Wild Like the Wind (Page 28)

But he would not ever put her in charge. And although Valenzuela seriously compartmentalized his operations and was never the direct line of communication to any of his people, Turnbull was proving she felt like being more hands-on with things, and the impression she was giving Hound, because he was watching, was that she was running the show.

So yeah, Hound had a funny feeling about this, not only because that didn’t sit right but because she had been such a minor player, he didn’t know dick about her.

She got in the car with one of Valenzuela’s goons holding the door open for her. Hound turned from the edge of the building he was leaning against and walked the other direction, down the block where he’d parked his truck around the corner.

He did this pulling out his phone and making a call.

“Hound,” Knight Sebring answered.

Knight Sebring owned the hottest nightclub in Denver.

He also had a side business he took very seriously, which meant he was in the know about a lot of things.

Those things being pretty much everything happening underground in Denver.

“Sebring,” Hound replied. “Got some time?”

“Yeah,” Sebring said.

“You know Camilla Turnbull?” Hound asked.

“No,” Sebring answered. “Of her, yes. Know her to her face, no. But recently we’ve been getting acquainted.”

That was interesting but it didn’t make Hound feel any better.

He started with the first part. “What do you know of her?”

“She’s a cunt. She’s got a wicked backhand and I don’t mean tennis. If a girl is producing, whatever way she uses her, and that girl wants to cut ties, she doesn’t let her go and has nasty ways of keeping her girls under her thumb. And I wouldn’t mind Denver saw the back of her in a permanent way.”

“That’s it?” Hound pressed.

“Outside of me havin’ a couple of phone calls with her recently to share how I feel about how she runs her girls and her pretty much tellin’ me she doesn’t give a shit, yeah.”

Hound stared at his truck as he turned the next corner and walked to it, not liking this.

Not many people would mess with Knight Sebring. If he told you he wasn’t feeling good about what you were doing, the way he rolled, there weren’t a lot of people who wouldn’t ask for a written list of what he’d like changed in order of priority so they could tick it off as they went down the line.

“So Valenzuela thinks he’s untouchable and that’s rubbed off on his snatch,” Hound muttered.

“That was my take,” Sebring replied.

“And where are you with that?”

“Getting impatient for Chaos to make a move so I don’t jack your play,” Sebring told him.

Hound opened the door to his truck, swinging in, sharing, “Valenzuela’s been proving slippery since his soldiers took an old lady.”

“I know. Heard he’s on vacation.”

“He must need a lot of rest because it’s been a long one and just to say, you got snatch, you take it on vacation with you. You don’t leave it behind to look after your shit.”

Sebring didn’t hide his surprise when he asked, “Turnbull is looking after Valenzuela’s operations?”

“Can’t say for sure but she’s no longer in the director’s chair on the porn set and instead out on the street givin’ a lot of facetime to his lieutenants. That started slow, but as time wears on she’s out more and more doin’ it.”

“Takeover?” Sebring asked, still sounding surprised.

“I don’t know,” Hound replied, scanning the street, sidewalk and his mirrors. “Been putting time and effort in to getting someone to share, but they’re bein’ stingy with the information.”

“Yeah.” Now Sebring sounded amused. “Heard about that bad fall one of his soldiers took down the stairs. How long was he in the hospital? Three weeks?”

“Freaky how he didn’t hit a landing and stop, just kept rollin’ down flight after flight.”

He heard Sebring chuckle before he asked, “And that brought nothing?”

“Nope.”

“You know I’m in on this with you boys and I’ve heard dick, Hound. But just to say, I mentioned being impatient and I’d take that to Tack. I’m good to sit down for a meet. But the way she’s runnin’ her stable has to stop. I was done months ago. So now you could say I’m really done.”

“Word, man. I’ll share with Tack and he’ll be in touch.”

“Cool. That all you need from me?”

“For now. Thanks and later.”

“Later, Hound.”

They disconnected, Hound shoved his phone in his back pocket and looked at the street.

It had now been three months since Millie had been taken.

And no Valenzuela.

But a lot of Camilla Turnbull.

Maybe he’d been asking the people he’d been asking the wrong questions.

Maybe he needed to start asking about Camilla Turnbull.

“So? What do you think?”

Hound was naked on his back in his bed and Keely was naked on all fours over him, a hand on each side, a knee on each side, bouncing on his new mattress that was delivered that day.

It had been three days since they’d had the conversation about furniture.

And now his place was gutted, all his shit he and the recruits had taken to the dump, because it was Friday and the rest of the deliveries were going to start coming tomorrow.

The mattresses were boss.

Keely bouncing on all fours naked over him was fucking inspirational.

“It works,” he said through a smile.

“It works? It’s da freakin’ bomb diggity bomb bomb.”

He started laughing, wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down to him.

She didn’t fight it and settled in.

“You’re a nut,” he muttered when he got her close, still smiling.

She grinned at him then stated, “Speaking of nuts, you need to kick Boz in them.”

He lifted his brows. “What did Boz do?”

“It’s what he’s not doing,” she informed him. “If he doesn’t get his head out of his ass about winning Bev back, she’s going to settle for this new man she’s seeing and that would be bad.”

“Babe—” he started, giving her a squeeze with his arms.

“I know, I know, I know,” she cut him off, waving a hand between their faces. “The brotherhood vow of not sticking your nose in. But seriously, this guy she’s seeing . . .”

She made a face.

It was a funny face but he didn’t like it.

“This guy fuckin’ with her?” he asked, his tone having a bite.

Keely got serious and melted into him.

“No, baby,” she said quietly. “It’s not like he’s hitting her or stepping out on her or anything. I haven’t met him yet and she doesn’t really say a lot about him but I still know he’s not the guy for her.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well, we don’t have all night so I’ll run down the highlights. He’s got a small dick.”

Hound gave her his slow blink.

“Say again?”

“Thumbeleen-oh,” she stated.

Hound’s body started shaking.

“Now, I wouldn’t know because I’ve been lucky in life and have never seen a small dick, but I would guess if you aren’t exactly endowed you’d make up for that by acquiring other skills.”