“Then Matt slammed on the brakes and cornered fast. Damn, didn’t know my car could move like that. Went aroundit on two wheels. Whoever was after us couldn’t keep up.” He pauses for breath. “Matt took us off in a different direction, moving like a racing driver. Pretty sure we lost him.”
Well, great. The whole club knows. Drummer’s standing in the entrance to the kitchen, he looks over, meeting my eye. “Mouse, Drew. My office. Now.” As he stomps past me he pauses. “We need the prospect?”
“Nah. He’s already briefed me.”
Drummer goes behind his desk. “So, someone’s on the lookout for you, Drew, or perhaps Mariana’s the target if they don’t know what’s happened to her. Let’s go through the obvious first. D’you know if your sister owed money? Left a bill unpaid?”
Drew shakes his head adamantly. “Ma never wanted to draw any attention to herself. All the utilities were prepaid. Even the trailer rent’s paid up until the end of next month. She never borrowed money.”
Prez presses his lips together. As he goes to question Drew again, I stop him. “Matt tells me you got a letter that put you in a bit of a state. Care to tell us what it was?”
As an answer, he reaches into his pocket and passes it over. “It’s from, or supposed to be from, Mariana.”
Taking it, I slide the paper out of the envelope. “You think it’s not?” As I read it, at first it seems like an excited letter from a sister who’s reunited with her father. A relative her opinions seem to have done a one-eighty of. Credible, perhaps. She could hardly remember her days in Colombia, relying on her mom’s word about why she left. After I read it, I pass it to Drummer.
If Devil hadn’t warned us this Procurer fucker was after his son, we might have taken it at face value. But armed with that information, the letter sounds wrong.
“It’s the signature,” Drew interrupts my thoughts and Drummer’s perusal. “She’s Ma to me, not Mariana. She’d neversign a letter anything else. And we only ever called Mom, Mom. And Father wasn’t even Dad, let alone Papa. Mariana wouldn’t change that. Not when she’s addressing me. Someone else wrote it. Had to have done.”
“It says she wants you to visit, to get to know your father,” Drummer sums up. His eyes flick to mine.
Drew’s eyes fill with tears. “Mariana would never have told anyone where I was living.” His excitement at the car chase seems to have faded. “If my father forged the letter, he also got my address out of her.” His gaze meets mine. “What if they’ve hurt her, Mouse? What if I’d been at the trailer…”
“They trashed the trailer, presumably looking for clues as to where Drew is. It would have been obvious no one’s living there now,” I inform Drummer, the piece of the puzzle he doesn’t yet know. Then I fix my gaze on Drew, and place my hand on his shoulder, my fingers squeezing momentarily. “You weren’t there. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Prez pulls his shoulders back and fixes his stare on the kid. “We,” he corrects, pointing at me. “Mouse is your legal guardian. That makes you part of the club. One of ours. And we protect our own. Matt did good getting you out of there today. No one’s going to take you and force you to do something you don’t want to. Not when every man in this club is at your back.”
Drew’s eyes widen. His stunned expression making me remember all he’s ever had to rely on before was Mariana. He looks overcome for a moment. All he can stammer out is, “Thanks, Drummer.”
“As for your sister,” Prez continues as though he hadn’t spoken. “She was probably tricked in some way. Don’t worry yourself too much. My bet is that your father will try to use her to tempt you to Colombia.” Now he lightens his voice. “I hear fried chicken’s on the menu. After the excitement you’re probably hungry. Why not go and get something to eat?”
I almost laugh when Drew licks his lips. Yeah, Prez understands how to distract a teenage boy.
“I’ll be there in a minute.” My words echo Drummer’s. Subtle instruction to leave us alone.
When the door has closed behind him, I turn over the envelope I hold in my hands. “They might have fucked up, Prez. There’s a postmark on it. Bit indistinct, but I’ll see what I can do to sharpen it up.”
“Won’t give us a precise location, but the area could be a start.” Prez strokes his beard, I give him time. He stands, his body flanked by the large Satan’s Devils flag which hangs behind his desk. “Liaise with Devil, will you?” His comment is unnecessary. That was the first thing I was going to do.
Drummer paces, then halts. “I’m going to speak to Matt. See if he’s certain he lost him.”
“Prospect seemed pretty certain he had.”
“Nevertheless, got to beef up security, Mouse. Don’t want any fucker getting near the compound.”
“What about Drew going to school? He’ll be vulnerable. They could snatch him off the campus.”
Suddenly Drummer swings around and leans his hands on the desk. “Don’t like not knowing where and when they are going to hit. If there’s just one, or more. Could Mariana’s father have contacts he can call on? If he’s working with the Herreras, we could have trouble on our hands.”
The Herreras are the crime family in Tucson, with links to Los Zetas, the cartel. Prez has made a good point. If they’re in bed withEl Procurador, we could be in a heap of trouble.
“I’ll speak to Devil. He might know if there’s any connection. I’ll also do some diggin’ myself.”
“If they’re not, and we’ve got a lone fucker or two trying to get their hands on the boy? I don’t like letting shit just happen. I like to be in the driver’s seat. Kid’s reliable, seen that already.Your woman brought him up right. All the shit that’s gone down? He’s handled it. We get him covered, then let them approach him. We’ll bring ‘em back here and get them to give us some info.”
Closing my eyes, I picture what Prez is suggesting. Snapping them open, I reply, “Don’t like putting the kid in danger. But it could help get information on the precise location Mariana’s being held.” The postmark could help some, but not the detail. I’ve enough confidence in my brothers that they’ll make any man we capture speak.
“Find out what we might be up against, Mouse. But if we can rule out them getting help from the Herreras, that’s the course of action I’d prefer. Fuck with them, before they fuck with us. And Drew? That kid doesn’t go off the compound unless we’ve got brothers as well as a prospect with him.”
