Page 63 of Cartel Viper (The Cartel Brotherhood #2)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Maddy

It shocked the shit out of me when Javi told me Enrique agreed to me going up to Albany with the guys.

You could’ve knocked me over with a feather when I discovered Maks and his family are coming too.

I guess they have their own grudge to settle with the O’Sheehans after learning what Drew put me through.

The bratva are going to shake up some shit and draw the O’Sheehans’ attention to them while the Diazes—I consider myself one now that Javi and I have been together for nearly a month—ransack the house I used to live in.

It’s taken three weeks of coordinated planning to make sure the plan is solid.

I think it also took that long because Javi and Maks kept getting into arguments about how to handle this.

They needed to walk away and cool off. I’m certain neither family encouraged them to simmer down. Just the opposite.

But here we are. Javi, his cousins, brothers, Enrique, and I just pulled up outside the house.

Luis is back in Bogotá dealing with his and Enrique’s uncle.

Apparently, after all these years of house arrest, Humberto has reached the end of his usefulness.

I think Luis is giving him one last chance.

It had something to do with Elle, but I only pieced that together.

I didn’t dare ask. I took my garage door opener with me when I left.

It was in the car I left in the underground parking lot in Jackson Heights. Someone got it for me, so I use it now.

Arrogant bastard. He didn’t replace it or change the frequency. Not because he was too lazy or didn’t worry about someone getting ahold of it and breaking in. No. He assumed I’d come back to him.

The door rises without a sound. He made sure the chain was always well oiled, and the door never rattled.

How the motor makes no noise is beyond me.

He must have left his car somewhere before he flew to New Jersey because both spaces are empty.

That’s how he got down there so fast. It’s only an hour flight.

We discovered Elle’s contact was double dipping and delayed sending the photo, and he tipped off Drew that people were asking about him.

That’s why we thought Drew was at the pub when he was really on his way to Jersey.

Elle went out of town for a day. That’s all I know for sure. I can guess what no one told me.

Once both Diaz SUVs are inside, I hand the clicker to Javi.

He closes the door, and we all pile out.

Javi, his brothers, and I were in one vehicle while Pablo, Alejandro, and Enrique were in another.

Technically, all seven of us could’ve fit in one SUV, but these men are huge.

It would have been uncomfortable, even with me in the middle of the third row.

It also means they have construction tools in the back of both.

We weren’t sure what they might need once we arrived.

My key still works, and the fucker didn’t change the alarm code either.

“Javi, there are cameras and mics all over the place. Do you want to destroy them before we get to work? Even if you cut the power, there’s now an emergency generator backup Drew installed after the storm that gave me the chance to go in the attic.

There are four lockboxes in the attic you can bring down to me, and the safes can be accessed from the basement. ”

Javi looks at his brothers who nod and head to the stairs to lead them to the second floor.

They’ll take care of the surveillance devices up there.

They’ll easily be able to reach the hatch to the attic and pull down the ladder.

Javi leads the way to the basement, his gun drawn.

Even though I’m certain we’re alone, he won’t risk taking me anywhere without his weapon handy.

Pablo remains on the first floor to keep watch and to find the cameras and mics there while Alejandro and Enrique follow Javi and me to the basement.

It’s finished, so I point to the workout equipment that covers one of the safes. Javi looks at me in surprise.

“You moved that by yourself?”

It was a fucking struggle to move that. “I had to take all the weights off the rack, then move the rack. I was exhausted and sore the next day and needed a shower afterward, but I was highly motivated. The other one is over here.”

I point to where we kept our Christmas ornaments and other holiday decorations.

Moving those tubs was annoying but not challenging on my own.

Javi tackles the tubs while his cousin and uncle handle the weight rack.

They lift even the heaviest dumbbells as though they’re as light as a scrap of paper.

I nearly broke my toes a few times trying to lug the heavy ones off the bottom rack. I let them fall more than lifted them.

I remain quiet while the men work. There’s no need for me to prattle, and they haven’t asked any questions. They work in silence as well. Javi moves the tubs faster than the others move the weights, so I show him which tiles he can pry loose to access the safe.

“This one should have a cache of weapons as well as product.”

I use my fingertips to press against the screen, allowing it to read my prints.

We hear the lock mechanism slide free, and Javi opens the door.

I don’t know what he expected to jump out at us, but he’s pointing his gun at the safe as he eases it open.

There’s a stack of handguns and knives like the last time I explored, but there’re even more drugs than I realized.

There’re blocks of cocaine and bags of pot and pills.

I push Javi back and slam the door shut.

“I don’t know what those are.”

My fear is they’re carfentanil. The kind that’s even more powerful than regular fentanyl, which can be used as a prescribed narcotic.

Carfentanil is the type where you even breathe in a speck of it, and it could kill you.

It’s a hundred time stronger than fentanyl and ten thousand times stronger than morphine.

“ Chiquita , it’s all right. I recognize the markings on the pills and the bags. You’re right to be cautious. Those are ecstasy.”

“Are you sure? I didn’t think they came in pills that look like those.”

“Yeah, I know exactly which family they bought these from, and it wasn’t anyone north of the border, and it sure as fuck wasn’t the O’Rourkes.”

Javi reaches in and pulls out a baggie, holding it up so Alejandro and Enrique can see.

None of them name a syndicate. Since they don’t volunteer, I don’t ask.

Javi empties the safe into several duffel bags.

I move on to the one the other guys uncovered.

I open that, and Alejandro does the same thing Javi did, a gun ready to fire if needed. I peer around Enrique’s shoulder.

I stand gawking at the safe, trying to value the stash I see in front of me.

This one is full of bricks of cocaine and marijuana.

I’ve never seen so much in my life. This was far more than he ever made me run.

I can’t help but be practically irate knowing all this stuff was in the house while I lived here.

Yeah, sure, he had a cousin in the DEA to distract them and keep the target off the O’Sheehans, but that wasn’t a guarantee.

A different law enforcement agency could’ve raided the house while I was here.

Even though we weren’t married, my name is on the deed.

It was one of my stipulations to moving in with him.

I refused to have no stake in the house in case we broke up.

I wanted to be protected. New York is an equitable division of property state, so if and when we married and then divorced, it wouldn’t have automatically been fifty-fifty.

More would’ve gone to Drew than me since he paid cash for the house, but I still would’ve gotten something.

Not being married meant I would’ve been shit out of luck without my name on it. I wasn’t prepared to do that. I wanted to know I could get some equity out of it if we went our separate ways. Now, I get all of it.

I know his mom and dad gave him shit about putting me on the deed since they claimed I would live rent-free and get something for nothing, but putting up with Drew should’ve been payment enough.

He handled the household bills, but I still did my part when it came to things like groceries and incidentals.

I cleaned the whole place every single week.

It wasn’t like I was the queen of the castle with minions to take care of me. That was fucking Drew, and I was one of those minions. There’s so fucking much I regret now, even though I try to tell myself regrets are pointless.

I look up at Javi, my eyebrows raised. He’s staring at the contents. When his gaze shifts to me, he answers my unspoken question.

“There’s close to a million dollars’ worth of product in there.”

“Holy sh—smokes.”

I catch myself before I swear in front of Enrique. It still feels wrong.

“It surprises me no one has emptied out these safes. I assumed someone over the years figured out they existed, or he let it slip or confided in someone, but I guess not.”

They’re secrets he took to the grave, and now they’re ones that benefit the Diazes. I can’t think of a better ending to all of this. I notice the bricks have the same marking on them that the bags of pills had. Curiosity gets the better of me.

“Whose branding is that?”

“It’s not branding so much as a tracking system. I know you figured out we recognized it. It’s better if I don’t say who it belongs to.”

“Is it Maks?”

“I can tell you this much. No, it’s not.”

That makes me wonder if it’s the O’Rourkes or Mancinellis. Nothing on the packaging gives me any hints, but then I don’t truly know what to look for. It takes them no time to empty this safe as well. Once again, I follow Javier upstairs. Except this time Alejandro and Enrique go ahead of me.