Chapter Twenty-Nine
Vita
I debate whether to answer it. Either way, I’ll have hell to pay.
“Hello?”
“Chiquita, I will blister your ass when you get home, and then I will fuck you into next week. Thank God you’re okay.”
I suppose that’s one way to express concern. Fortunately, he can’t see my smile, since I’m certain he wants me to take him far more seriously. I certainly don’t doubt he’ll follow through on what he says, but it’s nowhere near as intimidating as he probably wants.
“Look in your rearview mirror,chiquita.”
I glance back and see the Mercedes right behind me. All the windows are tinted to the point of being barely street legal.
“Wave to me,chiquita.”
“What—how—Fuck my life.”
Shit just got as real as shit can get. Alejandro’s chuckle would be sexy if I didn’t truly fear for my ass now.
“Little girl, we have trackers on everything. My car, my weapons, everything. I knew where you parked. That’s how I waswaiting for you. I know you went to Salvatore’s because of the tracker on the gun.”
“You have a tracker on that?”
“Of course. We can’t risk leaving evidence behind. We need to account for all our weapons.”
That’s an inconvenient truth.
“Alejandro, I have somewhere else I need to go before I meet you at the condo.”
“Dios mio, chica.You are not naive, so you cannot possibly believe you’re going anywhere without me now that I’ve tracked you down.”
“Wishful thinking?”
“Delusional. Where are you meeting Patrick?”
“How’d you...? Staten Island. There’s a park there. I only know it because of a job a year ago. Someone from out of town.”
“I’ll hang back, but my cousins are behind me. We’ll all fan out and surround the park.”
“Are you crazy? Are they all in cars like yours? You don’t think a Porsche and your Mercedes won’t stand out in that part of the borough? It’s bad enough the only set of keys I could find were for your little race car.”
“No. They’re in subtler vehicles. They didn’t leave in quite the hurry I did since you made it easy for them by strolling into their neighborhood.”
Oh, hell.
Pablo was probably watching me from his front door.
“You can’t lose your shit, Alejandro, if you think something’s going sideways. You must let it play out.”
“I won’t let him kill you first, Vita. If I think he’s going to take the shot, then I’ll do it first.”
“Maim, don’t kill.”
“I make no promises, little one.”
“Fine.”
