Chapter Twenty-Two
F ury, raw and aimed at Talerco, consumed me.
I pulled out my cell and dialed.
Luna answered on the first ring. “Luna.”
“Talerco took her,” I bit out.
“Hold.” Shuffling sounded, then I heard a door open and close before Luna came back on the line. “Repeat,” he demanded.
Fuck, fuck, FUCK. “She wanted her staples out. I called Talerco. He shows up, and two seconds alone with her and he’s leading her out of my place, telling me to stand the fuck down.”
“Jesucristo,” Luna muttered. “What’d you do to her?”
“I didn’t do a goddamn thing!” I yelled, snatching my keys.
“All right, all right, amigo, calm down. Where’s Talerco taking her?”
“I don’t fucking know.” And that was the problem. “Who’s on shift? They need to follow Talerco.”
“Ty. I’m texting him now. Talerco aware of the situation?”
Goddamn it . Trigger happy and remorseless Ty. I headed out the door. “I told Talerco, but he brushed it off, saying it was nothing he hadn’t dealt with before.”
“It’s not,” Luna reassured.
I jammed my fist against the elevator call button. “I don’t need an endorsement of his fucking skills, Luna. He took her.”
Luna exhaled. “Okay, listen up, brother, because I’m only gonna say this once.”
I ground my teeth and refrained from telling him to fuck off.
Luna took my silence for consent. “Talerco’s a lot of things, but overreactive isn’t one of them. He also isn’t baselessly impulsive when it comes to something like this.” He paused, then he dumped the rest of his bullshit speech. “He wouldn’t have removed her from the situation unless she asked for it. Brother to brother, you know I’m right.”
I slammed my fist into the wall.
“Sawyer,” Luna snapped.
“What?” I ground out.
“Do what you gotta do to calm the fuck down, then head to the office. I’m calling Talerco, and I’ll have him bring her here. You, me, and Talerco will hash it out in a conference room once she’s secure in one of the client apartments. Comprende?”
I didn’t say shit. I hung up and got on the elevator.
I drove my Range Rover like it was a Maserati all the way to the office, scanning every fucking intersection as I went, looking for them. I pulled into the garage at Luna and Associates twelve minutes later.
Talerco’s black Challenger was nowhere in sight.
Anger-fueled adrenaline pounding in my veins, I skipped the elevator and took the stairs up to the third floor where the conference rooms were. I knew something was wrong the second I looked through the glass wall of the largest conference room and saw Preston, Tank, Collins and Tyler all standing around Luna and his laptop.
I shoved through the door, my glare on Luna. “What the fuck are they doing here?”
Tyler, the prick, smiled. “ Damn , he swore.” He looked around at the rest of the guys with an expression of fake shock. “Was that just me, or did you all hear that?” His smile amped up. “Does this mean it’s love?”
“Women.” Collins shook his head. “Fucking trouble is what that is.”
Crossing his arms, Tank threw Collins a look. “Shut the fuck up.” Tank nodded toward Luna. “You need to see what he has.”
Luna spun his laptop to face me and hit play on a security image feed. “They caught them coming out of your garage.”
I watched Talerco’s Challenger pull out of the garage, and before the black company Escalade parked across the street could fall in behind them, a tinted-out gray van gunned it out of a construction lot across the street, cut off the SUV and got on Talerco’s six. The Challenger shot forward, obviously seeing the tail, and in the last second of the video, I saw Talon take a corner, turning in the opposite direction of Luna and Associates.
I surpassed anger. “Where the hell is he going?” I asked Luna. “Get him on the phone, now .”
Luna didn’t answer. He typed on his laptop and another image appeared. This time the familiar software program of the tracking system he used to monitor all the company vehicles came up. “This was from a couple minutes ago.”
I watched the red blip of Ty’s SUV parked on my street. Then the red dot shot down the street in front of my condo, took the same corner as Talerco’s Challenger, then nothing. It disappeared from the screen.
I looked from the screen to Luna. “What the hell just happened?”
Luna held my gaze. “We lost GPS monitoring, and both Talon’s and Ty’s cell phones are going straight to voice mail.”
What the fuck? “What does that mean?” I asked, but I already knew.
“Signal jammer,” Luna confirmed. Turning back to his laptop, he pulled up a map of the city. “The question is, where would Talon head to?”
“No,” I bit out, my anger ramping up to a new level. “The question is why the hell didn’t he come here?” He knew there was security here around the clock. At any given time, there were at least three Luna and Associates men on duty. We were all ex-military, and we were all trained.
Breaking his silence, Preston pushed off the wall. “You’re both wrong. The real question is what gangbangers are doing with a jammer. They typically don’t mess with anything like that. The cartel doesn’t even use them.” His gaze shifted around the room, never landing on any one of us, before he stared at the carpet. “You sure it was just a carjacking?”
I spun on him and did something I never fucking did with the guys. I lost my temper. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what I asked.” His hands on his hips, never looking at me, Preston shrugged. “What do we really know about this chick?”
Tyler smirked. “You do know who his dad is, right? If anyone’s a target, it’s Playboy.”
I glared at Tyler. “They don’t know who I am. They were going for the vehicle, period.”
“How many cars were in the lot that night?” Tank asked offhandedly.
“Too many,” Collins answered. “It was Mel’s after the clubs closed. They would’ve had their pick. The place is packed after hours.”
“But they chose Sawyer’s SUV,” Tyler added skeptically.
“Enough,” Luna cut in. “It’s a company SUV, and speculation isn’t gonna help us find Talerco and the chica right now.” Spinning his laptop to face all of us, he stood. “We need to split up and find them. We don’t know how many are in that van, and while I’d bet on Talerco any day of the week, numbers are numbers. He and Ty could be grossly outnumbered and outgunned.” Pointing to the screen, he assigned grids. “Since we’re all gonna be subject to the jammer, we’re traveling in teams. Tank and Preston, take the south end of the city. Collins and Tyler, take the northern quadrant. Sawyer and I will head west.”
“West doesn’t make sense,” I argued. “The city grid dwindles, and there’ll be too many opportunities for the van to shoot at them. Talerco would be an idiot to go west.”
“Disagree,” Luna clipped. “West will be less populated, which means less collateral damage. It’s what I’d do. Talerco isn’t stupid, and he isn’t gonna fire warning shots.” He eyed me. “He’s gonna shoot to kill.”
“So will Ty,” Preston added.
Ignoring Preston, Luna glanced at his watch. “Gear up with the assumption you’ll be on your own. Take enough ammo to hold off a small army. You all know the gangs travel in packs.” He looked up, glancing at each of us. “Stay on comms, do your grid searches, call in your locations to base every ten minutes. Report any potential sightings ASAP so we can track via traffic cams if we lose you, assuming those don’t get jammed too. Meet back here by oh-one-hundred.” He paused. “If you lose comms, cell and GPS, use your best judgment. I don’t want to put our families in danger or suspend client activity to fight a gang war, but we will if we have to. Your best defense is to stay invisible until you need to be seen. Remember that. Any questions?”
“Yeah.” Preston crossed his arms. “Is one chick worth a gang war? Because that’s where this is heading.”
My nostrils flared.
His eyes on Preston, Luna’s hand shot out and landed on my chest. “I’m gonna humor that question only once, and only because you’re new, so listen up.” He dropped his hand from my chest and held up one finger. “One. We protect our own. This isn’t a client. This is personal to one of our brothers. Even if it wasn’t, we’d still be heading out, doing exactly what we’re gonna do.” He held up a second finger. “Two. This isn’t about a single chica. We’ve got two of our brothers out there. We’re going after them because we don’t fucking leave anyone behind. Ever. You want out? Fine. No judgment. But stand down now so we can get on with it.”
“Throw me under the bus for being the new guy here all you want.” Preston shrugged as if not offended. “But if you think gangbangers will let it go, your head’s in the sand.”
Luna’s voice dropped to a lethal warning. “Underestimate me again, and it’ll be your last move as my employee.”
Preston didn’t back down. “If stating the truth gets me walking papers, so be it.”
Silence fell over the room as the tension ramped up, and for a split second I thought I was going to witness a bloodbath.
Then Tank stepped up to Preston. “Shut the fuck up and grab your gear. I don’t have time for this shit. Let’s go.” He shoved past Preston, throwing the door to the conference room open.
For a heartbeat, Preston didn’t follow. He stood staring at the fucking carpet.
Then Tank bellowed from the hall. “ Now, Preston! ”
He walked out.
Tyler smirked. “Crazy and an attitude.” Shaking his head, he glanced at Luna as he walked toward the door. “Good fucking luck with that one.”
Collins eyed Luna. “New guy’s right.” He glanced at me before walking out.
I looked at Luna.
“ Jesu-fucking-cristo ,” he muttered on an exhale.
I glanced after Preston. “He’s going to be a problem.”
Luna looked at me. “What do you mean, going to be ?” Unholstering his 9mm, he dropped the magazine, checked the clip, then slammed it back into place. “He already is.”
“You shouldn’t have hired him.”
“You think the streets of Miami are safer with him roaming loose?”
I didn’t say shit.
“Right fucking answer,” Luna clipped. “Let’s go.”