20. Things Are Starting To Come Together

Chapter 20

Things Are Starting To Come Together

S abre

When Grizz had called, I had excused myself to my office. I didn't need to have this conversation in the main room. I'd make it up to Grace, but I didn't think she'd be uncomfortable. When I had left, she was looking at Chef's recipe books. He was in his element, showing her all of his creations.

I was sitting in my office chair with my phone on speaker, but no one was really saying anything. Grizz had heard from Twig, and they were on their way to Aunt E's. I suspected it wouldn't be good news.

Count and Thunder had checked in from the tit show a few hours ago. There was no sign of Clara, although Count had confirmed she'd been there. He had asked some girls about Jigsaw's hires. They had been eager to talk. Those girls were taking tips away from them, and not even working regular hours. They showed up, made money, blew Jig, and left. I'd have to be more diligent with the club's legit businesses. No more relying on just the accounting reports.

Cyph hadn't emerged from his room, so there were no fresh developments there. Although, I had sent up a case of energy drinks. I hated doing it, but the alternative—him crashing—would have probably been worse.

There was a knock on my office door.

"Come in," I called.

Grace stuck her head in. "I don't mean to interrupt, but I wanted to see if you need anything before I head to bed. "

"Come here, mama." I smiled as I watched her shut the door and waddle towards me. She was beautiful, and I didn't deserve her. Maybe one day I would tell her when we were more secure in our relationship. For now, I would show her exactly what she meant to me and hope that it would break down some walls she carried around.

"Is this the start of a dirty movie?" I didn't know if he worked on it or if it came naturally to him, but Pretty always interjected at the worst time.

"You need to get laid," I told my brother through the phone, like that would even help.

"Maybe," he agreed. "When this shit is all over, I'll go on a bender, and you fuckers better watch out." I could hear a distant growl.

Grace reached my side of the desk, and I slid my chair back, giving her room to sit in my lap. She curled her upper body against me, and I wrapped my arm around her back, kissing her forehead.

"Are you going to christen your office?" My brother didn't know when to stop.

I shook my head, but before I could respond, Grace answered him. "Of course, just not right now."

"Why not? That'd be hot listening through the phone. It's not like it would be the first time." Pretty made noises that sounded as if they belonged in the soundtrack of a porno.

She looked at me with a huge smile. "I am pregnant," she answered him.

"Yeah, so? It's not like he can knock you up again." Aw, fuck. I knew where this was going. I was about to be the punchline of their teasing.

"A baby shouldn't see his father's dick." She couldn't hold it in and busted out laughing. I could hear the laughter coming down the line. I was the only one not laughing.

"You didn't." Grizz coughed. "You seriously didn't say that shit."

When I said nothing, Grace stroked my chin and placed a light kiss on my lips. "You know he did," she answered Grizz .

"Fuck, Sabre. You're supposed to be banging that shit every chance you get. Maybe that's Meredith's problem." Grizz was still chuckling.

"My problem is that you won't leave me alone," we heard her say, but it was faint. She must not have been sitting with the brothers at the table.

"No, your problem is that you have a corncob stuck so far up your ass that you can't see straight. Let me fuck it out of you, and you might lose the attitude," Grizz replied.

There was a distant door slam.

"That went well," Pretty said.

"Yeah, she wants me," Grizz sighed.

Grace looked at me and shrugged her shoulder. She wouldn't speak badly of Meredith, but she was just as clueless as the rest of us.

I heard Twig and Berry in the background through the phone. They must have walked in from the garage. There was chatter, but I couldn't distinctly make anything out. I'd wait until it died down to ask what had happened.

"Prez?" Twig said. He was closer to the phone now, and I figured he must have been sitting at the table.

"Yeah, Twig. What happened?" I tightened my hold on Grace. This would not be good, and I wanted to make sure she had my support.

"Berry and I followed Brandon out of the restaurant to an industrial district. Dude seemed extremely scared or stupid as fuck. He went straight to a warehouse and paced outside his car. It looked to us as if he was waiting for someone, and a black SUV pulled up. A silver car pulled in right behind it. Brandon tried to explain something. He was waving his hands around, but they didn't want to hear it. They set his car on fire and put a bullet in his brain."

"Oh my God," Grace whispered, one hand coming up to cover her mouth, while the other went to her stomach. I wrapped my arm around her tighter so that my body supported her.

Twig was a matter-of-fact kind of man. If that was what he said happened, it was exactly what had happened .

"Grizz," I said. "You think that's the same SUV you saw?"

"Probably, and the silver car was probably Mer's."

There was another knock on my office door.

"Come in," I called. Cyph peaked in this time with his laptop. He looked at Grace and instantly said he would come back.

"Nah, she already knows, and Grizz and the boys are on the phone. They're holed up at Aunt E's. Tell us what you found." I waved him in.

As he walked into my office, I inspected him. His eyes were red-rimmed, and his hair was standing up on end. I hadn't seen him since this morning, so it was safe to assume that he'd spent the whole day at his computers. When this was over, he'd crash, and I wouldn't see him for a few days. I needed to remind Scrub to check on him.

"Oh, okay." He sat in the chair opposite my desk and placed his computer on the surface. He waited for confirmation, and I nodded my head to start.

"It took me a while, but I found the tracker on Flo's phone. It's pretty ingenious, and I copied the code so that if we ever need to duplicate it, we can." He rambled about all the nerdy things it could do. He was strung out on energy drinks, and I felt terrible.

"Cyph," I said, cutting him off. If I hadn't cut him off, he'd ramble for hours about all the cool shit the tracker could do. It would mean nothing to the rest of us, but he'd be happy.

"Oh yeah, so anyway. Flo runs a marketing agency, which is pretty badass. You do pretty well. I had to go through all of your emails and accounts. Sorry."

Grace shrugged. It wasn't worth arguing about.

"They imbedded the code into an email and asked for a status update on a project. I checked the email date, and you would have already been pregnant."

"Who sent it?" she asked.

"Alejandro Rodriguez."

"El Sombra Roja?" Wreck popped up. "You work for the Red Shadow?"

"Who's that?" Grace asked him through the phone .

"The most dangerous man south of the border," Wreck answered.

"I have had lunch with him. He's very nice." She was earnest, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

"What the fuck?" I turned towards her and tightened my arm around her back.

"I started working on marketing campaigns when I was still in college, so that I would have extra spending money. I couldn't ask my dad, and Matt would pick expensive places and not cover the bill. You know Matt comes from money, and he made me sign a prenup to protect his family's assets. That's why he's fighting so hard. It didn't include any marital assets. He didn't think the agency would be worth a damn, so he let me make a provision that he receives nothing from it, and if it fails, I take all the risk. That's why I told you, Pretty, that if I had to, I could start over without help.

"A few years ago, Alex hired me to market his club in LA. It went really well, and now, he sends me work two or three times a year. Matt didn't care because I worked from home, but the more clients he gained, the more time I spent away from the agency. I had to cut down so that I could balance it all."

"Alex? You're on a first name basis with El Sombra Roja?" Wreck asked, skepticism laced his tone.

"How did you meet him?" I asked her the question that was on everyone's mind.

"He initially reached out through my website as a prospective client. He hired me, and when I finished with the club, he told me I had exceeded expectations. It just became a thing. I would finish one project, and the next was sitting in my email the following day. This went on for a few years, and one day, he emailed he was passing through town, and asked if he could take me to lunch. It's been a thing ever since."

"Fuck me," Grizz sighed. "How is it you and your sister are still alive?"

"Cyph, are the men that have been showing up at the tit show known associates of this Rodriguez?" I asked.

"Not really. Like, they're all cartel, but they're in separate factions. Those factions are not warring with each other. I checked," Cyph answered with a shrug.

"Mama, are you working on any projects that we need to know about?" I looked at Grace. I was proud of her. She could hold her own out there, and if she'd been terrible, Rodriguez would have never rehired her. However, I was livid at her. She hadn't thought about doing background checks on her clients. Grace had gone to lunch with this man without knowing how dangerous he really was.

"No, I am currently not working." She made a motion with her hands in front her bump.

"That still doesn't answer why Brandon tried to kidnap Meredith tonight." Grizz came through over the line.

"As much as I hate this, grab Meredith. We need to know how this went down." I wasn't looking forward to this conversation.

There was a shuffle and then silence from the other end of the line.

"Are you sure about this?" Grace whispered in my ear. "I don't think she'll cooperate."

"She doesn't have a choice. We need to know what Brandon said to get her to that restaurant," I whispered back. Grabbing a quick kiss from her, I waited until we could hear the argument brewing between the ex-lovebirds.

"I don't want to do to this," Meredith screamed.

"You don't have a choice. What did he say to you?" Grizz spat.

She didn't say a word, but they had moved closer to the phone, so their voices were louder, clearer.

"What did he say to you, Mer? What the fuck did he say?"

Silence.

"God dammit, Meredith," Grizz yelled back.

There was a sob.

"Come on, baby. I can't protect you unless you tell me what's going on." I noticed his voice had gentled. Grizz had earned his road name because he always wanted to rip through whatever obstacle came his way. I had never known him to be a patient man, but he was trying for her.

"Grace?" she sobbed.

"I am right here, Mer," Grace said to the phone. My hand was sitting on her knee, and she laced our fingers together.

"I am really sorry," she sobbed harder. "I am so sorry."

"It's alright. You're my sister, and I love you, but you have to tell us what Brandon said. Please." Grace leaned forward, so that she was closer to the phone.

"I haven't talked to him since the wedding, but he called the other day. I didn't recognize the phone number, so when I realized it was him, I hung up. He called me back, and before I could hang up again, he said he had something important to tell me. When I pushed for answers, he told me I would have to meet him. I figured it was a public place, so there was no harm. He sat down across from me, and I pushed again because I really didn't want to see him. He said that Matt was—" She hiccupped and tried to catch her breath.

"It's okay, Mer. What's Matt up to?" Grace tried to coax her.

"Brandon sounded scared. He said that the cartel was coming after him because Matt's missing. I didn't believe him, but his face was a little green and his hands shook."

"Did he say anything else, Mer? We can all work together to solve this," Grace asked her gently. I could hear in Meredith's voice that she was barely hanging on.

"He said that Matt had solicited the cartel as clients because they were trying to expand their legal businesses. Matt would work the deal, and Brandon would make sure that it went through without red tape. Everyone was ecstatic, but then the bank fired Matt. I didn't understand, but I guess the firing triggered an audit of Matt's transactions. The bank canceled any pending deals. They foreclosed on any of the properties that the bank still had the titles for and kept any cash payments, labeling them as fraud. They legally took whatever they could. Brandon said the cartel was furious, and now, they want Matt to repay them. You guys don't have that kind of money, and since Matt's missing, they put the screws to Brandon."

"I can't say that I am surprised anymore," Grace said. "Mer, why did Brandon call you, though? He should have my number and could have reached out directly. I could have pulled some money from the accounts that I have access to."

She was actually getting through to the bitch over the phone.

"I don't want to hurt you." Meredith hiccupped. I gently squeezed Grace's fingers to get her to talk again. We didn't need Meredith to sob her head off. We'd get nowhere.

"It's ok, Mer. I love you," Grace reiterated.

I looked at her face, and I knew she meant it. No matter how much Meredith had spewed hate her way, Grace wasn't the type to waiver.

"Tell me, so we can figure this out as a team."

"After the first couple of deals, the cartel was happy, but they asked for more. More money. More property. Just more. Matt was having to jump through hoops with the lies. Brandon said the jefe's wife can't have children, so Matt made him a deal as a sign of good faith to keep their business at the bank. I know little about it, but the deal depended on that dinner party you threw with the taco bar.

"Matt used you as the bait. You played the perfect hostess, and they went back to the jefe, singing your good graces. According to Brandon, he told them to make the deal. They would get a baby, and Matt would continue with the business deals through the bank.

"Clara was supposed to get pregnant that night. She looks enough like you that no one would have questioned it. She's busy partying, and her parents have recently cut off the gravy train. Matt offered her pay for the nine months, and then they would turn over the baby. When we went out for drinks at the bar that night, Matt got drunk, and Brandon tried to cut him off, but he wouldn't listen. Clara showed at the bar later to take him home with her, but he had already ordered a rideshare to head to you. "

"You don't have to fill in the rest. I already know what happened that night." Grace rolled her eyes at me. She was just as tired of Matt as everyone else.

Meredith took a deep breath. "I was trying to leave the dinner on a good note when Grizz showed up. I didn't want Brandon to find out that I am pregnant."