La Famiglia #2
Nico nodded. “That’s how we found out the cartel were coming after our entire network, not just the shipment. The bastards planned it from the start. It’s a hostile fucking takeover.” At least he was backing me up on that.
I spread my hands. “They were the ones who ambushed us at the docks and killed our men.”
“Not to mention stole millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise,” my mother crooned. “Don’t forget that part.”
How could I?
My mother had always been obsessed with money. Money and power. The two things that drove her. It was incredible to think she’d had any capacity to love my father. But I’d seen them together when I was younger. I remembered.
I also remembered when it all fell apart.
“Anyway, she’s been useful,” I said. “And you know they tried to take her out. The cartel, I mean.”
“You think it was Los Santos Rotos,” Nico cautioned, raising an eyebrow.
“Who else?” I shrugged.
“Malakov for one,” Marco murmured.
I shook my head. “Malakov wasn’t involved. Malakov’s money man, Mikhail Orlov, is a personal friend of Evelyn Cruz’s. She knows all their shady shell companies. This isn’t them.”
“A personal friend?” Valentina tapped her fingernails on the stem of her glass. “That could be useful.”
I didn’t like where she was going with this. But if there was one thing my mother was good at, it was strategy. She wouldn’t let an opportunity like this go to waste. I cursed under my breath.
Marco frowned. “You think you can manipulate him through this gallery owner?”
“I’m not going to put her in any more danger,” I snapped.
They all looked at me.
I cleared my throat. “We need her alive. Use her to get to Malakov and he takes her out, we have nothing.”
I hoped I’d covered my mistake.
“Nice save,” Nico murmured, so only Izzy and I could hear.
My sister slid me a strange look.
“What good is she now?” Valentina asked.
“We can save the gallery,” I said. I’d been thinking about it on the way there. “It’s too good an import hub to lose. That’s why the cartel wants it.”
“It’s compromised.” Izzy shifted on the barstool. “You said yourself they tried to take her out.”
“Only because they want to insert someone on their side,” I reasoned. “But we won’t let them.”
“And how are we going to stop them?” Marco asked smoothly. “The only way is to close down the gallery, which will happen as soon as the cops find out Evelyn is missing.”
“If we send her back, they won’t ever know she was missing,” I insisted. “She’ll be our person on the inside.”
I didn’t know if they’d go for it, but I was going to try to convince them. It was a damn sight better than the alternative.
Valentina studied me for a long moment. “That’s not an altogether terrible idea.”
Marco turned to her. “You can’t seriously be considering this?”
“Why not? He’s right. Everybody knows Los Santos Rotos control all the usual export routes out of Bogotá, but with the crackdown by the administration they’re looking for new options. Ours is attractive because it’s high-end. Less chance of being busted.”
“They want it because we use it to ship Colombian art,” I pressed. “It’s easy for them to utilize.”
“We should have seen this play,” Nico grumbled.
“Well, we didn’t,” Marco snapped, in a rare display of temper. “Now we have to deal with the fallout.”
“And somehow get our money back,” Izzy added.
“We’ll take down the whole fucking organization,” Valentina said, a faraway look in her eyes.
Uh-oh. I knew that look. My mother had a plan. I steeled myself, knowing I wasn’t going to like it.
“What are you thinking?” Marco asked. He too knew my mother.
“You said your gallery owner had a line to Malakov…” She turned to raise an eyebrow at me.
I took a breath. “Yeah. So what?”
“What if we use that to make Malakov think the cartel are muscling in on his territory?”
“You want to set the Bratva on Los Santos Rotos?” Nico asked, incredulous.
“Fucking brilliant,” Marco breathed.
Izzy said nothing.
I felt my stomach clench. “And how do you propose to do that?”
“Evelyn can feed them information. They can start losing out on artwork to the cartel, for one. The Russians get tetchy if they can’t clean their dirty money.
Then we’ll think of something else. Something big.
” Her eyes gleamed. “We’ll push them into acting.
With a bit of luck, they’ll destroy the bastards and we won’t have to lift a finger. ”
I had to admit, she was damn good.
A beat passed as we all digested this.
“What about Alberto, the snitch? Any news?” I asked.
Marco shook his head. “Nothing yet. My guy is going to give me the ballistics report once he gets it.”
Huh. “He was shot?”
“Single bullet to the head. Close range.” He prodded his own forehead with his finger.
“Jesus,” I muttered.
“There are signs he was tortured,” Marco continued.
I blinked. “Tortured?”
“Yeah. They obviously weren’t happy about him snitching to us.”
“He didn’t rat them out,” I said.
“They didn’t know that,” Marco murmured.
I thought about how Alberto had given me Evelyn’s name, trying to redirect blame.
I inhaled as the thought struck me. Maybe they’d tortured the poor bastard because they’d wanted to know where Evelyn was.
They’d gone to her apartment but she hadn’t been there, and he’d know which direction to point them in.
I got up. “I’ve got to get back.”
“You going back to the cabin tonight?” Izzy asked, surprised.
“Why don’t you stay here?” Valentina suggested, waving her champagne glass in an arc. “There’s plenty of room.”
“No, thanks.” I turned to Marco. “How off grid is the cabin?”
“What are you talking about?” Marco asked, irritated.
Nico gave a grim nod. “You think that’s why they tortured Alberto? They wanted to find out where Evelyn was?”
“We can’t rule it out.” I stuck my hands in my pockets.
“There’s no official record of it,” Marco assured me. “Il Lupo kept it off books.”
“Good.”
Il Lupo was the affectionate nickname my family gave Leo, my grandfather, because he was head of the pack. Although, from what I’d heard, the moniker had been coined by his enemies back in the day, who found out the hard way they were dealing with an apex predator.
“I’ll keep tabs on the freeway cams,” Nico said, getting up. “If I see a hit squad heading out to the cabin, I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks.” I headed for the door.
“Stay in touch,” Valentina called after me.
“I think Dante’s smitten,” I heard Izzy say as I left the room.
Fuck.