Page 49 of Cartel Viper (The Cartel Brotherhood #2)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Maddy

“I know that’s vague, Madeline. But for right now, it’s best if that’s as much as I tell you.”

My brow furrows at that. Elle doesn’t trust me.

I’m not family yet, so she won’t tell me anything more.

I get it. But it certainly leaves far more questions than answers.

The best I can do is nod. There’s nothing to sit on in this room now, so we both lower ourselves to the floor.

I tilt my head back and close my eyes for a moment as I catch my breath and try to regroup.

“Madeline, I don’t know Drew, but I know of the O’Sheehans. I know that family’s reputation. Do you know what I mean by that?”

I shake my head, dreading whatever’s coming next. There’s been entirely too much revealed to me in the past few days. My head feels like it might explode if I learn anything else. Perhaps I can figure out more about Elle from whatever she shares now.

“I just told you I’ve been Mafia adjacent. You must know by now that means a specific type of family.”

Italian, specifically Sicilian.

“Yeah.”

“Did you know I lived in Boston before I moved to New Jersey?”

“No, I don’t know that much about you, to be honest.”

She offers me a soft smile. “Well, I grew up in D.C. while my dad was in med school, then doing his residency and specialty training. Then we moved up to Boston, where my parents are originally from. I went back after college when I got married. I didn’t stop being Mafia adjacent until I moved down here.

The ties that bind were finally severed when I married Enrique. But I know a guy or two.”

Her gaze pins me in place. That sounded about as Guido as it gets. To fit the Jersey Italian stereotype, she just needs to be a short, overweight, balding, middle-aged man with gold chains.

“The O’Sheehans have a reputation about how they treat women.

Drew’s a chip off the old block. I don’t know how your in-laws don’t know that.

I have to assume it’s something they never learned.

There’s no way on God’s green earth your brother-in-law would’ve allowed you to be with Drew if he fully knew what he’s like. ”

“If Maks doesn’t know that, how do you?”

She stares at me for a moment before she frowns. “Just like Maks must not know about Drew’s family history, I didn’t know you were the woman he was with. I knew he was involved with someone and had been for a few years. But your name never came up. Do you know how Drew came into his position?”

“Yeah, his dad died. I knew nothing about their family business until then. He kept it entirely hidden from me. I don’t know how he did because I don’t want to think I was entirely blind to everything.

But I never suspected. It wasn’t until he took on the role as boss that he stopped trying to hide things from me. ”

“Drew’s father, Donald, was a shitty man who did shitty things to good people. He did one too many shitty deals in Boston, and it came home to roost. He didn’t die of natural causes.”

Her gaze still pins me in place, but now it bores into me like a jackhammer. Not only do I get the sense she knows how Donald died, but she had a part in it. Her expression tells me I shouldn’t ask questions. That whatever I deduce is probably a fraction of the real backstory.

“Madeline, you can tell I’m familiar with Drew. I don’t know him personally, but I know about his family. I know a lot about his family. What do you know about his mother?”

“That she’s a retired librarian.”

Elle snorts. “Librarian. Okay, I haven’t heard that one before, but sure.”

“I thought she worked at the public library.”

“Madeline, that woman kept books, but they weren’t the type you read.”

My brow furrows.

“She kept the books that recorded everybody who did business with the O’Sheehans.”

The way she stresses that word, it makes me think I’ve been stupidly naive the entire time I’ve known that family.

“Do you mean like a little black book of names and numbers and dates?”

She arches her left brow but remains quiet. That’s exactly what she means.

“I thought women were supposed to stay out of things.”

“Like how Drew kept you out of things?”

Touche.

Her expression softens, and it becomes motherly.

“Madeline, you only knew what Drew let you know. You probably pieced together other things without confirmation. But the absolute secrets his family wanted to keep are ones they’ll take to the grave and would have even if you married him.

The O’Sheehans don’t get along with their Canadian neighbors in Quebec.

They’ve tried expanding over the years into Rochester and into Buffalo and up along the St. Lawrence into Canada.

They’ve stomped on the Montreal mob’s toes too many times.

Now that the O’Rourkes have a connection to the Tremblays, they’re even more pissed and feeling even more shut out than ever. ”

She pauses and observes me. I suspect she’s going to tell me far more than anyone else ever would.

“I know where they buried all the skeletons, Madeline. I also know who wants to dig up each one. There’s more than one way the Diazes can make Drew suffer for how he treated you.”

I stare at her for a moment before I lift my chin. “Javi can do whatever he wants to Drew, but only after I’ve had my turn. I want Drew to lose it all and see every bit slip away before he takes that last breath.”

Until this conversation, I merely wanted to fade away and never see Drew again. I would’ve been happy to never hear his name again. But in no uncertain terms, Elle is giving me the opportunity for revenge. I can’t think of anything I want more besides knowing Javi is safe next to me.

“Do you have a shovel or two?”

“Madeline, I’ve got every tool we could possibly need to unearth things that have been buried for generations.”

“What do we go after first?”

“I need to get in touch with a couple of contacts. Do you know where Drew would be right now?”

I shake my head. “He could still be up in Albany and sending men down here to deal with me. Or he could’ve come down here and is hiding somewhere.”

“He believes Javier’s family won’t find him?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then that’s the first thing I need to do.

Once we know where he is, we can decide what to go after first. It all depends upon how easily he could get in the way.

You can’t overhear these conversations I need to have.

” She stands. “And it’s safer if you stay down here.

You saw me turn on the jammers, but that’s no guarantee someone hasn’t figured out where we are. ”

I bite my bottom lip but nod. There’s nothing I can do, and it’s not worth arguing over something that’s none of my business. She might already know several of my secrets, but that doesn’t mean I’m entitled to know hers.

I stay in the panic room while she heads into the main part of the basement.

Once the door’s closed, I can hear nothing.

I’m left to my own thoughts, but I force myself to sit and count.

I’m not trying to get to a specific number.

I’m not even counting the seconds or minutes.

It’s something to focus on so my imagination doesn’t run wild.

With the lack of reception down here, the burner I have doesn’t register the time. I don’t know how long it’s been since Elle stepped out of the room, but she comes back in with a smile.

“I made some calls.”

I don’t ask for any specifics. Even if I wanted to know, she can’t and won’t tell me.

“You said your boys helped you make this into a panic room and then into a storage room. What are they like?”

Her smile broadens. We chat for the next hour and a half about her three adult sons.

They sound like nice guys, but if she’s Mafia adjacent, I wonder if that means they’re full-blown Mafia.

She tells me funny stories about them when they were younger, and she’s clearly a proud mother as she describes them now.

I tell her more about growing up knowing Enrique and what things were like with my sister.

The time passes faster than I expected, and it’s given my nerves a chance to calm down after our fucking car chase.

I can almost convince myself it didn’t happen.

That it was the product of my imagination.

I know it wasn’t, but I don’t feel as panicked.

I’ll feel a hell of a lot better when Javi gets here.

Fucking traffic. I refuse to consider any other reason’s delaying him.

We pause mid-conversation when her phone pings.

“It didn’t take my contact that long to figure out Drew’s still in Albany.”

She turns her phone toward me, and I see he’s in his favorite bar. The TV on behind him has the stock market ticker across the bottom. I can see the time and date and know someone took it an hour ago.

She turns the phone back to face her and taps on the keyboard.

“I texted Enrique that I know where he is.”

“Do you have any idea when that’ll be?”

“Probably five or ten minutes after Javier arrives.”

“How long do you think that might be?”

“Depends on traffic.”

That could be five minutes or five hours since I don’t know where in the tri-state area he’s coming from. It’s the same for Javi. I spoke to him before Elle made her calls, and he said he was on his way, but he’s still not here. I swallow my frustrated sigh as she continues to talk.

“Madeline, with Drew still in Albany, there’s plenty we can do to fuck him over without him knowing who’s doing it.

He might assume it’s Enrique or Javier, but he won’t be able to trace it back to them.

He doesn’t know enough about me to ever guess I could be involved.

He won’t think it’s you because I doubt you have the skills or contacts to do what I can. ”

I open my mouth, but she shakes her head.