Page 33 of Branches of Betrayal

Hadinatsk’d and waved her hand dismissively. “Ay,Papi, you worry too much. We’re fine.I am fine.”

“Then why does my house feel so tense? Something is wrong here, Hadina. Tell me.”

“You’re a meddlesome old man, you know that?” She let out a long sigh. “I have some…personalthings I’m trying to battle in my head. And while that’s happening, we’re all also on high alert for thatpinche perrawho seems to have fallen off the face of the earth.”

A worry crease formed between his brows. “Really? Nobody has seen her?”

“Not that we can find. Every lead we get turns out to be a dead end. I just wanna find her and make her pay for what she did to Peyton,Papi. She deserves retribution.”

Her father studied her for a moment before he hummed. “Well,mija, you just need to get your shit together and stop all thiswoe is meattitude.”

Hadina sat up straight in her chair, tilting her head slightly as she looked at her father. He was always blunt, straight to the point, but it was rare that he spoke to any of his daughters in such a way. A slow smirk teased at her lips.

“Rude… But I think you’re right.”

“Of course I’m right,” he said, rolling his eyes. “I taughtall of youwhat you know. But I also know just what you’re capable of. Stop letting Demi Treyva have the upperhand. You’re the head of Adis & Co. for a reason, Hadina. Use all of your resources and get that bitch and make her pay.”

Her father pushed himself out of the chair and left her alone to think. She gulped down the remainder of her coffee, tapping her fingers against the edge of her desk until an idea sparked in her mind. Hadina had more resources than even her father knew, and she was about to call inallthe favors she was owed.

Two hours later,the entire family was gathered at the Adis & Co. headquarters. Every seat in the conference room was filled, with more bodies crowded around the walls. Sitting to her right was Peyton, staring at her with murder in her eyes and making her feel weak at the knees. To her right, Adrian sat poker-straight, his eyes analyzing and warning the rest of the team to keep their mouths shut until they were asked to speak.

“What’s the plan,hermana?” Zellie asked, her fingers laced on the table in front of her. She was all business today, which meant she was ready for war.

Hadina clicked a button on the remote in her hand, bringing up a slide of photos on the projector screen behind her. “These are the known associates of Demi Treyva.”Click.“These are the ones we’ve already taken out.”Click. Click.“Theseputosare ournext targets. I want them alltaken care of. These people are all scum. They have beaten and abused women and children, trafficked them, murdered plenty. They do not deserve to live.”

“Are they examples? Or should they disappear?” Piper asked. Hadina hated that she was part of this, that she was going to get her hands dirty for the first time, but Piper was close to Peyton. Family and loyalty meant everything to her.

Harris smirked and looked across the table at Piper. “Look who finally joined the party. They should disappear. They don’t deserve the luxury of being made examples of.”

Piper beamed under his praise and Hadina had to ignore the way Peyton was making faces at her, excited to have noted it too.

Click. “These two men are our key to getting Demi.”

“Who are they?” Peyton asked.

Harris fielded the question. “The one on the left is Eddie Poplar. A random foot soldier, but one we’ll be able to use to our advantage. The man on the right is Derick Hernandez, a high ranking member of Treyva’s organization. We know Demi doesn’t care for anyone, but she does value her loyal people. Hernandez happens to be someone extremely loyal to her.”

Hadina watched as herPapileaned forward in his chair, his eyes sparkling with the excitement of the hunt. This was where he thrived and while he wouldn’t be going out and doing any of the manual labor, Hadina knew he was just grateful to be part of the process. “How do these men lead us to Demi?”

“Because,” Hadina replied, her voice stern and filled with the threat of what she was about to say, “We’re going to play them against each other. Hernandez won’t talk…but he doesn’t have to. We’re going to torture him and then invite Eddie Poplar to watch as we kill him.”

“Mr Poplar will shit his pants,” Adrian continued. “He’ll see us killing ahigh rankingmember of the crew and realize that wewould do that so easily to him. He’ll sing like a canary and tell us whatever we want to know.”

Brushing a strand of dark hair behind her ear, Hadina nodded, tapping her finger on the table. “That’s our key. Because once that happens, we’re going to exploit the shit out of Poplar. He’s going to be given a car–”

“One that obviously has a tracker in it,” Harris interjected.

“–and the dead body of Hernandez. He’ll be tasked with delivering our little message directly to Demi, all the while exposing her location to us.”

The room was quiet for a moment as everyone considered the plan in their heads.

“What if Poplar doesn’t know where Treyva is? He’s a foot soldier, like you said, so I doubt he’s privy to that kind of information.”

“You’re correct,” Hadina agreed. “He won’t have access to that information. But when Demi realizes that her entire team has been wiped out, she’ll be quick to make herself readily available for anyone who has any information on it. She’ll have eyes watching and waiting, and she’ll sure as hell want to meet Poplar.”

With a nod of her head, Hadina watched as Adrian spread out a state-wide map across the conference table. They had taken time earlier in the day to circle all known whereabouts of Demi’s associates, as well as the surrounding areas they’d need to cover. Definite locations were marked with a large X in red, while everything else was circled in black.

Taking their time to divide the room up into different ‘search parties’, Hadina gave everyone their assignments. By the time they were done, everyone knew what jobs they had to do. Peyton sat with a sad frown on her face, looking at Hadina with those eyes that made her want to cave to Peyton’s every whim.

---