I notice him and Matteo share a look and immediately my hackles are raised.
“What are you two hiding?” I ask gruffly.
“Nothing,” Elio says quickly, moving to wrap an arm around my shoulders, “Wanna play some pool? If you win, I’ll give that knife you’ve been eyeing. The one I got on my trip to Egypt.”
I perk up immediately. Pushing his arm off, I start walking towards the pool room. Both my brothers follow. The game is underway and we’ve only been playing for about five minutes when Matteo speaks up.
“So… I’ve been working on a little something,” he starts from his position against the wall. “To bring down Navarro.”
I’d been in the middle of shooting a ball but my concentration immediately breaks. I look towards him with narrowed eyes.
“What something?” I growl. “And does this something end up with him dead?”
I’ve had beef with Ignacio Navarro for years. The old man is a slimy bastard that’s always messing with me yet somehow always manages to go scot-free. I would have killed him a long time ago. But he’s the most powerful drug lord in the city. Going after him wouldn’t be easy. Not that I haven’t tried.
“Not exactly. But it does provide us with some leverage over him,” Matteo replies.
“We’ve been trying to gather some dirt on him, information that we could use to hit him where it hurts,” Elio continues. “A couple weeks earlier, one of our spies had a breakthrough.”
“Hold up,” I interrupt. “So what you’re saying is, I don’t get to kill him?”
Matteo shakes his head.
“Pass,” I mutter, my gaze going back down to the pool table.
“At least listen to our plan, dipshit,” my elder brother states.
I roll my eyes, “Fine, go on.”
“Navarro has a daughter. One hidden away that I’m unsure he’s aware exists.”
“Explain,” I say with a frown.
“About twenty-five years ago, he fell in love with a woman called Marisol Zaccari. And when he did his wife wasn’t too happy about it. They had an affair but the old man’s wife was pretty vicious. She was gunning for Marisol’s head and Ignacio did a terrible job of protecting her. Eventually Marisol decided to disappear. She left, and she didn’t look back. Our sources tell us that when she did leave, she was pregnant, carrying Ignacio’s child.”
“Sounds like a bad soap opera,” I muse. “And you’re sure the old man doesn’t know about his bastard child.”
“It doesn’t really matter,” Elio states. “He’s left them alone all these years, unprotected. And now we have a chance to get his daughter into our clutches.”
I run a hand over my jaw, thinking it over, “You want to kidnap the child he probably abandoned? What makes you sure he would give a damn about her?”
“He may be an asshole but he cares about his children. Which is why I’m leaning towards him not knowing she existsat all,” Matteo says. “Her existence was only a rumor until I confirmed it by finding Marisol. It took some time to do so. She’s been living off the grid, in a small sleepy town two hours from the city.”
“You’re going to go to this small town and abduct the daughter?” I question.
Matteo flashes me a grin, “There’s no need. She’s in the city. Arrived today according to the men I put in place to surveil them. We have the perfect chance to have her in our control. And then she becomes a bargaining chip against Navarro. We can cut him down a few notches.”
“Sounds like a great plan,” I agree. “What do you need me for?”
His smile thins, “We need a place to put her and someone to watch over her. I was hoping you could do it?”
I snort, “Pass.”
“Come on, Raf. I can’t bring her to my house, I have a wife and kids. Same as Salvatore. And Elly’s apartment is too small for a hostage.”
“Not to mention the endless amount of people that go in and out of there per day,” Elio chimes in.
“Your house is perfect.”
