“I may not have eyes for anyone but Liliana, but I’m not blind. Of course, I could see she was attractive.”
“We were on that boat for three hours of pure temptation, so I indulged a little. Yeah, I toyed with her at the end. But I’m telling you, there’s still something off, Julián. I don’t know what it is about her. You saw her reaction when thatcarechimbainsulted her.” Face of a vagina.
“I noticed she barely reacted the first time. She definitely had plenty to say when he tried to stiff her.”
“Did you see her reaction when I told her I don’t pay for my pleasure?”
“Yeah. You’d expect her to look insulted, not hurt.”
“Exactly. I don’t know if she’s Chicago PD or a fed, but it’s like she was trying to get me to proposition her.”
“But you weren’t the one who announced he’d pay for sex.”
“It’s not like she was wearing a wire anywhere.”
At least I don’t think she was, since she was naked. Short of having it up her cunt or ass, there was nowhere else for her to put it.
“Alejandro, if she’d been there to bust us for prostitution, it should’ve been when thatpedazo de mierdaran his mouth. But she didn’t.” Piece of shit.
“I know, and I’m positive the women with her had no idea she had some ulterior motive. So maybe she isn’t law enforcement, but she’s something besides an exotic dancer.”
“Do you think she’ll give up?”
I look over at Julián, who’s staring at me as we ride in the back of the town car together. As is a requirement in my family, the privacy glass is up by default.
“We’ll see. If she’s a fed and not local PD, then she was there for me, not any of you guys.”
“What? We’re too low on the food chain? She wanted to bag a shark and not a minnow?”
Julián laughs, and I chuckle along with him because he’s not wrong. Sure, feds might scoop up low to mid-level guys, hoping they’ll flip on senior leaders in an organized crime family. But if they can nab someone as high up as I am, then they would.
“Do you think she’ll go all single white female on you and stalk you? I saw her try to slip you that card. Did you look at it long enough to memorize the number?”
“Yeah.”
I’ve always had a thing for numbers and patterns. It’s not that I’m a mathematical savant, but something about numbers just makes sense to me.
“So, what next,parce?”
Parceorparcerobecause Colombians can’t just say a simpleamigofor our friends.
“I don’t think I’ve deterred her. It won’t be tonight, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the next day or two if she showed up somewhere. She might work for someone.”
“Do you think it’s the Rizzos? Did they find out you’re here?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe. What do you think? Could they have made you because they saw us together this week?”
If I blew his cover—which we know is a possibility, but I came anyway—then we need to extract him now. He’ll be dead otherwise.
“I don’t think so. I mean, I’ve earned Edoardo’s trust over the last five years. I don’t think he questions me. I know he hasn’t had me followed in ages. Not since I became his son’s personal bodyguard. He trusts me to be the only one guarding Elio. Especially after all the shit that went down with Lorenzo and Marco a few years ago, he takes his kids’ protection pretty fucking seriously. If he’s confident I can be alone with his heir, then I feel as safe as I can in this life.”
Marco and Lorenzo Mancinelli. Don Salvatore’s nephews. Lorenzo’s an accountant, so he’s equivalent to my cousin Jorge. Marco, his next older brother, is third in command. Thecapo dei capi. The captain of captains. He’s one step below the underboss, who’s Salvatore’s heir. That’s Luca—Marco and Lorenzo’s older brother.
A few years ago, when Marco and Lorenzo—the youngest Mancinelli brother—were dating their wives who’re also sisters, they waged an attack to remind Chicago that their glory days ended with Al Capone’s death. It made Edoardo especially cautious about his children’s protection details. It was perfect timing for Julián to step up.
“Do you think it could be the Oskolkis?” Julián knows they’re why I’m here.
“It’s certainly possible. Maybe they got wind I arrived. Perhaps they sent her as a honey trap to lure me away beforethey can face the repercussions for their fucked-up attempt to do that deal withlos Iglesias. If they want to do deals with the Mexicans in Boston, they can. But they know who they pay for that privilege. Both families do, and neither did.”
