20. Dax
DAX
My brain was starting to go numb with all the information I was looking through.
We needed to narrow down what shipments were normal and which might be carrying the goods.
I was cross-referencing that with the information Void had been forwarding me.
Letters and numbers started to swim on the page.
This was the part of the job I hated the most, but it was also the most important.
With incredibly few leads, we had to work every angle we had in hopes it would lead to more information.
The door behind me clicked as the lock was turned then thrust open to reveal Void carrying a limp and bleeding body over his shoulder. Not saying a word, he walked into the room and dumped the body on the floor with Raven coming in behind him after she closed the door.
“What the fuck?” I blurted. “You went for beer.”
“I’d honestly like to say things like this don’t really happen with him, but I would be lying,” Eagle added as he stood to look over the man who was dying, if not already dead. “Should we know this fucker?”
“He’s one of Diego’s men who used to come around and collect his imposed taxes.
This time he came in because he knew I was one of those in the city who supported Dax and Tommaso taking over.
He told me I’d better fall in line or they’d shut me down for good, pulling law enforcement into it.
The motherfucker was going to spill all of my dirty secrets to the FBI since it just so happens some bigwig is in town,” Raven explained.
“None of this makes sense. With Diego gone and Tommaso in charge, this shouldn’t be happening unless Diego wasn’t really the one in charge. ”
That had me looking at Alvaro, whose face wasn’t at all surprised at what Raven was saying. Instead, he looked like he was sick to his stomach and might lose his lunch all over the table.
“Al,” I snapped, causing him to jerk his head up and look at me. “What the hell do you know?”
“About a month ago, Marco learned that Dad was trying to bring in other players, wanted to get some distance, and have more control over things. On the outside, Diego De León was the man running the East Coast, but it was really Marco Tesoro,” Alvaro explained.
“That’s why he wanted Martin to live with him.
Marco has no wife, no children, and he wanted an heir.
Out of all the children my mother had, Martin was the clear choice to take over. ”
Son of a bitch. Taking Diego out didn’t exactly do what I hoped in hurting Marco’s power base. If he had his heir safely in Mexico, then Diego was a loss he could suffer.
“Do you have any contact with your brother?” I demanded.
He nodded, chewing on his lower lip. “Martin always looked after me growing up. He was a good big brother trying to protect me from Franco and Dad. He told me I could come stay with him if I wanted to, but it was too late. At that point, Dad threatened Mom if I didn’t fall in line.
Dad knew he couldn’t do anything to Martin, and the only other person I cared about was Mom. ”
“Have you heard from him at all since your father died?” Wes asked. “How did you normally talk? Email, chat, phone calls?”
Alvaro typed something into the tablet he was using and pulled up an app I’d never heard of before. “Signal? What the hell is Signal?”
“It’s an app that’s encrypted and password protected that you can use to chat with anyone in the world. Martin said it was the safest way for us to talk and not get discovered,” Alvaro explained.
Wes’s expression got darker the more he looked into the technology. “Shit, everything about this is to make sure it’s secure, untraceable, and backed up on a cloud server so there’s no real way to tell where any of these messages are coming from.”
Grabbing Alvaro’s chair, I shoved it back so he was now facing me as I loomed over him. “I need you to look me in the eye and tell me how far you’re willing to go to keep your mother safe. Is that more important to you than keeping Martin safe?”
The uncertainty in Alvaro’s eyes had my gut clenching.
Worst-case scenarios played in my head. What if he told Martin where we were, what we were doing, and who was involved?
My hope to let Mariana keep one son had clouded my judgment about this.
I deserved the scolding that Magnus gave me when we first got here.
If it were my fault that we all ended up dead, it would be the ultimate torture.
“If Martin is with Marco on bringing Mom back to Mexico, then I choose Mom. At the end of the day, Martin’s been a good big brother, but my Mom doesn’t deserve for that to happen to her.
As you said, she’s been a victim her whole life.
How could I simply hand her over to them?
” Alvaro asked, his eyes full of confusion and hurt over all of this.
I knew that look. I’d been there many times with Devin while he was still alive. How could I help him when he didn’t want to be helped? What more could I do when my twin decided to trust his bitch-ass wife over me who’d been with him from the beginning?
“What do you know about your sister-in-law? Your mom told me he was the only one to be married. Did he choose to marry her, or is she connected in some way?” I questioned.
“Angelina and Martin met in college at Harvard. They were friends for a long time, and when they graduated, they announced their engagement. It was a long engagement for how long they’ve known each other, but they always seemed so comfortable together.
Her parents are rich, and I think her father owns one of the largest shipping companies based in Mexico City,” he answered, clearly guessing what I was thinking.
Standing up straight, I started chewing on my thumbnail as I paced.
“So it makes sense that it could have been an arranged marriage. Marco needs to control the shipping empire in Mexico, so you take over the largest port and one of the largest companies. He couldn’t marry into the family but his nephew could, setting up the next generation for power.
Marco is doing everything his father was never willing or smart enough to do before he died.
When he called me, he said his father had lost his fight, letting me win.
So now Marco is going to take me out and have a plan in place for who will rule after he’s gone.
Damn, if he weren’t such a bag of dicks and trying to kill me, he’d be one hell of a guy to know. ”
No one really commented on that, but Raven gently cleared her throat. “I don’t mean to cut in while your brain is clearly working its brilliance, but what am I supposed to do about this dead man?”
Shaking myself out of my deep thought, I glanced over at the man who now had a pool of blood seeping out from under him. “Yeah… I’m gonna make that Tommaso’s problem. Who’s got a phone I can use to call our new leader and drop this in his lap?”
Wes tossed his phone over to me, and the wonderful man he was, it was already ringing.
“To what do I owe this call for this time? Planning to tell me that the FBI is farther up my ass than you realized? That there’s someone else trying to take my rightful place as ruler of this empire away from me?” Tommaso inquired when he answered the phone.
It seems that Weston had a nice long chat with Tommaso this morning while I was still sleeping. Good to know I didn’t have to go over it all with him now.
“Is the answer ‘kinda for both’ acceptable?” I teased.
“Oh, Dax, it’s you. Man, you really need to get a phone of your own,” Tommaso commented, his tone changing to something more respectful.
“Then I wouldn’t get these delightful insights into how you really feel about things,” I said cheerfully.
“As for the FBI, there might be some more activity, but it’s more based around the fact that Franco De León, your half-brother, is the one who tried to blow us up.
He’s also still working with and for Marco, but we handed him over to the FBI so he’s their problem. ”
“Wonderful, now that idiot can sing like a canary to everyone to know what we do here,” Tommaso mutters.
I snorted and rolled my eyes. “Do you really think the FBI doesn’t already know? They just haven’t had the evidence to prove it. See, they follow these pesky things called laws. Weird, I know, but that’s why I decided to forgo dealing with that in my life.”
“Yes, well, we’ll see if it stays that way once they’re done with Franco,” Tommaso muttered. “Was there another reason you were calling or just felt like chatting?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, was I interrupting something?” I asked.
“Spit it out, Dax. I know you’re playing with me now,” he grumbled.
“You’re really going to need to lighten up.
If you stay this serious and cranky, it’s going to give you gray hair way faster,” I pointed out.
“As for the real reason I called, I thought you should know that a list of our enemies and supporters got leaked from fight night. Some of Diego’s old loyals are running around threatening business owners to fall in line or they’re going to the FBI.
Figured you might want to get some people on that sooner than later.
You should have a copy of the list since Betta has that info already. ”
“Damn, Dax, you always bring me the most cheerful news,” Tommaso deadpanned. “How did you find out this was going on?”
“Void witnessed the whole thing go down,” I answered without giving names or places. While I wanted to trust that Tommaso was going to pull through for us and be the ally I needed, I wasn’t going to put all my eggs in one basket, as they say.
“I want to talk to the guy who was doing the shakedown,” Tommaso said.
Looking over at the body, I walked up to it and poked it with my foot. “Yeah, about that. I’m not so sure he’s gonna be doing much talking. He might be a little dead.”
“How exactly is someone a little dead?” Tommaso asked, not at all amused.