Protect & Serve(176)

“Business…” I murmured, realizing that he was getting to me. His leather jacket was discarded again, and those rippling muscles were clearly out on display. I couldn’t help but trace his rugged, hardened physique with my gaze.

I wondered if coming here had been a mistake. Spit in the drinks or not, I was probably safer back at the bar…

“Yes, business…” He repeated, a faint smile curling at the edges of his lips. The smug bastard could see the effect he was having on me.

I swallowed quickly.

“You’ve come to my town for something, and we both know this isn’t a social visit. I want to know why you’re here, and how you found me.”

“Tell me you’re smarter than that,” I toyed.

“Right,” he answered calmly. “The girls.”

“The girls?” I asked, sipping my drink. Selfishly, I needed to know how useful Hunter would be to my case. My memories painted him as being particularly sharp and perceptive, but if he was going to be a proper ally in this case…

“You’re not the first detective to sit here asking me questions about our little investigation in Tucson, Sarah… I’m not interested in playing games here.”

“So, that was your investigation,” I confirmed aloud. I fought how my core warmed as his voice trickled over the syllables of my name. “But why you? Why them, and why now?”

“You know why,” he answered quietly, his eyes stern as he regarded me coolly. “That’s why you came here.”

“Your sister.”

“That’s right,” Hunter nodded calmly. “Eight years ago, the Devil’s Dragons MC helped me find her. In exchange, I joined the club as a junior enforcer…”

“You never told me much about her,” I pressed. “That might help me here, with this.”

Hunter’s haunted gaze turned inward.

“My sister… she was vacationing in Cancun when they took her. She was always so careful, always sticking to the safer, touristy places… The bastards took her and her best friend right out of their damn hotel room. We never found the other one, but we did find my sister…”

“Who took her?” I asked.

Hunter’s gaze darkened. “The fuckers call themselves Víboras Verde,” he explained. “The Vipers of the Green. They’re a Mexican cartel, one of the rougher ones. Until then, they’d only dabbled in kidnappings…”

“Sex trade?” I asked, as respectfully as I could.

“None other. Turns out, there’s plenty of money to be made in selling pussy to discerning buyers, and there’s a lot less overhead compared to the drug trade. No fields of illegal plants, no chemical labs, and if you set up somewhere nice the product comes to you…” Hunter laughed mirthlessly. “We found her before she could disappear into that particular hell… but she was never the same again.”

I reached forward, placing my hand on his. His posture didn’t change, but his fingers absentmindedly parted around mine.

“What did they do to her?”

“She never told me the details. Poor girl abandoned her life and disappeared into the world. I hear from her sometimes…”

I nodded, unsure of what to say.

“I… I’m sorry, Hunter.”

He smiled sadly, refocusing our topic.

“So, this cheerleader kidnapping thing absolutely stunk of their handiwork. I reached out to some contacts and confirmed my suspicions… With the new passport laws and all the goddamned violence there’s less tourists heading down into Mexico. The cartel has been getting bolder every day. They’d started placing manpower across the fence. Began abducting people from this side of the border…”

“So you went after them,” I stated.

Hunter nodded. “I grabbed my men, and we high-tailed it to Tucson. It’s a little outside my network, but we’ve got relations with the underground scene out there. I knocked on some doors, and we started our own investigation from our side of the law.”

“And you attracted attention.”

“Damn right we did,” he smiled nostalgically. “Police sure do have a tenuous grasp on logic… ‘Sure, these biker guys look suspicious. Showing up AFTER the disappearances and making a big ruckus… OBVIOUSLY they’re the culprits!’”

“You don’t think that looked a bit strange?” I asked, taking another swig of whiskey. “You guys came out of nowhere and started rattling cages.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Hunter chuckled. “Either way, we got results. Confirmed a few things. Got a few leads. Hell, I even approached the local authorities against the better judgment of the club… I was rewarded with a nice fat threat of an obstruction of justice arrest if I stayed in town.”