Forging Steel (Steel Riders MC Book 3) Read Free Page A

conversation was between him and his eldest granddaughter, Sibel. She’s what now — seventeen, I believe? Anyway, she is telling Cuarto that she wants to get married. He’s telling her that isn’t going to happen. She cries and says that she forgave the man a long time ago, after she spoke to the nuns. He tells her that she’s not going to marry a rapist, no matter how many baubles he sends her, and basically ends the conversation with her running from the room in tears.”
     
    Fowles added, “It is soon after that when Cuarto says, ‘I’ll kill that fucking Orlin.’”
     
    Orlin looked up to Hank. “Baubles? What is baubles?”
     
    “Cheap costume jewelry and showy tourist silver,” Hank replied.
     
    Orlin was instantly offended. “I didn’t send her baubles! What is this? I sent her a necklace worth $50k! US!”
     
    “Did you also send a card?” Hank asked.
     
    “Card? It was a diamond necklace!”
     
    “You should always send a card with a gift. Women like that. They’ll keep the card and cherish it much longer than the jewelry.”
     
    “True?”
     
    “Oh, yes. Something with a little poetry inside, and always use a pen with your own handwriting. Trust me, they memorize—”
     
    Fowles interjected with, “Gentlemen? I think you are missing the bigger picture. The guns?”
     
    Orlin looked across his shoulder at him. “Guns? No, those guns are broken up and shipped all over the continent by now. Being sold on some street corner in a barrio near you.”
     
    Fowles turned a little red. “Look, I’m very good at my job—”
     
    “You think you are very good at your job,” Orlin interrupted. “Which is good. You should have pride in your abilities, but you also think you are good at undercover and Hank spotted you coming in the room. I could see it on his face. Thank you for this other information, though, because it is very important to me. Far more important than a few guns crossing the border. Your payment should be ready on the table beside the door as usual.”
     
    “Fine,” Fowles said, leaving the room in a hurry.
     
    They watch the DEA Agent leave, and Hank walked slowly back around the desk in deep thought. “There are two other cartels in this area that he could be after.”
     
    “Either of those rape his sixteen-year-old granddaughter?
     
    “No.”
     
    “No, Hank.” Orlin sighed and stretched out his arms and back. “He’s going to come for me. This marriage thing has somehow backfired. I was worried about her rejection, not his. I can’t quite get myself to believe that after all the work and effort and planning it took to get me to this point, I may lose it all because of one mistake. An honest mistake, as well. There was no reason for her to be near my bedroom area where the entertainment girls were.” Then he shook his head. “No, that doesn’t matter. It certainly wouldn’t matter to me if I was the father, or the grandfather.”
     
    “Wish we knew more of an exact location,” complained Hank.
     
    “Oh, pardon,” Orlin said. “He gave me that before I stopped him and called you. The crossing was over close to Juarez country. Here’s the map Fowles supplied.”
     
    “Do you believe that he’ll actually make an assault on the hacienda? SWAT, DEA, FBI — hell, the damn military will be on his ass if he brings in the amount of men those munitions suggest he’s gathering.”
     
    Orlin sighed. “That’s the way they do it in Mexico. They pay the local cops to be somewhere else and then attack with numbers and fire power, using explosives to blow the gates, then storm the house and slaughter everyone inside.”
     
    “Of course,” Hank said, “you and your son, as well as much of the staff, will be at your La Jolla house, or perhaps the Carlsbad estate. The longer Rivera is here, the more likely the authorities are going to catch up with him. Fowles and every other DEA agent knows those weapons are coming to San Diego.”
     
    Drumming his