“I have to go out for the night,” Max stated when my eyes landed on him. “I don’t want you to be alone, so Lexa and Tavia are taking you to Lexa’s house for a sleepover.”
“No.”
His eyes narrowed on me. “Yes.”
“No,” I repeated. “Because I know you’re going to go confront my uncle. I’m not going to just sit here and wait for someone to tell me you got killed tonight!”
His smile softened his face, making him that much more beautiful. “That won’t happen, treasure. We’re just going to pay dear old Uncle Tony a small visit to make sure he understands that you have a new family now. So he won’t be wasting his time in case he’s still looking for you. I’ll grab your things too, if you want. If there’s anything you want that you had to leave behind, let me know, and I will make sure to bring it back.”
“Take me with you,” I countered.
“No,” he signed with a shake of his head. “You are going to Lexa’s.”
“It will be so much fun,” Lexa cut in, distracting me. “Nova is coming over too. And her cousin Ciana, who is visiting for the weekend with Tavia. We’re going to make tacos and churros. We’ll watch some rom-coms, or whatever you’re in the mood for, and have some quality girl time.”
She made it seem like so much fun, and I’d never actually been to a sleepover before. But as much as I wanted to go, I couldn’t stomach the thought of Max coming face-to-face with Uncle Tony or his men. After giving him my heart, I couldn’t imagine my life without him, and I was certain that my uncle wouldn’t hesitate to hurt him.
Sensing my reluctance, Lexa smiled. “All of the men are going with him, Delaney. Including Ben. I seriously doubt anything bad will happen when he has an actual sheriff with him, do you?”
When she put it like that, I felt a little better. My uncle would think twice about doing anything bad if the cops showed up at his house. But I still couldn’t shake the feeling of uneasiness. If anything happened to Max…
Max cupped the side of my face, tilting my head up to meet his gaze. “I’ll be back before you even miss me.”
“I already miss you.”
“Treasure.” He bent, pressing his forehead to mine for a moment. When he lifted his head, he stepped back, determination in his gaze. “You are going to Lexa’s house. I will be back by morning.”
20
Max
Ben, Theo, and Gian stood in the garage parking lot. Since Gian and Theo had considered each other enemies this time the previous year, it was weird as fuck to see the two of them standing side by side. It was crazy how much could change in so little time.
But considering I’d met and fallen for my treasure in the blink of an eye, maybe it wasn’t so crazy after all.
When I reached them, they didn’t waste time getting to the point.
“Is your woman really the niece of Tony Garcia?” Gian asked, his face tight.
“He married Delaney’s aunt,” I explained. “There is no blood relation.”
“The bastard is one of the biggest players in human trafficking this side of the country,” he gritted out, the scar on his cheek seeming to pulse.
I’d been reluctant to welcome Gian when Monroe married him, but once Lexa made it clear she didn’t hold him accountable for his father’s sins, I’d begun to warm up to the asshole. The man who had given him his scar was the one responsible for my sister’s. Until the year before, we’d all assumed that man was Gian’s father. DNA tests had proven that to be false. Now he was working to find out who his real father was.
But whether Enzo Fontana was his biological daddy or not, Gian was now in charge of Carlo Santino’s empire. If anyone knew who the bigwigs in the underworld on this side of the country really were, it would be him.
“All of his whorehouses are filled with underage girls who have been snatched from across the Midwest. My sources tell me he’s expanded up into Canada for fresh victims as well. The majority of them are in Mexico, but he has a few in Nevada that are legit enough in appearance on the outside. They’re actually where he stashes the girls before he smuggles them down to Mexico.” He glanced up at my apartment for a second before turning his gaze back on me. “If he let her make it to her eighteenth birthday without putting her to work, then he must have been saving her for something—or maybe even someone—huge.”
My anger at the fucker began to boil all over again. There was no way in hell I was going to let Garcia hurt Delaney. I’d put a bullet in him before he even breathed the same air as her. “Like what?”
“Man, it could be anything. But if she was a virgin, then he could have gotten top dollar for it. He’s been known to auction off the virgins. That movie Taken was pretty spot-on in some aspects. But he wouldn’t have necessarily let her make it to eighteen before doing that. He thinks the younger they are, the better.” He drifted into silence for a second, deep in thought, before shaking his head in frustration. “There are too many possibilities.”
“Bash mentioned there was an issue a few days back.” Ben’s knowing eyes drilled into me. “Said you and Spider had a talk with some newcomer and sent him on his way?”
“He was Garcia’s man,” was all I told him.
“Meaning he still wants Delaney for some reason,” Gian concluded. “You need to deal with this guy now. Your woman won’t be safe until he understands that she is no longer useful to him.”
I’d planned on dealing with him all along. I had been waiting for the right time to take a trip south for it. Now it appeared I couldn’t postpone the meeting with Delaney’s uncle.
“We will go with you,” Theo announced, having remained quiet, observing the entire conversation. “Between my men and Ryan’s, we will have a small army with us.”
“I don’t need an army,” I growled at him. Just me and a gun, that was all I really needed to take the motherfucker out.
“You will need one even to get close to Garcia’s place. How that girl ran away without getting caught must have been a miracle of its own,” Gian said with a trace of awe in his voice.
“She said the housekeeper helped her.”
“Well, she’s most likely dead now,” he said with a lift of one shoulder. “I’ll come with you as well.”
“I’d rather take my brothers,” I muttered. I might have accepted Fontana as family now, but that didn’t mean I trusted him completely.
“If one of Garcia’s men was in town, then he must have reported back that this place is run by the MC. He might know about me because I live here, but Garcia will be caught off guard to have Volkov and Vitucci forces showing up outside his place,” Gian strategized. “He will piss his pants if they knock on his door. Everyone in the underworld knows that those two families run this entire country.”
“Never thought I would say this,” Theo grumbled. “But Fontana is right. Having a horde of MC roll up will just have them shooting. They will be expecting it if a spy was reporting back about what goes on in this town.”