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Instead, I got dressed as quickly and quietly as possible, and I eased the door shut behind me when I left. I met Esteban at the bottom of the stairs. “Have you seen the shipment?” I asked as we started walking to the storage facility.
“The men were unloading it,jefe,” he said. His tone told me all that I needed to know about the shipment: it was light.
“The delivery crew hasn’t left yet,” I said, and it wasn’t a question. I trusted Este with my life; he wouldn’t allow those cheating the Castillo family to get away easily.
“No,jefe,” he said. “We’ve made them very comfortable; they’re waiting for you.”
I nodded once. “Good man.”
The storage facility wasn’t large — Padre didn’t want it to draw too much attention to itself — and it was designed to look like a drydock for boats. Inside there was a small office, and it was here that our guests of honor were being held.
The men were grim-faced, but I looked past them to Jorge, another of my most loyal men. “How light were we?”
Jorge glanced at the clipboard in his hands. “By almost a hundred kilos,jefe,” he said.
Padre was going to be livid. “Don’t tell me,” I said, addressing the men now, “it fell off the boat, right?”
One of the men, younger than the other two, winced. “Señor Castillo —”
I drew the gun from the holster at the small of my back and pointed it at him. “I would suggest swallowing any excuse that you’re about to make,” I said. “Where is the rest of my order?” Silence was my answer, and I felt myself go cold. I clicked the safety off the gun, sighted down on the young man, and pulled the trigger.
The blast was deafening, and the back of the man’s head erupted against the wall in a spray of red. His body slumped against the man beside him, and I turned my gun on the next man. “Do you have more to say?” I asked.
“Por favor—” Another pull of the trigger, and then he, too, slumped into a heap.
“Angel.”
Emma was in the doorway. She had chosen a blue and white sundress for the day, and her hair was piled on top of her head, highlighting the elegant sweep of her neck. Her blue eyes were wide with terror, and yet, she was painfully beautiful. “You shouldn’t be out here,mi esposa,” I said. “Did you need something?” I tried to keep my tone neutral, but I didn’t try to shield her from what was happening.
While wives were largely kept away from the rougher parts of the business, I needed Emma to know this side of me. I needed her to understand that the man she cuddled up to was also the man holding a gun, the same man who had killed two people without a thought.
And I would do it again if I had to. It was my duty as the future leader of the Castillo family.
Emma blinked a few times. I thought she might be in shock. But then, she said, “I was coming to ask if you wanted something specific for breakfast.”
“Anything you want for breakfast is fine,” I said. “Just please get my coffee ready.”
She started to back out of the room, and then stopped. “Angel.”
I sighed. “Mi esposa?”
“Could you —?” I watched her chest rise and fall with her breathing. “Could you spare the last man? As a wedding gift to me?”
I cocked my head to the side. “Why do you care about him?”
Emma shrugged. “I don’t,” she said, though her voice was tight. “But unless this man is solely responsible for the delivery issue, then maybe he doesn’t need to die for it.” I wasn’t surprised that she had overheard everything. “Don’t you need someone to take a message back to the suppliers anyway? If you kill them all, how will the suppliers know that you’re displeased?” She gestured to the man among the corpses of his friends. “Do they honestly care about them, if they were sent without any kind of bodyguards?”
Surprisingly poignant. “Well spoken,” I praised. “Jorge, do you agree with my wife? Should we send our suppliers a message?”
Jorge dipped his head in affirmation. “It’s a very smart suggestion,jefe.”
I noticed that Jorge didn’t look at Emma.Good man, I thought. He knew better than to look at what’s mine. “I agree.” I glanced at Emma; she was wary, and she should have been. I gestured for Jorge and Esteban to grab the man, and they dragged him out of the small office into the larger storage room.
Jorge and Esteban held the man between them. “When you’re recovering,” I told the man, who was shivering but admirably stone-faced, “tell yourjefethat if I get one more light shipment, I will deal with him directly.Si?”
The man stared at me, dead-eyed, for a moment, and then his head dropped into a nod. “Si.”
I met Esteban’s eyes and nodded, and with a sickeningcrack, Esteban and Jorge forced the man’s elbows the wrong way, and the man let out an ungodly shriek before slumping in their grip. “Put him back on the boat,” I said, “and get him the hell off my island.”
