Page 64 of Fast Fury

Mal’s gaze shot to Ms. Nieto in the tense pause that followed the verbal bombshell. Her cheeks flushed, and she seemed to bristle at the illegitimate tag. “My parents never married,” she allowed, eyes narrowed. “But Iamhis daughter. His only child.” She said it with an almost defiant pride, as if it should carry some sort of weight with everyone in the room.

Obviously, she had no fucking clue who she was talking to. Mal mentally shook his head at her.

Victoria’s laugh was bitter. “Aren’t you a lucky girl.”

Ms. Nieto’s bravado faded. She shifted her gaze to Hamilton for a moment, then back to Victoria. “Do I…know you?”

Victoria’s dark gaze was icy. “No. But I know all about you. And I’ve seen pictures of you.”

Mal watched Ms. Nieto carefully as she frowned and glanced at Taggart. She seemed truly bewildered.

“Ms. Gomez was taken hostage by Ruiz’s men and held captive for several weeks. While there she had the misfortune of becoming well acquainted with them and your father’s men, against her will.”

At those damning words, shock and horror filled her face. Mal was pretty damn good at reading people. Her reaction was either real, or she was the best damn actor he’d seen.

Her gaze swung back to Victoria, stricken, her face pale. “I’m sorry. Truly.”

Victoria stared at her for another long moment, then looked away, dismissing her. “What else can I help you with?” she asked Taggart, her voice surprisingly strong. The woman might appear fragile and have wounded doe eyes, but there was a backbone of steel inside her. One that theVenenoswould regret ever fucking with.

“Ruiz’s capture caused a predictable power struggle within the cartel,” Taggart answered. “Our sources are saying that Nieto’s taken his place as lieutenant.El Escorpion’sapparently given his blessing. We’re trying to find out who Nieto’s main players are. His most trusted insiders. One of them’s reinstated a bounty on one of our team members, over in Maui. The threat is serious. Somebody killed our agent’s cousin last night in front of him. We can’t be certain he wasn’t the intended target. Any names come to mind?”

Victoria thought about it for a second, then started listing off names. She’d been prisoner to those animals for several weeks, chained to the floor in a rotting shed out back of the property while they used and tortured her.

Mal didn’t know the details of what they’d done to her during that time, but he could guess well enough, and judging from the physical damage she’d sustained, none of it was pretty. Her captors had intended to sell her into a human trafficking ring in southeast Asia, never thinking she would escape.

Except she had. And now every single thing they’d talked about so carelessly in front of their “slave” would come back to haunt them.

Sometimes—but not often enough—karma was a fucking awesome thing to behold.

He wrote each name down as she listed them, compiling a list to begin checking the moment he got out of this meeting. He was anxious to move on this, find out anything that might help out Maka. And the sooner he left the room, the sooner he wouldn’t have to look at Rowan and be reminded of all he couldn’t have.

“But I’ll bet the guy you’re looking for is Juan Montoya,” Victoria finished, her voice ringing with hatred. “He runs most of Nieto’s crew.”

Ms. Nieto gasped.

Mal jerked his gaze to her.

She was even paler now, eyes full of horror. “That’s…that’s my father’s best friend,” she said in a shaky voice. “He’s my godfather.”

“Well he’s also one of our top ten most wanted North American cartel members,” Taggart muttered, before turning to Mal. “Bring that list to my office. We need to call Maka right away and bring him up to speed on all this.”

Chapter Eighteen

“So Nieto’s for sure the new boss,” Kai said into his cell phone, leaning back in the seat of his new rental. A freaking minivan, of all things.

“Looks that way,” Hamilton answered. “You got the picture of Montoya I sent you?”

Juan Montoya, Nieto’s supposed head enforcer. Reported to be here somewhere on the island, and likely the one who had put the word out about the bounty on Kai. “Yeah. I don’t recognize him. Cops said they think he was in contact with Hani. They’re still tracing the number from Hani’s phone.” The number they were looking for came from an encrypted phone. Who knew how long it would take them to crack it.

The police had learned a lot of things from Hani’s phone so far. It still stunned Kai that his cousin had been traffickingVenenoheroin throughout the islands. He felt sick at heart that someone he’d been so close to had been in business with a cartel that Kai and his team had been risking their lives to battle at home and overseas for the past several years.

“Where are you right now?” Hamilton asked.

Kai scanned the parking lot, extra vigilant in light of all the shit that had gone down. He’d been careful on his way over, making sure no one was following him.

It was only five o’clock, but with everything he’d been juggling today it felt much later. Now he had the mother of all headaches pounding in his skull and his eyes burned from lack of sleep. His entire day had been eaten up with seeing to histutu, making arrangements, and talking with the cops and investigators. Since the ballistics linked Hani’s murder with the doctor’s, the heat was on the female suspect.

“At the Grand Wailea. I’m meeting Abby once she’s wrapped up the conference.” Hard to believe it was only hours ago that he’d woken up next to her. A detective had brought the minivan to Kai, then driven Abby back to the resort in an unmarked car. They had extra security watching the conference, just in case.

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