Page 60 of Savage King

“Who?” Trouble, Fang, and Odin all asked at the same time.

Rather than answer, AFK hit a button on his laptop and spun the screen around to face them.

“Shit, shit, fuck!” Fang snarled.

Alarmed, Skathi stood up, her body shaking. “Who is that?”

“That is Jose Melgar, the right-hand man to Alfanzo Madrigal,” Odin supplied.

“Should that mean something?”

“It means that this is the Chavez Cartel,” Trouble ground out, slamming his fist against the table.

“A cartel is targeting me, the range, and those girls?”

“As far as I can tell from a deeper dive, I’ve found several pieces of property across the city that have gone up for sale…after experiencing catastrophic accidents, some even fatal. The buyers are all shell companies that can be traced back to Madrigal.”

“So, Alfanzo is trying to get out from under Manuello’s thumb and start his own operations. But what? Trafficking? Women and guns?” Trouble pondered.

“Him targeting the range and the girls would make sense then, but why me? Because I work at the range?” She sat back down, poring over her memory of what the three men were saying as they took Tessa. “No…wait. They were talking about Odin…about his woman.” She glanced up at him, his face ashen. “I think they wanted to take me in order to get to you. Use me as bait or some kind of preemptive strike.”

“That fucker has always had a hard on for us. He never liked that Chavez preferred to stay out of our way rather than get in our business. Now, he’s trying to stir shit up. Probably hoping to take out Chavez, grab his piece of Vegas, and make his millions with gun powder and stolen women.”

There was a beat of silence as all the information swimming around settled. Then, “So how do we find out where the girls are being kept?”

AFK’s fingers were flying again. “I am checking real estate records for any new property purchases using the same shell companies. If Madrigal is looking to start trafficking through Vegas, he’s going to need a base of operations. A warehouse in an industrial area, or out in the middle of nowhere, where he can hide his dirty deeds. And where no one can hear the women screaming.”

Tessa’s terrified screams echoed through Skathi’s head. “We have to find her,” she croaked. “Tessa’s all tough on the outside, but she’s already been through so much in her life. This…this might break her.”

Fang cursed, throwing his hands behind his head to thread his fingers together.

“Si le hace daño a mi pequeña luchadora voy a besarlo lento,”he murmured to himself, his voice gritty with his emotions.

Skathi blinked at him…not sure she was understanding correctly. He called Tessahislittle fighter…and was threatening to kill anyone who hurt her.

Before she could ask him what he meant, AFK interrupted her.

“Got it! There’s a warehouse in Tule Springs. It’s part of a cluster of buildings used to hold old gaming equipment. Most of them are in probate or owned by casinos, but there’s one caddy-corner from the property that is privately owned. It might have a camera we can used to get a better look at Madrigal’s operations.

“Do it,” Odin ordered, but AFK was already hurriedly working.

Not even two minutes later, the address and a satellite image of the property were up on the monitors. As the men filed downstairs, Skathi followed, her mind, heart, and body in turmoil.

“Where the hell is Trucker?” Fang demanded, his face a mask of intense anger and determination. Not that she knew the man all that well, but the few times she’d spent time with him, he’d never seemed so…hard. So focused.

Tessa’s in danger.The man might be an unrepentant flirt, but he had a soft spot for her best friend. And her best friend, despite her bravado, had been charmed by the Latin lothario in leather.

Grimm answered from his station at the bar. For the last hour, he’d been handing out waters and coffees, knowing the brothers needed clear heads rather than grain alcohol. “He took Bonnie home. She was wringin’ her hands and pacin’, anxious as all get out. Trucker figured she needed to rest.”

Odin nodded. “It’s best that she’s not here. We have no idea what condition those girls will be in once we get them back, so Bonnie needs to be ready.”

“Trucker meeting us back here? We’ll need all hands on deck for this,” Trouble remarked, scrubbing his big hand down his face, weariness making his large frame droop.

They were all weary. All tired and anxious. And Skathi was terrified that her best friend was being tortured or raped—or she was dead.

No! Don’t think like that!She had to be okay. Because if she wasn’t, there wouldn’t be a place in the world where Alfanzo Madrigal could hide where Skathi couldn’t find him, flush him out, and eviscerate him.

Quiet rage bubbled up inside her and she whimpered, the pain in her head not having subsided completely yet.

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