Welcome to Diablo Vista (Axl Dane #1) by Crow Gray Read Free Book Online Page B

sensitive information. Life or death stuff,” she said solemnly.
                  Axl nodded. “It won't leave this room.”
                  She tilted her head. “You don't have any connections with drug cartels, do you?” she said.
                  Axl was taken aback by the question. “No, I don't.”
                  “Would you tell me if you were?”
                  “I'm not. What's this about?” Axl said, losing patience.
                  She sighed. “My name is Trista Morales. My husband is Esteban Morales.”
                  “Ah,” Axl said. “Now I see why you mentioned the cartels. I have no connection to them or, to your husband.” Axl knew who Esteban was. He worked some type of pipeline for the Mexican Cartels, but beyond that he didn't know much about him. He wasn't a big fish, but he wasn't exactly a small fry either.
                  Trista began to fidget again, and Axl thought she was about to fall out of the chair. “Maybe this is a mistake. I should just go.”
                  “No, you're here now. Tell me your problem, and I'll tell you honestly if I can help. If I can't, maybe I can at least give you some advice,” Axl said. He didn't want to get involved in any type of cartel business if he could help it.
                  “There are some–things–in my past my husband doesn't know about. And if he found out, he'd probably kill me,” she said.
                  “What things?” Axl asked.
                  “Fuck, this is harder than I thought. I'm just going to tell you the whole story, and you sort it out yourself. Do you know who Ed Sharp is?”
                  “The pimp? Yeah, I know who he is,” Axl said, wondering what connection a greasy little punk like Sharp would have to Esteban Morales.
                  “I used to work for Ed Sharp several years ago,” Trista said.
                  “When you say work for–”
                  “I was a whore, Mr. Dane. Let's just say it like it is.”
                  “Just call me Axl,” he said, feeling like an idiot by responding to her statement with that.
                  “Fine. I was a whore, Axl.”
                  Axl winced at her words. “This was a long time ago, right?”
                  “It was a few years ago, around six. So not recent, but that's not exactly a lifetime ago either.”
                  “How old are you?”
                  “I'm twenty-nine.”
                  “So you weren't much more than a kid when you worked for Sharp.”
                  “I started working for him at twenty-one, hardly a kid.”
                  “It looks younger every day,” Axl said, thinking of his own birthday approaching.
                  “Regardless, I was a prostitute. I managed to get away from Ed. I changed my name. I built a whole new life for myself. I married Esteban, and my life is good now.”
                  Axl detected a note of untruth in her last statement but didn't question it. “So what's the problem?”
                  “My husband has no clue he's married to a whore.”
                  “A former whore,” Axl said, wincing again. He hadn't meant to call her a whore.
                  “Still, a whore. He's very big on appearances, Axl. If he finds out, I have no doubt he'll kill me along with anyone else who could possibly reveal such a dire secret.”
                  Axl realized that now meant him as well. Great. “So I take it something is going on to worry you? I mean you didn't just get married did you?”
                  “No, we've been together a few years. But the other day, Ed Sharp showed up. At my