Page 25 of Gabe
Carlos sits forward, clasping his hands together between his spread knees. “I’ve been looking for that fucker for months now.”
“Why?” I grab Gabe’s hand and lace my fingers with his.
“Because my wife finally told me what he did to her when she was sixteen. My wife is older than Hannah and was worried that something was happening to her after a visit to their family home. I started looking for Hannah but couldn’t find much information on her. It was like she fell off the face of the earth.Then, three days ago, she popped back up, and the man I had hired to find her called me.”
“So, that’s how you found Hannah, but what I want to know is how you found me?”
“Yeah, I’d like to know that as well,” Reed says for the first time.
“Hannah told me about you and what you did for her. She was in the process of showing me how to contact you when I got a phone call. I was surprised to hear Elio Altobelli on the other end talking about someone throwing a Molotov cocktail into the back of his adoptive daughter’s truck. I asked him why he thought it was me or my men?—”
“Are you saying that it wasn’t you?” Gabe asks, moving to sit on the arm of the chair without letting go of my hand.
Carlos cuts his eyes toward Gabe. “It was not.”
“But—” Carlos raises his hand, cutting me off.
“Elio told me all about Dean and what he did to you,” Carlos says, his eyes coming back to rest on me. They turn soft and fill with concern. “Tara, please believe me when I say that I’m deeply sorry for what happened to you at the hands of Dean.”
“So you’re not here because?—”
Carlos looks toward Reed and shakes his head. “I’m not here for anything other than the fact that Tara helped Hannah. I know what happened to Dean. Elio filled me in this morning. I jumped on my plane and came straight here to talk to Tara in person.”
“I take it you didn’t have a good relationship with Dean then?” Jessie asks, finally moving from behind me to sit in the other chair.
Carlos leans back and crosses his arms. “I’ve had no relationship with him for almost three years. Don Bianchi reached out to me three years ago and offered an alliance, which I took. I left my wife, Dean, and my kids in Mexico for a fewmonths to iron out all the details with Bianchi. Until my wife called me one night saying that Dean had come onto her, and when she refused, he got violent. I ordered my men to handle him, but he got away. I let him go when my men contacted a company that helped move my family to Chicago for me.”
“Can I ask why I found nothing about this alliance while looking into you?” I ask, shocked that something like that would be kept a secret.
“You can ask, but I’m not going to answer,” Carlos says.
“Understandable. So, you had no idea Dean was back in the States?”
Carlos sighs before saying, “None and that is something I will regret for the rest of my life. When he never once contacted me for help, I assumed he knew that was best for him and left it be. When Elio told me what he did to you and what he tried to do to your Ali, Reed…”
“Don’t tell me you felt responsible because, as I’ve told everyone here, what Dean did does not fall on anyone but him,” I say, cutting Carlos off.
Carlos nods and says, “That is true, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t have prevented this from happening. However, Dean paid the ultimate price, and I instructed Elio to get rid of his body. While he is blood I feel nothing in the wake of his death. Now, enough about people who don’t matter anymore, and onto why I’m here.” Carlos leans forward and pins his gaze solely on me once again.
“What do you want?”
“I want to help you find all the answers you are looking for, but I am also here to offer you a place in my family.”
“Over my dead body,” Reed says.
At the same time, Gabe says, “I think the fuck not.”
Carlos doesn’t look at either one of them, and neither do I. “While I appreciate your offer to become a member of your family, I’m going to have to pass.”
Carlos doesn’t look shocked to hear my answer. Instead, he slowly smiles and shakes his head. “I figured that would be your answer, but I had to try anyway. What you do for women is inspiring, and I’m sad that you will not be joining me. Elio is a lucky man to have someone like you in his family.”
“She’s my family,” Gabe growls.
I pat his leg hoping to calm him down. I raise an eyebrow and narrow my eyes on Carlos. “Are you telling me that as not only a leading member of the Mexican Cartel but an ally to the Italian Mafia, you don’t?—”
“I’m not a saint. Drugs, guns, illegal gambling… You name it, and I’ve got my hands in it, but the abuse of women or selling of women… Yeah, that will never happen under my watch. We might own sex clubs but our girls are always treated with the utmost respect and have the control to shut anything down. No woman or child will ever be hurt under my watch. Now, about helping you,” Carlos says.
“Once again, I’m going to have to?—”
