Chapter Five
A few minutes later, Bane and Leon came back into the security room.
Leon stared at the monitor and counted the bodies himself. He growled and turned his head to look at Bane. “She’s right, four are missing.”
Bane shrugged. “Maybe they just haven’t been found yet. Or maybe there isn’t enough of them left to find.”
Leon growled and began to pace. “It will take too long to go through the police to identify everyone, then some of them may not have DNA on file.”
“Maybe check the hospitals to see if anyone survived the blast?” John suggested. He looked at Lucinda and shook his head. “When Pinto first woke up we saw him sniffing the air, could he have noticed the gas just before the explosion?”
Leon shrugged. “Maybe but by then, they were already too late to avoid it.”
“But four are... unaccounted for,” Lucinda told them as her voice trembled. “A-and I am hoping that one of them i-is Poppy.”
Leon reached out and gently took her hand. “My dear, I am sorry.”
Sniffling, she went on in a shaky voice, “I have to find his body and bury it with honor. In a churchyard. He was a good man and he prayed every day. It is the least I can do. In life, he meant something to me. I need to make sure he can rest in peace.” She lowered her head.
“He was so loyal to me and they took him because they knew he cared about me. He didn’t deserve this! ” She cried.
Leon patted her arm. “Lucinda, you won’t find his body amongst the dead.”
Lucinda raised her head to stare at him. Her face was streaked with tears as her cheeks looked red. “W-what do you mean?”
Storm came in and crossed the room as he met Leon’s gaze. He grasped her shoulders then turned her to face the door.
There stood Poppy being held up by Frost and Lightning.
Lucinda gasped and her hand trembled as she stared at him. Her eyes filled with more tears and she took a small step toward him. “Poppy...You survived? How?”
The old man smiled at her. “Mi querida nina, these men whisked me away after everyone fell into a drunken sleep.” He motioned to Frost, Tornado and Storm.
“They came in and whispered your name and I knew you were safe. This one heaved me over his shoulder and they carried me out of that place.” He nodded at Frost. “We were maybe a few miles from there when we heard the blast and saw the smoke. They didn’t have to tell me what happened and I didn’t ask.
That explosion took them all to hell and I wasn’t sorry.
” He took a deep breath and said, “It was their plan to find you and then shoot me in front of you if you didn’t keep your mouth shut about their plans to take over this place.
I didn’t even know they knew who I was. Your mother never acknowledged me, wouldn’t even look at me once she grew up.
Then when you were born, she left you at my doorstep the day she got out of the hospital.
” He looked at her tenderly. “I picked you up that day and I loved you the momento you looked at me with your big brown eyes.”
Lucinda stumbled toward him.
Poppy caught her and held her close.
Lucinda wept and held him closer. “I’m so happy they got you out!” She sobbed.
“Si, my dear, I am very glad too.” Poppy nodded as he patted her back as if she was still a child.
I took care of you for four years and it broke my heart when she took you away.
It also broke my heart when I saw how she used and abused you.
You always deserved so much better. She deserved everything she got in life but her nature just couldn’t leave her alone.
She was not a nice woman and she always wanted what she never should have touched. ”
Lucinda finally let go of him and took a step back to look him over making sure he was unharmed.
Poppy held out his hand toward Leon. “But this isn’t over just yet.
” He looked up at Leon. “Senor, I am Henri Martell. Lucinda is my granddaughter and I am very happy to get away from the Gondo Cartel. Living under them was very hard but you need to know that three of them weren’t in that warehouse last night and those three are the most dangerous men in that group. ”
Leon cocked his head and asked him, “Do you know which three escaped the blast?”
“Si, I know their names, Ortega, Silva and Jose. And once they hear the others are dead they will come after my Lucinda. They know she is here in the city. She left home before or at the same time they did and it was a race to see which group would reach the city first. When Trego came back and told his uncles what happened here, they knew it was her that warned you first. They figure she is still here and Ortega vowed to finally end her.”
Leon smiled but the glee never met his eyes. “We will see about that, senor. If they come here they won’t find it easy to get through my walls.”
Henri shook his head. “They think you will be so grief stricken by the loss of your family that you will not put up much of a fight.” He hesitated then nodded.
“Si, senor, they bragged about ending your family and they even toasted their tequila to the end of the Vincinti line. It was disgusting to sit there and listen to them brag about such a horrible crime. Laughing and celebrating mass murder, killing your family like that.”
Leon straightened his shoulders and tugged his sleeves down. “Too bad for them that they might have bragged a little too soon about the demise of my family, Senor Henri.”
Henri paused, then he understood what Leon was saying. He smiled and chuckled. “Good for you, senor. Bueno. Ay, this is wonderful news.”
“But my family is still out there and anything can happen so do not celebrate too soon,” Leon warned him. “We have to find those three missing men and stop them cold.”
Henri nodded. “And I think I can help you do that, senor.”
Leon paused to stare at him. “What do you mean?”
Henri smiled a little. “After they hustled me into their caravan, I had time to listen, to hear what their plans were. Of course, they never thought about what I would hear or that I might remember what they were saying.” He shrugged.
“They assumed I was stupid or too afraid for my life that I wouldn’t be much of a threat but sometimes you just have to listen.
I learned a long time ago what was important.
All the way from our village in Mexico I learned how they thought, what they planned to do once they got here and who their contacts were here in the city.
” He looked at Leon and asked, “Do you know the name Orlando Renoe?”
Leon growled. “Si, I know that name and I know the man well enough not to trust a word he has to say.”
Henri nodded. “Then you are smarter than Gondos. They seem to think that man is a god. That he is someone in power.”
Leon snorted. “That man is a parasite of the lowest kind. He thinks he is above everyone else and people need to bow down to him.” Leon snarled.
“No one here in the city will do business with him and he brags about having contacts in Europe. Bene, he is a fake. He doesn’t have the power he thinks. For years, I have kept an eye on him.
Henri paused, then explained, “And yet the Gondo’s believe he will help them set up a link to Europe. That his contacts across the ocean will help them get their trade up and running,”
Leon scoffed again, “Più probabilmente, he will pretend to set them up and run off with the money that they are willing to spend to get it set up.” Leon shook his head.
“He’ll collect the cash and run off with the proceeds, leaving them out in the wind.
Then he’ll change his name and set up again somewhere he doesn’t think they will ever find him.
” He shrugged. “He has no contacts in Europe. Inferno, the man probably can’t even spell Europe.
Orlando is running a scam on them and he’s waiting until he can get their money then he’ll run to the hills, never to be seen here in Boston for at least six months. ”
Henri shook his head. “Oh senor, that will just piss off the Gondo’s for sure.
When old Joaquin passed away he left his empire to his three sons and they changed everything overnight.
Joaquin was a man you didn’t want to piss off but he was fair too.
His sons turned his empire around to be far more cutthroat.
They became hard and heavy on the discipline or what they thought passed as discipline.
In fact, they became dictators in their own right.
No one dared to oppose them without being buried within days. ”