Page 159 of Smooth Sailing

But Hugger just walked to his chair, dragged it over, her chair, and rolled it over, and the chair behind her desk, and he rolled that over too.

They sat and Pete launched in.

“Resurrection has some assets that are good with findin’ shit out. And they found some shit out. Part of that was Imran put Esad’s and his bros’ asses on a plane to Costa Rica two days after Maddy took herself to the hospital. Imran himself jumped bail four days ago, and he went to Bolivia. Costa Rica has an extradition treaty with the States. Bolivia does too, just not a functioning one.”

Diana sat back in her chair. “They ran?”

Pete nodded. “There’s reasons they ran. Feds are deep into this trafficking ring. So deep, Maddy’s statements were just icing on a cake they been baking. Could be weeks, or maybe just days, before they moved in with warrants. Esad’s involvement in this, something they already knew about, turned them on to Imran, and they started gathering shit on him too. They know they all fled, so they stepped up shit and did a series of raids yesterday. Rounded up a lot of Imran’s army he left behind, not to mention a bunch of other stuff that means he best keep his ass in South America or it’ll get nailed.”

“What does this mean?” Di asked.

“It means Imran is one stone-cold motherfucker, because it’s clear his boy isn’t the brightest bulb in the box, and either the cops, or Resurrection, are gonna track his ass down. And if it’s the cops, they’ll haul it back here and none of them are gonna breathe free air for the rest of their lives.” Pete sucked in a breath and further shared, “They found the other girls. There were three. And they got no one threatening them to talk smack to the police, so they’re singing. Esad and his boys are fucked.”

“So Imran’s…what? Sacrificing his son?” Di asked.

“Ain’t gonna let his boy lead anyone to him. Easier to go on your own. Less expensive too,” Big Petey said.

“I really don’t care what happens to Esad, but if you consider minimum accepted parenting protocols, that’s gross,” Diana declared.

Both Hugger and Big Petey chuckled.

“That all you got?” Hugger asked.

Big Petey nodded but said, “Rush wants us to stay down here on Di and Armitage. They haven’t rounded up the entire army and Rush wants to make sure it’s all good before he pulls us.”

Diana was smiling, but she had nothing to worry about.

Until he nailed things down with her as to where they were at, and where they were going, he wasn’t going anywhere.

Big Petey kept talking.

“Rush is chatting with Lee, and Lee is chatting with Mace, who’s keeping on top of all of this. Mace’s crew down here is new, but they’re making some inroads, got some informants, and he thinks they’ll know if Imran left anyone with any orders we won’t like.”

“Good,” Hugger muttered.

“Who’s Lee?” Diana asked.

“Lee Nightingale,” Pete said. “The firm that Mace runs down here is called Nightingale Investigations and Security. Mace is a partner, and they got three offices in three states.”

“Ah,” she murmured.

“Good you’re here,” Hugger said. “You can hang with Di while I run an errand.”

“I can also run the errand for you,” Matchmaker Pete offered.

He loved the man, but he wasn’t going to task him with buying condoms.

“I gotta do this myself,” he said. Then requested, “Walk me to my bike?”

Big Petey pushed out of his chair saying, “Sure thing.”

Hugger got out of his own, rolled it back behind Di’s desk, and she was standing with Pete when he returned.

He dropped a kiss on her hair and earned her tipping her head back to catch his gaze.

“Get a mondo box. Mondo,” she instructed.

He grinned at her again, dropped another kiss, this one on her lips, then he turned to Pete, who was watching them, grinning himself, and they strolled out.

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