Page 72 of Our Tricks

Alvaro didn’t have much to say since we picked him up from the Ruby Room. He sat in a seat the farthest away from us and stared out the window. Leaving the others to talk amongst themselves, I slid into the seat across from him.

“Hey, you okay?” I asked. “Did something happen?”

His gaze shifted over to me, and I could see how lost he was. His father was dead, mom in the hospital, Franco arrested, his uncle trying to take over the world, and we were asking him to betray his brother who’d looked after him all his life. I’d had that same feeling, not really sure where to go once Devin died. Reaching out, I put a hand on his knee, not wanting to overwhelm him or overstep, but he needed someone to show they cared. I’d been lucky enough to have Weston when I was drowning.

“Alvaro, I’m truly sorry for all of it. You never wanted to be part of any of this, and here you are so deep you can’t see a way out,” I shared. “I’m doing everything I can to try and keep you out of this as much as I possible, but the only way for you to be free is to help me stop your uncle. Who knows, I might be able to save Martin too, if he’s been given the shit end of the deal and forced into this as much as you were. Everything you tell me makes it sound like he’s nothing like your father or Marco.”

Tears welled up in his eyes, but he sniffled and turned away. “I used to think that until I got this from him right before you came to pick me up.”

Alvaro held out his phone to me with the screen open to a message thread. It was in Spanish but thank God I knew enough to read what it said.

Martin: Hey little bro, I got your message about finally coming to Mexico. I’m sorry I can’t be there for you. It’s shitty you have to go through this alone.

Alvaro: Everything at the house is gone, Marty. My passport, birth certificate, all of it is just ash now. What am I supposed to do? Will I still be able to get there without that stuff?

Martin: Don’t worry, little bro, you have dual citizenship, remember? I’ll get your Mexican passport mailed overnight to you. Should I send Mom’s along too? I assume hers is gone as well since she kept all that stuff in the same place.

Alvaro: Oh… I wasn’t going to bring Mom with me. She’s at a hospital that’s helping her. I got to see her the other day, and I’ve never seen her doing so well. I know Dad hated the thought of putting her on medication for depression and shit, but it’s really helping.

Martin: Alvaro, Mom can’t stay there. It’s not safe for her to be in their care. Think of all the things she knows about us and you. What if she tells them what we’ve all done, and you get sent to prison too? Little bro, you know I only want what’s best for you. If you come to Mexico, you have to bring Mom with you. Otherwise, I can’t help you.

This was clear evidence that Martin was fully aware of the need to keep his mom silent and wanted Alvaro to make it happen. Using the leverage of passports was a smart ploy on Martin’s end, but I could see how it crushed Alvaro.

“Damn,” I said with a sigh as I handed him the phone back. “Sometimes knowing the person you look up to isn’t who you thought they were is the worst. For me, it always feels like it’s a bigger betrayal since you trusted them so much more.”

Alvaro’s eyes seemed to cloud with anger when he looked up at me. “Tell me what I can do to help. The only person I have now is my mom, and I won’t let them take her from me too. They need to be stopped, or she’ll never be safe.”

“If you’ll find a way to trust me and my guys, then we’ll do everything in our power to keep your mom safe. Mariana deserves to have her own life free from them just like you do. As we’ve been planning, I had them jot down questions we had, hoping you might be able to answer them for us,” I said, then turned and motioned to Cognac. “Can you give me the questions?”

“The captain hasn’t said we can remove our seat belts,” Cognac teased.

I then realized the plane was indeed hurtling down the runway as the wheels started to lift off the tarmac. So instead of getting up, he tossed me the notebook, which I caught then flipped through it to find where he’d written down what I was looking for. Everything was laid out with the neatest penmanship I’d ever seen from a dude.

“Okay, here,” I said, offering Alvaro the notebook. “Even if you don’t know much about these things, whatever comes to mind will be helpful.”

There had been a pen hooked on the spiral that Alvaro used to write down his thoughts. After a few minutes, Jaxson announced we were at cruising height and could use our laptops and such. Wes pulled his laptop out and started working on God knows what, but I headed over to join him.

“Are you ordering all our contraband?" I asked, looking at the screen. “You know some of those assholes don’t like when we change how we make contact.”

He glanced up at me with a smirk. “Everyone is aware of the war that’s building, and I just let them know the old system had been compromised so we needed to change things up. Even promised if they wanted a video chat with you, they could do that just to make sure it was really you asking for the items personally.”

“Damn, you’re one sly, sneaky bastard, aren’t you?” I commented, shoving him with my shoulder. “Anyone giving you trouble?”

“Surprisingly, they’re all more than happy to help, and most are even giving us things we normally order but didn’t ask for. There are a few things the triplets wanted that I’ll have to see if they have an alternative since we won’t get them in time. Some of the overseas things are gonna be tricky unless we have a person they can send it all to and fly it all over at once,” Wes explained.

“Hmm,” I pondered, picking at my bottom lip as I let my head rest on his shoulder. “What about François?”

“What about him?” Wes countered.

“Could he be our contact and go-between?” I asked.

“Dax, we don’t even know the guy,” Wes pointed out.

Lifting my head, I shifted to face him. “No, but Harper does. In fact, I’m pretty sure that man has a total hard-on for her, and if she asked, he’d be more open to doing it.”

“What am I doing?” Harper called from across the plane where she was all snuggled up with Ghost.

“If you asked François to help us get goods from that side of the world over here, would he?” I asked.