“No.”
“Vanish him. Let this be an example to them.”
My phone vibrates, and I answer.
“I’m giving you coordinates,” Kat says, and my phone vibrates against my cheek. “You can let the shipment be picked up there. We are taking the people to a safe harbour.”
“As expected,” I say and add, “We’ll be in touch.” Telling her I can’t talk more right now.
“Be careful,” she says, “The number is traced to some bad stuff.”
“It’s been taken care of,” I say and hang up.
I open the laptop and enter the coordinates Kat has sent me.
It’s somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. At this point, I don’t even want to know how she made that possible. Someone with capabilities like hers must have connections in high places and resources beyond.
“Organise a pickup to these coordinates,” I say to Salvatore, handing him the coordinates written on paper. Make sure they reach the original ports on time with the vessels that were expected to pick up.” The last thing I know is that there was some major incident involving all sorts of food chains.
“How did you pull that off?” he asks.
“I have made some powerful friends over the years. Friends with ressources.” He looks at me with slits as eyes.
“Friends who will take the numeri as payment.”
“You traded them for the safety of the drugs,” he says.
I look at him. Things couldn’t play out any better for me. He and no one else knows they are in safety, and I am perceived as a cold, calculating Capo.
“It was thirty-three lives or a disruption that would cost a lot more lives than theirs. A decision had to be made.”
The corner of Salvatore’s mouth tugs up.
“I can see now why Giuseppe picked you,” he says and leaves for the door. There he stops. “Rest assured, you have my full support, sister.”
Sister.
15
ROSALIA
PLAYLIST: FINISH LINE – SATV MUSIC
“Itold you she’ll make it,” says Kat.
“What a shame,” I say.
“Rose,” says Kat and rolls her eyes. “She does what we wanted her to do. She is currently leading an empire that would otherwise blow up everything. She handled the shipment situation. I bet she gained some of their trust; it will all work out.”
“You couldn’t crack her phone?”
“No, Zeus couldn’t infiltrate it. They must have run the same protection on it like on Giuseppe’s phone.”
“It was probably his, just a new number, otherwise she wouldn’t have had my number.”
Silence passes. I am occupied in my mind. I was so sure she’d be dead by now. That girl—that woman. I can’t even call her girl anymore. She is no girl. She is a woman. A woman who stepped up into a world she pretended to know nothing about and excelled. It does not sit right with me.
“She’s meeting with the commission in an hour,” says Kat.
