Page 63 of Loving Smoke

“It means I’ll deal with him the way I’d deal with anyone who disrupts my business.”

Suddenly, I was afraid of the man who stood before me. A man who readily confessed and bragged about murderous acts. A man I realized I never knew. I had to get out of here. I had to warn Smoke.

I backed toward the door as my heart thumped hard against my ribs and the overwhelming instinct to run engulfed me. I had to escape. I pulled out my phone and swiped at the screen.

My father’s hand slipped under his desk and two seconds later two of his bodyguards appeared blocking the office door.

I spun around, my eyes wide. “You’re going to hold me prisoner—or maybe have your men kill me too.”

“Don’t be so dramatic.” He rounded his desk. “We’ve come too far for me to let your silly emotions get in the way of the master plan.”

He nodded to his men. “Keep her here until I give you further orders.” Then he moved past me and out the door like I didn’t exist.

Juan and Carlos shadowed my father daily. They rarely spoke to me, but I wasn’t going to let them intimidate me.

“This is ridiculous.” I tried to move around them. “I’m not staying here.”

Juan plucked the phone out of my hand. “You won’t be needing this.”

I lunged for it and he placed his huge hand on my shoulder. “Please don’t make us hurt you, Miss Marisol.”

I stared into the stone faces of my father’s goons and I knew they would follow his orders without a second thought.

23

After the armed guards released the gates to Sandoval’s estate, Blood and I drove our Harleys down a palm lined driveway. Ricky and Bolt didn’t have bikes yet so they followed close behind in the cargo van we used to transport the guns over the border. If I had my way I would’ve showed up with an army of seasoned bikers, but shit didn’t always go the way I expected—especially lately.

The multi-level home built into a cliff overlooked the Pacific. The front was a mix of stone and glass with chrome beams holding the ultra-modern structure together. I tried to wrap my head around the fact this was where Marisol grew up. Biggest fuckin’ house I’d ever seen.

I lowered my kickstand and exchanged a look with Blood. Bolt and Ricky stepped out of the van and it was obvious they’d never seen a place this big either.

“You two stay out here and keep an eye on things.”

I knew the guard at the door would only allow Blood and I to enter and I also knew he’d relieve us of any weapons before entering. Having Ricky and Bolt outside fully armed helped if this turned to shit and we had to make a fast getaway.

The guard was all mean mug and narrow eyes meant to intimidate. Big fuckin’ joke on him. Blood and I already sized him up, and between my skill in the cage and Blood’s overall bulk not much fazed us.

He patted us down, and as suspected they snatched each of our guns. We’d purposely stuck them in our waistbands in plain sight. A tactical move to satisfy the guard ensuring he didn’t search any further. Keeping him from knowing about the Kimber in my ankle holster or the Beretta in Blood’s boot.

The goon pointed to Bolt and Ricky. “They stay out here.”

“No shit,” Blood growled.

The guard opened the massive double doors, and jerked his head for us to enter a foyer bigger than most people’s apartments where another muscle-head led us to the back of the house. I wondered if Marisol was here. Her cryptic message gnawed at my gut, then an unnerving vision of her sitting at her father’s side with an evil smile on her face popped into my shaky brain.

Focus asshole!

Iperched on the edge of the soft leather couch in the office wracking my brain for a way out of this mess before my father returned. I finally saw the man’s true colors and I had no doubts about the lengths he’d go to save himself.

I restlessly pushed off the couch and gazed out the floor-to-ceiling windows to the ocean beyond, then tracked back to the circular driveway and froze. I changed my position for a better view of a van and two guys getting off their motorcycles. Blood and Smoke.

I frantically banged on the windows, but I was at least sixty feet from the front of the house and with the crash of the waves below they’d never hear me.

Focusing on the security monitors I watched as Blood and Smoke entered the villa, then were escorted to the patio. I wanted to jump into the screen and warn Smoke, but I was forced to watch him walk into a trap and there was nothing I could do about it.

My father’s threats against Smoke left little doubt of how this meeting would end. I highly doubted a drug kingpin and an outlaw biker could sit down and make logical compromises which left only one alternative.

I had to get out of here. Now.

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