Page 64 of Unruly

“Please tell me you didn’t somehow … fuck up that connection, Catherine.”

She laughed bitterly.

Jesus.

What else could she do at this point?

“According to my mother, it was bound to happen.”

John’s brow dipped. “Explain.”

Catherine did, albeit vaguely. She left out the main details of the meeting, but instead, focused on what came before, and then after with Catrina. And even then, Catherine only gave the bare minimum of details.

She had learned something important over the years about her cousins and their business. They were like her husband in the way that excuses were never accepted or tolerated. Every single person had to be accountable for their actions and choices. Each person had to take responsibility for themselves at the end of the day.

“This is … not good,” John said gruffly.

His tone let Catherine know he was pissed.

The rest of him was as still as stone.

“I am working on figuring something out,” Catherine assured, “but I have a whole bunch of other shit clogging up my time and attention right now. Just when I think I have five minutes to focus on this problem, something else comes up. I’m not sure which thing to deal with first, at the moment.”

“Getting cocaine into this city,” John snapped. “That would be a great place to start!”

“Do not yell at me in my home.”

Her cousin let out a hard breath, and glanced away.

Quieter, Catherine said, “I know that’s the most important thing, John. And I am working on it.”

“I’m sure.”

“Listen, it was my mother who made the deal with the Three Families years ago to ensure the continued supply of cocaine into their territories at a price that culled competition between them. I know this, John. Given how close and intertwined our families are now with business and everything else, the last thing we need are feuds popping up because of the price of cocaine. I will get this shit figured out.”

“How soon?”

“I can’t say,” Catherine admitted. “I know there’s a major cartel down in Mexico that’s mostly supplying the lower east coast, the west coast, a few places in Europe, Detroit, and Chicago. I have been working on trying to find the right contact to get me face to face with the boss of the operation.”

John scowled. “That shouldn’t be such a hard thing to do, considering who you are and your position. Send a fucking messenger out to say you want a sit down with the King Pin of the cartel, and they should set something up.”

“Well, guess what? It is fucking hard. Half the people you talk to don’t even know who the boss of the operation is. It seems to me like there’s some kind of layering going on as a protection of sorts to hide whoever it is running it. The point is, I will figure it out.”

There, Catherine had showed her hand. Or as much as she was willing to show. There were somethings better left unsaid and hidden from view.

It was her problem to deal with.

Fact was, Catherine knew with absolute certainty that should she admit she was incapable of making contact and a contract with a new supplier, her husband or cousins would and could do it. Somehow they would fix the problem, and that would leave Catherine looking incompetent and weak in her organization.

She could not afford that.

Actually, she was starting to understand this lesson of her mother’s better and better. Still, Catrina had gone about it in a shitty way.

Never was that more apparent than now …

“How long have you known we would be without a supplier?” John asked after a moment. “Or that our shipments would not come in like we thought they should?”

Shit.