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But there wasn’t time for that.
The shit for the bed was getting delivered to the apartment in a little bit. Then I had a meeting later.
I did.
Not her.
No matter how much her pretty eyes shot daggers at me.
I didn’t understand why she’d suddenly decided she needed to go. It was very clear that I wanted to do the meeting alone, that I didn’t want her involved at all.
Sure, I knew of A. And pretty much all the stories came back saying the man was pretty fucking trustworthy, that he didn’t want beef with any of the already established organizations in Navesink Bank. That said, I didn’t have any personal, one-on-one experience with the man. I didn’t know how much I could trust him.
I damn sure wasn’t going to bring Abigail onto his turf when I didn’t know where his loyalties were, if he was possibly on Raúl’s payroll somehow.
“Baby, you’re free. To live your life and make all your life decisions. But you’re not free to walk into a cartel leader’s compound when you don’t know if you can trust him.”
“You don’t know if you can trust him, and you’re walking in there.”
“Right. But I’m not someone who is wanted by a fellow cartel member, love. It’s not risky like that for me.”
“This is my problem,” she insisted.
“Think we are at a point now where we can call it our problem.”
“Fine. Our problem. But our means me too. And I want to be there.”
“Abs, no.”
“Then you’re not going either.”
“I have to go. If there’s a chance A has some information that could make it easier to make this problem disappear, I need to talk to him about it.”
“I’m part of the problem.”
“Abs…”
“We can bring Dezi if you’re so worried about it not being safe.”
“It’s more than you not being safe. It’s the fact that if he is working with Raúl, then he will know you are associated with me. And that I am with the club. It could make everything worse.”
“Or maybe hearing the story from me will help him decide he wants to help,” Abigail suggested. “If your friend is right about him being a decent guy, anyway.”
Niro didn’t recommend someone if he didn’t have faith in them. Hell, Niro had tapped A’s shoulder to be a part of his and Andi’s wedding. That wasn’t something you did if you didn’t know someone was a good guy underneath it all.
I could call Niro. I could ask him to come with.
I still didn’t like it, but if Abs wasn’t going to let it go, that was the only way I felt comfortable with it.
“Let me make a phone call,” I said, sighing, and moving out into the hall.
“Yellow?” a feminine voice answered on the fourth ring.
“Andi, hey, is Niro there?”
“He’s letting the dogs out. Is this about Andres?” she asked.
Of course he’d shared that with her. Before they became an item, Niro and Andi had been the closest of friends. I doubted Niro kept anything from her.
“Ah, yes, actually.”
“Maybe I can help. What’s going on?”
“Abigail is suddenly insisting on going with me to the meeting.”
“Ah, I see. And you’re doing the ‘big, strong, man’ thing to her.”
“She… might agree with that,” I said, letting out a dry laugh.
“Why can’t she come? This is her situation, right?”
“Right. But I don’t know what A’s loyalties are,” I told her, shaking my head.
“Hm. Well, I guess I understand that. But I can vouch for Andres. If you want, I will come with.”
“Come where?” I could hear Niro ask in the background.
“To the meeting with Andres. Abigail wants to go,” Andi told him.
“Here, let me,” Niro said, taking the phone. “We will come,” he said. “If you’re worried about it, we’ll go with.”
“My worry is that A might be connected with Raúl in some way.”
“Can’t claim I know a whole fuckuva lot about how the cartel operates, but it seems to be that different organizations aren’t exactly friendly. That’s why there is so much bloodshed. Everyone wants what the other has. I doubt A would be friendly with another leader. At most, he would refrain from starting a war, but I don’t think they’re drinking buddies.”
He made a good point.
The Henchmen didn’t rub shoulders with other gun runners. The Mallick family didn’t play poker with other loan sharks. The Grassis didn’t shoot the shit with the Irish or Russian mafias.
It didn’t make sense to befriend your competition. You could never fully trust them.
So maybe Niro was right.
A might know Raúl, but the chances of him having any sort of loyalty to him were low.
“Okay,” I said, nodding. “Yeah, I would appreciate that.”
“It’s nothing,” Niro said. “Andi dragged me to a doggy shower there once.”
“A doggy shower,” I repeated.
“One of A’s dogs got knocked up. We brought a goody basket full of toys and treats. And Andi spent an hour scolding him about getting his dogs spayed on time, so he didn’t have any future accidents.”
