“Bartolo Anwar set up the Carusos to take the fall if anyone ever finds out what is going on at the docks. They know. They’re controlling the trafficking, not the Caruso family. The Anwars have been eager to have Giacenta marry one of the Caruso brothers,” Maya continued. “She’s been seeing the youngest, Cristo. He’s the most susceptible.”
“I’ve heard Giacenta is very sickly and her brothers and father guard her carefully,” Drake said.
Maya shook her head. “Giacenta is every bit the shark her brothers and father are. She isn’t sickly in the least, although she puts on a great performance. She’s been after Cristo for some time, acting as if her leopard is rising.”
“She can’t fake a female leopard going into heat,” Drake pointed out.
“She can if she has the right connections,” Maya told him. “And she just happens to have them in New Orleans. I followed Krylov from Houston to New Orleans. He met with three men there. One by the name of Armande Mercier was very much in charge. He’s running the operations out of New Orleans.”
“Mercier?” Again, Drake reacted, turning toward Timur and then Gedeon. He swore under his breath. “Charisse, his sister, phoned and asked to see me as I was boarding the plane to come here. She said it was urgent, that she had to talk to me confidentially. I told her I was out of town but would meet her as soon as I returned. She sounded extremely upset. She told me she was going to a convent for a long retreat and would be emailing me important documents I needed to see. They would be self-explanatory.”
Drake’s eyes met Maya’s. “Is she a client of yours?”
Maya sighed. “I don’t ordinarily talk about my clients.”
“Charisse came to you and asked you to investigate her brother, Armande,” Drake stated. “That must have been the most difficult thing she’d ever done in her life. Her mother was a proven serial killer. She is extremely close to her brother. He handles the business end of their very lucrative worldwide perfume industry. Charisse is the master. Without her, there would be no products. She’s very different, but as honest as they come. I can’t imagine what this will do to her.”
“You aren’t as shocked as I thought you’d be,” Gorya said.
“I’ve had my suspicions about Armande,” Drake admitted. “Like Charisse, he’s a genius, there’s no doubt about it. He’s pulled some shady things in the past but has always come up with excuses. I never quite bought them. Like his mother, he seemed to have a very twisted side to him. Because the Merciers are eccentric, everyone around them excused him.”
Drake pulled his phone out. “Give me a minute. Let me access the file Charisse sent to me. I want to know what she had to say.”
I’m grateful he isn’t asking me to tell everyone what I said to Charisse, even though I’m essentially giving them the same information. I don’t want to feel as if I’m betraying her. She’s had enough betrayals, and I know what that’s like.
Gorya tightened his arm around her and continued to massage the nape of her neck with strong fingers, trying to find a way to soothe her. She appeared serene and at ease, but he saw into her, and she was anything but. A part of him found the intimacy of being the only person to know the real woman both sexy and exciting.
“Charisse became suspicious when her brother began asking too many questions about a hybrid plant she had been working on that could nearly reproduce the scent of a female leopard in heat. The plant had gotten out of the greenhouse somehow. Any male leopard getting near the flowers was instantly ready to fight. She ordered the plant to be found and eradicated. When she realized the perfume she’d been trying to create simulated the scent of a female leopard in heat, she scrapped that project. Armande didn’t want her to stop working on the perfume. They argued about it. He had never taken an interest in any of the perfumes before. He’d gotten very angry and had demanded to know the composition.”
Drake looked around the table. “That would explain Giacenta possibly tricking Cristo into thinking her leopard is going into heat.”
“Could Armande produce the perfume without Charisse’s help?” Jake asked.
“No, but according to her letter to me, she was destroying the batches she had been experimenting with when he came in and tried to physically stop her. He even shoved her to the floor. Of course, he was very sorry and apologized profusely and helped her up, then proceeded to agree with her that everything should be destroyed. He even helped her get rid of it, but she knew he stole some. She has a nose like few others, and she could smell it on him. That’s when she contacted me to ask who was the best investigator I knew. I didn’t know why she needed one, but I gave her your contact information.” He glanced at Maya.
“She really loves her brother,” Meiling said. “This must have crushed her beyond everything. As I understand it, her brother was all she had left.”
Drake nodded his agreement. “She relied very heavily on him. She’s extremely fragile.”
“Yet, when she believed he was betraying the lair, she turned him in to you and didn’t let him know,” Timur pointed out. “That shows strength and loyalty.”
Drake again scrubbed his palm down his face. “Charisse is very complicated. I don’t want to lose her. She knows Armande can’t survive this.” He glanced at Maya as if he needed her to take over.
Gorya’s fingers tightened on her shoulder for just a moment, giving her strength. None of them knew the cost to her because she didn’t show it.
“Armande is deeply embroiled in human trafficking. I think Charisse found that out herself, and that’s when she called me. The hybrid plant she had developed, Lover’s Leopard, had somehow escaped the greenhouse and wasgrowing wild. She knew that someone who had access to her greenhouse had to have taken the plant. The Tregres had the plant growing on their land, and then it was found in Fenton’s Marsh. Her mother had killed several people in Fenton’s Marsh, but there wouldn’t have been a reason to transplant the flower to that marsh. I found all of that out easily, along with the fact that the marsh was regularly used for smuggling arms and drugs. Armande was behind that operation.”
Drake leaned his forehead into his hand, elbow on the table. “The Tregre brothers were the ones running the drug smuggling. That was proven.”
“Armande took it a step further,” Maya clarified. “At first, he continued business with the drugs, sending them out with the perfumes and soaps. He managed to establish the original connections and soon had a brisk business going all over the world. That wasn’t enough for him. Along came Tonio Escabar Alba, straight from Drake’s security. He’s highly recommended. He was trained in Borneo by Drake and his men, worked for Jake Bannaconni on his ranch and then asked to be transferred to New Orleans to work with Drake again. Drake sent him to the Merciers when Armande requested a bodyguard.”
Drake nodded. “I did that.”
“He’s the youngest son of Jaoa Escabar Velentez. A woman by the name of Imelda Cortez held a huge territory in Panama and conducted a reign of terror for years,” Maya continued. “Her family held it before her. They were killed and the territory vacated until Jaoa Escabar Velentez took over with his shifters. He’s quite a brilliant man and very patient. He planned carefully and didn’t make the mistakes Cortez did. Unlike Cortez, he didn’t try to rule those living in the forest; instead, he did his best to befriend them.”
Drake looked directly at Maya. “I know quite a bit about Jaoa, but I’ve only heard positive things about him.There’ve been a few rumors about him being friends with various factions in Russia and Florida, but all of us have these rumors surrounding us on occasion.”
Maya leaned more of her weight against Gorya. She was hurting. Her body had grown a little warmer.
