“Now, we’re offering you a chance to be smart.”
“Why you and not Martinez?”
“You talk to him or to me, it’s the same thing. We’re equal opportunists in Mexico,mijo.”
Aidan’s lips pursed. “I’m listening.”
“We originally assumed Dead To Me’s extracurricular activities led to her assassination attempt. She’d recently taken out a ranking Albanian and, on the surface, it appeared to be retaliation. The notion didn’t sit right with me because what I know of those fuckers, they’ll eat their goddamn dead if they’ve sniffed enough of their product.ButOccam’s razor.Then, we heard through the grapevine that she took out Graham Brackton. On your orders?”
He gritted his teeth. “No.”
“Huh. Figured it had to be you since you’ve practically salaried her.”
“Apparently I’m not her sole client,” he said dourly.
“According to Korhonen, her assassination came as direct orders from his friends. Not the Albanians. Which I actually believe is a possibility because the Albanians are loyal to no leader. They go through them like I go through diapers for my kid.” She grunted. “The Albanians are just the puppets and Korhonens’ people are pulling their strings, willing to kill whoever gets in their way.”
Aidan drummed his fingers on the desk, but I could tell the words dug deep. “Why are you sharing this with me, Eva?”
“This is your official notice that we’ll be siding with whoever’s bankrolling the Albanians.” All of us jolted in bewilderment. “On the face of it.Hence the subterfuge in meeting. I heard you’ve declared war on the Albanians. We want in. From afar. Do we have an understanding?”
Silence settled between us, but Aidan eventually broke it with: “We do, but why are they so all-fired powerful? Enough for this deceit.”
“I’ve always hated the Albanians. When I worked the beat in NYC, there were only small pockets of them floating around the city, smaller even than the enclaves they established in our turf, but the lot of them were pigs.
“Then, when I gained my detective shield, I always knew there was something funky going on with that Nolita whorehouse. Just surprised it’s taken this long for it to come out. Should’ve trusted my gut then, but I didn’t, so I am now.”
“You were a cop?” Kitty burst out.
Eva chortled. “A good one. My clearance rate was 92%.”
“Until you were accused of decapitating?—”
She tsked. “Do I bring up your ancient history, Aidan?”
For the first time, his expression eased as he laughed.
“Takes a lot to make my skin crawl, but the Albanians have achieved it. Our kids won’t be raised on turf that we share with those butchers—that’s our unofficial stance. After repeatedly informing Korhonen that his offer was of no interest to us, he shifted gears. Told us we could take out the Albanians for good. Now, I just told you I have no love for those animals, but the lack of loyalty tells me this cabal is a piece of shit. What’s to stop them from selling us out next?”
“Agreed. They contacted you for a reason,” Aidan rumbled. “What’s their endgame, Eva?”
“Nationwide, the controlling factions consider the Albanians to be nothing more than vermin. They’re losing numbers hand over fist as your people and ours take them out. This cabal obviously wised up that their foot soldier of choice comes with neither status nor willpower, and from what I picked up on via Korhonen, that matters. Image is everything.
“That they’re willing to shed them if we agreed to their terms tells me what I already knew—we’re bigger players and through us, they’d gain access to two major cities, but they won’t get it.
“Our time in the US is over. The territory we hold in the US serves a purpose—Martinez wants no more of it. On top of that, if Martinez wanted NYC and LA, he’d have taken them by force. We’re Mexican. Our future is here. Not the States. They’re offering us something that holds no interest to us and we told him so.”
“Why are you calling me if this is afaitaccompli?”
“When wheedling and whining didn’t work, Korhonen decided to resort to threats on our far-flung people. We don’t respond well to threats on family…”
Calmly, I inserted, “The Sicilian factions on both coasts will protect your family.”
“The Irish will in NYC,” Aidan confirmed. “We just need names if they’re not blatantly associated with theLobos Rojos.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear. We’ll be taking out the Albanians, but these fuckers are cowards. Scared of their own men now that they’ve attained too much power.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised if they’re as crazy as you say they are,” Kitty tacked on.
