He shifts his weight as he twists to look behind him, spottingTres J’sfor the first time. I prowl forward as though I don’t have a care in the world. He and I both know I control the situation. It makes me wonder why this was so easy.
He’s a confident man, but not so egotistical as to believe he’s untouchable. He must have had some assurances from the Boston Mexicans that everything was going smoothly. Maybe that’s why no one here was as on guard as they should’ve been.
“Who hired you?”
He stares at me for a long moment. “I can’t give you an exact answer because I don’t know which one it was, but I’d look at Enrique’s oldest rival.”
I wonder if he means oldest by age or most long-standing enemy. It could be any number of people. I flick open my knife and raise it up to his Adam’s apple.
“That’s not enough information. How much were you paid?”
“A million.”
“What were you supposed to do after you gotSeñoritaBautista?”
“I was to hold on to her here indefinitely.”
“Indefinitely?”
“The person who hired me said they’d get her when they were ready.”
I glance over at Joaquin, and he nods. Since he’s standing behind Mason, he backs away silently. He’ll check out the rest of the warehouse. The only way this man would stay here indefinitely is if he had his creature comforts. It makes me think this might actually be his home.
“How were you to get paid?”
“I already got half upfront with a cash drop here. When my employer comes, I’m to receive the second half.”
“And you were willing to just wait around, possibly for days, until someone showed up? Did you intend to keepSeñoritaBautista tied to a chair the whole time?”
Something flickers in his gaze. He didn’t pass the test. He planned to do far worse to Flora. When Alejandro sees what I do, he rushes forward. He grabs the man’s head, one hand on his forehead and the other under his chin. He snaps Mason’s head back, and I draw my knife across his throat.
Jorge and Javier turn surprised expressions at me. It’s Alejandro who responds.
“He was going to rape Florencia while he made her wait.”
Tres J’saren’t triplets, but they may as well be since they’re so close in age. They’re the same height and practically carbon copies of each other. So, I’m looking at matching shocked expressions before their gazes lower to the ground where Mason now lies, blood pooling around his head. His eyes stare up to the ceiling as blood splutters from his mouth. I kick him in the balls for no reason other than spite.
I know he’s feeling no pain since he’s seconds away from death. I rarely indulge in such outbursts, but it makes me feel ever so slightly better after thinking about this man violating mychiquita. Joaquin comes back into the main area and barely gives Mason a second glance. It hardly surprises my cousin to find the man dead on the floor.
“He’s definitely been living here. It’s completely decked out as a home upstairs. Full kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom. All of it.”
“Then we need our cleaners to go through the entire place.”
One team is already at the house in Yonkers. They’ll fix everything and scrub it down. They’ll leave it cleaner than it was as a new construction. There’ll be no hints of the showdown at the OK Corral. Another team will come here to handle the bodies and remove any evidence we were here. They’ll also remove any evidence that Mason lived here.
Javier’s already on his phone texting the team as my cousins and I climb into the SUV and head back toward Jersey. I think out loud as I consider the little we learned from Mason.
“I ended things because I knew he wouldn’t give up anything else. We’d never trust him to do another job for us, and we couldn’t forgive him for targeting us. He said to considerTío’soldest rival. I think he means Salvatore. Both Salvatore andTíoEnrique have led their syndicates since they were in their twenties, so about thirty years. It’s not just Salvatore’s age. It’s about those years spent vying for the top position in New York.”
The Irish and Russians have had their moments. However, before Maks and Dillan rose to their positions, their leadership over the last couple of decades was too weak to truly rival the stabilityTíoEnrique and Salvatore provide their branches.
Alejandro turns toward me from the front passenger seat. “What do you want to do? Do you wantTíoto address Salvatore or are you going to askTíoif you can lead?”
“I believe he’ll ultimately let me decide since Flora and I are together, but if he doesn’t allow me to go after Salvatore—if it’s him—then there’ll be problems.”
Javier claps his hand on my shoulder from behind. “There won’t be. He won’t put you in a position where you must defy him because he understands what Florencia means to you. It’s the same as what Maddy means to me and whatTíaElle means to him. It’s the same as what’s betweenTíoMatáis andTíaCatalina and between your parents. It’s the same as whenPapáwas alive. He’ll always defer to us.”
It’s Jorge who speaks next from the driver’s seat. “But I’d listen to any suggestions he has. As well as we know Salvatore, we don’t know even a fraction of what he’s capable of compared toTíoEnrique’s firsthand knowledge. They’ve been enemies and friends over the decades. TakeTío’sadvice.”
