Chapter 23 West
TWENTY-THREE
WEST
I knocked on everyone’s door and told them to get up.
That I was calling church. That I had some important information on how to take down Carlos once and for all.
The men scrambled out of their rooms, jumping into pants and pulling shirts over their heads.
Stone wasn’t amused at all, but at that point I didn’t give a shit what he thought.
Chloe and I had done more to advance our plan than he had done in the months we’d been cooped up in the damn warehouse to begin with.
But I knew none of them would be happy once I started talking.
“Okay,” I said as I put on pots of coffee for all of us. “This is going to go better if you let me talk all the way through and then we do questions. Because it’s a hell of a lot, all right?”
Stone scoffed. “Does this explain why you and Chloe keep ditching us at every turn?”
“Actually, it does,” I said plainly before I put the laptop down on the kitchen table.
I turned it for all of them to see, but they all just shrugged.
“What the hell is that?” Texas asked.
That was when I launched into everything.
The files. What Chloe had found. The proof we had that Carlos was informing for the FBI.
Their jaws slowly hit the floor while the scent of coffee pulled all of us toward the kitchen countertop.
But once I started talking about Chad Baker and Chloe’s connection to him, Frost held up his hand.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait. Just—just wait a second. You’re telling me that Lexi knew that Chloe was running off to see an FBI agent?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
Texas’s eyes narrowed. “The same FBI agent that Carlos is informing for?”
I nodded again. “Yes.”
Stone growled. “And you didn’t think to tell us that someone in this fucking warehouse had a connection to the fucking FBI?”
They all erupted into a sea of yelling, cursing, and demanding.
I watched as Chloe peeked her head around the corner and I quickly shook my head, hoping to save her from the brunt of their anger.
She leaned against the doorway, folding her arms over her chest in defiance, just like I figured she would. But it was worth a shot.
So, I turned my attention back to the guys. “Hey! Shut the fuck up!”
They all went silent as Stone walked right up to my face. “You had no right.”
I nodded. “You’re right.”
Stone faltered. “What?”
I sighed. “You’re right. I should have come to you with the information that I knew when I knew it.
But you know that if I would have come to you, you would’ve tossed Chloe out on her ass, and we wouldn't have the information we do now. So, at least own up to your part in why I didn’t tell you in the first place and do better.
Just like you tell us to do. All right?”
His nostrils flared before he turned to face the rest of the guys. “The only way to stop Carlos now is to play his own game.”
“So,” Chloe said as she pushed off the doorframe, “I suggest we use the information we have to blackmail the son of a bitch.”
Stone raked his hand down his face. “This isn’t a meeting you should be in.”
I chuckled. “Trust me, she doesn’t care.”
Chloe pointed at me. “Bingo. Anyway, while I was sifting through the files this morning—oh, is that coffee? Don’t mind if I do—uh, where was I?
Yes, this morning. While I was going through the files this morning, that was the only thing I could think about.
We’ve got everything we need to blackmail that son of a bitch into the fucking ground. ”
I watched her reach for a mug out of the cabinet like she wasn’t surrounded by a bunch of angry, testosterone-fueled, gun-strapped men. And I loved how bold and brazen she became when she knew what the fuck she was talking about.
She poured herself a mug of coffee. “Because you know that if we threaten to tell his entire fucking cartel that he’s informing for the FBI, they’ll slaughter him. We can use that to our advantage.”
“I can’t believe Lexi knew,” Frost whispered.
Chloe giggled. “She didn’t know until she caught me sneaking out to go see Agent Baker the first time, so don’t beat yourself up. She was just protecting me. After all, the two of us have been family just a liiiiiittle bit longer than you two have.”
Puck pointed at me. “And if she’s an informant—or if she was informing at one point—the cartel can’t just kill all of us. There would be major consequences for that. For killing another informant.”
Stone sighed. “Let me give Clancy a call and see what the hell he thinks about all of this.”
I nodded toward his cell phone. “Put him on speaker, I’d like to hear what he has to say, too.”
“What, you don’t trust me or something?”
I shrugged. “Just want to make sure we don’t get wires crossed.”
The tension was palpable, but I wanted to make sure Stone didn’t pull some shady shit just to gain the upper hand with the guys again.
He hated being outplayed, but Chloe and I had done it and now we needed to keep the focus where our strength was, which was with all of this information we had downloaded.
Stone sucked air between his teeth as he dialed Clancy, and it didn’t take much explaining to the Irishman for him to bombastically approve of our plan.
“I tell ya, ye guys are some lucky ones. I can set up a meeting with Banderas. I want that bastard to suffer for the hell he’s rained down on my family. Wait for my message. I’ll let ye know when and where to meet.”
And less than ten minutes later, Clancy texted Stone with coordinates and a time.
For seven o’clock that evening.
“You think this is going to be too obvious?” Frost asked.
Stone slid his cell phone back into his pocket. “It’s our only chance. West?”
I nodded. “I’ll get the guns cleaned and our gear checked over.”
“Great. Everyone else? Prepare however you need to, then meet outside sharply at six-fifteen. We end this shit tonight.”
“West?” Chloe asked.
I strapped myself into the last of my bulletproof gear before I turned to face her. “Yeah, Chlo?”
She sighed heavily. “You’re coming back, right?”
I chuckled as I slid my shirt over my head. “I always come back.”
“I’m being serious.”
My gaze found hers once more. “So am I.”
The worry was prevalent on her face, but there was something else. Not quite fear, and nowhere near regret. It almost looked like…
Unease.
“Hey, it’s okay,” I said as I walked over to her.
I sat beside her on the edge of the bed and wrapped my arm around her shoulders.
“I promise I’m coming back. Okay?”
She nodded softly. “Okay.”
I kissed the top of her head. “We’re going to take this meeting, we’re going to be quick about it, and when I come back, we are going to be free to live however we want to.”
“And how is it that you want to live?”
She looked up at me, her eyes pleading with me.
They begged me to say the words we both knew were rushing around in my head.
But I didn’t want to do that to her. I didn’t want to say those three little words that would change everything, and then end up getting shot in the fucking head like an asshole.
So, I bit them back and saved them for a more appropriate time. “I’m coming back, Chloe.”
She swallowed hard. “Okay.”
I stood to my feet. “Try to keep yourself distracted, and we’ll be home before you know it.”
And as she mindlessly nodded her head, I almost regretted having to leave her.
But the guys and I had a war to win.
“Let’s go,” I said the second I closed the bedroom door behind me.
Stone nodded. “You think she’s gonna stay put this time?”
I shot him a look. “You leave that to me, like I leave Hayley to you.”
His eyebrows rose a bit. “Interesting comparison, seeing as how the relationships are a bit different.”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on, you pain in the ass.”
He barked with laughter, but it was business the second we got outside. We piled our asses into the van and headed straight for our destination, which was yet another abandoned warehouse.
“What happened to the good ol’ days when people met up in restaurants so the shootouts didn’t happen?” Texas asked.
Frost chuckled. “The bad guys started not caring, so we had to care for them.”
“Hear fucking hear,” Stone whispered.
The ride flew by and before I could even wrap my head around what the hell was about to happen, the van came to a stop.
The van doors opened at Texas’s command, and I watched as a crowd of cartel motherfuckers gathered behind him.
We all clamored out into the setting sun, touching down on the broken concrete of the parking lot of said abandoned warehouse.
And that suited asshole parted the crowd like he was fucking Moses.
“Well, well, well,” he said as he slid his hands into his suit pockets. “Nice to see you all. West, good to see you again.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek as Stone stepped to the forefront of the group. “Carlos?”
The man nodded. “You’re lucky that Clancy and I are such good friends.”
And that was when Clancy and his sons stepped out from the shadows and formed a semi-circle around the backside of Carlos’ crew.
“I wouldn’t put it that way,” Clancy said.
Carlos’ men withdrew their guns, which caused us to do the same. But Stone and Carlos both put their hands in the air, commanding everyone to hold their position.
“So, what is it you want? Have you finally come to surrender?” Carlos asked.
Stone sighed. “No, actually. We’ve just come to let you know that we know your secret.”
The man chuckled. “And what secret would that be?”
“The Baker Secret,” I said.
Carlos’s stare flickered to mine, but his face didn’t give way. “I’m unsure of what you speak about.”
Stone chuckled. “We figured you might be.”
Clancy walked up and placed his gun to Carlos’s temple, turning many of his men’s guns toward his own form. “Which is why we’ve brought proof that we know you’re informing for the FBI.”
“What?” one of his men asked.
Carlos scoffed. “How stupid do you think I am?”
I pulled out my phone that I had transferred some of the documents to and I pulled up the email in question. I stretched it out for him to see, and the second he squinted his eyes, his face reddened.
“That is forged. I don’t know who the hell that’s from, but it isn’t me,” Carlos hissed.
“Really?” I asked as I pulled the phone back to my own face, “because I swear this is your email. Want me to read it to you? It’s from upper-case-X-lower-case-x-upper-case-B—.”
“Hey, that’s his email,” someone whispered.
I grinned. “Want me to read what the email says? I’m sure your men will find it… enlightening.”
Stone slowly lowered his arm back down to his side. “You’re an informant for an agent by the name of Chad Baker. We have your files. We cracked the passwords. We have everything we need to spread throughout the community so that everyone knows the kind of rat that leads them.”
His goons’ guns faltered as the anger grew in the man’s voice. “You have nothing. Nothing, you hear me? And even if it were true—which it isn’t—the beauty of being an informant is that I can let the FBI know what I want, and in exchange? They let me get away with murder.”
Stone looked back at me. “You hear that? Informants can get away with murder. Does that apply to our informant?”
Carlos blinked. “What informant?”
I nodded. “I’m pretty sure it does, Stone. What do you think, Clancy?”
The Irishman cocked his gun. “Yep, pretty sure we all play by the same rules sometimes.”
“Shoot them! Now!” Carlos roared.
And just like that, guns popped off left and fucking right.