Chapter 34 #3
I glance over at Luciana and Elle and notice Mikhail isn’t doing too well.
Luciana’s brass knuckles plow into his face.
She and Elle are standing off to the side, so when the inevitable blood sprays from the man’s mouth, it doesn’t hit either of them.
Elle has a thin wire wrapped around his throat.
I can see where it’s already cut into his skin.
She has the ends overlapping, and she pulls tighter when the man doesn’t respond to whatever Luciana just said.
I shift my focus back to a naked Yuri, who’s trying to squirm away. Dirt covers his ass and the backs of his legs. He looks pathetic.
“Since you claimed my son couldn’t keep it in his pants, I figured I’ll make the same claim about you.” She pretends to lean forward and peer down. “I think my foot shoved your pequena polla y huevos inside you. I can’t find them.” Little cock and balls.
I step forward, standing across from Catalina. “Let’s see if I can find them.”
I use the muzzle of my rifle to poke around between his thighs. He tries to kick his legs at me, but I step all of my weight onto his left shin.
“If Alejandro had a child, I would love them like my own. I’d accept them and their mother.
That isn’t the part that bothers me. What I can’t forgive is the slight against his honor.
You tried to disgrace him with your lies.
You wanted to make him look small in front of the other syndicates because everyone knows what family means to los Diaz.
You underestimated just how far we’ll go to avenge that name. ”
It’s not mine yet, but I’ll defend it like it is.
I jam the muzzle toward his ass crack, and he howls as he tries even harder to evade Catalina and me.
She slams the butt of her rifle into his diaphragm.
I pull my knife from my pocket and position myself above his head.
I trail the tip of the blade along his cheek, pressing just enough to nick without cutting the skin.
His gaze meets mine as he stares up at me, my face hovering halfway over his—always mindful that he might spit at me.
I have a serious aversion to that.
Gross.
“There’s more to this than your bogus claim. Why did you really target Alejandro? Are you trying to burrow that far up the Ivankov branch’s asses that you thought this would score you major points? Or did they order you to do it?”
“No, no. They definitely didn’t order me to do anything. When you started shooting, I thought it was them. They aren’t—uh—pleased with me right now.”
How the mighty have fallen.
A little pain, and he’s spilling his secrets.
“Whose puppet are you?”
He glances between Catalina and me, obviously weighing how much more pain and humiliation he can bear before he dies. It’s clear the moment he decides to tell us everything, hoping we’ll kill him the moment he’s done. Fat fucking chance.
“Podolskaya are pissed at Maksim and his brothers again. They made peace few years ago, but it fell apart when Kutsenkos refused to renew industrial machinery deal with Polish corporation. Kutsenkos don’t approve of corporation’s business practices.
Allowing Podolskaya to be heavy investors was their biggest complaint.
Without Kutsenkos’ backing, business is going under.
Podolskaya are losing millions and want revenge. ”
Yuri’s accent has thickened so much that it’s difficult to understand him. It’s more than just dropping the definite articles. He’s slurring his words, and his voice is raspy too. We don’t have much more time before he passes out.
“And since they don’t dare attack the Kutsenkos directly, they ordered you to kill Alejandro and make it look like the Kutsenkos were involved.”
It’s not challenging for me to surmise the simplified version of the plan.
“Da.” Yes.
“Why were you involved?”
“Podolskaya helped put my family in power here. We owe them for that, but I was one who told them to invest in Polish business. They blame me, so this is my punishment.”
Catalina chuckles, and it sends chills down my spine.
“You’ve been doomed to die since the first time you heard Alejandro’s name. If it isn’t us, then it’ll be the Podolskaya for failing or the Kutsenkos for making them the scapegoat. What else do you know?”
She places her booted heel on top of his right foot, prepared to apply pressure if he doesn’t answer quickly or thoroughly enough.
“Maks and his brothers warned me you’d retaliate. They’re focused on Moscow and dealing with their enemy there. They left me to defend myself.”
“Is there even a child or did you completely fabricate that?”
“My niece has child and refuses to name father.”
Catalina steps on his injured foot. “You’re a sicker fuck than I already thought to bring an innocent child into this.
It would’ve been far better if you’d made that up like you did the paternity results.
Rather than kill you and dump you, we’re going to make sure every Russian neighborhood in Boston understands your fuck-up.
We’ll remind them that los Diaz are the Cartel in the States. ”
She pulls her own knife from her belt and squats beside Yuri again. This time, she grabs his right hand and severs his thumb.
“I should shove this up your ass. Hombres.”
She calls out to the men who’re not done collecting the hidden products from the tires and chassis. They’ve stripped out radios and catalytic converters along with siphoning gasoline.
“Sí, senora.” Rafael, the leader, steps forward.
“Córtalo en pedazos. Deja una rama en cada barrio. Entrégale la cabeza a Rurik. Deja su pene y sus huevos con su esposa.” Cut him up. Drop a limb in each neighborhood. Deliver his head to Rurik. Leave his cock and balls with his wife.
“Sí, senora.”
A laugh comes through our earpieces. I’d forgotten Matáis listened to all of this.
“Caty, we have a shipment going out to St. Petersburg in two days. Send his heart and entrails to Moscow.”
It’ll be a detour for their men, but it’ll be worth it to warn away the Podolskaya.
Catalina and I walk away from Yuri and head to Luciana and Elle.
We’re about to ask them what they learned from Mikhail, who’s bleeding out from a slashed throat, when Matáis patches through a call from Margherita.
We can all hear it through our earpieces.
“I got into the hospital without a problem, but it wasn’t so easy to get into the pharmacy.
It took forever to rewire the alarm to make it look like it was still on even though Marco turned it off.
I got what I needed and with my badge turned around, I made it to Igor.
No problem injecting the narcotics. It’ll definitely look like a delayed overdose. ”
Igor’s Yuri’s son. Apparently, he’s a good enforcer but dumb as shit.
Their Elite Group would never let him become the pakhan.
Our men tracked him down and roughed him up.
They dropped him off outside the ER. We didn’t have what we needed on hand, so Margherita used her NYC hospital badge to disguise herself.
She shot Yuri’s son up with enough narcotics to prompt an investigation.
It’ll tie up the Volkovs for weeks with at least the DEA.
If Yuri’s death turns out to be a blessing in disguise for them, the investigation won’t be.
“Buen trabajo, hermana mía.” Good job, my sister.
“Learn anything from this one?” I point to Mikhail.
“Not much. He’s definitely an agent—ATF—but too new to understand everything he heard and saw.” Elle shoots the dead man an annoyed expression.
“New to the case?”
“New to law enforcement. He could only relay events and conversations. He didn’t understand half the subtext. Dumbass was going to get himself killed one way or another.”
“Did he admit he was an agent?”
“Not in so many words, but Luciana did a good job getting him to confess.”
“Oh?” I shift my focus away from Elle.
“I stabbed him in his micro pene a few times. He didn’t like that.” Micro dick.
“Are you done?” Matáis’s voice once again comes through the earpieces.
“Sí, mi amor. Es hora de volver a casa con nuestro hijo.” Yes, my love. Time to go home to our son.
The four of us walk through the main gate as the Cartel men take care of what’s left of the man who fucked up royally and the idiot agent.
“Mamá!”
“Mamá! Vita!”
I wince at the irate bellows from the other side of the barely open front door.
There’s a chorus of five voices calling for their mother and one calling me.
Alejandro and his cousins rush into Enrique and Elle’s house.
Five enraged faces that are all far too similar glower at their mothers.
Alejandro’s gaze darts between Catalina and me. He’s unsure who to rip into first.
It’s Pablo who leads. “Mamá, I can’t believe you. You could’ve gotten yourself arrested, sneaking into that hospital.”
“So?”
Pablo throws his hands up in exasperation.
“Mamá?” Alejandro sounds as exasperated as Pablo looks.
“You thought I’d ignore this?”
“I’d hoped.”
Alejandro sighs as he regards his mother.
She, Luciana, and Margherita wear unrepentant expressions, and Elle merely looks smug as she smiles.
Before anyone can say more, Florencia, Madeline, and Anneliese come downstairs.
It cuts the conversation short as husbands greet their wives.
All but Joaquin lift their women off their feet and practically devour their wife or fiancée.
Luis and Enrique greeted their wives just inside the door, so they’d already had their reunions.
“Is it done?” Florencia sweeps her gaze over the men and women.
“It is.”
Alejandro and Catalina respond together.
The relief on the men’s faces is sweet. It’s clear how much they care for their wives and mothers.
I believe it upset them more to know we got involved than it did the women when the men took off for Italy.
We’re accustomed to them leaving, not knowing when they’ll return and often not knowing where they’re going.
It’s a taste of their own medicine in the worst way. They’re not equipped—not conditioned—for this kind of fear.
“Jandro, did things go well with Piero?”
“The best of all the meetings, but we’d expected that. They and the Torettas agreed with little negotiation.”
He arches an eyebrow at me. I know that means the other two syndicates likely lost a few hundred thousand euros, maybe even a few million. Serves them right for not acquiescing to my boyfriend. We won’t discuss more in front of Florencia, Madeline, and Anneliese.
It makes me feel guilty that they’re excluded, but they reassured me when we returned before the guys that they don’t want to know more. Ignorance is bliss. They feel badly that I know as much as I do.
Perhaps Alejandro will tell me everything—or maybe a fraction, but I won’t press to know.
I won’t put him in the position of refusing me or feeling guilty over divulging too much to me.
This is syndicate life homeostasis. The men return; the women greet them, and whatever happened while the family was apart ceases to exist. We all trust that whatever separated us is resolved.
For Catalina, Margherita, Elle, Luciana, and me, it is.
Yuri’s dead. He can’t spread any more lies about Alejandro.
The Volkovs understand they’re on notice—with everyone.
Rurik called Enrique before we got on the plane.
Matáis explained Rurik made some sort of restitution, and Enrique’s satisfied.
How things stand with Maks isn’t my problem, but I know it’s not good.
That’s putting it mildly.
Alejandro hugs his father, and it appears that Matáis passes something to Alejandro, but I can’t tell what it is.
All of us move into the living room, and the couples take seats while Joaquin sits with Luciana.
He drapes his arm over the back of the loveseat casually, but it’s clear he’s hovering over his mamà.
Before I can sit, Alejandro shifts his hand in mine and lowers himself to one knee. I gulp, a lump forming in my throat.
Is he?
Oh, shit, he is!
“Mi amor, I knew when we met you changed my life. You impressed me and intrigued me when you came to New York. I fell for you in the club, and I fell in love with you in the hotel. I didn’t realize how deeply until we fought alongside each other for the future we’re destined for.
You’re my soulmate and the one person I want to create a life with. Will you marry me?”
“Sì, amore mio.” Yes, my love.
I’m too emotional to speak English or Spanish, reverting to Italian. Alejandro rises after slipping the ring on my finger, and I nearly knock him over as I dive into his arms. The kiss we share would have parents covering their sons’ eyes if they could reach. We keep it short, but it’s intense.
“Chiquita, I love you more than life.” Alejandro whispers this to me, keeping his pet name private, even though I’m certain the other men call their women that too.
“I love you too, Daddy.” I whisper just as quietly, a secret I’m sure I share with the other women.
Never did I imagine the man I set out to kill would be the one man who makes me feel alive.