Chapter 42
Elliot
Being in Leo’s home office feels eerily similar to being called into Bennett’s when I was a teenager. Like I’m going to get reprimanded for something stupid like not having my gym clothes or something. Usually if it was big lectures or groundings, Henry would also be in the room.
Leo is Bennett and Santos, who showed up about five minutes ago after being called in by his brother-in-law is Henry. I’m still very much me in both these scenarios.
“Is someone going to tell me why I was told to come here or are we going to sit in silence for the rest of the night?” Santos says, looking from me to Leo as he sits on the leather couch that is pushed up against the wall.
Leo and I are standing across from him, not bothering to sit in the chairs in front of us.
“We need to figure out a way to bring down Jack Harrison.” Leo voice, bringing a tumbler of amber liquid to his lips.
Santiago rolls his eyes. “I’ve been telling you that for months, pendejo. Why the sudden change?”
“Madden called me yesterday morning. Told me he had gotten word the state of Texas was waiting on a few search and seizer warrants to be signed. They are looking at a warehouse on the westside of the city.”
Leo’s right hand man nods. “Okay, but why is he here?” A look gets thrown in my direction.
I narrow my eyes at Santos. “He asked for my help on getting information on Harrison.”
“And you couldn’t email it?”
“And not show you my billion-dollar face? Where would fun in that be?”
Leo interjects himself. “There’s a complication.”
Santos turns back to look at his friend. “What’s the complication?’
A sigh escapes Leo. “Aria was not only in a relationship with Jack Harrison but also told him everything she knew about us.”
I don’t miss the way Santos stiffens up when Leo tells him about Aria and Harrison.
“Aria doesn’t know any pressing information. Serena and Isabella, sure, maybe even Camila, but not her.”
Leo nods at that. “I know, but what she told him most likely got him curious.”
He’s right. It’s possible that Aria telling him about the Muertos was just the start.
“What I don’t get is the timeline.” Leo continues, almost musing as he puts the puzzle together. “Aria said she told him the day Serena said was pregnant. That was almost two years ago. Why the fuck did it take him this long to come after us?”
My though from earlier comes back to the fore front.
If Harrison was so damn obsessed with keeping Aria as his, why stop the chase the second she leaves town?
“Because as long as Aria was within reach, he didn’t give two shits.” I voice out loud, trying to tie everything together.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Santos asks but I look at Leo instead.
“When did you get word that Harrison was looking into you?”
I try to remember when he asked me for the information. It had to be around the time Grayson had his surgery because he still had crutches when I talked to him about Marisela.
“Around mid-June.”
Mid-June.
Aria had already been in Chicago for a handful of weeks.
“He must have waiting until Aria left Austin to start his probing. The fucker could have set everything in place and let it sit until the perfect time. And that happened to be when Aria decided to leave and cut all ties with him.”
The more I think about it the more it makes scene.
“And why would he do that?” Santos asks, getting up from his seat on the couch.
“Porque es un pendejo,” Leo says with a scoff.
“The fucker must be in some dirty shit, something he knows we would kill him for, and since he knew Aria had a connection to us, he held on to that and hoped that if whatever he was doing got out, her relationship with us protect him. The second she was gone that protection left with her. So he did the next best thing. Trying to take us down.”
I’m going to kill this motherfucker.
If Leo is right, and I’m fucking sure that he is, Harrison was only with Aria because it served him.
Not because he cared about her or loved her.
He found out early in their relationship who she was friends with and held a death grip on it.
He treated her like shit, put cameras in her place and used his words and actions to attack her because he could and nothing was going to stop him.
Harrison must have hid hi secrets well because I comb through every single line of information Drake found on him on the plane ride over here. There was nothing about anything illegal.
“Okay, so we take the fucker down before he can touch us. I’m guessing you have a plan?” Santos asks.
Leo looks over at me with a raised eyebrow. “Elliot here says we should go through La Chuparosa.
“Do you know who she is?”
I guess it’s time for my own confession.
I let out a long sigh and nod.
“I had Drake look into her,” At the very least that’s the truth. “He found the name Maria Garcia and that she had ties in Tijuana. But there’s more information on her that isn’t in his report.”
“Which is?” Santos narrows his eyes at me.
Has he always been this much of an asshole?
Hold his stare, I speak. “The Maria Garcia is fake. Her real name is Marisela Serrano born and raised in Sinaloa and spent a few years in Texas during her teenage years. Her father was the governor of Sinaloa before he was killed.”
“He was killed in his home with his son and daughter-in-law.” Leo says, probably recalling the event.
“I remember when it happened, it was a few years before my mother’s death.
My father hired more men as security and I heard him tell my mother that it wasn’t a random hit, that it was calculated.
That whoever had done it must have had ties to organized crime. ”
I nod. “Yeah, it was definitely calculated.”
Calculated by Marisela herself, but I don’t say that.
“Wasn’t the daughter taken? I thought that she was never found.” Santos interjects.
“She was taken, and there are rumors as to what happened to her, but nothing was every proven.” I say.
“There was a rumor that she was possibly tied to my mother’s death That she was possibly Ronaldo’s mistress and she and my father called the hit so she could take her place.” Leo says, his voice going hard.
“Do you believe those rumors?” I ask
Like his voice, his features harden at my question.
“My father wasn’t the best father or husband, that I know for sure.
But I know for a fact that he wouldn’t call the hit on his own wife.
If anything, I would think it was the mistress’s own doing.
That is if she was his mistress. For all I know, that could be made up to. ”
I nod.
Its times like these where I wish I could sit my mother down and have her tell me everything. From the moment she met Robert Lane to know. Just to see what rumors are true and what was just that, a rumor. A chisme started by someone unknown.
“How do you know La Chuparosa is Marisela Serrano?” The question comes from Santos.
He’s just so damn curious today, isn’t he? I think I miss him being the broody mother fucker of very few words.
Time to spill everything.
“Because I’ve spent the last twenty years chasing after her.
You see, what the news outlets or articles didn’t mention when the governor was killed and his daughter taken, was the fact that his daughter was married and had children.
” Both of their eyes go from narrowed to wide as I continue to speak.
“She met a runaway while she was in Texas. A runaway from a wealthy family in Chicago that she ended up married to. They had four kids together. The oldest was ten when she disappeared.” I pause and take a deep breath.
“Maria Garcia, Marisela Serrano, La Chuparosa, is my mother.”
Silence.
Not even a breath.
No even a single movement.
Nothing happens as the two men in front of me take in what I just said.
They don’t look angry.
They don’t look confused.
They just stand in front of me simply dumbfounded.
It is Santos who breaks first.
“I knew there had to be a reason your Spanish was damn near perfect.”
That takes me aback.
“Damn near? My Spanish is motherfucking perfect. Nothing near about it. ?Te lo muestro?”
The fucker shrugs. “You have your opinions, I have mine.”
“You know if Aria didn’t think of you as a friend, I would break your nose right now.”
“Do it. See what happens to one of those precious cars I always see you parading around in magazines.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Leo roar sounds through the room but neither Santos nor I cower to the corner. He turns to look at me. “You’re Marisela’s son?”
I sigh, ignoring Santos and give Leo a curt nod. “Yes.”
“And you didn’t think to mention that piece of information before?”
I knew this question was coming.
“Who my mother was didn’t matter until now, but if you must know, she hasn’t been in my life in two decades and contact has been minimal. I haven’t seen or heard from her in ten years.”
Leo gives me a nod. “Are the rumors about her true?”
I know what he’s asking.
Did my mother kill his?
I wish I had the answer to that.
I give him the truth. “I don’t know. The Marisela that raised me was different from the one currently roaming the world. I know she is capable of a lot of things, but I don’t know for sure what she has done or hasn’t.”
Hopefully he can hear my honesty in my voice and see it in my eyes.
The way he nods tells me he just might.
On the bright side, he hasn’t kicked me out or threaten to shoot me between my eyes for who my mother is, so I’m taking that as a good sign.
“You really think she would be helpful with bringing down Harrison?” Leo asks after taking another pull of his drink.
“Unfortunately. I may not know my mother all that well anymore, but I know she doesn’t give two shits about him. If it benefits her, she’ll get rid of him.”
“Why hasn’t she done so already?”
“The fucker probably promised her money and she’s being compliant until she gets it.”
Leo gives me a nod, but it’s his right-hand man that speaks next.
“How do we know you’re not working with them? For all we know, if we go with your plan, whatever the fuck it is, all of us will end up dead.”
Fair.
His accusation is more than fair especially with the fact that I just told them about my relation to Marisela. I had no reason to hide who I was other than personal gain. So they would tell me their secrets and so that I can make sure I don’t fall from their graces.
If roles were reversed, the same question would fall out of my mouth.
“You’re right, you don’t know. But if I was doing that, you wouldn’t be standing in front of right now, you’d be in a jail cell, because I know more about you than Harrison and Marisela could ever know.
The only difference between me and them is that I wouldn’t use it against you.
I wouldn’t hide in the shadows to do it either.
You would know it was me. So, if you want me to leave right now, and I will.
It’s better for me anyway, I rather not see my mother. Just tell me what you want to do.”
Both Leo and Santos look at each other as if they are having a conversation telepathically. It last about a minute before they remember I’m still in the room.
Leo speaks first. “What’s your plan?”
For some reason it feels like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders when I hear his question.
There is no time wasted in answering the question. I already know how to get to my mother and bring down Harrison.
“We make Marisela think we are giving her a bigger incentive than Harrison, that we will only give after she tells us what he’s hiding.
Once we know, we will send the information to Drake who will find all the evidence, and then that information will go to to your federal agent brother-in-law.
We destroy Harrison from the inside out, maybe break a few bones along the way for what he put Aria through. ”
Both men give me a nod, agreeing to the plan.
“Who’s going to be meeting with Marisela?”
That’s a simple answer.
“Leave my mother to me. You handle Harrison. Station men by his office and home and have them ready to move. This has to be quick. He can’t know that we’re coming for him and we have to keep any warrants from being signed. Does that work for you?”
They look between the two of them and not even ten seconds later, I have their agreement.
“Let bring the fucker down. Once and for all.”