Oh yeah.
They knew.
And this gave new meaning to why Cisco had that man killed on Ryn’s back deck instead of handling him in a less final way.
That guy had not been there to freak her out.
He was there to do a lot worse to her.
Boone felt his skin begin to itch.
“Ryn is not your sister or your attorney,” he said in a voice he barely recognized, it was vibrating audibly, and he could feel that in his throat as the words came out. “She’s nothing to you.”
Cisco shook his head and Boone didn’t miss the fact that he did not agree that Ryn was nothing to him.
He said, “I’ve given you what you need. You know what’s happening. You know how desperate men like this can get. Now you need to run with it.”
“Are you saying that man was at Ryn’s today to kill her?” Boone asked.
“I’m saying, after what they did to Corinne, I’m not taking any chances.”
Boone sucked in a breath.
Hawk moved in. “Now that you’ve said all that, tell us what you aren’t saying.”
“You have what you need.” Cisco leaned forward. “Run with it.”
“Is it just Mueller and Bogart?” Hawk asked.
Cisco looked to Mamá.
Everyone looked to Mamá.
“I am not in this,” she said.
“Mamá,” Hawk rumbled.
She leveled her eyes at him. “I’m not in this, Cabe. I don’t need the attention of bad cops.”
“What do you know?” Hawk pressed.
“I won’t repeat myself, vato,” she replied.
“It’s bigger than Mueller and Bogart,” Hawk surmised.
She shrugged.
It was bigger.
Mamá Nana was scared of nothing.
Untouchable.
It wasn’t just her bodyguards and the loyalty of her community that made her that way.
It was people like Hawk, who was hers by circumstance of birth. Or Kane Allen, the ex-president of the Chaos MC, who was hers because she did him a massive solid, the kind of marker that could never be repaid. Not to mention the dozens like them she’d collected along the way.
And bottom line, the woman simply had huge balls.
But she was scared of this.
“Right then, you,” Hawk said to Cisco. “Are there more? How many are there? And who are they?”
Before Cisco could reply, Mamá broke in.
“I took a risk, having this meeting,” she stated.
Fucking fuck.
“If they find out you were here, and Brett was here, their target would be me,” she finished. “You need peace amongst you, Cabito, so Brett can clear his name and you can hold safe this girl you protect.”
“My boys and I cannot do our work without knowing the full picture, Mamá,” Hawk told her, and Boone could tell by the tone of his voice he was losing patience.
“And do you think Brett is keeping this information to himself because he wishes to be difficult, or perhaps remain in hiding for a longer period of time?” she shot back. “There are things you must find for yourself, mijo. It cannot come from me and it cannot come from Brett. If it does, they’ll know and Brett will no longer be wanted for a crime he didn’t commit, he’ll be hunted to be put down. And I will lose everything.”
Hawk had no reply to that.
Though everyone in the room knew that Mamá Nana losing everything not only meant a good woman being pulled down, but a lot of other people losing hope and that could not happen.
And Boone felt his gut sinking because this was clearly a fuckload bigger than they thought it was and it wasn’t good to start with.
“Brett should not have kidnapped your women, though he could not know that would put them in the line of fire.” She turned to Cisco. “Apologize for that, querido.”
And it sucked, but Boone had to give it to the man.
Cisco didn’t hesitate before he said, “You know I’m sorry about that. Now, more than I was before. But I was in a bind.”
“Ryn isn’t a fan of sleeping alone, especially now this shit is going down, because you were in a bind that got her into a firefight in the parking lot of a mall,” Boone reminded him.
“And I’m sorry about that too,” Brett said, and the look on his face said those words were no lie.
Fuck.
When someone apologized, and meant it, like this guy just did, you were screwed.
Even if he couldn’t push that, he pointed out, “And she was holding it together when I left, but a man was shot dead when she was hiding in the bathroom, so my guess is, she’s not gonna be good with sleeping alone for a long fuckin’ time.”
Cisco flinched before he muttered, “I’ve been wanting to ask how she’s taking things.”
“You’re not the only shit she has to deal with in her life, just that, today, you’re the worst of it and we can say her morning didn’t start off real great.”
He nodded knowingly. “Her brother and his ex.”
Jesus, how much did Ryn share with this guy?