made in heaven,” Ky muttered, but I could tell the brother had calmed down from earlier. If this had been his bitch, he wouldn’t have hesitated to do anything to get to her. Fuck, the guy barely let Lilah out of his sight.
“She can’t be given contact with her family. Or anyone, for that matter. And she ain’t leaving this club.” Styx’s hands moved as Ky verbalized his signs. “We took her for leverage.”
“She ain’t fucking leverage—she’s my bitch!”
“Quintana won’t attack this club if he knows she’s here. Right now, she’s fucking leverage.” Styx turned to leave the warehouse, but then signed, “You can stay with her. But try to get her out from under our noses and I’ll slit your throat myself.” He stepped closer to me and raised his hands once more. “Right now I regard you as a brother. You’ve been good for this club. I trust you. But if I find out you’ve joined us just so you can get her out, or if you try to double-cross us in any way, we’ll make you pay. I’ll make you pay.”
“I’m a fucking Hangman,” I snarled. My muscles twitched in anger. “I owe this club. It’s my home. I’m not gonna take Lita and cut and run. I’m not a fucking coward.” Styx studied me, then nodded his head. He and Ky left me alone with Tank.
As soon as the door was shut, I exhaled and felt my head begin to pound. Tank ran his hand across his face. “Jesus Christ, Tann.”
I sagged down to the seat Adelita had been tied to. “No one would allow us be together.” I looked up at my best friend. “You don’t know what that’s like. To find a bitch who you know is yours, but you’ll both be killed if you dare touch her.”
Tank put his hand on my shoulder. “Tann, I ain’t claiming to understand, but . . .”
“But what?”
“All the cartel-Klan-Hangmen shit aside. She was marrying someone else, brother.” Pain shot through my chest like a spear. “You’ve done everything to be in the best position to make it safe for her to be with you. Protected. But what the fuck has she done? She was marrying—”
“There has to be a reason,” I interrupted, praying like fuck I was right. “There has to be a reason she was getting married.” I looked around the barren warehouse, emptied for the war and any captives we might get. My eyes blurred as I remembered her life in the hacienda. “You didn’t see how it was for her. Trapped, no friends. No one to talk to outside the staff and her priest. Well, she had her best friend from California, but she wasn’t a constant. Wasn’t there all the time. Another family friend was killed when I was there one visit. Adelita had to do anything her papa told her. She was like a Mexican Rapunzel or some shit, locked away so she couldn’t be found.” I nodded my head like I was convincing myself to bel
ieve she had no other choice but to do as her papa said. “She was forced into it. She had to be.”
Tank held out his hand. “Come on. Styx and Ky will want that Quintana intel before you see her.” I went to argue, but Tank said, “Beauty’s with her. You know she’ll take care of her. Beauty loves you like a brother. She’ll do anything for you. Adelita will be fine for a couple of hours while we get this squared away. Club first. Personal life second. It might be good for Beauty to speak to her before you do. Calm her down first.”
I let Tank pull me to my feet. I wanted to talk to her. I wanted to go to her right then and make sure she was safe. But he was right. I had to get everything straight with Styx and Ky. I had to do it so I could keep her close. “Fuck, Tann, you sure know how to attract trouble,” Tank said as we walked out the door.
And it’s just beginning, I wanted to say. Once Quintana finds out it’s the Hangmen, he’s gonna bring darkness to our door. So far it’s been child’s play. The real war hasn’t even started yet.
And it was the truth. Because how the fuck I was getting me, Adelita, and the Hangmen out of this shitshow unscathed, I had no fucking clue.
Chapter Seven
Adelita
I met every one of them in the eye. Even though my hands were shaking at my sides, I would not let them intimidate me. I would stand proud. These men might want me and my father dead, but I would not let them see my fear.
The truck we were in drove up a graveled path. Beauty rubbed my arm. I didn’t know this woman for her to be this affectionate. But I did know of her . . .