Killer Secrets by Lora Leigh Read Free Book Online Page A

did
demand respect, and he earned it. Ian
    could call him John or Dad, his choice, John had informed
him. But call him pop again and he would
    show Ian a pop he wouldn't forget. Ian almost smiled at the
memory.
    Diego frowned. He didn't like the title any more than John
Richards had.
    " 'Father' would be a much better greeting,"
Diego informed him, not for the first time.
    "Too stiff." Ian moved to the sideboard, piled
his plate high with fluffy scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon,
    and toast. For all his faults, Diego had an excellent cook,
and she seemed to have grown fond of Ian.
    "'Father' sounds like something from the
fifties," he continued, passing over the fruit and various sweets
    the cook had laid out as he turned and moved to the
glass-topped breakfast table.
    Sunlight spilled through the open doors and tall windows
that surrounded the room as Ian took his seat
    and let the little dark-haired maid pour his coffee.
    "Thanks, Liss." He smiled as she moved back.
    "You are welcome, Mr. Fuentes." Her lilting
English was a little shy, but Ian had learned early just where
    this little cat's loyalties lay. And they weren't with him.
    "Set the coffee on the table, Liss," he directed
her. "And then you can leave."
    She looked to Diego. The obvious cut was irritating.
    "Liss, he didn't give you the order, I did," he
told her softly, meeting her dark eyes with the promise of
    retaliation in his own gaze if she didn't do as ordered.
    "Of course, Mr. Fuentes." She set the silver pot
in the center of the table, between him and Diego, and
    then headed for the wide double doors, the short skirt of
her uniform swishing.
     
    "Close the doors behind you," he ordered, before
nodding to Mendez to follow her out. The other man
    would stand guard at the doors. Deke and another bodyguard
stood guard at the patio and the fourth
    had positioned himself at the door leading to the kitchen.
    Only Deke knew his true purpose there, but the other three
were slowly proving their loyalty to Ian
    rather than the cartel.
    "I do not like how you require that I serve
myself," Diego snapped as he reach for the coffeepot and
    refilled his cup. "I have the servants for a
reason."
    "And I'm always amazed that they survive it." Ian
grunted at the thought of the perversions the maids
    shared with Diego. "But I see no reason to have to
kill one of them because they overheard the wrong
    thing."
    "You should not discuss business with breakfast,"
Diego instructed him. "It is bad for the digestion."
    "Right now, business is bad for health, period."
Ian sipped at his coffee as he stared back at Diego. "I'm
    canceling our relationship with the Radacchio consortium.
My men were hijacked on the way to the
    delivery point and I lost two of them. We nearly lost the
shipment."
    The report of the lost coca shipment hadn't been as bad as
learning that the two men he had lost were
    handpicked agents he had put in place. That pissed him off.
    "Sorrell?" Diego narrowed his eyes thoughtfully
as he watched Ian.
    Sorrell was the reason Ian was there. The elusive
terrorist, as yet unidentified, had managed to slip
    through every net that several countries and more than a
dozen law enforcement agencies had attempted
    to use to catch him.
    "That's what I suspect." Ian shrugged as he dug
into his breakfast. "Valence Radacchio claims otherwise,
    but the strike was well prepared and centered where
security should have been the tightest. They
    dropped the ball, and rather than getting embroiled in a
blood feud with them, I'd rather sever ties
    instead."
    "Valence has worked with me for many years,"
Diego mused. "He has always moved our product
    through Colombia and onto the ships. If we sever this
relationship, we will be forced to forge a new one."
    Ian shook his head. "We move our own product. Why use
a middleman when we have the necessary
    manpower and the network to do it efficiently? It saves
time, money, and risks."
    The product, of course, was drugs. Radacchio collected the
bales of