The Vargas Cartel Trilogy: Books 1 - 3

by Lisa Cardiff

  I nodded, and he slid a piece of paper across the desk. “What’s this?”

  “A wire transfer from Senator Deveron to me.”

  I scanned the paper. “Five hundred thousand dollars? What’s this for?”

  “Check the date?”

  “March 1.”

  “What happened around then?”

  I shifted closer, leaning my elbows on his desk as I shook my head, laboring to remember every detail. “Nothing.” I cocked my head to the side. “I broke up with Evan right around that time, and you know what happened after that. I went to Mexico with Vera for Spring Break, then you…” My heart sputtered as pieces of the puzzle shifted in my mind.

  Ryker stood up and walked around the corner of the desk, pausing in front of me with his hands shoved deep into his pockets. “Then I found you in that bar in Mexico.”

  The air exploded out of my lungs like I’d been kicked in the gut, and the room tilted. I clutched the edge of the desk, suffocating on the noxious fumes of betrayal. “Did…” I blinked, stalling for time.

  Please don’t be true.

  With deadened hands, I rubbed my temples. “Did Senator Deveron pay you to abduct me?”

  “Yes.”

  One simple word. By itself, it was innocuous, innocent even, but it felt like he had pulled the safety pin on a grenade and fractured my life into a million pieces. I jumped out of the chair like a jack in the box.

  “No,” I yelled. “It’s not true. He wouldn’t do that. It doesn’t make sense. Evan would never let him.” Ryker shook his head, his face lined with pity. I felt sick. My hands shook. My heart pounded against my chest like a battering ram. Then, my knees buckled like a folding chair.

  Ryker caught me, his fingers digging into my upper arms. “Breathe, Hattie. Breathe.”

  I didn’t want to breathe. I didn’t want to open my eyes. I wanted it all to go away. I wanted to disappear. Fade away. “Why? Tell me why, Ryker.” I swallowed against the surge of nausea, contorting my stomach into a pretzel. God, I fucking hurt everywhere.

  His hand moved up and down my back, and he kissed the top of my head. “They need you. They need your dad, but I think you already know this part. I told you all of this in Mexico, but I omitted the names of the parties involved.”

  Squeezing my eyes shut, I skimmed through the murky conversations with Ryker and Ignacio. Then, it hit me. According to Ignacio, Rever had offered information about politicians and businessmen affiliated with the Vargas Cartel in exchange for prosecutorial immunity. He needed leverage to stop it from happening. So did Senator Deveron. I tilted up my head, searching Ryker’s face.

  “Senator Deveron has connections to the Vargas Cartel.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement, but the minute I said it, I realized it was the absolute truth. Deep down maybe I knew all along. Ignacio and Ryker had given me enough hints, but I refused to see the truth. The truth butchered me.

  Ryker nodded. “It started fifteen years ago. Senator Deveron’s Las Vegas casino was on the verge of bankruptcy. Ignacio propositioned him. Ignacio needed a way to launder drug money, and Senator Deveron needed a quick cash infusion. It made sense for both of them. When President Felipe Calderón took power in 2006, he declared war on the drug cartels. The Vargas Cartel experienced significant losses. Senator Deveron needed the Vargas Cartel’s money to keep his casino afloat, but he also wanted more power and influence, so he ran for Senate. The Vargas Cartel funneled money to his campaign through dummy corporations, campaign bundlers, and non-profits with the understanding that he’d use his power to help the cartel.”

  “So you’re saying Senator Deveron is a puppet of the Vargas Cartel.”

  “No, more like they have a symbiotic relationship. Senator Deveron uses his position to block the U.S. from interfering with the Vargas Cartel’s trafficking activities, and he blocks active prosecution of the cartel’s top officials.”

  “Oh my God,” I whispered.

  “The Vargas Cartel supplies ninety percent of the drugs that enter Nevada, and it has a significant presence in the western United States.”

  Dazed, I stepped out of his embrace and walked to the window, my back facing him. “I didn’t realize that.” I stared at the lights flickering in the inky sky. “I don’t know why they need my dad or me. It sounds like Senator Deveron can take care of himself. He has all the power and connections he needs.”

  “Rever leaked some information implicating Senator Deveron, but reports of his connection to the Vargas Cartel have been bubbling up for the last two years. He needs a way to stop the inevitable.”

  His hands dropped on my shoulders, and part of me wanted to push him away. Push everyone away. I was utterly exhausted. My mind spun in circles as I struggled to unravel fiction and truth.

  “What are you saying?”

  “If you marry Evan, your dad would have a strong incentive to kill any investigation that landed on his desk.”

  A shiver trickled down my spine, and I felt cold…so fucking cold. Frost crawled through my body, numbing every cell in its path. I didn’t think I’d ever be warm again. “Ah, I see.” Avoiding Ryker’s heated stare, I crossed the room and snagged my purse off the chair.

  “What do you see?”

  “Evan strung me along all this time for what I could offer his family. You abducted me for money, and then you wanted me to get back together with Evan last week for what reason? More money? To help the Vargas Cartel smuggle more drugs?”

  “Hattie.” He grabbed my hand, but I slapped it away. The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed through the room.

  “Don’t touch me,” I spat through clenched teeth. “All week, I had this internal debate running in my head whether we could actually make this work between us. I twisted reality. I distorted the facts, and somehow I convinced myself if we wanted it enough, we’d figure it out. We could be together.”

  “We can.”

  I scoffed. “No, you’re wrong. You were ready to let me go last week. Why should I believe you won’t change your mind when a better offer comes along?” I sucked in a deep breath, willing the tears to disappear from the corner of my eyes. Willing my heart to freeze over and become an impenetrable wall of icy disdain. Willing myself to evolve from the pathetically gullible pawn I’d become into someone stronger. Smarter. Braver.

  “Because I choose you. I choose you over the safety of my family and over everything I’ve worked for. I refused to help him. Why do you think he came after me today?” I shrugged. “I told him to leave you alone.”

  I blew my bangs out of my eyes. “Right. For now. For today.”

  “I’m not letting you go again. I’m done fighting what’s happening between us. We’re in this together. To the end. This bullshit with Senator Deveron and the Vargas Cartel will fade away, but what I feel for you won’t. I realize that now.”

  “I have to go. This is too much,” I said, taking a half step to the door, my head shaking back and forth, but I didn’t want to leave. I never wanted to leave him. A few pretty words and my anger disintegrated like a sandcastle in a windstorm. How did he do that? From the moment I saw him in that bar I was a goner. My body chose him over and over, even when my mind begged me to hate him.

  His head whipped toward mine, his eyes blistering with passion. “Senator Deveron threatened to withdraw the protection of the U.S. government from the Vargas Cartel and align with the Alvarez Cartel.”

  I rolled my eyes and leaned against the desk. “That doesn’t make sense. The U.S. government doesn’t protect or align with drug cartels.”

  One of his dark eyebrows lifted ever so slightly. “Don’t be naïve. Of course they do. The U.S. government, through the ICE, ATF, and DEA, have a record of providing benefits and immunity to cartels—particularly the Vargas Cartel—in exchange for receiving information against other cartels. What do you think the ‘Fast and Furious’ gun-running program to Mexican cartels paid for by the U.S. taxpayers was about?”

  I pinched the bridge of m
y nose. “I don’t get it. Why would the U.S. government do that?”

  His mouth twisted, and his hand sliced through the air. “Because everything is never as simple as it seems on the surface. Nothing is black and white, especially when it comes to the government. Some insiders think the CIA actually orchestrates the global narcotics trade and facilitates laundering the profits.”

  Tensing inwardly, I squeezed my purse until my knuckles whitened. “That’s crazy.”

  Sighing, he said, “Maybe, maybe not, but do you realize what would happen to my family if the U.S. government threw its resources behind the Alvarez Cartel?”

  “The Vargas Cartel would make less money,” I mocked.

  Ryker slammed his open palm against the desk, frustration etched into every line of his face. “No. I wish that were all it meant. Wouldn’t that be simple?”

  I balled my hands into fists. “Then what?”

  Ryker raked his hands through his already disheveled hair, bringing attention to his bloodied and cracked knuckles. “The U.S. government would supply a steady stream of AK-47s to the Alvarez Cartel, along with other small favors that would give them the advantage. They’d finally have the manpower and weapons to overpower the Vargas Cartel.”

  “Ignacio will figure it out. He’s a survivor. He said as much to me many times,” I spat, packing as much disdain as possible into my words.

  “No, he won’t. He won’t last three months,” he countered, his voice harsh.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, struggling to make my face as expressionless as possible.

  “He’ll be killed, or the U.S. Government would indict him on drug trafficking charges along with a hundred other things.”

  Remorse trickled through my veins, but I clamped down on the emotion before it took root. Even though I didn’t like Ignacio, I didn’t want Ryker to suffer. “You really believe that would happen?”

  Ryker exhaled loudly, deep lines bracketing his mouth. “I know it would. Senator Deveron told me as much. The minute he rips the veil from the Vargas Cartel, it’s over.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  “I’m not going to hand you over to Evan or Senator Deveron, if that’s what you’re asking. I tried, but I’m too selfish to give you up.” His voice was simultaneously soft and rough, like the syrupy nectar dripping from the prickly blue agave plant.

  Relief coursed through me. “You’re not?”

  “No.” He grabbed my hand, threading his fingers through mine, and this time I didn’t resist. “I told you. I choose you. I want you. We’re going to make this work.”

  I chewed on my lower lip. “Then what’s going to happen?”

  “If he follows through with his threats, I’ll take him down.”

  “How would you do that?”

  He shrugged, but his metallic eyes glittered with anger. “I’ll expose him.”

  “Does he know that?”

  Ryker rubbed the back of his neck, and the muscles in his jaw constricted. “He knows. I told him.”

  I gazed at him for a few agonizing beats, processing the implications of his words while my heart splintered. I hooked my arms around his neck to steady my anxiety as a puzzled frown creased my forehead. “Won’t that mean exposing you and your family too?”

  He hauled me against his chest, eliminating any space between our bodies, and a frisson of desire zipped through my nerve endings. “It might, but I’m more concerned with keeping you safe. I’ll figure out the rest as we go.”

  I nodded, inhaling his scent, absorbing his nearness. Being around him, touching him, made me feel safe again. I wanted to forget about all the dirty details he confessed and trust Ryker to make everything right. He said he’d take care of it, and he hadn’t let me down yet. Blindly believing him might make me naïve, but I didn’t want to worry about it right then. “What now?” I whispered as I pressed soft kisses against the thick column of his neck.

  “I want to take a shower, and then I believe I owe you dinner.” His face radiated intensity, desire, and something primal. Suddenly, the air crackled with lust instead of anger and betrayal.

  With a tremulous smile, I brushed the pads of my fingers over the cut on his lower lip. “Okay.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Ryker

  Without second-guessing myself, I guided Hattie into the bathroom with me, my hand pressed into the small of her back. All week I wanted to move beyond a few heated kisses, but I’d been waiting. For what? I didn’t know. The right moment. With the way things were going, I didn’t think it’d ever happen, but it was virtually impossible for me to walk away from her and never look back. She had chiseled her way into my heart, infecting me with her smile, long legs, and her golden, cat-like eyes.

  I closed the bathroom door behind us and turned on the shower. She leaned against the bathroom counter as I scrubbed the blood from my hands. Steam filled the bathroom, fogging the mirrors and sheltering us from the outside world.

  I unbuttoned my shirt and tossed it on the floor. My shoes, socks, pants, and boxer briefs followed. She still hadn’t moved, but her eyes tracked my movements beneath the fringe of her lashes. With her lips pursed into a straight line and two deep grooves between her brows, she looked conflicted, as if she didn’t know if she wanted to stay or go. She didn’t need to worry. She was definitely staying. I’d already decided. She just didn’t know it yet. I needed to claim her again, remind her she was mine. But more than anything, I needed to be inside of her again. It’d been too long.

  Not allowing her to fight the magnetic pull between us, I trapped her against the bathroom counter with my hips and framed her face with my hands. Suspended in the moment, steam billowed around us as my lips hovered just inches from hers, and then I pulled her toward me. When my lips crashed against hers, a muffled moan escaped her lips, throwing fuel on the lust I barely held in check over the past week. Damn, I missed her. I had tried to close the box on our time together, compartmentalizing it and burying it, but it never disappeared. It never faded.

  My tongue curled around hers, rough and demanding, taking her, showing her she was mine. I didn’t hold anything back. The fruity taste of her wine lingered in her mouth. Her breathing accelerated in time with mine, and my stomach tightened with desire. By some sick twist of fate, we were meant to be together, and I intended to take advantage it.

  I unzipped the back her dress as I kissed the smooth skin of her neck and her collarbone, savoring her, consuming her, and biting her. Her yellow shift dress pooled at her feet and my breath splintered. She looked even more beautiful than I remembered.

  Golden skin.

  Long toned legs.

  Perfectly molded curves.

  The seductive upward tilt of her lips.

  Right then, I realized she owned me long before we exchanged a single word in that bar in Mexico. Now, the damage was complete. I was hooked. Addicted. Obsessed. Strung out for her, and I couldn’t force myself to regret it.

  Not wasting a single second, I reached around the curve of her waist and unhooked her bra. I bit back a groan as the black lace slid off her body, exposing her pebbled nipples. I slipped her matching panties down her legs, trailing my fingers along the contours of her legs. Goosebumps tumbled like dominos down her arms and legs. And fuck if that didn’t make me twice as hard as I was thirty seconds earlier.

  Gathering her close, I pressed my lips against hers again as I blindly guided her to the shower. We bumped into the hamper, the shower door, and I nearly tripped over the shower curb, but none of it mattered as the hot water poured over our bodies and the steam clouded our already lust muddled vision. This moment was about us. Not Senator Deveron. Not Evan. Not the Vargas Cartel. Just us.

  I moved my palms along the soft angles of her body, tracing every curve, swell, and dip. I couldn’t get enough of her.

  Breasts.

  Waist.

  Hips.

  Navel.

  The curve of her backside.

  All of i
t perfect. Perfect for me.

  And then I cupped her mound, rubbing her, caressing her, teasing her everywhere but where we both wanted me to go. She rocked against my hand as whimpers and disjointed pleas spilled like water from her mouth.

  “Shh,” I said, touching my fingertips to her lips. Her breath was jagged, heated, and electric against my skin. “I’ll take care of you.”

  I slid one finger inside of her, then two, gliding my fingers back and forth. Her head tipped up, arching her body forward, like a pagan offering. The Roman goddess, Venus, in the flesh. I pulled her nipple in my mouth, sucking her until a fractured gasp fell from her parted lips. Like someone struck a match, my insides lit on fire.

  “More,” she whispered. I moved to the other nipple, sucking, biting, and giving it equal attention. Equal love. Her entire body tensed, vibrating with desire. She was close. So fucking close, and I didn’t want her to go over the edge yet. I needed to explore and taste every inch of her, bringing her to the brink over and over until she couldn’t imagine life without me. I pulled my fingers from her wet heat.

  “No,” she murmured, her eyes popping open, glazed, dilated, and a little confused. She was adorable and she was mine. Nothing would separate us again. I didn’t care what I had to do to keep her. I’d do it without a second thought. I was done playing games. I was done fixing the problems of the greed-corrupted, power-obsessed one percent of the population. I wanted to live my life, and that life would include Hattie.

  Even without Hattie in my life, my career as a fixer had come to an end. My cover was blown. My confrontation with Senator Deveron’s men illustrated that fact loud and clear. It wouldn’t be long before the rest of the world connected the dots between Ry Fallon the campaign bundler and Ryker Vargas the fixer.

  I lifted one of her knees, propping it on the marble shower bench. Her hands clamped around my shoulders, digging into my skin. I kneeled in front of her, and her hands knotted in the wet strands of my hair.

  My eyes never left hers as my hands slid up her thighs. A red tinge colored her cheeks. I flicked my tongue along her opening, tasting her, worshipping her, and devouring her honeyed pleasure until her sighs and moans echoed like a sonata off the marbled walls. She was flushed and shaking, and I was harder than I ever remembered as she cried out her release. Her knees buckled. I steadied her with my hands as I kissed her hipbone, her navel, skimming my mouth up her torso, reacquainting myself with every detail of her body. I wrapped her legs around my waist and turned off the shower.