Page 33 of Freeing Hawk
“Can you not pretend it didn’t happen?” Hawk asked. “You’ve been acting strange this morning.”
I said nothing. Inhaling deeply, I hunched beside her and kissed her deeply. “I’m good. Eat, then we’ll see what Tex found.”
“We good?”
I nodded. “We better than good.” Hawk smiled and focused on her breakfast.
Tiberius stayed with her the entire time. She snuck him pieces of bacon and I would assume now she’s his newest favorite person. The last woman I tried dating couldn’t stand Tiberius. She told me it was either her or my pup. Needless to say, Tiberius still in my bed at nights.
“Angel, I have no clue where my badge is.” Hawk called from the top of the stairs. “Could you look into the sofa cushions?”
I quirked a brow and did as she asked. I found it lying on the floor. “Found it.”
“Damn.” She muttered joining me in the kitchen.
When I handed it to her, she kissed me—I figured it was her way of saying thanks, then hurried to find Tiberius. I listened to her talk to him and giggled. She usually did that when he gave her kisses. Once she was satisfied, we headed back to Engine-O-Con.
Chapter 7
Hawk
During a break, we all locked ourselves in Nikau’s office and began going through everything with Tex. Turned out Carl was more into the cars than the cocaine. He was a promising racer, loved the sport. He was on a fast track toward NASCAR—then he had a falling out with the owner of the team he was being groomed for. After that, it seemed the jerk went out of his way to blacklist Carl.
No reputable team would have him afterward.
I almost felt sorry for him.
“How many times has he been collard?” I asked Tex.
“Four.”
“Drug tested each time?”
Tex nodded. “Clean every time. I think he was just forced into a bad situation after he got blacklisted from Carmine.”
“As much as I want to dislike the guy.” Nikau cleared his throat while dropping the pile of papers he’d been going through on the desk. “It just seems like all he wants to do is drive.”
We all murmured our agreement.
Tex traced money being deposited into his account but lost track of it in Switzerland, which infuriated me. They had been smart. It would take Tex till kingdom come to untangle where the money was coming from. It seemed whoever Carl worked for had routed the money through so many places, Tex had sent a fist into a wall
“I’m coming down there.” Tex said.
“You’re welcome to crash at me.” Angel offered.
“Cool.” Tex grinned. “While I get it together, I’ve sent you all the information I have about a trail of dirty cars coming into the US through Texas from Mexico. They use ex-racers who know the game.”
I rubbed my eyes. “Still no trace on Kingston?”
“Nothing.” Tex replied. “But I think if we follow the cars, it’ll lead us right back to the boss who probably knows where Kingston is.”
“I’ve been doing some checking through my files.” Nikau set some pages on the table. “Carl was working here at the show for a distributor of car parts out of Mexico called Automóvil. They have no branches in the US. Their head office is in Guadalupe.”
“Which means they are probably coming through Tornillo.” I nodded while digging through the papers Nikau had given me. “But how? It’s tent city—there’s military all over the—okay. So, Kingston, may have gone into Mexico.”
I closed my eyes. A large hand rested against my back and rubbed. I looked up to see it was Angel and I had to smile at him.
“I still have footage to get through,” Tex explained. “Oh—remember that Japanese wording on the back of your poster?”
