Malo - Page 53

“You have any idea who the sheriff is?” he replies.

I shake my head slowly.

“He’s one of us,” he tells me. “You can take all of this to him, and it’s not going to mean a damn thing.”

I curl my hands into fists at my sides, trying to think of something else I can throw his way.

“Then I’ll… I’ll go to the DEA,” I threaten. “The FBI. I don’t care, I’ll?—”

“You can try,” he replies. “But you know as well as I do that if you don’t have us protecting you, the cartel is going to take you back. And I bet they’re going to have quite a welcome for you after you betrayed them, huh? You and your father?”

I stiffen. There’s nothing I can do to argue with that. He’s right. After the way I stabbed them in the back, I know Las Rosas Negras are going to be all too willing to take a shot at me given the chance. It’s a miracle my father is still alive, if he has made it this far, but, judging by the drugs Malo got his hands on, my dad is still working.

Beast jerks his head toward the seat opposite him, indicating I should sit down. I do as I’m told. The fury has started to abate now, to be replaced with something like fear. It’s been a hell of an emotional time, watching everything that happened with Malo, and then finding out people I thought were on our side are actually working against us.

“Sorry,” I mutter to Beast. “I shouldn’t have come in here so strong.”

“No, you shouldn’t,” he agrees. “You got some balls though, I’ll give you that. Not many people would risk walking in here and starting shit with me.”

He smirks at me, and I manage to smile back.

“I’m sorry,” I apologize again. I’m starting to remember just how scary this guy is—how lucky I am that he didn’t punish me worse for talking to him like that. Shit, I likely would have deserved it. He’s got enough on his plate right now without someone like me coming in, ready to fight over a situation I don’t have the full picture of yet.

“I had no idea that anyone in Los Desperados was working with Las Rosas Negras,” he tells me. “None of us did. We wouldn’t have gone near them if we’d had any idea. Whoever’s broken rank with them, it won’t be long ’til they get found out and have to pay for it.”

“And what then?” I ask. “What are you going to do about the shit they’ve already got out there?”

He grimaces. “I don’t know,” he admits. “But we’ll get a handle on it. Hopefully, whatever Malo managed to get was a test batch, and they haven’t started producing anything large-scale yet. If they have, though…”

He trails off. He knows as well as I do that the stuff Malo took will kill people. If that’s the impact it had on him, a seasoned user with access to people who could help him, it’s going to decimate the population of more casual users who don’t have a doctor on hand.

“I’m going to send the Desperados a strong fucking message for screwing with Malo,” he tells me, and I can hear from the tone in his voice that he is dead serious.

I nod. “What else can we do?”

“Not much, since they’re not on our territory,” he replies. “But we’ll cut off contact with them. I don’t know how many of them might have given in to the cartel, but I’m not going to risk them finding out any more than they already have about us, or what’s going on here.”

“And what about my father?” I ask him, my voice dropping slightly. I know he’s unlikely to be prioritizing this right now, but I want to know that my father is still on his mind—I need to know that he hasn’t forgotten about him, no matter how much else is going on.

Beast’s face softens for a moment. He can tell I’m serious about this, and I’m only this dedicated to the cause because I see it as the only way to get my father out of the mess he’s currently in. I’m doing this out of love, not out some hatred for a group I barely know anything about. Sure, I know the cartel has done a lot of bad things, caused a lot of suffering, but I just want my father back. My life back.

“You know we’re doing everything we can to get your father out of there,” he tells me.

I nod curtly. “It just… it doesn’t feel like enough,” I confess.

He lets out a sigh. “I understand that,” he replies. He’s been amazingly patient with me, considering what I’ve just thrown at him. Maybe he realizes that I’m more of an asset than they thought, since they saw me pull Malo back from the brink. Or maybe he’s just a decent guy underneath all of that, and I should be a little more open to it.

“You need to do one thing for me, though, all right?” he remarks, raising his eyebrows at me. I tense. I don’t know how much more I’ve got in me.

I nod, slowly, hoping he can’t see the hesitation on my face.

“I need you to take care of Bella.”

I stare at him for a moment, not sure I’ve heard him entirely right.

“Take care of Bella?”

He nods. “While she’s pregnant,” he replies. “Her mother… she’s doing better, but she’s not in any place where she can be the help I know Bella needs with the pregnancy. She needs a woman to talk to, someone she can be open with about everything that’s going on. Harley does her best, but she’s got enough on her mind as it is.”