69. Chapter 69
Mary’s devastated face cuts me clean through before she turns and heads further into the clubhouse. I stare after her and I can feel my heart being squeezed like a vice.
“How dare you keep Mary from her family like this!” Mae damn near yells as she glares at me and pokes me hard in the chest.
Quickly, I glance around, but there’s no one else out here but us. At least that I can see.
“Mae, you don’t know what we’re planning or the decisions that were made,” I tell her but that just seems to make her angrier.
“Futtenfarter! You have no idea what you just implied, do you?”
I go to answer her, but she just continues her rant, cutting me off.
“You just insinuated that you had more right to her family than she did. Her own flesh and blood. How could you?”
“Sunshine, there are things at play here that you don’t understand,” Timber starts but the glare she shoots him stops him short.
“Don’t you ‘Sunshine’ me. You guys promised you wouldn’t do what you did to Levi with the whole mess with Dragon’s ex to anyone else, but here you are doing it again. And this time, Levi’s in on it, too!”
Shame rolls through me at her words because she’s right. Several of us, myself and Levi included, voiced that today as well. Ultimately, it came down to the fact that Antonio and her uncles didn’t want to put more on Mary and would rather risk her wrath by keeping her safe.
“You all should be ashamed of yourself for how you’re treating that poor girl.” She pauses, her chest heaving as she levels her glare at me again. “And you best hope that when you come back, she’s even willing to listen to whatever excuses you’ve all come up with to keep her away from her family.”
Ice slides down my spine as my worry intensifies.
“I get you’re trying to protect her from whatever your plan entails, but the way you’re going about it is wrong and you know it. You’ve kept her at arm’s length all week and she’s feeling the pain of it. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to be cut out by the person you love and the family you’ve come to love?”
I freeze and I wonder if Timber’s said anything to Mae about our plans, but his confused look has me thinking either Mae’s somehow guessed what our plan was regarding Mary or if she’s thinking this is some male macho protector bullshit we’re pulling.
She spins on her heel and stalks back into the kitchen, fuming and muttering curses the entire way.
At the main door, I once again look back, hoping to see Mary, but Mae is the only one in the kitchen, angrily putting all their supplies away.
As the door shuts behind me, I can’t help but thinking, yet again, that we’re making a major mistake.
We’ve been sitting here for hours overlooking the abandoned warehouse from our perch up by the control room, but there’s no movement whatsoever.
I don’t have a good feeling about this.
Again.
On top of that, I’m still torn up about how things went with Mary earlier. Her devastated face when she thought we were keeping her from her family downright killed me. Not to mention what Mae said right afterward.
I only said that last part for the ears we thought were listening in on us. Since last week, we’ve been having people walking the perimeter more in hopes of preventing a repeat, and Ethan had come to us earlier today saying he’d seen someone’s footprints. Smaller footprints that he thought were most likely a womans.
The information spurred us into changing our plan a bit, and Smoke ran through the security footage again with a fine-tooth comb, looking for any clues, but he came up dry. Either the person is like a fucking ghost, or they’re messing with our cameras.
Shaking my head, I look around the warehouse with another sigh.
Down below, Antonio and Lorenzo are standing close to each other, where if someone was looking in on them, it would look like they were just quietly conversing as they waited for someone to show up. Antonio’s even got his jacket pulled back to show a bit of Mateo’s eared dagger he’s carrying. Something we know Diego is desperately wanting. Around the room, their guards are standing in position like they normally would in a similar scenario.
A few feet away from me, Mateo catches my eye and frowns as he shakes his head, pointing to his watch, and I nod.
For some reason, Diego isn’t taking our bait, even though we’d left enough clues that it should have enticed him to come here.
A phone pings, and I look back toward Antonio and Lorenzo. The rest of our phones are on silent, so it’s either one of theirs or their guards.
Antonio curses and when his gaze meets mine, my blood runs cold.
Mary .
Instantly I’m on my feet and hurrying as fast as I can down the stairs to him. “What’s happened? What’s wrong?” I bark as I cross the room to him.
Instead of answering me, he turns his phone toward me.
You think you’re so clever with your little trap, but you don’t realize that I was already ten steps ahead of you. If you want her back, you’ll give me back what’s rightfully mine and step down to make way for a new leader of the family. Me. Once I have what should have been mine, then you can have your pathetic Rosebud back.
The phone pings again and this time it’s a picture of Mary unconscious and her good ankle is chained to a wall.
My chest heaves as I take in Mary’s prone figure, sprawled on the cement floor. She’s wearing my t-shirt and some shorts, which has a bit of hope spurring in my chest that I haven’t royally fucked things up with her.
I look up at the sound of someone crossing the room to see Thor and Smoke approaching us. “What’s happened?”
Antonio shows them his phone and Smoke pulls out his laptop, getting to work.
“How the fuck did they get into the clubhouse? And get her out?” Thor grits out.
My stomach churns the more Smoke’s frown deepens.
“Whoever it is, is dressed entirely in black with a mask and everything. Seems they’ve been watching our patrols carefully. They slipped in the back and used the lift. I can’t see if they did anything or drugged her when they got into your room,” he pauses as he looks up at me, “which they somehow knew exactly which one was yours. They’re only in there for a matter of minutes before they come out with Mary slung over their shoulder and leaves the way they came in. From the outside cameras, they headed south this time toward the edge of our property and disappeared.”
“The kids. Are they safe?”
He nods as his fingers fly over the keyboard. “Yes, they are.” After a few moments, his brow furrows in confusion. “Uh, Antonio and Mateo, you aren’t going to believe this.”
He turns his laptop around and on one side of the screen is an aerial shot with a red dot in the middle of a grouping of trees. On the other is a street map.
Wait.
I turn toward Antonio and Mateo and see anger etched on both their faces.
“They took her to my house,” Antonio growls, which is immediately followed by a stream of Spanish curses.
Ten minutes away. We’re ten minutes away from them.
That said, how long have they had Mary?
And what have they done to her since getting their hands on her?
“Then we have to assume they took control or neutralized your men,” Thor says.
Antonio’s face hardens. “Most likely. Or at least some of them, anyway. By the location of her tracker, I believe she’s in one of the cells. Smoke, use the access I gave you and tap into our cameras. I think I know what he did.”
Smoke takes back his computer as he gets to work, and Antonio shares a look with Mateo before looking at each of us.
“My guess is that Diego somehow snuck into his section of the estate. That shouldn’t have been possible, though, unless he got to more of my guards. The tunnels that lead to the cells are linked to our panic rooms. I say rooms, but they are more like multiple control areas, and they are linked to the other panic areas as well as a storage area and the cells. All of it is underground. In his section of the estate, there are two ways to get inside. If I’m not mistaken, that location her tracker is pinging from is by the northern entrance.”
Smoke nods. “You are correct. Either your man watching your cameras is just an unlucky SOB who is just barely missing seeing them, or he’s being paid off by Diego. He darted six of your men and he’s got them all locked up not too far from Mary.
“Bad news is that Cici and Claudia are bound and gagged in the cell next to Mary’s. Even worse is that I can also see Eileen and Carmen down there with him. Leon’s there as well. There’s also another person with them, but they are sticking to the shadows. I can’t see his or her face.”
“Are Carlos and Isaac with them?”
Smoke scans the screens. “I don’t think so unless they are hiding somewhere or in a room that doesn’t have cameras.”
“What about their men? Anyone guarding the exits?”
“As of right now, there’s two men outside of the rear entrance, which is where Diego broke in. Four are guarding the entrance into the tunnels. Then there are three outside of where Diego and the others are, however I think one of them isn’t one of Diego’s men.”
I frown. “What makes you say that?”
“Well, for one, this guy is actually paying attention. Two, he’s dressed differently and carries himself differently. More refined. And three, he’s not waving a gun around like a fucking toddler.”
Antonio and Mateo, almost in unison, step around behind Smoke and they both shake their heads.
“He is not one of ours, but I think I know whose he is. And if he’s who I think he is, then we’ve got a wild card on our hands that could help us.”
“Do you think she’s still helping the feds?” Mateo asks and Antonio’s lips purse in a tight line before giving a curt nod.
“Last I heard, she was, but I do not know how much longer she will be able to last the way she’s going without her father realizing what she’s doing.”
“Will you two stop talking in fucking riddles?!” I growl, getting extremely frustrated that we aren’t planning on how to get Mary back from them without the three of them slipping away again. “Who is this mysterious person? And who is their father?”
Antonio gives me a sharp look as he straightens, but I’m not on his fucking payroll. What matters is Mary, and after a moment, I think he realizes that as well as he gives me a curt, sharp nod.
“Alexis Sanchez. The daughter of the infamous Alejandro Sanchez.”
I stumble back as bile rises in my throat at what CJ mentioned he liked to do to his new ‘pets’. “Is he Mary’s new owner that Stephan mentioned?” I ask no one in particular, but so far, that’s all I can think of.
Mateo clasps my shoulder. “He may very well be, but if Alexis is still working against Alejandro, that can turn in our favor. Especially since I’m sure you already know of Carolina’s true whereabouts when her brothers sold her.”
I narrow my eyes at him. We never told him any of that shit.
“What? Do you think I’m not going to look into the club that my favorite niece will be tying herself to in the near future? Relax. Other than Cici not knowing her foster brother’s true intentions and accidentally spilling some of your secrets when she confronted him, you have no moles.”
“And when the fuck were you going to tell us about this shit with Cici?” Thor roars as he gets up in Mateo’s face.
For his credit, Mateo doesn’t even blink or flinch as Thor stares him down.
“Relax, Thor. I found out an hour ago when my man who I had trailing her texted me. However, since we were here and waiting, I couldn’t very well tell you all, now, could I? My man tried following this Leon character, but he lost him in traffic.”
Exhaling slowly, I try to focus my mind like I would before starting a shift at the hospital. After a few moments, I feel a bit more in control of my emotions. I cannot go off half-cocked right now. If I do, I could put Mary in even greater danger.
Looking up at Thor, Phoenix, Devil, Smoke, Mateo, and then Antonio, I nod.
“Let’s make a plan. I am not losing my woman again.”