Chapter 33 #2
Lorenzo eases his phone out and checks the screen.
His thumb slides across the screen, and he brings it to his ear as he watches me.
I can’t see who it is, but they’re doing all the talking right now.
From his expression, Salvatore’s ripping him a new one.
He looks more guarded than usual. That’s how I know it’s his uncle, the don.
“Bad news?”
I gloat as he hangs up and puts the phone back in his pocket. The hand through my hair was my signal to enact my revenge.
“You are the most fucked-up of all of us, Pablo.”
“It’s not like I went after Michelle’s dogs. You never kill the dog.”
Lorenzo’s wife, Michelle, is Laura Kutsenko’s best friend.
She grew up going over to Laura and Madeline’s house all the time.
We know each other well. I was the first guy she slept with.
We had a summer fling. It’s a sore spot for Lorenzo.
Laura’s Mastiff, Sebastian, is quite the stud.
He’s sired puppies now owned by couples in all of the Four Families.
Talk about a swinging dick. Michelle has two of Sebastian’s daughters.
“You fucking killed the deal. Like seriously killed it.”
Alejandro gave me the list of Peruvian men involved in the mining and lab deals.
They were willing to work for the Mancinellis, knowing it was an operation Tío didn’t sanction.
Each family will get a lump-sum survivor’s benefit.
Our men rounded them up this afternoon and took care of them ten minutes ago. Salvatore just got the photos.
“You shouldn’t shit where you eat, Enzo.”
His phone buzzes again. I see the menace in his gaze, and I laugh. He answers without looking at his phone this time. Once again, it’s a one-sided conversation.
“Fall in the jungle can still get exceedingly hot, Enzo. Too bad it didn’t rain in Colombia today.”
I watch his sun-tanned ears turn red. It’s his tell.
His temper is slipping. He didn’t appreciate us blowing up the five labs his family has in the .
They thought we only knew about three. Those are the ones they had permission to build.
There’s not a person working in a rival’s labs in the who doesn’t get paid by us too.
They know which side their bread is buttered.
“What do you want, Pablo?”
“You’re going to apologize to Flora.”
“Fine.”
“And Michelle’s going to watch.”
“What? No. You are not involving my wife.”
“You involved my fiancée.”
“She was nothing to you when this started.”
“She’s everything to me now. You could’ve reached out the moment you found out Flora and I got together. I know you knew before we even left Colombia. You could’ve warned me. Not for my sake but Flora’s. You didn’t. No women and children goes both ways, Enzo.”
“I’ll give Florencia the apology, but my wife stays away from Mafia business.”
He pushes back his chair and stands, buttoning his suit coat. He walks away without another word. Predictable.
He heads to the front door, and I go out the back.
I watch him walk toward the corner where his SUV waits.
He’s looking around since none of his guards materialized like they should have.
He reaches for his belt buckle to trigger his tracker, but Joaquin grabs his left arm while Javier gets his right.
They drag him into the alley as he fights to break free.
The moment he’s in the dark and in front of me, Jorge binds his wrists behind his back.
Alejandro gags him while I pull out my brass knuckles.
“Count yourself lucky you’re the don’s nephew. I know I can’t kill you.”
I drive my fist into his left cheek. He fights not to react, but he can’t help but flinch.
My next punch goes to his sternum. He’ll be lucky if I don’t break his xiphoid process.
I follow that with a blow to the gut that doubles him over and leaves him wheezing.
I slam the fist that doesn’t have the brass knuckles into his right eye.
I follow it up with a blow to his ear as his head whips away from me.
Joaquin steps up with his knife drawn. I give him space.
“I heard what you said, you malparido carechimba. You’re lucky I like Michelle, or I’d fucking castrate you. I’ve heard you fuck like a gigolo, so I won’t take your one redeeming quality away from your wife. I’m certain that’s the only reason she’s with you.” Badly born—despicable—face of a vagina.
He rips open Lorenzo’s shirt, then pulls his tie extra tight, making the fucker’s face turn red.
He slices a T on Lorenzo’s left ribs and a J on his right.
The cuts aren’t deep enough to do any real damage, but they’ll likely scar enough to remind him for a while that he shouldn’t speak ill of our dead.
“Javier, I did a better job than you did. My letters are way straighter.”
My middle cousin left the same reminder ten years ago when he and Lorenzo got in a fight during a college spring break trip. They and their groups of friends wound up at the same resort in Ibiza. A drunken fight that Lorenzo lost left him with a reminder of my cousins.
“Yeah, well you’re both sober tonight.” Javier’s mocking tone grates on most people’s nerves.
Joaquin steps away, and I take his place. I nod, and Alejandro claps his hands on Lorenzo’s shoulders and presses down until the man kneels before me. I grab a handful of his hair and yank his head back. I lean over him, so I’m the only thing he can see.
“This is just the appetizer. Stay the fuck away from my woman, Enzo, or yours will be a widow. I know everyone says I have no soul. Maybe I do. Maybe I don’t.
What I have is a temper when it comes to Flora’s safety.
Test me, and I will strike. One day, Salvatore won’t be around to protect you.
One day, I’ll be jefe de jefes. I will kill you and piss on your grave. ”
I kick him in the junk then plow the brass knuckles into his temple. My cousins and I walk away, leaving Lorenzo in the alley. Our men are holding his in a van about two blocks away. We’ll release them, and they can deal with his unconscious ass.
We both live to fight another day because I have to let him. But I didn’t lie. One day, I’ll run this hemisphere. When I do, no place on Earth will be safe for anyone who threatens my chiquita.
“Papí?”
“Sí, chica.”
I slip into bed next to Flora. I showered on the flight back down to NYC from Boston. I had to dispose of the blood splattered suit and scrub myself to make sure I carried none of Lorenzo’s DNA evidence on me. My hair’s still a bit damp, but I’m presentable enough to be near Flora.
“I’m glad you’re home.” She speaks around a yawn.
“I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“It’s all right.”
She snuggles closer to me, putting her head on my chest and draping her arm over my belly. Her left leg slides between mine. I wrap my arms around her, and my hand rests on her ass.
“It’s over, little one.”
“Really?” She’s a lot more awake now.
“Yes. The man who started this understands what he did wrong. He won’t come near you except to apologize.”
She pushes up onto her elbow and gazes down at me.
“A syndicate man is going to apologize to me?”
“In front of his wife. Don’t be alarmed when you see the bruising. It’ll be worse than it looks, but he’ll survive.”
She stares at me before she nods and settles back into her spot alongside me. She kisses my chest and gives me a squeeze.
“Thank you, Daddy. I love you.”
“I love you too, chiquita.”