I hung up and looked at Moose. “So how soon can you get us to Cali?”
Moosewassomehowableto get us a private flight through some connections. We were sitting in our seats as the plane started its descent to land.
I looked out the window and could feel my nerves churning in my stomach. I hadn’t been back here in fucking years. I also hadn’t seen Javier in a very long time.
Moose reached out for my hand as the plane touched down.
“You good, princess? Lookin’ a little pale.”
I nodded. “Uh, nervous. But I’ll be fine. Just a lot of unpleasant memories coming back right now.”
Moose just nodded as he softly rubbed my back. The plane stopped, and we could finally get off. I took a deep breath as we stepped into the airport.
We headed toward the stairs and stepped onto the escalator. As we reached the bottom, it felt like time stood still. Javier was waiting in the middle of the airport waiting for us.
He looked the same as when I had left, just with more tattoos and a little more darkness in his eyes.
Javier opened his arms as we got closer to him.
“Welcome home, baby girl!”
Moose held my hand tighter as I sighed. “Javier… I’m not your baby girl and this isn’t my home.”
He laughed. “Technicalities, Lil.” Javier turned to Moose. “Name is Javier. We’re gonna get your kids back, man. My car is just out here.”
We followed Javier to a big black SUV all blacked out. I rolled my eyes but smiled on the inside.Some things never change…
One of his guys got out and helped us put our bags in the back, then opened the doors for us as well. Javier sat up front while Moose and I sat in the back.
We headed out of the airport and onto the freeway. It was a silent drive until we pulled up to an old factory building.
“Javier... what are we doing here?”
He turned back and smiled at me. “Bringing you back home, baby!”
I shook my head and leaned into Moose as the SUV pulled into the building. He leaned down and whispered in my ear.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“This is their clubhouse. I don’t have a super great feeling about this…”
Moose nodded. “It’s okay. I’ve got you, princess.”
We got out of the SUV and Javier led us to a small table. Moose sat down and brought out his laptop, plugging in Nova’s GPS tracker.
Javier clapped his hands together, and the rest of the guys came walking over.
“Some fuckingculerothought it would be a good idea to kidnap ourprincessa’sstep kids.”
There was a grumble in the crowd and a large tattooed man, Marcus, stepped forward.
“Why the fuck is she here, J? Thatputaleft us fucking years ago. Does she think she can just fucking walk away without consequences? Blood in blood out,coño.”
Moose whipped around in his chair, pulling his gun from his holster. I stepped in front of him and Javier stepped in front of me.
“Easy, bro. We all know what happened, and we agreed to let her walk away.”
I pushed in front of Javier and placed my hands on my hips.