Page 109 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

"I haven't." It happened though, Ian knew it happened.

Diego leaned forward. "No, but you capture those they torture. You go in the dead of the night with your Durango team, you jerk them from their beds and you give them into the custody of those who do."

"Murders. Rapists. Terrorists. Fucking animals that would turn the world into a sewer where nothing but death reigns. For God's sake, Diego, it's hardly the same."

Ian came out of his chair and paced around the table, the anger surging through him demanding action of some kind, of any kind.

"You sit there and argue for your side like Satan himself, laying out your logic, so certain of your right to torture, maim, and kill. Because it's a fucking game to you."

"Because I know this world," Diego yelled, coming to his feet as his own anger rose to the surface. "Do you think I do not see what you are doing to the cartel? Pulling back on the drug shipments, attempting to legalize our diversified holdings." He snorted in disgust. "You would bleach me like dirty laundry. Why would you do this? What is in your mind?"

What was in his mind?

"Maybe I wanted something to leave to my children that wouldn't get them murdered in their sleep," Ian snarled.

Diego opened his mouth, snapped it closed, then stared at Ian in surprise. "You are considering having children?"

Son of a bitch. Damn the fucking bastard to hell. There was hope in his voice. Hope, fear, and a hunger that sickened Ian to his gut.

"I was being rhetorical," Ian snapped, pushing his fingers through his hair as he glowered at Diego. "Look, I don't have time for this fight. We'll fight over this after I deal with Sorrell. Since you know so fucking much about my business, I'll take this recording next door and see about neutralizing this bastard for you. We'll fight about the rest of it later."

He stalked back to his desk, hit the eject button for the recorder, and collected the tape.

"Ian." Diego stepped in front of him as he turned to leave, his expression tortured. Tortured, as though he had a heart, a fucking soul. "I would be a father if you allowed it. The Fuentes cartel would be as you want it, should you decide this is your way. The name Fuentes will live on, and there would be no need for strife between us. You know business. You have profited these months you have been here. I would give this all to you, if you stayed once Sorrell is taken out of the equation. We could do this, Ian."

No they couldn't, because one of them would be dead.

"We'll talk about this later, Diego." He shook his head as he pushed past him and headed for the door.

He couldn't talk about it now, there were too many plans to make, too much to do. And he couldn't make plans like this, couldn't be a part of this even as he was plotting Diego's death.

As he walked through the foyer, Cristo behind him while Trevor preceded him, he suddenly saw himself, not as he had thought he was, but how he might look through another's eyes. A man cold-bloodedly plotting the death of his father.

Did it matter that the father was a monster? Did it matter that once the Fuentes cartel fell, he intended to leave it and the various businesses resulting from it in the dust for the vultures to pick over?

As he stepped into the Rover, Trevor taking the driver's seat and Cristo moving into the front passenger seat as protection, Ian stared through the tinted glass of the door's window and rubbed his hand over his face in frustration.

He had cold-bloodedly planned this before he ever came to the cartel. Two years of planning, plotting, inspiring just the right amount of curiosity in the right places to draw Diego in.

A man alone, grieving for the loss of his youngest son, without an heir or a family with the exception of a few cousins. A man rumored to have cherished his wife and son. Diego had cherished his son to the point that he had infected the young man with the same evil that filled himself.

An evil Ian couldn't afford to allow to survive.

As Trevor pulled from the gated villa estate and turned into the driveway to Kira's villa beside it, Ian couldn't help but worry about this thing with Sorrell.

He wasn't known for his predictability, or keeping his word. Not that Ian could expect a terrorist to be known for his word; still, it would have been nice if he were the game player Diego was. With a man like Diego, you knew the rules. Adhere to them, or the game is off and there are no holds barred. In Sorrell's case, it was no holds barred from the beginning. He dealt in terror, in death. It wasn't a business to him, it was a religion.

Stepping from the Rover, he had Trevor and Mendez wait outside the house where Kira had obviously left Deke. Stepping up to the wide sheltered doorway, Ian knocked firmly and waited as Daniel opened the door.

"Come on in." Daniel was back in bodyguard mode as he opened the door and stepped back. The minute Ian entered the house, the door closed and locked solidly behind him, and Daniel's demeanor changed.

"We have them in a small servant's room under the stairs, it seemed the most unlikely place to hide the daughter of an international terrorist." Daniel shook his head at the thought. "That was a good idea sending the Fuentes soldiers to guard the warehouse in town. Kell is reporting some interest there by a few unidentified subjects, but so far, nothing on this end."

They stepped beneath the curving staircase where Daniel pushed open a swinging door. It wasn't exactly hidden, but anyone swarming the house would bypass it on first look and continue on to the back of the villa or upstairs.

They stepped into a long narrow room. Ian pulled the recording from his pocket and tossed it to Macey as he stared around the room.

Reno leaned against the wall watching as Kira and Tehya sat on the half bed and talked. Macey had his laptop set up on a small wooden table and nearby dresser. Jamming equipment and satellite link antennae shared space with additional external hard drives and other paraphernalia that Macey considered his base setup.

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