Destroy For Her - R.B. Hilliard Page 0,39

agreement?” Steele asked. The response was unanimous. “Good. One last thing, and then I’ll let you get to it. I had Martin dig deeper into Carlos. Apparently, the Carlos Diez who was in Austin on a work visa, was clean, but the Carlos from Mexico is a different story. Martin discovered that before the cartel, Carlos helped manage his father’s coffee plantations in Mexico. He was slated to take over the business but then landed himself in some hot water. He was accused of beating and raping two girls that worked at one of the plantations.”

“No surprise there,” Ink muttered.

“The evidence against him was solid, and it looked as if he was going to spend some time behind bars when his uncle stepped in to save the day,” Steele continued.

“Let me guess, the uncle is cartel,” Buck said.

Steele nodded. “The head honcho. He’s Carlos’s mother’s older brother. Martin didn’t make the connection at first because of the different last names.”

Arson whistled. “From coffee lord to cartel scum—how the mighty fall.”

“Instead of letting Carlos serve time, Herrera threw a bunch of money at the families. The charges were dropped and Carlos found himself in Texas working as a lowly drug runner,” Steele told them.

Buck smiled. “Bet he just loved that.”

“How long was he in Austin?” Ink asked.

“According to Martin, he had a five-year work visa. It was about to expire when Herrera called him back to Mexico,” Steele answered.

“Good merit,” Arson mumbled. Ax gave him a questioning look, and he elaborated, “He minded his P’s and Q’s, excelled at running drugs, and found himself a steady girl—all to prove to Herrera that he’d learned his lesson and could be relied upon.”

“So, Sage was a means to an end. Carlos got promoted, and she became his own personal punching bag,” Chopper angrily noted.

Ax decided to chime in on that one. “It’s more than that. Sage said Carlos told her that killing her was too easy and defeated the purpose.”

“What purpose?” Buck asked.

“Good question,” Ax replied.

Steele added, “She also said that he knew things about the club and hated Ax. At the time, I thought it was jealousy because of her feelings for Ax, but what if it’s more than that? Think about it, Carlos met Sage right before the shit with Loco went down.

Buck slammed his fist on the table. “I called it. I told Ax I thought there was a connection between the two.”

“It does have merit,” Arson agreed.

“I’ll get Martin on it. We’re locking it down at midnight. That gives you a little less than two hours to get your shit handled and get here.” Steele stood and everyone followed suit.

“Lucy’s going to bitch about another lockdown,” Taz muttered.

While everyone scattered to get their families and shit, Ax made his way to the bar. It was going to be a long night.

_______________

Emma was dead, Aimee was in the hospital, Ax was no longer speaking to her, and Steele was calling lockdown—all because of Carlos. Sage hated him more and more with every breath she took. She stewed on the situation while helping Treena, Zoe, and Montana get the air mattresses inflated, the sofa beds made, and the rooms ready for lockdown.

By the time they were finished, it was after ten. She was exhausted and heartbroken and wanted to hide in her room where she could fall apart without an audience. It was times like these that she missed her house. She’d found the little cottage a few years after Gibbs’s death, and had fallen in love with it. The Shaker-style exterior reminded her of the beach. Recently renovated, it had a master suite and guest bedroom downstairs and another bedroom suite and sitting area upstairs. She’d turned the upstairs into Petal’s lair while she’d taken the downstairs. Mary helped paint a mural in Petal’s room. Her heart squeezed at the thought of Mary. She still couldn’t believe her friend was gone. At least Loco had the decency to send the kids to the neighbors before he’d—

“There you are. I’ve been looking for you everywhere,” Lucy said, pulling Sage from her thoughts. “Steele wants to meet with us in his office. He should be back with LuLu any minute now. Can you believe what happened to Aimee? And God, poor Emma. Ax was a wreck when I left his house. I hated leaving him there, but I had a meeting.”

Sage blinked. It took her a minute to process Lucy’s words. Steele wanted to meet with them? Shit. She had no doubt