Page 8

Chapter Eight

Enrique

It’s been a hell of a week. Leaving Ellie in the middle of the night to go deal with some bratva bullshit wasn’t how I envisioned our first time together. When I went over, I had no expectation of what would happen besides letting her know of the danger she faces being with me.

I didn’t know I would confess as much as I did. I didn’t expect her to share as much as she did. I didn’t expect us to fuck or to—dare I say it—make love. It wasn’t just vanilla that second time. I’ve had plenty of non-kinky sex in my life, and it wasn’t like that. It’s never been like that.

I’ve never felt so connected to somebody in my entire life. It has never felt that intimate before. It left me feeling raw—not a feeling I’m opposed to.

I could get used to it if I know I’ll have Ellie in my arms at the end. That she shares the same feelings I do. From the look in her eyes, I believe she did. And that’s part of why I miss her so much. I don’t recall the last time I missed somebody during one of my trips. I miss the fun of being around my family. I’ve missed the familiarity and comfort of being with them. But I don’t recall missing a person the way I do Ellie.

I’ve already gotten used to the sight and sound of her. Her floral scent that often wafts to me while we’re walking. Now I’m already used to her feel and taste. She’s a sensory overload. One I’ll happily enjoy once I see her again.

First, I’ve got to deal with this meeting.

“Luis, I don’t know what the hell is going on with the fucking bratva. But they’ve got a hard-on for causing us problems right now.”

“Yeah, that’s not anything new. Their pequena pollas are always doing jumping jacks to fuck somebody else over. Just happens to be us this week.” Little dicks.

“I know, but it’s been a while since they’ve done any business with Ignacio. As a courtesy to Pasha’s wife, they’ve kept her family out of it. But now they’re up to their greasy little palms with the Brazilian nuts they’re sucking.”

“Rather than sending Alejandro down to Colombia or Bolivia, our best bet is to send him to Rio. Ignacio owes us that product. We’ve already put the down payment on it. Alejandro will get him to either cough up the shipment or get our deposit back.”

“And that’ll fuck over the Vizzinis in the process. I don’t need anybody in Boston breathing down our necks right now.”

“That’s too fucking bad, Enrique. That’s their problem, not ours. We’ve got people in our neighborhoods who’ll look elsewhere to get what they want.”

And that’s exactly what the bratva’s counting on. They’re going to cause a problem at the top of this food chain. And let it trickle down, so they can step in and save the day in neighborhoods that are ours.

“Luis, you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know. It’s not like this is news to anybody. We need to come up with a solution no one has in the past.”

I sit back in my desk chair as I watch my brother do the same in the armchair across from me. Our mannerisms are so similar that from a distance people often confuse us. But his hair is several shades lighter than mine. Too many extended stays in Colombian prisons leave him a solid fifteen pounds lighter than me. He may be thinner than me, but he’s no weaker than I am. My money will always be on my brother. Not only is he strong, he’s scrappy.

“We could’ve dealt with this sooner, mano , if you hadn’t been distracted.”

If anyone else spoke to me like that, even my nephews—who wouldn’t dare—they’d be scraping their own shit off their kitchen floor. I’d scare it right out of them.

“I can focus on more than one thing at a time, Luis. Keep her out of it. You know as well as I do the bratva has been working on this for months.”

“And we missed the extent of it. We only scratched the surface of their plan.”

“And that falls on all of us.” I gesture between the two of us.

“But we could have acted sooner if you were attending all our meetings the last couple of months.”

“The last couple of months? I’ve been gone for an entire week dealing with this shit. I didn’t plan that trip to Colombia for the pleasant weather. Never mind the two weeks last month that I was down there.”

“Before that, then. When you aren’t out for your walks with her, you’re thinking about her.”

“So, you don’t think about your family during the day? I have never called them a distraction.”

And I haven’t. I never called Margherita a distraction when they were newlyweds, and he couldn’t keep his hands off her. I’ve never called her a distraction during all of her treatments. I never called his son Juan a distraction when he was royally fucking everything over for our family and nearly brought us to our knees.

“I’m not el jefe .”

“You’re not, but you’re still my second-in-command in Colombia. You know you have the authority to decide when I’m not around. You do it down there all the time. You do it when it’s necessary if I’m away from here. What is it? What do you have against Elodie?”

“ Mano, there’s something off. I don’t know what it is, but she’s hiding something. You told me you couldn’t find any records of her, even when you had Joaquin hack police records from all over New England. That’s weird, don’t you think?”

“It is, but there’s bound to be an explanation. There always is. I’d say?—”

Saved by the bell when the doorbell rings. But a moment later, Pablo steps into my office. He’s a replica of Luis at that age, even down to the similar scar they both have on the back of their right hands.

“Welcome back, tío.

“ Hola, sobrino . Have you found out anything in the Heights?” Hello, nephew.

Jackson Heights is our hub. It’s in Queens in what’s always been a heavily Colombian community. We run a lot of our operations out of there. Even though Luis and I live in New Jersey, the boys—that’s Pablo and our nephews—all live in the city—Manhattan.

“Just people complaining when their stash runs low. It’s good business when the dealers can have it.”

Scarcity’s driving up the street price, so our kickbacks are bigger. But it won’t be long before everything runs out.

“We’ve got the warehouse in Parsippany that has enough to float us for another month.”

Luis shakes his head at my suggestion. “But we wanted to sell that in the Netherlands.”

“I know, but with the cost of shipping and customs over there, we’d make more keeping it here. Go ahead and distribute that.”

Pablo looks at his dad, then me, as he nods. I look at Luis, then Pablo.

“Out with it. What did your father tell you to do?”

“He didn’t tell me to do anything.”

“Fine. What did your father allude to that you took the hint and did on your own?”

“I didn’t entirely work on my own.”

I drum my fingers on the desk, and Pablo barely contains his shiver. He just turned thirty-six, but that one gesture still strikes fear in his heart. He knows I’m moments away from losing my temper. That always bodes poorly for anyone in my sight.

Pablo sucks in a breath before he speaks. “You know, after what happened the last time, can you blame us for being concerned and cautious?”

He means my ex-wife, Daniela. That bitch was loyal to nobody but herself. She sold secrets I purposely planted to test her. Once I knew she was cheating and scheming to make money any way she could, I ensured the alliance with her father fell through. I set it up so he suggested the divorce, and she filed the paperwork. But it was my doing all along. Needless to say, my family doesn’t want a repeat of that.

We all knew Daniela was trouble from the start. I’d hoped we could at least have a peaceful marriage and maybe develop some affection. But that would never have happened. If a woman I could barely stand caused that much trouble, my family’s concerned about any woman I could care about.

“You think I’ll turn a blind eye to her, or I won’t see the red flags because I’m infatuated with her.”

“Those are your words, mano , not mine.”

Luis tries for conciliatory now, but too little, too late.

“I’m just saying what you’re thinking, aren’t I?”

Luis doesn’t have to say anything. His expression tells me all I need to know.

“What did Joaquin find?”

“It’s what he didn’t find. He hacked the FBI and the DOJ. He came up with nothing for her name. We got a set of prints off her.”

“You did what?!”

I really am going to lose my shit.

“We got a set of her fingerprints off her?—”

“You invaded her privacy—touched her belongings to snoop—without asking me first.”

I look between my brother and nephew, stunned by this revelation. It’s not as though they haven’t taken these steps before, but they knew each of those times it was what I wanted. They have to know this is not, not , NOT what I wanted.

“We got the prints off her mailbox. We didn’t go in her house or anything like that.”

“Her mailbox? You got clear prints from that when any mail carrier could have smeared them or covered them.”

“We got a few different prints we identified. The set of prints that must be hers didn’t trigger anything in the system. That’s more than just suspicious, tío . That’s practically impossible. Even our fingerprints come up, and we make sure half the shit they’ve charged us with never sees the light of day.”

“Could she be in WITSEC?”

“No. Joaquin hacked that system as well. There’s nothing about her in the U.S. Marshals database. And I paid our informant to do a manual check at the WNRC.”

Washington National Records Center is part of the National Archives. That makes me raise my eyebrows. My nephews were thorough.

“Not only that, we looked for any flight or car rental reservations out of Newark, JFK, and LaGuardia. There was nothing. So, we expanded the search, and still nothing came up.”

“Private jet?”

Luis shakes his head. “She’s in a nice neighborhood, but she doesn’t have that kind of money if she’s living there.”

“Or maybe she does because she paid cash for that house. She doesn’t strike me as someone who needs anything flashy, but she enjoys comforts that don’t come for free.”

“Are you saying her furniture and decor are expensive?”

I glare at Pablo. It’s not a secret where I left from or what time I left when I made my impromptu trip to South America. However, it’s entirely different for Pablo to come out and ask about anything in Ellie’s home. I say nothing because I know I’m defensive about her. They don’t need to know the extent of how I feel. It’s unreasonable considering how little I obviously know about her and how little time I’ve spent with her despite seeing her most days for the past two months.

My visceral reaction is to tell him to tread carefully since he’s speaking about his future aunt. I definitely am not saying that aloud. They’ll flip the fuck out if I do. However, they must have some idea I see potential for Ellie and me. I told her I wouldn’t bring her anywhere near this world if I didn’t want something long-term. They must know that too.

She might not agree yet. But after the other night and what we shared, I think she’ll either run for the hills on her own or come around to my way of thinking.

That doesn’t mean I want to divulge any of this to anyone in my family.

“She’s doing just fine for money from what I can tell.”

That’s as much as I’m willing to give away. Luis knows his job is to play devil’s advocate. But he also realizes this is one topic that could put him on the path to hell with one wrong word. He’s quieter when he speaks this time.

“Could she have flown on somebody else’s private jet?”

“That’s entirely possible.”

When I look at my brother and nephew, I know what they’re thinking, but we’re not in a committed relationship. If she already had a trip planned with someone else, then she’s free to travel with them, whether it’s a girls’ trip or a romantic trip with someone else. I have no hold over her, though my mind screams I have a claim on her.

She’s mine!

The questions are going a mile a minute as I fight to remain calm, my suspicions screaming in my head as loudly as my claim that she’s mine .

If she’s on a romantic getaway, then she lied about whether she wants to be involved with anyone else and what she wants out of a relationship.

Could she have lied to me?

Did she say all of those things to push me away, then temptation got the better of her?

Did she say all of those things to push me away, knowing she already had plans with someone else?

I suppose anything is possible. I look at my brother again.

“So, what do you propose I do? Walk away? Never go back in that neighborhood? Never see her again?”

He practically snorts before he responds. “Like there’s a chance in hell you would do that. Once you have your sights set on something, no one’s getting in your way. Mama’s said it was that way since you were in the womb. If you wanted to jump around and stretch, that’s what you did. You made sure she knew when you were hungry.”

“You say when I have my sights set on something. Elodie is not a thing. I’ll wait until she gets back and speak to her about this. I’ll know if she’s lying. Until then, if we can’t find her, there’s nothing any of us can do but wait. In the meantime, let’s get Alejandro down to Brazil and set up a meeting with Ignacio. Find out what the fuck is going on with them.”

I can’t force her to want to be with me, even if I think that’s what she wants. Even if I’ve made it clear to her, that’s what I want. It’s up to her in the end.

“ Tío , Ignacio’s disappeared somewhere into the jungle. Nobody’s seen hide nor hair of him in two weeks. He’s hiding from us, but I think he knows as pissed as we are, the Vizzinis are even angrier. It wouldn’t surprise me if Tommaso put a hit on the piece of shit.”

I’m staring at Alejandro on a video call with the computer in the center of the table, so my other nephews and brother can see too.

“What are your informants telling you?”

“That’s as much as any of them know. He took off on his own with only two of his personal guards. He told no one where he’s going. Benicio’s been silent. That chismoso brags about everything. The cabrón thinks putting all their family news out into the world intimidates people. All he does is piss off his father. But since he cleans up all of Ignacio’s mistakes, there’s not much the father can do about the son short of killing him.”

Disgust drips from Alejandro’s words and all of us nod in agreement with Alejandro’s assessment, since Benicio is a gossiping asshole.

“ Tío, do you want me to track him down or wait until he comes back to Rio?”

“Do we have the resources in place yet for you to look? Or is your time better spent in the city?”

“I think it can go either way, tío . There’s plenty to learn here in the city, and I can stir up plenty of shit. But whatever is going on is serious enough to make Ignacio turn rabbit.”

“And we all know what a fucking warren the jungle is. Unless you have solid leads, you’ll go in and find nothing, or you’ll wind up finding somebody who doesn’t want us looking. We don’t have time to deal with that right now.”

“Fine. I’ll stick around in Rio for a couple more days and see what I hear. Like I said, I suspect the Vizzinis sent somebody down here to put a hit on him. They won’t leave until the job is done. He can’t stay hidden forever unless he wants Benicio to run the business into the ground.”

“Then wait him out a few more days. Keep your informants well paid in Rio and S?o Paulo. Have the drones go out over the areas we know he’s set up labs in the past.”

As I hang up the call, Luis’s phone vibrates on the coffee table. He picks it up, and his brow furrows. He slides his finger across the screen, unlocking it. I assume it’s a text since he takes a moment to read, then scrolls up and down before looking at me. I see his head tilt slightly toward the guys. I jut my chin toward the door, and they know they’re dismissed.

“Keep me posted on anything else. Find out what Pasha’s up to. I’m certain he’s the one helping Ignacio hide.”

“Will do, tío .”

Javier is already tapping his phone screen as the guys stand up. We exchange a round of “te amo” before they leave.

My mother and father insisted we always say “I love you” before we leave because, in this world, you never know when it’s your last chance to do that. Since Luis and I went to boarding schools in New England and our parents lived in Colombia, we went long periods without seeing them. Luis and I went to different schools, so it’s not like we saw each other every day, either.

It wound up being a good rule to live by because I got a call that my father was dead an hour after I hung up with him. The one person I’ve never said it to in my immediate family is my Tío Humberto. That piece of motherfucking shit is the reason my dad’s dead. I’ve never loved him. He’s rotting in the Colombian jail I made for him. I gave him a luxurious home he hasn’t left in nearly thirty years.

Luis was my first call after I found out. I had to tell him, and with my little brother, we told our sisters and mother. That life lesson taught us never to take for granted the opportunity to let our loved ones know they’re important to us.

“It’s Andrés. He got a text from Elodie. He screenshot it.” Luis stands and crosses a small space to my desk handing me the phone.

Elodie

Sorry to bother you but I hope you can pass this message along to el patrón and he can pass it on to el jefe. I just wanted to let him know that all is well and I arrived safely. I’ll be back in a few days. I also wanted to let el jefe know Constantine misses him.

I hand the phone back to Luis, keeping my expression neutral. I don’t want him to know I’m equal parts giddy to hear from her and hurt that she’s still away on this mystery vacation she forgot to mention to me.

She doesn’t have my number, and since she didn’t call Luis, she doesn’t have his number either. My brother explained the other day that she spoke to him on Andrés’s phone. She had his number as her bodyguard in case she needed him for anything.

“She checked in with you. Do you think it’s a guilty conscience? Does she feel badly that she’s on a trip with someone else?”

“Maybe.”

“Do you think she’s trying to distract you from what she’s really doing?”

“No, I think she’s considerate. She hasn’t heard anything from me either. I’m guiltier than her. I haven’t contacted her.”

“I’m certain you told her there’ll be times when you have to go out of town and can’t tell her where you’re going. Why couldn’t she tell you where she was going? How is that such a secret?”

“We don’t know each other that well, Luis.”

Even though I bared my soul to her, and I thought I did.

“Yeah, well, it’s strange no one’s finding records of her.”

“If you step back from this for a moment, can you blame her for not telling a guy where she went when she barely knows him?”

“I’d say you know each other pretty well, don’t you?” Again, Luis is the only person who could get away with saying something like that to me.

“You know damn well what I mean. Tread lightly, manito . You know you can say anything to me, but that doesn’t mean you need to say everything.”

“Fine. There’s no need to point out the obvious, anyway.”

“Exactly. So don’t make me remind you she owes me nothing.”

“ Yet .”

He stresses that one little word, and I stare at him. We both know she’s mine. Inevitably, she’ll come to accept that. But first, I need to know who the hell this woman I fell for is.