Page 47 of Demanding Mob Boss

Ronan shakes his head.

"Not good enough," I say. "You believed them when they said they could track you."

"They couldn't know you'd bring me someplace with a jammer."

We didn't have a jammer down here. We didn't need one. The entire basement is built to blanket devices. There's no cell signal down here. Radio waves, infrared and laser interferometry cannot penetrate the walls of this place. No spyware, no way of discovering the existence of this place.

"They could," I say regardless.

The use of jammers isn't new technology for criminal organizations. Her cousin had to expect we would employ something to block the signal of a tracking device.

Carmen's shoulders slump in defeat. "I thought I was ready. I thought my dad wanted me to prove myself too."

"Are you saying your father was aware of your operational role?" Ronan asked.

She gives a single affirmative jerk of her head.

Ronan frowns. "Asshole."

There were easier ways to take out a rival than sending them into the lion's den without backup.El Fantasmahad to be aware that her cousin might talk before she was killed.

Which meant what? That the father had sacrificed his daughter for what?

I have an idea, and it's not a good one.

"Take off your clothes," I order.

When she doesn't cooperate immediately, Ronan strips her of the t-shirt he'd given her and the short skirt underneath. He doesn't have to remove her thong. The scar is right there on her lower belly. Fresh and pink.

"What is that?" Ronan points to the scar.

She's shaking, scared, but she looks down. "I had my appendix out a couple of weeks before we came. Why?"

Shit. Is it on a timer? Or is it rigged to explode when she's back in signal range. It's got to be a timer. So why hasn't it gone off yet?

Ronan jabs her neck with a sedative before Carmen realizes he's pulled out a hypodermic.

"What the hel—" Her voice slurs and fades as her body collapses.

Ronan catches her unconscious form. "I'll take her to the infirmary. Call the Butcher."

"Less danger for everyone if we kill her and dispose of the body before the bomb has a chance to go off."

Ronan ignores me and heads down the hall.

I don't push it. That weird sense of not wanting to do the wrong thing here is plaguing me again. I call the Butcher and explain the situation.

The crazy fucker doesn't hesitate. "I'll be there in ten."

He must be at our club the next block over because he lives about twenty-five minutes away.

An hour later, the Butcher with Ronan's assist has removed a container from inside her uterus. It's made of material that is disintegrating. Not sure what kind of virus it houses at this point, but we suspect it was meant to infect her and anyone she came into contact with. The cartel probably thought we'd beat her, which would have made it burst faster.

If it is one of the more virulent viruses, it could have wiped out our entire organization and a hell of a lot of innocent people besides. People like Anna.

It just gives me one more reason to burn that fucking cartel to the ground.

"When she wakes up, I'll question her again," Ronan tells me. "Once she realizes that her family turned her into a biological weapon, that should destroy the last of her resistance."

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