CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
CHAPTER
FIFTY-FOUR
Lana watched as Ortega looked around the room at his men in amusement. She braced herself for the explosion of anger that was going to come in a few minutes.
“And what false information were they supposedly given to warrant their invasion of my home?” Ortega rolled his eyes at Lana.
Lana closed her eyes and prayed like she’d never prayed before. She knew the next words out of her mouth were going to send Diego into overdrive.
“That you and your men kidnapped a senator’s daughter. These soldiers were told that you and your men had brutally raped her and then sold her to a man who specializes in breaking women’s spirits into nothing.”
Lana stopped her team’s movement to protect her when Ortega exploded. She stayed silent while he yelled and threw things around the foyer that they were in.
Once the man had calmed down from his tirade, he whirled on the six women with anger in his eyes. His mother, who had rushed into the room during the explosion, put her hand on his chest to halt her son’s descent on them.
“My son did not do such horrible things…”
“We know that, ma’am. My team knows that.
Your son is being set up. That’s why we are here.
I’m here to plead for those five men to be returned to me.
If he does, then, when I get word on who orchestrated your son’s rap, I will give him the name of that person.
Then he can do what he deems necessary to make them pay.
The soldiers didn’t know they were being lied to. ”
While Lana was talking to Ortega and his mother, her satellite phone went off. When she pulled it out and read the message, her heart stopped at the news.
“Ortega, have you ever done business, drugs, or arms deals with a man named Lydell Hubbard?”
“No! That man is not trustworthy. He sells women against their will. I tried to work with him in the arms trade once a while back, but he is untrustworthy.” Ortega waved his hands in annoyance at Hubbard’s name.
“That man tried to get my Diego to take one of his nieces, but he wouldn’t do it. They are women of loose morals. Trying to get my son and then throwing themselves at his guards. Rude to me.”
“Nieces?”
As Lana asked that question, her phone rang. When she saw Trevor’s number pop up, she answered.
“Did you figure it out?” Lana asked instead of a greeting.
“Lana, this shit is deep. Ask Ortega if the name Dennis Hubbard rings a bell.”
“Who the hell is Dennis Hubbard?”
When she said the name out loud, Ortega lost his shit. Not even his mother could calm him this time.
What had Lana focused on the mother was the fact she went sheet white at the mention of the man’s name. Why did the name scare the hell out of her?
“Hold on, Trevor. Diego. Diego!” Lana shouted, finally getting his attention. “Why does that name anger you so much?”
“H-he was the one who had Matia, the old cartel leader, kidnap me and watch as Matia’s men raped me. He paid Matia to have his way with me. The man delighted in my screams of pain and terrorizing me in so many ways during his time with me.”
“Did you get all that?” Lana asked Trevor on speaker phone.
“Did Ortega ever do business with Colonel Hubbard?” Trevor asked, his voice sounded harsh.
“Ortega said they did a couple of arms deals. He also stated that Hubbard tried to push the sale of flesh and his nieces onto him. But you know as well as I do how Ortega feels about that,” Lana answered when something Trevor wanted her to ask struck her.
“Trevor, Colonel Hubbard and Dennis Hubbard aren’t related, are they? ”
Lana heard Trevor grumble something through the phone. When she heard him cursing several seconds later, she knew her answer.
“Senator Dennis Hubbard is Colonel Hubbard’s father. Not biologically related, but the senator adopted two of Eugene Maylan’s sons. Colonel Hubbard and a Russell Hubard. Lana, all are not only connected that way, but to Hellburn Falls.”
Lana turned to look at her team in shock. “Rocky, send Ryan a message on your burner phone. Ask him if he knows a Russell Hubbard or Maylan.”
“You mean to tell me that motherfucker is related to the man I had in my home and lied to me when I asked if he knew the senator?” Ortega seethed, his anger rising again.
“If he told you no, then yes, he lied to you. Apparently, it’s not well-known, apparently, that those two are related. Things are falling into place now. Still a few missing pieces of the puzzle.”
“What do you mean, Ice?” Imogen “Athena” O’Doherty questioned, standing up straighter.
“Trevor, Elroy Maylan was the mayor of Hellburn Falls when I was in high school. See who the mayor is now. Jayme told Roderic Torrez, Jesus Vargas, and Angelo Guzman that her father was the mayor. But her father is Elroy. He divorced her mother and moved to Hellburn Falls. Six months later, he married Ashley’s mother and legally adopted her.
He never mentioned Jayme as his legit daughter, only Ashley. ”
“But why target my Diego?”
“Ma’am, you said it was Senator Dennis Hubbard who ordered your kidnapping and the horrors you faced from his men and the former cartel leader’s hands. Did you or Ortega ever go after the senator before now?”
“I attempted to go after the senator a few years ago to avenge my mother. I could not get to him sadly. His son showed up at my hotel room to take me out. Instead, the son and two of his men lost their lives.”
“Hubbard had a biological son?” Viper asked in shock.
“Si. He made his son w-watch when they were hurting me and then would watch as his son took his own turn with raping and beating me,” Ortega’s mother said softly.
“Umm, Lana, Russell Maylan is Rusty. The owner of Rusty’s Bar. He’s well-known in town and is the brother of Ashley and Jayme’s dad, who is still on record as the mayor of the town.”
“Okay. More pieces falling into place. But why Hellburn Falls? It’s small enough that people notice things. They talk,” Lana responded, puzzled, as she scratched her head.
“Colonel Hubbard’s mother was from Hellburn Falls.
She was run out of town when a young girl committed suicide after a high school dance.
It looks like the junior/senior prom. It seems like Hubbard’s mother and several others bullied the girl really bad.
Mrs. Hubbard believed the other girl had the hots for the football captain who was her supposed boyfriend.
They embarrassed the girl at prom, ruining her dress, ripped it off of her and threw red paint on her.
They also stood by while two of the football players raped her and then graded her performance,” Trevor informed Lana over the phone.
“So, they did a Carrie?” Viper murmured, shaking her head.