Hearts and Aces (Kelsey's Burden Series Book 7) Kaylie Hunter (books to read this summer TXT) 📖

didn’t go?” I asked as I glanced again at Sebrina, who didn’t appear in the least bit hungover.

“Not sure,” Trigger said. “Not everyone is participating in the team competitions. Some of those who weren’t on a team rode along with other teams and some stayed back to sleep, work out, or relax.”

I tilted my head and looked at Tech.

He grinned, sensing my unasked question. “I’m on it. Give me a minute to review the security video.”

I turned in my chair, openly watching Sebrina as I drank my coffee. Jerry shook his head at whatever Sebrina was saying and abruptly walked away. Sebrina seemed pissed, clenching her jaw and fisting her hands. When she saw me watching, though, her body relaxed and she smiled a false all-white smile at me before sauntering across the gym toward a group of guys at the food table. I watched Shipwreck nod at her before turning into the breakroom with his plate. She followed him inside after grabbing an apple from the table.

I jumped over and sat in the empty chair next to Tech, digging in my shoulder bag for earbuds. “Did you get the breakroom wired? I need to know what they’re saying.”

Tech switched over to the live feeds and clicked a few screens before his screen showed Shipwreck and Sebrina huddled together, talking in the corner of the room. I plugged my earbuds into the laptop and handed one end to Tech as I put the other up against my ear.

“Where the hell is he?” Sebrina hissed. “We’ve searched everywhere.”

“I’m thinking one of the biker clubs has him,” Shipwreck said, leaning against the wall and appearing on camera like he was ignoring her. “I’m keeping an eye on that Tyler guy. If anyone knows where he is, it’ll be him.”

“If your guy talks, we’re in deep shit,” Sebrina said. “He knows too much.”

“He won’t talk. He’s too afraid of Santiago.”

“Until he’s being tortured.”

“Kelsey won’t let anyone torture him,” Shipwreck said, snorting. “We’ll find him. Meet me tonight in the field and we’ll compare notes. That is…” he said, turning to look at Sebrina, “if you’re not too busy fucking your ex.”

“You know I don’t have a choice,” she said, putting her hand on his arm. “We’ll only be here for a few days. Once we prove to Santiago that we're allies again, we can both go back to Mexico and resume our lives.”

“And Grady?”

“What about him? He can rekindle his relationship with that mousy little thing who likely enjoys meatloaf dinners and having missionary-style sex.”

“Mousy. I’m not mousy!” I said, getting mad.

“You do like meatloaf,” Tech said, grinning at me sideways. “I’m not going to ask about the missionary sex.”

“I feel so left out,” Katie said from the other side of Tech.

I looked up to see everyone from our team was watching and listening to us. Wild Card shook his head, laughing, as he got up and walked away.

Looking back at the monitor, a couple of guys entered the breakroom and Sebrina and Shipwreck distanced themselves from each other. I handed my side of the earbud to Tech and walked off. Climbing the stairs, I went to my war room and pulled my phone to call Tyler.

“What’s up, boss?” Tyler said, answering. “Did you guys really finish in fifty-seven minutes?”

“Did you doubt us?”

“Only when I heard about the chicken question.”

“Yeah, that was embarrassing. Anyway… Shipwreck’s dirty. He’s going to get close to you later to squeeze information from you about our special guest, the one you have tucked away somewhere.”

“Damn. I was looking forward to the bar you were going to build for him.”

“I can still build the bar. I’ll put you in charge of finding a new bartender.”

“How do you want to play it with Shipwreck?”

“Did you get any information out of our guest last night?”

“Nope. Thanks to Nightcrawler, our guest has been in and out of consciousness since his relocation, but I’ll pay him a visit this afternoon and see if his head has cleared any. Hopefully, he’ll be more alert.”

“He’s not a priority. Drop a hint to Shipwreck this afternoon that you’re holding our guest at the empty warehouse where they held us girls. We’ll see what shakes out when he shows.”

“The warehouse?” Tyler asked.

“Is that a problem?”

“Not really, I guess, but what made you think of that location?”

“Nobody would ever guess we’d take him back to where he held us.”

Tyler was silent.

“That’s where you stashed him, isn’t it?” I sat in my chair as I laughed.

“I think we’re spending too much time together,” Tyler said. “I’m reading your mind. It’s freaking the shit out of me.”

The burner phone in my handbag started to ring. “I gotta go, but we can still use the warehouse. I’m not too worried about our guest accidentally getting shot.”

I hung up on Tyler and switched over to the burner phone. “Hola.”

“Who is this?” a man asked.

“That depends. Am I speaking to Miguel or one of his henchmen?”

“What do you want?” Miguel demanded.

“I want your brother to back off,” I said, strolling over to the window to look into the field below. “He’s targeting my friends and family because of Sebrina. It’s pissing me off and ruining a perfectly nice weekend.”

“Then you should discuss the issue with Santiago.”

“We both know you’re the one in charge. Either you handle the problem, or I start a war you can’t win.”

“You’re threatening me?”

“I’m warning you. Having your employees not show up for work was child’s play. You have no idea what I’m capable of. If I can take down a gubernatorial candidate like Jonathan Vaughn, I can demolish your U.S. based companies with a few phone calls. Call Santiago off. Do whatever you have to do to handle this shit.” I