Chapter 1 - Diego
ONE
DIEGO
The wind whipping through my bed-tousled hair swirled the steam coming up from my mug. As I sat on my back porch, I inhaled the sweet scent of the coffee Mom had taught me to make before she got sick. She insisted on teaching me and Sebastian the recipes she wanted to pass down to us.
The idea that she thought this cancer might kill her made me sick.
But as I slurped the creamy goodness down, my mind fell back to my brother.
I wondered what he’d talk about if he were out here with me.
He had always been a morning person who needed two cups of coffee just to calm himself down, whereas I needed two cups just to be able to interpret what he told me. That was usually his ADHD at work.
Damn, I missed my brother.
“Hey! Diego!”
I turned my head slowly at the sound of my neighbor’s voice.
Notch waved at me from his back porch, and I lifted my hand while I tried not to seem jealous at the leather jacket he donned.
The man looked like he had been up all night, and it caused me to wonder what kind of things the Lost Boys M.C. had gotten into.
I’d give anything to be part of a brotherhood like that.
Notch walked up to the chain link fence. “Good coffee this morning?”
I nodded as I swallowed, but I didn’t say anything. I hadn’t been up half an hour, and it was all I could do to start the coffee boiling on the stove in the first place.
But Notch didn’t seem to mind. “Mind if I come over for a cup with you?”
As I stared down into my drink, I considered his offer. I hadn’t had anyone over for coffee because that had been a thing for me and my brother. He always came over—if he wasn’t living with me for some reason—and the one thing we shared was our insane love for our mother’s way of making coffee.
It’ll be the first time it’s someone other than Sebastian…
Notch cleared his throat. “Or I could come over later and we could—”
I nodded. “Come on in. Coffee’s on the stove and cream’s out on the counter.”
The smile that spread across Notch’s face reminded me of my brother’s smile.
The two of them had been very good friends, and I probably knew more about Notch’s motorcycle crew than I needed to because of how much my brother talked about things he honestly shouldn’t.
I knew that was what got him killed, too.
No one could work for the cartel and run their mouths the way my brother used to do without inviting trouble.
I leaned back in my chair and let the summer breeze wash over me. I heard Notch rummaging around in the kitchen via the cracked patio door behind me, and when he slipped out, it didn’t shock me one bit that out of all the chairs I had out here, he dropped himself into the one closest to my side.
What I wouldn’t give to wear a leather cut like his.
“So,” Notch said as he sipped his coffee, “wait a second. Holy shit.”
I grinned. “Good, huh?”
He scoffed. “This is fucking fantastic. How the hell did you make this?”
I winked at him. “Mom’s little secret.”
He groaned as he sank into his chair. “You guys have the best recipes. I just get day-old coffee in a pot at the clubhouse.”
I chuckled. “You’re welcome anytime.”
I felt him staring at the profile of my face, just like my brother used to do.
In a lot of ways, Notch reminded me of him.
Always looking out for me. Always coming over to check up on me.
Always making sure I had what I needed. And because of that, I always felt like a disappointment whenever Notch made his presence known around me.
And because of that issue, I wished I had never gotten involved with the Banderas Cartel in the first place.
“So,” Notch said as he turned his head toward the horizon, “got any fun plans for today?”
I slurped my coffee. “If by ‘fun plans,’ you’re asking if I’m getting into any trouble today, then the answer is ‘not to my knowledge.’”
He nodded slowly. “You know you can always come by if you need something. Right?”
Which was code for, “if you get yourself into some shit and can’t get out, I’ll do what I can.” And I was most appreciative of it.
“I appreciate that, thanks,” I murmured.
Notch reached over and patted my knee. “How’s your mother doing? I thought about going by the hospital and peeking my head in. I haven’t done that in a couple of weeks.”
I grinned. “I’m sure she’d like that. She always calls after you leave. Says she was ‘visited by the most handsome angel’ she’s ever met.”
He barked with laughter. “That woman can flatter the pants off anyone, can’t she?”
“She’s nothing if not bold.”
“That’s a very good attitude to have. It’ll get her through this next round of radiation.”
I sighed. “I really fucking hope so.”
I felt him staring at me again. “Are you sure everything’s okay?”
Put on a face. Don’t let him know. “You and my brother both know that I’m not a morning person.” I considered my words as Notch continued to stare me down. “Well, he knew. You still know.”
He patted my shoulder. “I’m serious. If you ever need anything—”
I nodded to cut him off. “I can come knock on your door. I know, I promise.”
I looked over at him and the expression on his face shocked me. He looked as if he were staring right through me, down into the pits of my soul. Did he know? Did he understand how far down the cartel rabbit hole I had gone after Sebastian was murdered in cold blood?
He and the club can help you. And that might open the door for you to explore that option more.
However, as I drew in a deep breath, a lilting voice came from Notch’s front lawn.
“Hey! You!”
Notch tore his eyes away from me. “Well, would you look at who’s rolled up onto my property.”
The young woman—Maya was her name—giggled as she waved at me. “Hey, Diego!”
I raised my hand softly. “Hey there.”
Notch stood to his feet and set his coffee mug down on the glass table in front of us. “Thanks for the caffeine, but I’m never one to keep a pretty girl waiting.”
I smirked. “Don’t be too much of a devil today.”
He pointed at me. “And don’t ever think you’re alone, even if you feel like it some days.”
We held each other’s eyes before I cleared my throat. “Where are you two headed?”
Notch stepped out from around the table. “That bar we own now, The Dive? Ever heard of it?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember you telling me about that a little while ago. Things going well?”
He walked over to the fence and hopped it effortlessly. “You should come by sometime. See it for yourself!”
And as he slid his arm around the shoulders of the very beautiful young woman that had beckoned for him, I thought that I just might do that.
Maybe I’ll take some of my free time today and head on over to see what was up with that place.
“Enjoying the coffee?”
A shiver ran down my spine as Notch’s bike kicked up.
He revved his engine and the smallest part of me wanted to jump up and flag him down.
I knew better than that, though. The cartel never came without weapons on their hips, and I had been stupid enough to leave my personal piece in my fucking bedside table before I came downstairs to make coffee.
So, I listened as Notch soared off into the distance before I stood and turned to face who had come up behind me so quietly.
“Yeah. Would you like some?” I asked.
The brutish-looking man grinned. “Nah, we’re good.”
I held out my arm. “Then, take a seat. I’m just finishing mine.”
“Actually,” another man dressed in all-black said, “this will only take a second.”
I drew in a sobering breath. “Very well. What does The Boss need?”
The original man clasped his hands in front of his body. “The Boss wants to know if you have any updates on the weapons that the Lost Boys have been selling.”
The man in the black suit nodded. “Mr. Carlos is very interested in knowing who they are selling to sooner rather than later.”
“And we figured since you live next door to one of their members, you might be able to dig into things a little bit.”
By ‘might be able to,’ they meant ‘you either do it, or you die.’
I didn’t let it intimidate me, though. “I don’t have an update for The Boss, no. My mother’s taken a turn for the worst over the past few days with her breast cancer, so I’ve been making various trips back and forth to the—”
The first man charged me, his hand wrapped around my throat as he ripped me out of my chair.
My coffee cup tumbled from my hands and crashed to the porch.
He squeezed my airway tighter and tighter; I coughed, trying to breathe, and it wasn’t until the man in the black suit tapped him on the shoulder that he shoved me back down into my chair.
Then, the black-suited man sat in front of me. “You know as well as I do that your mother’s condition depends on how well you do for us, right?”
My eye twitched. “I didn’t know that, no.”
The suited man chuckled. “He didn’t know that. Oh, you’ve always been so cute. Such a relief for all of us.”
He reached out and patted my cheek before he leapt to his feet.
“You get us what Mr. Carlos wants or you’ll see the same fate as your brother, God rest his soul. It’s a tragedy what happened to him, but tragedies happen every day. You know that, right?”
I clenched my jaw. “Right.”
“So,” the brutish man said as he hovered behind me, “you can either get us what we want tonight. Or you’ll be seeing us again very, very soon.”
I sighed. “Well, my neighbor just left to go to work, so I won’t be able to catch him until he gets back tonight. And that could be late.”
The suited man took a step back from me. “You know, that neighbor of yours used to be an EMT like your brother, right?”
I didn’t like where this was going. “Right.”
The suited man nodded to the guy standing behind me and it all happened so fast that I didn’t have time to react.
The instant he nodded, I heard a gun cocking, right before the silencer-muffled shot that tore into the lower part of my shoulder.
My eyes widened in pain. I gasped for air as blood slowly seeped down my back, too shocked to make a sound.
Both men chuckled while I coughed to catch my breath.
Then, the suited man grabbed my hair, forcing me to look up into his face. “I’d say your best bet is to go to him directly and ask him to patch you up. After all, it wouldn’t look good if you rolled up into a hospital while working for The Boss.”
He shoved me back into my seat and I cried out in pain.
The suited man cracked the back of his hand across my face, probably to shut me up, then the two of them headed inside and started slinging things around my house.
The pain left me breathless. I slid out of my chair and onto the porch as I tried to reconcile the position I had just been put in by those two raging assholes.
But they were right. The hospital would ask too many questions, especially with a gunshot wound.
So, I pulled myself up from the ground, hobbled out to my garage, and somehow managed to pull myself behind the wheel of my SUV.
I had to get to The Dive, and fast.