Page 15 of Ricochet

CHAPTER EIGHT

Adelia stared at her trigger finger and swayed in her heels, wondering if every assumption she’d made about what Tex had taught her had been wrong. What if he didn’t want to teach her the inner workings of Mayhem because that was the only way he knew how to be a good Pops? What if he allowed her to hold her own in a club shootout because he was training her for a higher purpose?What if…

“The way you’re staring at your hand isn’t giving me the warm and fuzzies.” Seven eased closer. “We love Lenora, and we’ve always taken most her ideas with the caveat that she’s batshit crazy and probably playing.”

“True.” Adelia dropped her hand, rubbing her palm on her hip as though she could feel the recoil of a weapon firing in her hand and vibrating down her forearm.

“Adelia?”

She snapped to focus. “Yeah. Sorry—ready?”

Seven held out her hand. “Of course, I am. But remember, short of telling Tex what we’ve done…”

Adelia groaned because they both knew that’d never happen.

Seven added with a serious dose of side eye. “We’ve tapped all the people we know in our network who can help us. We can’t get much bigger.”

Adelia leaned into her friend’s arm, taking the supportof the woman she should be celebrating right now. “Maybe there’s another way to look at it. We could take out hits on pimps? Loop in the MC and blow out the tires on transport operations?”

Seven laughed as they turned out the office light and shut the door. “All very logical possibilities.”

“What’s the equivalent in the human trafficking world for a cartel lieutenant?” Adelia didn’t know enoughabout the world she wanted to end. Maybe that was her first problem. She’d realized years ago that she could help trafficked woman by saving them from traffickers and relocating them rather than simply trying to take out small cogs in a powerful wheel. Turning over the networks to investigators wouldn’t help as many people as she could help long term. The only thing she’d accomplish would be toquickly dry up her access to traffickers’ networks. “I don’t even know what they call their upper echelon. It’s not like a drug lord? A people lord? Nope.”

“I know why you want to do this,” Seven said. “I know you were born to make a difference. You came to Mayhem for a reason. And you’re doing it, hon.”

They walked down the dim hallway that opened into a wider one where the meeting rooms wereand led into the parlor. “Mayhem’s the largest, most powerful organization in the country.” They stopped next to a pool table. “Maybe Lenora’s right that we’re playing footsie with traffickers when we could be taking them out.”

“It won’t work.” Seven put her hands on Adelia’s shoulders. “We’ve watched Hawke spend more than two years trying to untangle Mayhem from drug cartels, and god, we’reso close. But Mayhem’s still stuck in so many ways.”

She bit her lip. Seven knew far better than Adelia how hard Mayhem had tried to untangle itself from the drug game. They’d tried negotiating out of contracts, subcontracting, and outright lying. They’d made huge progress and had unexpected setbacks, but they were powerful and still weren’t free years after the club voted. “It’d be similar,huh?”

“I’d have to guess so.” Seven let her hands drop. “If you take out one source, another one would pop up. We could target the tractor trailers on Interstate Ninety-Five, and they’ll go up the east coast on Interstate Eighty-One. Or blow up every port in Louisiana, and they’ll head to Florida.”

Adelia nodded shook her head. “Similar to weapons.”

Seven lifted a shoulder. “I’d have to guessso. If someone shuts down the holes with US Customs Agents on cartel payroll in Mexico, the cartels will find new border patrol agents to leverage, new families, new blackmail—”

“Forget about it.” Adelia needed to get Seven to her party. “We’ve got places to go.”

Seven wasn’t hard to pull out the front door. Adelia could tell she was still lost in thought. “We need to shake this out of our systembefore we show up.”

“I’ll be fine.”

Stepping into the parking lot, she cast a concerned eye at her friend. “Jax will kick my butt from the park to the compound and back again if you’re moping.”

Seven half-laughed. “One last thought, and then I’m done.”

“Sure.” It wasn’t as if Adelia could say no. Her mind never stopped when it came to the topic of traffickers.

“I have a friend of a friend.”Seven paused as they parted get in Adelia’s car. Once they were both seated inside and Seven buckled in, she continued, “Her family had a corporate conglomerate that owned many things, and the purpose had been to hide their most profitable product.”

Adelia’s fingers wrapped around her car keys. “People?”

Seven bleakly nodded. “People are unlike drugs and weapons in many ways. They don’t haveto be farmed, cultivated, or produced.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because I’ve had years to struggle with Mayhem… much like our talks about Lenora.”

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