23. Chapter 23
Chapter 23
Vincent
“ Y ou’re looking better today,” Ming remarks as he observes me shaving in my bathroom after my shower.
A part of me had wanted to stay with Ramona till she woke up. What if she were to have another night terror? She was sobbing so hard in my arms last night I thought she was going to hyperventilate. Luckily I had stuck around after she fell asleep. I think I had sat in that armchair for over an hour when she started to squirm and mumble. I tried to wake her at first, but that didn’t seem to work. She had opened her eyes but was still living out her nightmare.
But I have an early morning meeting at my estate on the island to discuss expansion efforts in South America, and I want to talk to Esen beforehand.
“The acupuncture finally worked,” Ming concludes.
“I didn’t have acupuncture yesterday,” I respond. I hadn’t told him that I had skipped my appointment with Suyin in favor of seeing Ramona.
“But my headaches are better,” I say. Not gone. But a lot more manageable.
“Maybe it was just a bug that needed to work itself out of your system.”
Esen walks in and sets down a piece of paper on the bathroom counter. “Here’s that list of Italian mafia, including their family, that have been killed in the past two decades, with a few more names that didn’t make it on the first time.”
I skip the new names and review the old names.
There it is.
Isabella.
Last name: Rossi.
It’s the family I had briefly considered to assist with the East Coast distribution of our omega blockers.
“You remember anything about the Rossi family?” I ask both Ming and Esen.
“The name sounds vaguely familiar,” Ming replies, while Esen shakes his head.
“Pull up their info,” I instruct Esen. “Include pics.”
“Now?”
“Now.”
“On it, Boss.”
After Esen leaves, I finish up shaving.
“She’s a Rossi,” I explain to Ming. “She’s got to be. Though I never ordered a hit on anyone in the family. Why would she think I killed them?”
“You can ask her, now that you think you’ve identified her.”
I think about how my not knowing is the one thing she has on me. If I confront her, I take that away from her.
“I’ll think about it,” I grumble.
Ming regards me studiously. He knows that a few days ago, I would have happily shoved anything at her. The more miserable she was, the better. How could things have taken such a turn?
Maybe it would have been better if she had died from those abortion pills. Then I wouldn’t be in this weird space. I can feel my anger at her transforming, but I prefer the anger over the unsettling emotions taking its place. Anger was straightforward. Now I’m even fucking feeling guilt.
Yang Mi and Charlie are still staying at my estate outside Kingston and await me on the veranda when I arrive.
“Still on the yacht, eh?” Charlie asks as we sit down.
Zara, a female server, takes our drink orders.
“As much as I like the yacht,” Charlie says as he props his feet onto an ottoman, “I can’t stand being surrounded by water all the time. By the way, who’s that staying in the suite on the third floor of your yacht?”
“Just some pussy I’m banging,” I reply.
“Yeah? When did she come aboard? Do I know her?”
“Don’t think so.”
“Have I met her?”
In response, I stare silently at Charlie.
Yang Mi gets the hint and says to Charlie, “You’ve got pussy of your own. Why are you poking into Vincent’s sex life?”
“Just curious, ’cause I noticed Xander standing guard outside,” Charlie says.
“What were you doing on the third floor?” I ask.
“Jimena wanted a tour of the whole ship. I think she wanted someplace new to have sex. Anyway, this pussy of yours must be special.”
“Pussy is pussy,” I reply. “Best not to be too attached.”
Charlie nudges Yang Mi. “You hear that? You’re going to have to give up Darynaif you want to be head dragon someday.”
“If that’s what it takes,” Yang Mi says.
Charlie raises a brow. “I thought you ladies were in love.”
“It’s in her best interest. ”
Charlie leans back to take in more of Yang Mi. “Hunh. I didn’t realize your interest in being head dragon would override Daryna.”
“You sound surprised.”
“You’ve been with Daryna for over two years now.”
“You’ve been banging Jimena for three years now. How are you any different?”
“It’s different. I’m a guy.”
Yang Mi shakes her head at his sexism. “Well, it’s kind of pointless to talk about it. Vincent isn’t going anywhere for a long while.”
Charlie settles into his seat and raises the martini the server hands him. “Cheers to that.”
Ming walks up to inform me that Santiago Vargas and Andrés Torres have arrived. Vargas, from Colombia, is the darker of the two with wavy hair. He wears a white suit and a sombrero vueltiao. Torres, from Argentina, could pass for Italian with his olive skin and European features. He also wears a well-tailored suit .
“Es a pleasure to meet you finally, Senor Xu,” Vargas says.
“Please sit,” I say, “and tell Zara what she can get you.”
“I would like to try the rum here and compare it to the rum in my country.”
Torres presents me with a bottle of Malbec wine. “The very best from our Mendoza region.”
“Shall we open it now?”
“Please.”
From a nearby bar, Zara retrieves wine glasses and a bottle opener. Charlie offers to open the bottle.
“I hope you will like it,” Torres says. “Have you ever been to Argentina?”
“I have. It’s a lovely country,” I say. “We have connections there.”
“Yes, we have a sizable Chinese community in Argentina, especially Buenos Aires and Rosario.”
Once Zara has provided a glass to everyone, Vargas proposes a toast. “To new friendships.”
I take a sip of the wine. Although it’s very good, I’m mindful that drinking alcohol is probably not the best mix with my headaches. Zara sets down a pot of tea beside me.
Vargas and Torres proceed to expound on the potential for omega blockers in their respective countries and why it would be in the Black Dragon’s interest to partner with them for distribution. They don’t tell me anything I don’t already know.
“The problem for Colombia and many others is price,” says Vargas. “If we could lower the price, there would be, for sure, a good market for the omega blockers.”
“We could lower the price a little,” I say, “but too much creates arbitrage opportunities.”
“Arbitrage?”
“If the prices are significantly lower in Colombia, who’s going to prevent someone, yourself even, from buying a bunch here to sell in places like the US or Europe?”
“We could put limitations on the quantity of purchase, yes?”
“We could, but it may be more trouble than it’s worth.”
“You already sell in Brazil, even Peru. Es natural to expand to rest of South America.”
“Our sales in Peru are modest, but it was easy since we’re active there already.”
At the end of the meeting, Torres left hopeful and Vargas less so.
“I don’t see the harm in trying,” Charlie says. “Why not sell our shit wherever we can?”
I turn to Yang Mi to see what her response is.
“I’m not convinced the market is big enough to justify setting up the infrastructure needed to sell in places like Colombia.”
“That and opportunity cost,” I say.
Charlie gives me a look that makes me think I should send all triad members through Economics 101. I again turn to Yang Mi.
“Time and resources cost money that could go towards endeavors with higher returns,” she explains. “But Argentina could be worth it. We’re doing well in Brazil, and Argentina’s average income is not too different.”
“Okay, we do Argentina, and maybe get to the rest of South America after that,” Charlie says. “Hey, I bumped into Aaliyah last night. Maybe we could all do dinner and drinks here tonight. Throw a little party.”
“There wasn’t enough party for you on the cruise here?” I ask.
“You barely partied. I didn’t know where you were most of the time.”
I could have answered that I was busy torturing Ramona, but I don’t need a bunch of questions from Charlie. “You can party. I’m going to stay on the yacht,” I say.
“That must be some good pussy.”
It is. Extremely. Good. Pussy.
“You made the right choice to groom Yang Mi for head dragon,” Ming says on the drive back to Kingston. “Charlie needs to be a lot more serious, but I don’t see him changing. ”
“Neither do I,” I say before taking a call from Esen.
“Got some info and pics on the Rossi family,” Esen tells me. “You want me to send it over the system? It’s not super-sensitive info, just the police reports, which I think are interesting because they took blood samples at the crime scene, and there’s blood with DNA completely different from the Rossis’.”
“Sure, send it to Ming.”
Ming pulls out his tablet. The first thing I see are the pics. Luca Rossi. Sofia Rossi.
Their appearance confirms to me that “Ramona” is a Rossi.
Next come pics of their children. I narrow my eyes.
“That’s her,” I say. “Martina. Martina Rossi.”