Killer Secrets by Lora Leigh Read Free Book Online Page B

cocaine from the processing
    warehouses and transported it across the mountains to
waiting ships. From there, he delivered it to
    various points to another drop-off where others then
collected it, broke it down, and shipped it to other
    points.
    Until Sorrell had begun hitting the processing warehouses.
The first thing Ian had done when he took
    over the Fuentes business was to relocate the warehouses
and have his men deliver the goods to
    Radacchio instead.
    "Is Valence aligned with Sorrell, do you think? Or has
the bastard merely managed to obtain information
    about our supply lines?"
     
    Ian shook his head. "I don't know and I don't care.
But Radacchio knew the location of the former
    warehouses. We changed our locations and began delivering
to them rather than having them pick up the
    bales from us and the hijackings stopped. Now this strike?
I'm inclined to once again cut them out of the
    loop. We'll see what happens then."
    "He will not be pleased over this," Diego warned
him. "We pay him well for his consortium's work."
    "Then he can find another client, one with a bit less
paranoia than it seems I possess." Ian's smile was
    tight. "I don't have time for a drug war, Diego. We'll
do it my way first."
    Diego's black eyes gleamed with excitement.
    "The wars spice up life, Ian." Diego grinned with
all apparent anticipation. "They keep you on your toes."
    "I'd been a ballet dancer if I wanted to dance on my
toes, pop," he said.
    Diego sighed in regret. "Radacchio will demand a
meeting to discuss this."
    "Then tell him he can talk to me. And that's another
thing; either I run this shit or I don't. Stay out of it.
    Don't try to negotiate with Radacchio like you did the
Misserns last month. I won't be happy."
    The announcement had an angry frown creasing Diego's face.
"What do you mean by this?" he burst out.
    "Stay out of what business? Fuentes business? I remind
you, I am the Fuentes. It is my business."
    Ian lifted his head and stared back at Diego silently.
    Diego flinched as Ian stared back at him unblinkingly.
    "I do not like this," he muttered. "I am not
so old that I cannot be a part of my own business any longer."
    "You have your job."
    "Bah. My job. It is no job to oversee the farms and
production of the coca. A child could do this."
    "We have a deal," Ian reminded him, his voice
hard. "Don't fuck me over on it, old man, or I'll be gone
    even faster than I made it here."
    It wasn't an idle threat. If he couldn't control the
cartel, then Ian didn't have a hope in hell of drawing
    Sorrell in. He knew it, and Diego knew it. To safeguard the
business from being forcibly taken by the
    terrorist, Diego needed Ian. Ian needed control.
    "You are hard, Ian." Diego sighed. "Harder
than even I believed. More so than my investigations into
    you revealed."
    "I'm a product of my childhood, pop," he bit out.
"Remember?"
    Diego grimaced. His black eyes were, for the barest moment,
bleak with sorrow. It was a sorrow Ian
    refused to acknowledge, even to himself. He didn't care
about Diego's past regrets, his hopes or his
    dreams, no matter the illusion Ian allowed him that he did.
All he cared about was catching Sorrell and
    delivering him and Diego Fuentes into the hands of justice.
Or, their heads on a platter. The latter if he
     
    could get away with it.
    "If I could go back, I would give my life to have
spared you that pain," Diego said softly, with apparent
    sincerity.
    "There's no going back." Ian shrugged. "Just
think, it made me hard enough to straighten your little world
    out, pop. We haven't had a successful hijacking or a missed
load since I arrived."
    "For a man who does not enjoy war, you shed enough
blood," Diego griped. "And refuse to allow me in
    on the fun. I was pleased though. The agents of the U.S.
that you uncovered last month will steal no more
    information from us, yes?"
    The men he had killed had been perverted monsters posing as
American agents. They had worked for
    the DEA, drawn their pay, and given just