Chapter 18 #2
He sputtered for a few seconds and did his best to back away as far as being confined to the bed would allow.
“What…” His cough was testing my patience.
“What is that?” He turned his head slowly toward his cousin.
“What are… you… doing in Mexico?” As he rubbed his neck, I noticed the heavy throb of the cords in his neck.
Maybe I should snap it in response.
“Don’t fucking bullshit us, Eduardo. I know when you’re lying.
I’m here because it seemed odd you were worried about a single warehouse.
That coupled with hearing the news Fassi had sent soldiers into the area allowed both of us to put two and two together,” Jago told him as he planted a foot on one metal rung of the bed, leaning over and grinning evilly.
Anyone who knew the cartel leader knew when he offered a smile of that magnitude, he was pissed.
Eduardo made a big deal out of swallowing, even glancing at the door as if his men would come in and save him from our wrath. Not a chance. “It’s just an additive. Nothing special. Vitamins. I think B-12.”
“I call it bullshit,” I told him.
“Why lie about it?” He was still doing his best to crawl as far away from me as possible.
I doubled down on what Jago was doing, placing my foot on the metal rung and leaving further over so he had a damn good look at the vial in case there was any question about what we were talking about. “Why the warehouse? What was so special?”
“Did you go there?”
His question seemed rhetorical or as if the man was buying time.
He certainly couldn’t think we were that stupid.
I glanced at Jago who sighed. “You already know we were there and what we faced. You lost three men in the process. Now, maybe you don’t care about them, just like you certainly don’t give a shit about the welfare of the people you enslaved to work there. ”
At least he had the good graces to allow a sheepish look to cross his face. “Good help is hard to find. I pay them well.”
“I know exactly how much you pay them, Eduardo. You’re a greedy son of a bitch. I suggest you pay them what they deserve and maybe you’ll find loyalty. Did you stop and think one of them might have tipped off Fassi for a nice finder’s fee?”
He acted as if the notion hadn’t even dawned on him. “Shit, I… I didn’t know for certain there’d be an attack, but I had a lot to lose in the building.”
“Especially if the cutting agent holds an extra ingredient,” Jago suggested.
“It’s nothing special. Trust me.”
I was already growing weary of the man’s attempt at lying. He sucked at it. “Then why the massive collection of scientific gear?” He was nervous, more so than I’d ever seen him, and the guy had no balls.
“It belongs to the man I hired to oversee a percentage of my business.”
Jago laughed. “Your more profitable side.” The single good thing I could say about Eduardo was that when one of our shipments of cocaine had been confiscated by the Mexican equivalent of the DEA, he’d been instrumental in helping us regain control.
Not without almost getting Kruz killed, but as Jago had reminded us, sometimes you had to think about the end product.
In that case, millions of dollars of party favors could have been lost. The shipment had been some of the last we planned on bringing into the country. Drug running had gotten too dangerous and far too messy.
Fassi was attempting to take down our regime in any way possible. If not diamonds, illegal drugs. I wouldn’t put it past him to pit another cartel against us so he could sit back and watch a bloody war ensue.
The thought caught me off guard and I momentarily looked away. One of the oldest techniques in the world when a player wanted to overtake a territory was to pit enemies against each other. While they were busy hunting and killing, the new player could easily sweep in and take what they wanted.
This time when I looked at Jago, I could swear he knew what I was thinking. The expression on his face changed.
If only we had a handle on how Fassi intended on playing his final hand. Was framing me by a misguided use of Eduardo a portion of the game?
What I was certain of was that losing billions of dollars’ worth of diamonds was a huge incentive to exact revenge. Fassi had nothing to lose.
“You have a science lab in your warehouse, but no scientist. It would appear he’d been tipped off Fassi’s men were in the area. I’m curious. What did he develop, Eduardo?” I asked again, admiring the way I was able to keep my cool.
“Truly nothing special. But the addition chemically provides a better product.”
His exasperation was evident, beads of sweat trickling down both sides of his face. And the air conditioning was working well.
With a heavy sigh, I popped the top on the vial at the same time I gripped his chin, forcing his mouth to open wide. “Then you won’t care if I pour the entire vial down your throat. Right? Just vitamins.”
“Stop. Shit.” He nearly punched me in his effort to free himself, even smacking the vial. Fortunately, I had a solid hold on the glass.
“Then what the fuck is in it?” Jago snarled.
“Christ. Okay. It’s no big deal. It makes the cocaine more addictive. I don’t know the goddamn compound. When I asked the dude, he refused to tell me, but it works. But I wasn’t stupid,” Eduardo panted. “Too much of it will kill you. Okay? The shit is lethal. That’s all I know.”
“Meaning?” Jago snapped.
Eduardo shifted his gaze back and forth between us.
“I was testing the waters. There was a lot of interest in the product. Or so I was told. I paid a premium price for the shit. When there were issues, I insisted the dude who invented it come fix the crap. But I can tell you profits because of this shit are way up.”
Now Jago and I looked at each other and he cocked his head. “You killed people,” Jago gritted out.
“Not intentionally, but yeah, there were a few overdoses. Okay, more than a few. Another reason to be careful with the shit.” Now Eduardo was nervous.
I jerked my hand away, immediately placing the stopper into the vial. It would appear I’d need to have it tested after all. If Eduardo had learned the components, he couldn’t understand why they were so special. Meanwhile, I had a bad feeling.
“Let me guess, cuz. The first shipment you tried the product on was our container months ago.”
Eduardo would prefer to jump out the window. I could tell by the tic in the corner of his mouth. “Well, cuz … See, I didn’t have any blow on hand at the time and I thought maybe you wouldn’t care.”
Jago sucked in his breath. This time he wrapped his hand around his cousin’s throat, lifting him almost completely off the bed.
“You goddamn motherfucker. I’ve told you a thousand times we don’t sell to kids or dealers who do, and we will not jeopardize lives to make a profit.
I should kill you right here, right now. ”
Now I reached down and turned off the one monitor. The other was already dead.
Just like the fucking idiot was going to be in a few minutes.
“What about Fassi? Did you fucking sell us out to that man?” Jago’s face was red, his anger shifting to a point where he wouldn’t be able to control his actions.
“No. God, no. I don’t know how the asshole found out.”
“But you knew he could possibly show up,” I threw in.
Eduardo was panting, so agitated I was surprised his heart hadn’t stopped. “Okay, I got wind the fucking Alcarez Cartel had partnered with some bigwig from some African country. Hey, I’m not the brightest bulb, but I put two and two together.”
Jago tossed him down. “And you didn’t think about warning us?”
“I kind of did.”
Sighing, I shook my head. “You have a death wish.”
“Look. I didn’t want anything to happen to you. Trust me,” Eduardo insisted.
I shoved the vial into my pocket, retrieving my phone and navigating to my saved photographs. So far, there’d been nothing whispered on the streets about a young American girl, but the day was early. Why not cut to the chase?
I shoved my phone in his face. There was no need to ask a single question. Eduardo recognized Brooke’s picture but did a damn good job of trying to hide it.
“Where the fuck is she, Eduardo, because cousin of the man I work for or not, I will kill you if you either refuse to answer or pretend like you don’t know.” My words were frank and to the point.
He swallowed several times, the unease from before turning into more than a slice of fear. Good. He should be worried. “I don’t know where she is. I swear to fucking God. I just know she was taken.”
“Who told you?”
He was clearly nervous and not only about what I’d end up doing, but about the person responsible for telling him. “Javier Bandoles.”
Notorious leader of the Alcarez Cartel. Considered by far the most brutal and savage head of the cartel in the entire country.
He also had his claws in the Western part of the US, namely California.
This was no coincidence. Fassi had taken Brooke.
It was entirely possible he’d planned on taking Fallon as well, her gallery showing in Chicago saving her. Or…
I was right in that she’d been used as a lure. Brooke wouldn’t have been physically able to attempt to save her sister.
“You’re fucking working with Bandoles?” Jago asked quietly. His fury was only evidenced by the darkness in his eyes.
“We were talking an alliance. Just like the old days. Remember? I had no clue he could be working with Farid Fassi. I’m not a traitor, Jago. I’m not.”
Just like the old days. A rush of adrenaline had already given me a headache.
Huffing, I looked out the window at the bright sun. “You’re just an opportunist who’d sell your soul to the devil for money. You chose greed over loyalty to anyone.”
“At first, I didn’t think this would have anything to do with you. Then there were threats, the fucker acting like he wanted to take over. Why do you think I called you to watch my shit? The fucker shot me himself.” Eduardo was almost as angry as we were.