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I didn't try to stop Sass as she moved in at my side, looking over to find her shaking her head.
"I don't understand then," she admitted, looking to Souta for some sort of explanation.
"Why don't you explain it to me then?" Souta invited, nonplussed by the heat as sweat started to bead up on my brow.
"I was on the way back from my job—"
"Stealing from me," Souta clarified.
"Again, for clarification, I didn't do any stealing," Sass said, voice getting stronger. "But on the way back, I was run off the road, and the package was stolen from me. I have no idea what the package was. Or who was chasing me. I just knew they wanted me dead."
"Then we have a common enemy," Souta said, sighing. "Who did you tell about the job?"
"No one. I didn't make a name for myself by being that stupid."
"Which just leaves those who hired you in the first place."
"But that makes no..." Sass trailed, off, things starting to fall into place.
"I know better than to ask," Souta said, shrugging, understanding it was the nature of the beast that was being a criminal, that you couldn't expect someone to flip and reveal secrets since our survival was dependent on all those connected with us keeping their mouths shut. "So I will give you one week to find them, locate my package, and bring it back to me. Next Saturday. Ten p.m. Altar of Venus," he said, snapping as he turned, his men all starting to turn as well.
Just in time to see a car flying into the lot, and Arty charging out of it, holding his laptop aloft as he climbed out of the back of the Uber.
"I'm too late," he decided, looking at the men. "No, you're not right," he said, shaking his head at Souta.
Souta seemed unbothered by the outburst, though, as he glanced back at Sass. "Saturday," he repeated, before he and his men climbed back into their cars, and drove off.
"Arty, take Sass in the house," I demanded, making my way to the gates, closing them, setting the code again, then going into the clubhouse to find Sass standing in the kitchen. The hand that still held the cupcake tin was shaking.
"Hey," I said, removing it from her grasp, then slipping my fingers between hers. "It's okay."
"I feel like an idiot," she admitted, voice getting angry.
"You're not an idiot. It makes no sense that the Triad would try to fuck you over."
"Sure it does," Arty said, head inside the fridge.
Whenever he finished a job, the hunger seemed to come back at him all at once, making him binge on just about anything he could get his hands on.
"It does," Sass insisted. "I'm the only person who knew about them taking something. If they took it back and killed me, no one would ever know."
"But since when does the Triad and the Yakuza have issues in this area?" I asked.
"They don't," Arty agreed. "They've always had a truce," he went on, finding a stash of Harmon's leftover macaroni and cheese. If it were anyone else, she would smack them for touching her food. But Arty? Not Arty, though. "It goes back to when the Sano family and the Xú family came over two generations ago. They've had nothing to do with each other. But tensions rose in this past generation, and it leaked over to current leadership."
"And it seems like the Xú family hired you," I said, looking at Sass, "to make a move against the Sanos."
"But if they were trying to make a move, why would they take it back?" she asked, shaking her head.
"Sounds like a question we should be asking them."
"We have to track them down."
"That shouldn't be hard," Arty said, going into the pantry, finding a cup of ramen, then heating the water in the microwave. "The Xú family likes to hide in plain sight. They own a sit-down restaurant in Allapattah. The cops leave them alone down there," he added to my surprised look. Allapattah wasn't exactly the nicest area for an organized crime family that could, no doubt, afford to be in a more upscale area.
"Looks like we have a surprise meeting to plan," I said. "I think if we go to them without warning, there would be less chance of violence since they might have customers in the restaurant," I said.
"Solid plan," Arty agreed, mouth agape after having shoved too-hot ramen in.
"You had good timing today," I said.
"I tried to call," he told us, "but no one answered."
"The fire alarm was going off. We burned cupcakes. We didn't hear the phone," Sass explained.
"Are they completely burnt?" he asked, looking over at the tray.
"Sorry," Sass said, giving him a small smile. "They're bricks."
"You looked like you were thinking about throwing them at the guys," I said, getting a smile out of her.
