Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Jorge
I scrub my hand over my face when I get into the bedroom. I didn’t let the women see my frustration, but it’s there. I didn’t recognize the pedazo de mierda—piece of shit’s—voice. It could be a mercenary, or it could be a syndicate member somewhere who I don’t know.
I’m too trained to make the mistake of walking close to the window. I skirt around the furniture and pull the curtains closed. I’ll check Liesel’s room when I’m done here. They need to know not to open the curtains. A rifle’s strong scope or a drone could look straight in.
I sit in one of the room’s armchairs near—but not in front of—the window and flip open my laptop.
I heard it ping a couple times with emails.
I notice Joaquin sent me more information.
I see more bank accounts I’m positive Liesel doesn’t know about.
I’m certain Gretel would know even less.
They’re only a smidge on the right side of legal.
I calculate as I go along. I’ve always had a mind for math.
I’ve always enjoyed puzzles ever since Mamá would keep me occupied with the old-fashioned wood ones with the peg pieces.
I was barely in preschool before I moved onto the cardboard ones with the large pieces.
By elementary school, I was doing puzzles that said they’re for eighteen and older.
I suppose manufacturers believe it takes eighteen years to build the patience.
I look at equations the same way. They’re puzzles that need me to solve for X.
Right now, it’s who the fuck is terrorizing the Schlossbergs.
As I examine the new information, I see if I can find any patterns.
I look for data I can string together to make a solvable equation.
I find a few things, but they’re too insignificant right now.
Maybe they’ll be worth something in a while.
“Hola, manito.” Joaquin answers after the first ring.
“Hola. I looked at what you sent me. Nothing stands out right this minute. We got a call from the kidnappers. They sent proof of life. They want six million euros in a Swiss account.”
“The Schlossbergs don’t have that kind of liquidity. Not without stealing it from clients, and that would be a challenge for them. They’d have to do some serious moving around of their funds that would raise too much attention.”
“Do they have any assets they could liquidate?”
“Not quickly.”
“I want to put enough in Gunter’s Swiss account to make them try to draw on it.
That way we can see where they try to take it.
There’s barely nine-hundred K in there. If I can get it up to a million, Liesel could say it’s a deposit before getting more proof of life.
That she didn’t trust them not to hurt her father once they believed they’d pacified her. ”
“Liesel?”
Fuck my life.
“Should I air out my tux?”
He knows Liesel means more to me than a passing acquaintance because I gave her a nickname.
The men in the Four Families are far too much alike.
If we didn’t want to murder each other, we’d probably be one big happy commune since all the married couples live in the same two neighborhoods.
If we could put aside our egos and join forces, we could rule the world.
Since we’re so alike, the men in all the families have a habit of giving their woman a nickname.
It’s usually some diminutive of their real name.
It’s possessive as fuck—and sweet as can be.
“How about we get through this and see whether she’s interested when her father’s life doesn’t depend upon me?”
“What about her boyfriend?”
“That’s not what I called to discuss.”
“But you want to.”
I mostly love how my brothers know my thoughts without me having to say them aloud. It’s kept us alive in deadly situations. It’s also rescued me when my anxiety flares, especially in large social settings.
Another tradition the Four Families have is to invite one another to wedding and baptism receptions.
They’re excuses to mingle with wealthy guests who preen over their invitation and want to schmooze with each other.
Most of all, they want access to the Four Families to score lucrative deals.
Being around all those people a few times a year is excruciating.
“Later, mano.”
“Fine. I checked the usual forums and groups on the dark web to see if anyone put out a hit for him or kidnapping order. I found nothing. There’s nothing that hints at Germany.
There are a few open jobs in Europe, including ours in the Czech Republic and Lithuania.
Pablo just posted those last night. We’ll fuck over the Kutsenkos for giving you a hard time.
The unclaimed jobs are along the Med and in Asia. ”
We have an interesting network of colleagues.
We contact some mercenaries directly when we have someone specific in mind.
Other times, it’s an open casting call. We see who wants the job and decide from there.
All the assignments are posted in codes law enforcement still haven’t figured out.
The encryption changes constantly, and no one’s given up details as part of a plea bargain.
They’ll take their chances with a government’s death penalty before they do a syndicate’s.
“I snooped around the others’ accounts and found nothing pointing in your direction.”
The ‘others’ are the Mancinellis and O’Rourkes since he’s already told me about the Kutsenkos.
“What about the lesser ones?”
“I checked Boston, Trenton, Chicago, and L.A. No internal communication within those families.”
“Triad? Yakuza?”
“Neither. There’s some conflict between Hong Kong and Tokyo, but nothing that stands out beyond their usual shipping wars.”
“Is this an oligarch?” It wouldn’t be a first, and Gunter’s done business with some.
“That’s what I’m thinking. Someone who’s way overreaching. They might be making a play to establish themselves as the head of a syndicate. Or they might want to start one.”
“That’s usually a doomed experiment.”
There are too many longstanding organized crime families and branches.
Anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit rarely has the means to elbow their way in.
Whoever they try to nudge out of the way already has the means to shut newcomers out.
If they don’t, then that means the established syndicate has an overlord that’ll destroy the interloper.
We don’t like new kids at school. They sit at a lunch table on their own.
“Do you think they’re Russian or from one of the Stans?”
“Possibly.”
Whoever this is knows I’m connected to Schlossbergs & Sons. Their insults implied I have a personal connection to Liesel. If they involve me, that means taking on my entire family. We come as a package deal.
“Get me what you can on them. Dig more in Asia too. See if the pissing contest between Chinese and Japanese syndicates is spraying toward here.”
“I’m working on it as we speak. What’re you going to do?”
“I’ll comb through everything you send as it arrives. But I may need to take Liesel to her office. If you can’t find the Swiss account info, we’ll need her laptop and hopefully her father’s. His device is the only way into the accounts.”
“And her mom and sister?”
“They’ll stay here with some of the guys.”
“When does her boyfriend get there?”
“Funny. She and her sister will have to invite their boyfriends over before it gets too late. I can’t guarantee the cover of darkness would work in our favor. I want to make sure our guards can see anyone coming. I’ll make sure they bring the boyfriends in through the back.”
That’ll be interesting. I’m certain neither will listen to their girlfriends about staying close to the floorboards for the entire ride. It won’t please them to take orders from me. They’ll really hate how they’re transported if they refuse my guards. I’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
“Do you need anything else, manito? You still good on your own?”
“I’m good. But you know I’ll contact you and Javier the moment I’m not.”
“All right.”
“You don’t sound like you believe me.”
“This is the first time a woman—your woman’s—been involved.”
“She’s nothing to me right now.”
He blows out a snort. “Yet.”
“Te quiero.”
“Te quiero también.”
“Bastian, things are worse than I thought. I want you to come to the hotel tonight.”
“What’s going on? Are you scared to be there with just Gretel and Heidi?”
Liesel’s watching me as she speaks to Bastian. Just like the last call she was on, she stands close enough for me to hear when she has the phone between our ears, and the volume’s all the way up. Neither her mother nor sister can hear Bastian, only her.
“I’d like you here to be on the safe side. Heidi’s going to call Friedrich in a moment. She’d feel better with him here too.”
“The safe side of what, Anne? What’s going on?”
He’s asked twice, and I can tell he’s getting testy. Liesel’s looking up at me for guidance, I whisper my answer to her unspoken question.
“Say no one’s seen or heard from your father, and you’re nervous. Something’s happened, but you aren’t sure what.”
She nods as Bastian repeats her name.
“Mutti can’t get ahold of Papa, and neither can Heidi nor I. We’re all getting nervous. It’s not like him. If this has to do with work, and I work alongside him, then I want to make sure everyone connected to us is protected.”
“And a hotel room is going to do that?”
“A friend of mine with private security is here. We have guards with us. I can explain more when you get here.”
“You said Heidi’s calling Friedrich?”
Liesel glances over at her sister, who taps her phone screen and puts it to her ear. It only takes a moment before I hear her greet her boyfriend.
“She’s talking to him right now. My friend will send cars for each of you. It’s really important that you stay down below the window.”
“What? Anne, this is insane. You want me crouched on the floor of a car with people I don’t know.”