Page 17

Chapter Seventeen

Enrique

I’m in the middle row of the SUV Jorge’s driving. Alejandro’s in the front passenger seat, and Joaquin is beside me. Javier is driving the second SUV with Luis and Pablo. I rarely ride in vehicles or fly in planes with Pablo. It’s too great a risk to the organization and the family. Thinking about my nephew reminds me I need to explain to him that Ellie and I won’t have children. I need to assure Jorge she won’t tally the books over his shoulder. I know that’s part of why both of them were chilly toward her.

Ellie handled herself beautifully until the part about her walking away. If we’d been alone, my hand and her ass would’ve had their own conversation. I’ll address it when I go to her house after this is done. Nothing in the past tempted me to text a woman to say goodbye a second time. I want confirmation she got home safely. I also don’t want to draw out the agony.

Me

Are you at her house?

Diego

Yes. Her son arrived fifteen minutes ago. Her dog watered every flowerbed in her yard.

Me

Anything unusual?

Diego

No

Me

Leave a message or send a text even if my phone’s off.

If we have to go to our bodega, then we’ll shut our phones off. We don’t keep our location services on anyway, but it’s an extra precaution against any calls or text being traced. We shut our personal and vehicle electronics down five miles from the store. The other syndicate families do the same thing when they head to their place.

Every family has a location they completely control. It’s where we conduct the dirtier side of our business. It’s somewhere no one can hear what’s happening inside. It’s where we can take our time with anyone who refuses to be forthcoming. It’s where we punish, then dispose of bodies in a furnace or a vat of acid.

Diego

Will do

“ Tío ?”

I hear Pablo through my earpiece. We’re all wearing our radios. Luis doesn’t live too far from me, so we went to his house to get ready and strategize. We didn’t want to do it near the women, and Luis didn’t have his things with him. Javier grabbed my go bag from the hall closet while I said goodbye to Ellie.

We’re all in our black utility pants, black turtlenecks, and black boots. We’ll put our bulletproof vests on and pull down our balaclavas before we arrive, but both drivers already have their vests and helmets on. Our windows are barely street legal, so the tinting’s dark enough we don’t worry about other drivers wondering why ours look the way they do.

“ Sí .”

Pablo continues in Spanish. It’s Tres J’s , Luis’s, and my first language, but Alejandro and Pablo grew up interchanging it with English as toddlers. We lapse in and out of either language without thought, often in the same conversation.

“My CI says Pasha already broke into the furniture warehouse and took what he wants. He torched the rest.”

“Fine.”

There’s often more in the upholstery than just stuffing, but we smuggled nothing that’s in the warehouse right now. It’s all legit, so I’ll file an insurance claim and be done with it. That’s assuming Seamus O’Rourke’s wife doesn’t spot it and decide she’ll be the adjustor for it. She did that six months ago. Slowed down a construction site for eight weeks.

We’re two blocks from our industrial park with our furniture warehouses. Technically, it’s Catalina’s warehouse since she’s an interior designer, but that’s a useful front that’s not much of a secret among the Four Families. That’s why Pasha Kutsenko went after it. He thought he’d steal some product from us, then leave nothing left we could profit from.

We pull up and can see our men working to put the fire out. It’s not as bad as I feared. There’s plenty that’s still salvageable. I walk over to the warehouse manager.

“What happened?”

“The bratva. We lost two of our men, but fortunately most of the guys were already off the clock. They came back as soon as I made the calls.”

“Thank you. Did they lose anyone?”

“The guy who started the fire trapped himself inside, so we don’t think he made it. Besides him, I don’t believe so. I hit one of their men, and Miguel shot at Pasha just before Pasha put a bullet through his heart.”

“Was Pasha the only one there?”

“No. Misha was with him.”

Of course.

They’re mutual cousins of the four Kutsenko brothers who run the bratva’s Ivankov branch. Misha’s mother and the Kutsenkos’ mother are sisters. Pasha’s father and the Kutsenko brothers’ father were brothers before the latter died in the Second Chechen War.

“Did they demand anything or leave a message besides the fire?”

“No. They were just in and out.”

“ Mano .”

I turn to Luis as he hands me his phone. The warehouse manager knows to give us privacy.

“Who is it?”

“Paco.”

Our spy at the harbor.

“ Hola .”

He speaks next to no English and doesn’t need to living in New York. It’s useful when he does minor jobs for us because there are plenty of street level men from the lesser syndicates who don’t speak Spanish. He can’t tell them anything they’d understand, and their threats mean little since he can’t understand them either.

“ Pasha acaba de avisar a los agentes de aduanas en los muelles. Lo vi pasarle un fajo de billetes a dos agentes. ” Pasha just tipped off Customs at the docks. I watched him slip two officers a wad of cash.

I keep speaking Spanish as the others join me. “Did he pay for them to inspect our ship or to turn a blind eye while he boards?”

“I think both. The agents boarded the ship, but he and a dozen of his men are standing near the gangway. Hold on…Yeah, he just went aboard after the agents came back on deck.”

“All right. We’re ten minutes out.”

“Do you want me to follow them if they leave?”

“Yes. Keep me posted if you leave the docks.”

“Will do, jefe .”

I look at Alejandro as I hang up. I raise my eyebrows to our chief strategist. Of all my nephews, he’s the one most like me. It pisses Matías off since people who don’t know us assume he’s my son. It shocks them to learn I’m not. It double shocks them if they see Matías. But they sound alike to a tee. The same pitch, inflection, cadence. All of it. It’s nature, not nurture because it’s uncanny.

“We can go to the docks, but likely show up too late. We can figure out where he’s going next, or we can retaliate.”

“Retaliate.” Three voices blend into a single insistent one.

Tres J’s particularly detest Pasha since he confused Jorge for Javier when he jumped Jorge in high school for supposedly breaking his football pads. It was that little shit Carmine Mancinelli. After he did it, he dropped a hint that made Pasha go after Javier, but he and Jorge looked too much alike from the back. Jorge wound up with eight stitches across his left shoulder blade from Pasha’s knife. Pasha wound up with a concussion, two cracked ribs, and a nearly collapsed lung from Javier when he came to Jorge’s rescue. The brothers are extremely close after what they endured growing up in Bogotá without a father.

“ If we retaliate, what would we do, Alejandro?”

“We’re assuming this is about Ignacio since it involves Pasha. Do you think he believes we put the hit on his uncle-in-law?”

“Possibly.”

I brace myself for the inevitable.

“ Tío , we should tell him it was Tommaso.”

But I can’t be sure it won’t lead back to Ellie.

Alejandro watches my reaction. I give no outward one before he continues.

“From what I saw and heard in Rio, I think Pasha was behind the shipment delay that started all of this. He saw a way to fuck us over while he thought he was ensuring Tommaso had to give in to Ignacio.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me. Maks must have sanctioned this because that was a lot of moving parts to conspire and carry out on his own.

“Misha was with him, too.” Pablo jumps in to point out, making us all scowl.

Alejandro stares into the distance as he thinks aloud. “That makes it a family affair. Kutsenko Partners are mid negotiations for the vehicle shipping contract with the yakuza . If they don’t have a container ship at the Port of Long Beach because we stole it, then there’s no contract. If we have two ships—ours and theirs—in the Port of Nagoya, then Nishida will accept our offer. The oyabun needs the car sales too much to turn us down. It fucks the Kutsenkos while putting the yakuza in our debt. It’ll put a dent in both families’ pride. Nishida still owes us for the Wo Shing Wo confusing our trucks for Nishida’s in Taipei. That was a lot of fucking corn wasted on the side of the road. We barely made it out before the Three Seas Union discovered a Hong Kong triad and the New York Colombian Cartel were operating in their territory.”

I consider Alejandro’s suggestion about Haruki Nishida, and it has merit.

“It’ll cost us to send two empty container ships across the Pacific, but they could be there in less than two weeks. If they sail with the next tide, the bratva wouldn’t catch them before they’re in the major shipping lanes.”

I look at Jorge.

“Are you willing to spend?”

“If we make Tommaso deal with this, he’s more likely to sell out Elodie to get back at us and to deflect his role, even if he’s the one who sent her. It’d be better if you announced your relationship with a public appearance together than have a bunch of chismosos playing telephone about you and your girlfriend.”

I look around the group, and I know the others agree. My gaze settles on Luis, who nods.

“Pablo, make the ships happen. We don’t involve Tommaso in that. In the meantime, I’m not satisfied Pasha will learn his lesson from that. I want something more personal.”

Jorge’s smug expression and folded arms haven’t changed since he was five and beat Javier at cinco huecos . He tossed one more coin in the hole than his older brother and won. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to. He had more arrogance in his five-year-old body than most syndicate men possess at twenty-five.

“I found out where his rainy-day fund is. So much for Singapore ranking so highly for financial secrecy. I can move the money to a U.S. account, then report it to the IRS. It wouldn’t bankrupt him, but it would make his day suck.”

Pasha is the bratva accountant, so that adds an extra layer of coma mierda —go eat shit—coming from my accountant.

I nod and watch Jorge walk back to the SUV and open the back passenger door. He grabs his laptop bag and sits. He’s plonking away at the keyboard before I turn around.

“How about Tommaso?” Joaquin’s usually quieter than the others, but it’s not because he doesn’t pay attention.

It’s a good question. My instinct is to wait to talk to Ellie about this, either to get her opinion or to warn her to stay out of the way. I can’t involve her without compromising her safety. However, we don’t have time for that.

“He’s been on good terms with Salvatore ever since he helped Carmine and Gabriele rescue Misha’s sister-in-law. I think that needs to end.”

I look at Alejandro again. The things we’ve devised might seem simple, but there are swiftly evolving elements he’ll oversee to ensure it comes together. He’ll course correct if anything goes wrong.

“We make it look like he fucked the Torettas over by making a deal with the Lombardos or Randazzos. After what happened with Sylvia’s family, Salvatore will never forgive Tommaso for betraying his wife’s family. Even if he discovers we orchestrated it, he won’t forgive Tommaso for falling for it.”

“Tommaso won’t go near them. How will you get him to make a deal?”

Alejandro flashes a frown and shrugs. “By making it look like Salvatore cut him off from everyone but the Lombardos and Randazzos. He can think it’s Salvatore’s retaliation for involving Elodie. To make it work, though, Salvatore needs to know about some of Elodie’s past with Tommaso.”

“No. I won’t agree to that until I know what involvement she’s had with the Mancinellis. If she carried out any hits on them, I’m not exposing her past to Salvatore. That’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull. She was a mercenary. She’s fair game for them to retaliate. I won’t knowingly make her a target.”

“Then Tommaso can think it’s Salvatore’s retaliation for doing a deal with us, even if it was indirect.”

“That’s better. How will you cut them off? The Vizzinis still have strong ties to Palermo.”

“Make it known he did the deal with Ignacio as our middleman. If the Sicilian families think Tommaso’s on the outs with Salvatore, they’ll treat him like he has the plague. The only ones who’d do business with him are the Lombardos and Randazzos because they still hate the Torettas and have never forgiven them or Salvatore for his arranged marriage to Sylvia, then supporting Carmine and Serafina’s marriage.”

“Do you have enough men over there to make it happen soon? The rumor needs to buzz around the island fast before anyone can talk to Tommaso or Salvatore.” I need to be sure it’s workable before I sanction it.

“Yeah. Our guys’ll lay it on just thick enough to be the juiciest gossip in years without being so over the top people’ll question it.”

It’s dark now, so that’s the only reason we’ve remained in the open as long as we have. There’s not much more we can do. With the time differences, Pablo gave me the signal everything’s in place to happen tonight in California. It’s already the next business day in Japan and Singapore, so Jorge has things on the move. It’s still early to start work in Palermo, but Alejandro will do it before dawn their time.

The guys head to the vehicles while Luis hangs back.

“Rather anticlimactic, mano .”

“True. But anticlimactic means you go home to your wife, and the ninos go home to their mamas. I get to keep breathing.”

Little boys. None of my nephews, who vary in height from five-eleven-and-a-half to six-three and weigh between two-ten and two-twenty-five, are little, but I changed all their diapers. They haven’t lived the things Luis and I have, and I pray they never do. Tres J’s are the closest since they lived in Bogotá with only Luciana for a few years after Esteban died. Catalina moved to America before Alejandro was born because I promoted Matías, but Alejandro’s seen some shit since he goes there as often as Luis.

“True. I want to get home to Margherita. The medicines made her sick today.”

“Luciana’s probably wearing a hole in my living room carpet by now.”

When the street gangs started targeting her sons and trying to lure them in, she knew she had no choice but to move here. Luciana was too alone to protect her boys. Our uncle was no use. I allow him enough freedom to run things for me. He knows I’ll kill him the moment he no longer obeys me.

Since I hold his balls in a vise, and everybody knows it, the street gangs thought they could work around him. He didn’t help Tres J’s , even though he could have. He knew I expected it. Luis beat him so close to death, it wouldn’t have surprised anyone if he’d met the devil.

Tres J’s saw things as kids Pablo and Alejandro have only seen as adults. It’s Alejandro’s job now to inflict some of the shit Tres J’s saw way too young.

“Let’s go.”

We walk to the vehicles. When I get to Jorge, he spins his computer for me to see. I grin. The fuckery’s started. I watch a money transfer process from a bank in Singapore to a bank in Mauritius. That money will probably go through the Bahamas before it winds up in Switzerland, then finally here. Either Pasha won’t sleep tonight trying to stop this, or he’ll have a rude awakening in the morning. Either way, the pequena perra —little bitch—will remember my reach is longer than his.

I climb into the SUV and give Jorge directions to Ellie’s. As soon as I turn on my phone, a message pings from her.

“I’m safe but we have a problem. Call me when you can.”

“Jorge, hurry. Something happened at Ellie’s.”

I tap the screen, and Ellie answers on the first ring.

“Daddy, someone has photos of me.”