I couldn’t accept Laura was gone. I left home, set up out here, started up the club. Cade came out later. We decided we would try and find her. Made enough mob contacts that we could submerse ourselves into the seedy underworld of skin trading without being suspected as cops. There were rumors about American girls being sold down in Central America. Mexico. Colombia. We tried Mexico first. A skeevy motherfucker in a bar, selling his own sister out of the back of his van, told us he’d seen Laura, yes, but she wasn’t in the country anymore. She’d been purchased by the Desolladors and they’d taken her back to Colombia.

So naturally, that was our next stop. I rolled up on Rico and cut his face open. Cade and I were detained by a very intrigued Maria Rosa for nearly two weeks, during which time she managed to show us that she didn’t have anything to do with Laura’s disappearance, and also convince herself that she was in love with Cade.

When she said we were free to leave, Cade declined Maria Rosa’s invitation to stay behind and be her sex toy, which did not go down well.

Our exodus from Colombia was a rushed one, complete with threats on our lives and absolutely no sign of Laura.

She was in the wind. There were no more leads regarding her whereabouts, no matter which country we asked in or who we asked. Just like that, Laura was gone.

Now, neither of us like talking about her much.

I grind my teeth together, growing more and more restless by the moment. “So what, then? We go after Ramirez on our own?”

“Yeah, sure. If you want to commit suicide and get the rest of us killed, why not? How many Widow Makers are there? Twenty-one? Hectors got forty people around him at all times. And then there are the hundreds of people he has working on the streets. We go against him without support and we’re all dead.”

“Then we do nothing. We forget all about him killing Ryan. I let him get away with it?”

Cade slugs back his whiskey and slams his glass down on the table. “Plan B, man. Use the girl. Get her to stand up.”

I take my own drink in my hands, rolling the glass between my palms. Sometimes alcohol makes me think clearly, can give me a better perspective when I’m trying to solve a problem. Not right now, though. It’s making my head muzzy. “Not an option. Dela Vega told Sophia he’s going after her family. He told her he was gonna rape her fucking sister. She says there’s no way for him to find them if she doesn’t testify.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“It does if she’s lying about her name, and she’d be stupid not to. I’m sure Raphael doesn’t know her real name, either.”

“Is Danny working on finding out who she really is, then?”

I nod, catching sight of our hacker in the corner, laughing with some brunette I’ve seen him with a couple of times before. He’s the best. If anyone’s going to figure out who this woman is, it’s Danny.

“Okay, well in the meantime you just need to tell her we’ll put a detail on her family,” Cade says. “Promise her that we won’t let anything happen to them.”

I grunt, drinking my whiskey after all. I fucking need it. I doubt my brain cells are gonna come up with anything useful tonight. Might as well kill a few of them off. “She’s stubborn, man,” I say. “Really fucking stubborn. How do you propose I convince her without threatening physical violence?”

Cade slaps me hard on the arm. When I look up at him, there’s a broad grin spreading across his face. “You’re a fool, you know that? I’m pretty sure you could convince any woman in the world to do whatever you wanted. You have a seriously annoying talent for that.”

I glare at him, tapping my finger against the rim of my glass. “What the hell does that mean?”

Cade sighs, leaning closer across the table. “I can’t believe after all these years you’re gonna make me say it. Women find you attractive, asshole. You’re a handsome son of a bitch.” He’s about to finish off his whiskey when he pauses, the glass halfway to his mouth, and says, “Not that I think you’re attractive, though. I think you’re fucking hideous.”

“Right back at ya, fucker.” We raise our glasses, draining what was left in them, and then we sit in silence, listening to the chatter of the club members around us. Carnie’s still trying to crack onto Shay. Pathetic. I lean back in my chair, scrubbing my hands over my face. “So you’re saying I should flirt with her to get her to do what I want? Am I understanding you right here?”

Cade nods gravely. “A means to an end, my friend. And, come on, she’s hardly ugly. I have faith in your ability to mac on some beautiful woman in order to get what you want. You’ve done it a million times before. I’ve witnessed it myself.”

“Fuck you.”

“You deny it?”

I can’t really do that. He’s right. I have used the way I look in the past to get a girl into bed, and I’m not sorry for it. But this is different. This is Sophia’s life, the lives of her family. Can I be a total douche bag and potentially put her whole family in danger to get justice for Ryan?

I pose myself the question because it’s the right thing to do. But I’ve already let that devious, calculating part of me out of its cage today; turns out I haven’t managed to cram him back into his box. I can do it. And using Sophia is a hell of a lot better for a hell of a lot more people than any of the other options open to me. So be it. I’ll win her over and convince her she needs to help us, and I’ll do it fast. That way I can honor what I’ve said to her and get her home quickly. Et voila. Everybody’s fucking happy. Cade refills his glass and holds out the bottle of Laphroaig to me, offering me more. I hold up my glass, resigning myself to my fate. Tomorrow, Operation: Woo Sophia will be in full effect. Cade was right—she’s all kinds of hot—so it won’t exactly be taxing on my part. Might not be as easy as Cade thinks it will be, though. There’s only one reason Ramirez would have sold her at such a high price, and that’s because she must be a virgin. Virgins aren’t exactly the types to jump into bed with a guy just because he pays them a bit of attention. I push that thought from my mind, not wanting to think about claiming this girl’s virginity. A hard-on would be seriously fucking inappropriate, as well as the last thing I need to deal with in the clubhouse. “So tell me, Cade. Which part of me do you think’s my best feature?” I try not to laugh.