“Did you get any hint they were related, Carlito and Guapo?” Vivi’s question seemed deliberate and I wondered what in the hell she was getting at.
“Kind of, I guess. Carlito gave him preferential treatment but that’s not saying much since the asshole treats everyone like servants.” He must pay his men good money to put up with his shit and the dangers of cartel life.
“They’re cousins,” Stitch piped in. “I heard them both refer to each other as primo,” he said, his voice quieter than normal.
“Whoa, look at the kid getting all bi-lingual and shit,” Savior joked and clapped him on the back. Stitch smiled back but it was subdued and it came nowhere near reaching his eyes.
“Any hints about his real name?” Vivi was all business as she looked at Stitch, who only shook his head in the negative. “Okay.”
Jag yanked the door open and walked in, handing some black contraption to Vivi who typed out a quick code and turned away from us. He flashed her a smile and a wink before turning to Cross. “Good news is there’s not enough of a heat signature for people to be inside, thank fuck.”
Cross rubbed a hand over his face. “And the bad news?”
“There’s an electronic lock on it that has a nine digit code.” He cast a look at Vivi who hadn’t looked up from that little black box for the past ten or fifteen minutes. “Vivi is trying to see if she can crack it but first we need to figure out how many attempts we get before it shuts us out.”
“Or explodes,” Vivi added without any trace of humor.
“Is
that a possibility?” Cross was suddenly on alert, his eyes wide and worried since all the women and children were on the compound.
“I mean this is a cartel, so yeah, it’s always a possibility. Not likely but if you give me a few minutes, I might have some actual answers.”
Cross bit his tongue and the rest of us tried to keep our laughter inside, while Lasso outright laughed. “Damn girl you have such a smart mouth!”
“Thanks, Cowboy.” Her phone rang and she turned around, whispering quietly as she reached for her laptop. Instead of returning to business, we all sat there and waited. Jag stood by with a smirk on his face while the rest of us watched and waited, hoping good news was on the way. “Okay,” she said finally and turned to us. “I need about an hour and I might have some answers on that lock. In the meantime, I got confirmation on that birth certificate.” I had an odd feeling of Déjà vu as Vivi told us all about the news reports that had been suppressed and what it meant for Guapo and Carlito.
“Good job, babe.” Jag pulled her close and kissed her, long and hard and damn near pornographic in front of the whole MC.
“Anything for you.” Her tone was so soft and sweet, her expression so lovestruck it transformed her face and for the first time I could see what Jag saw in her. “Once we hear from Peaches, I’ll have a better idea how to get inside that truck.”
Cross nodded and stood again. “And we have to get inside that fuckin’ truck. We can’t risk getting pulled over by the cops or delivering some shit that’ll cause blowback on the MC.”
“We have about eighteen hours before we have to have this truck in Reno or who knows what the fuck he’ll do to Marisol,” Stitch added, ignoring the glare I sent his way. In fact, he hadn’t looked at me once since we got to Mayhem.
“Don’t worry,” Vivi said. “Peaches said an hour or less and that’s what it’ll be.”
“Good, thanks Vivi.” Stitch stood and turned to Savior. “I need some hardware because Carlito can’t be trusted one fucking bit.”
Savior nodded and stood, clapping the newbie on his back because he just brought up his favorite topic other than Mandy, guns. “Sure thing. You need anything, Gunnar?”
“Nope. He’s staying here,” Stitch said, again without looking at me.
“What the fuck, man?” His attitude was starting to piss me off as if we weren’t in the middle of a goddamn war with a fucking cartel.
Stitch finally looked at me and the glare was so deadly I thought we might have to fight to clear the air. “You don’t want to be involved and now you don’t have to. Like you said, this is my fault which means it’s my fucking problem.” Stitch stormed out just as Vivi’s phone rang and I fought the urge to roar at the chaos around me.
“Problem, Gunnar?” Cross stared at me, arms folded over his chest and a dark look on his face.
“Nah, the kid’s just being sensitive. I said some shit to him and I guess it got to him.” It wasn’t anywhere near the truth and Cross’ expression told me he knew it. “We’ll be fine.” I hoped.
Vivi ended her phone call and talked in quiet tones to Jag before they both took off, likely for the truck.
Four hours later, Stitch and I were back on the road and headed towards Reno.
In total fucking silence.
Chapter Twenty - Savior