Chapter 21
Elliot
It’s the memories of the day that keep me up no matter how much I will my mind to sleep.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I say into my phone, trying to run through what Leo just said. We have a problem, one that could land him in jail.
I try to run through what it could be, but given who he is, what he does, and the state of the government right now, Leo or any of his men could fucking breathe and land themselves in a jail cell.
“There’s a politician here in Texas trying his hardest to bring me and my men down. He’s working with the city and county law enforcement to facilitate raids and undercover operations. Nothing has worked so far, but he’s still pissing his pants at the thought of bringing down a cartel.
“So much so that it looks like the fucker started working with someone. It’s someone I’ve only heard whispers about but don’t know, but they apparently found out we were going to be doing business in Chicago and went to the feds.”
As soon as I hear the word feds, I start pulling at my hair. “Please tell me your sister’s boyfriend intervened.”
From what I know, his younger sister, Camila, is in a relationship with a DEA agent. That should be beneficial for a cartel like the Muertos.
“For now, but I need to call a meeting with Dante today and discuss putting a pause on our agreement. Given the climate of things…”
“We need to take all the precautions we can.” And those precautions include me and Bennett too.
If word gets out that we have a hand in any of the cartel or mafia’s dealings, things could get ugly.
“Talk to Dante and discuss the pause. In the meantime, if you have names, I can try to find any information on them I can.”
Getting information is my way of getting ahead of things and making sure we aren’t blindsided.
Leo doesn’t miss a fucking beat.
“Politician’s name is Jack Harrison. He’s a congressman out of Austin.
From what I can see, he’s a slimy piece of shit.
As for who he’s working with, all I have is a moniker.
She goes by La Chuparosa. I can’t find much about her, but it’s a name I’ve heard throughout the years.
From what I can tell, she comes and goes out of hiding, trying to garner all the power she can get.
She’s been a black cloud for some cartels in Belize and Colombia and only recently has started to make her way back into Mexico. Rumor has it she’s from Sinaloa.”
The hair on the back of my neck stands up. A part me hoped he would say the person was a man. A part me hoped it was a different name. I hoped a lot of things, but unlike the faith I had that Aria would come back into my life, I didn’t have any faith in this. I knew the name before he even said it.
My parents are never far from my mind, and because of that, I spend more hours than I care to admit looking for them. Waiting for my mother to come out of hiding. Waiting for some sign my father is still alive. Just as my uncle does.
Chuparosa is what she would call Samantha.
She always would say she was her little hummingbird.
When I first saw the name pop up about five years ago, I wanted so hard to believe it wasn’t her, but then I found a picture.
It was grainy as fuck, but just seeing it, I had all the confirmation I needed.
It was her without a doubt.
Leo is right—she does want power, and she will even hurt her own family to get it.
“I’ll have Drake look into both and see what he can find.” The words are almost robotic.
“Let me know what he comes up with.”
The second the call ends, I do what I say and ask Drake to look into Jack Harrison. Then, I spend the rest of my day looking into La Chuparosa.
Or should I call her my mother?
Marisela Serrano Lane, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?
Needing to get out of my own head, I throw the blankets off my body and head down to the kitchen.
Walking down the hallway, needing a distraction from my thoughts, I peek into the room Aria occupies.
She’s sound asleep under the covers, and I take a second to just watch her, even if it’s creepy as hell.
When I got home, my mind was all over the place.
I spent hours trying to find any bit of information on La Chuparosa, though everything I was able to find was a dead end.
I looked hard and fucking deep, and when I saw it was already past nine, I knew I had to call it quits, at least for the time being.
Trying to find my mother has, and will continue to, mess with my head. She will be an even more persistent thought than what she already was.
Tonight, my only saving grace was Aria. She calmed the thoughts, even if her giving me a bowl of mango brought up memories. She made me feel like me, not the son of a woman who would destroy everything to hold all the power and wealth she can. She calmed the storm rolling through me.
I wanted her in my bed tonight, but she’s making the rules here, and I will abide by them.
Not wanting her to wake up and find me at her door, I walk away and head down to the kitchen.
Apparently, I’m not the only one who couldn’t sleep, because I find Grayson ruffling through the pantry in the dark.
“Shouldn’t you be resting?” I say, slapping on the light switch.
His head pops out of the pantry, his eyes squinted. “You should announce yourself before you approach someone in the dark.”
I roll my eyes at him. “It’s my house. I don’t have to announce shit. Now, answer my question.”
He sticks his tongue out at me like a child, but eventually, he answers me. “I’m tired of resting. I rest all day. I rest all night. I’m bored. I need to do something other than rest.”
He has been cooped up in the apartment since the day of his surgery, so I can see why he is getting antsy, but he can very much leave whenever he wants.
“Go to the park or stop by your office. Do something other than rest. Or here’s an idea: go to your own place. I’m sure you miss your pillows instead of drooling on mine.”
I get a head shake before I even finish speaking. “I’ll follow your advice about the park or the office, but I hate to you break it to you, big bro—you are stuck with me until I get cleared to go down a set of stairs.”
A sigh escapes me. I lived with him for fifteen full years; I can get through a few more nights.
“What are you doing up anyway?” he asks when I walk over to the fridge to grab some water. “I figured since you dicked my nurse down in the elevator, you’d sleep like a baby.”
His words make me stop in my tracks, the bottle of water nearly falling to the floor, but I’m able to keep hold of it.
I turn to my brother with narrowed eyes. “I didn’t dick down anyone anywhere.”
He gives me a knowing look. “That’s not what my ears heard.”
“Nothing happened between me and Aria,” besides her coming on my hand ever so beautifully, “and nothing is going to happen.” Not until he is cleared, at least, but I don’t tell him that. What happens between me and Aria is going to stay between the two of us.
“I doubt that, what with her being the woman you met in Vegas three years ago.”
There’s no point in denying it. “Have you told her I had Darke keep tabs on her?”
Grayson snorts at my question. “I can be stupid sometimes, but I’m not that stupid.”
I give him a curt nod. “Thank you. Keep it that way.”
“Yes, Captain, my captain.” He gives me a fake salute, and I do my best to ignore him. “So what is keeping you up so late?”
There are a lot of things I keep from my siblings, but anything that has to do with our parents isn’t one of them. The three of them know the darkness and toxicity that is our mother.
I let out a sigh and look at my brother straight on. “Our mother.”
His shoulders tighten. “Did she pop up again?”
I can tell that he is trying not to care, to be as nonchalant about our mother as he can, but there is nothing nonchalant about Marisela.
“You can say that.” I sigh again and take a second to compose my thoughts. Grayson knows both our uncle and I have connections to the cartel and the mob. Maybe not the full extent, but he knows.
So I tell him what Leo told me, down to the damn nickname she is using and how I spent the rest of my day trying to find any information I could on her whereabouts and came up empty.
He is silent the whole time, just leaning against the counter, taking in everything I’m saying—or possibly ignoring every one of my words and just acting like he is listening. If roles were reversed, and he was the one talking about our mother, I would be doing the same.
When I’m done talking, silence envelops us for a minute or two before I get the courage to ask him a singular, terrifying question.
“Has she contacted you?”
I know it’s long shot, since our mother hasn’t even tried to be in our lives. There was a point when I was a teenager where she came back, but once our uncle had seen her true colors and told her to leave, she disappeared again. But my siblings and I have something she wants: money.
My brother shakes his head. “If she needed something, she wouldn’t be contacting me. I was her least favorite, remember?”
I sigh. Being the oldest, I saw and experienced a lot of things my siblings didn’t. It was like we were all raised by a separate set of parents, even if we all share the same blood.
My mom was the hard one out of the two, and there were definitely times I noticed she was harder on Grayson, even if I was the one who told him to hit Sammie or jump off something or hide his food.
I would love to say my mother didn’t have favorites—my dad sure as hell didn’t—but I can’t. Marisela is a whole different creature.
But I don’t say that to my brother. “You are still very much her son. She could still reach out.”
Grayson scoffs. “Where was she while I’ve been recovering from knee surgery?
It should have been her here instead of Sophia, Aria, Henry, and Ella.
” He rolls his eyes before pushing himself off the counter, grabbing crutches I hadn’t seen.
“I stopped being her son the day Dad left us with Bennett. You did too. Stop worrying about her.”
He starts limping out of the kitchen, but I stop him before he can get too far.
“Gray,” I call. He doesn’t turn, so I speak to his back.
“I don’t worry about her. I haven’t in years.
What I do worry about is what she could do.
She already took Ella once. I don’t want to see what she could do with the help of a politician or a cartel.
So just promise me if she reaches out, or shows up at the arena or at one of your games, you will tell me. ”
He still doesn’t turn to face me. He just looks at the hallway ahead of him. After a minute or so, I watch his shoulders deflate. “I’ll tell you.”
“Thank you.”
He nods, and with that, he walks away.
I don’t know how long I stay in the kitchen after that. I know for a fact that it’s well after the ding of the elevator sounds on the second floor, signaling Grayson made it safely up.
I don’t know how long thoughts of my mother occupy my mind, but apparently, it’s long enough to send a message to Drake.
He doesn’t know our mother the way I do, the way Sammie and Grayson do.
He was just a baby when we came to Chicago, and we have kept information about her to need to know.
He’s too young to remember her voice or what she looked like, having only seen a picture or two of her.
I doubt he could pick her out of a crowd.
As much as I don’t want him looking into her, he has skills I don’t have and will be able to find information on her or her alias in no time.
For half a second, I hesitate sending the message, but then my finger finds the send button.
Elliot
Find information on a woman they call La Chuparosa.
Drake
I’ll look into it. I’ll let you know if I find anything.
Hopefully, he’ll be able to find her. If he does, I can get ahead of this and keep any and all information on her away from Leo and the Muertos Cartel.
I can’t have Leo finding out my mother potentially had a hand in the death of his.
That news would ruin the alliances I have built, and that is not something I’m willing to give up.
This isn’t me protecting my mother, this is protecting myself.