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“Well, it wasn’t me. Eset came to me with the idea, and it’s a pretty good one.”
“Then this has got to be a methodical, well-planned one.”
“That it is, brother. Essentially, Eset wants us to invite Duarte to London for a show at her art gallery. We already know Duarte loves purchasing art, and he even mentioned it to me when I originally met with him in Portugal. We could extend an invite to see Eset’s new pieces, which hopefully he would accept, and while Duarte is away from his compound, we send a team in to retrieve the girls.”
Ruslan cocks a brow. “Are you certain the girls won’t be with him?”
“Yes, I am. Duarte never takes the girls with him. Instead, he leaves them at his estate with their nannies and a team on guard.” I’ve already found out everything I’ve had to about this situation, just so we’re not doing anything crazy or stupid later on. The last thing I want to do is to plan to get the girls, and then nothing comes of it. We would have done all this work for nothing.
Ruslan nods his head as I speak, and finally, when I’m finished, he cuts in, “I think it’s a great idea, and it sounds good. We just have to hope everything goes off without a hitch. I think there are a few things that we’ll need to do to make sure Duarte doesn’t have any sneaking suspicions.”
“Like what?”
Ruslan pauses and takes a sip of his water before he continues. “You need to be with me and Eset in London. The last thing I want you to do right now is to be in Portugal getting the children. I know you care for their general well-being and for their mother but look at it from my point of view. If you’re gone when it was an event that we’ve extended an invitation to Duarte, it will raise red flags. I’m going to send Lom with the team to retrieve the girls. It won’t look nearly as suspicious if he isn’t present, especially since Emily is pregnant. We can come up with an excuse about her being closer to her due date, so he isn’t traveling as much.”
I already know my brother’s mind is made up. The point he’s making with me right now is valid, and while I want to be there to get the girls when this all goes down, I won’t jeopardize getting them in the first place. “All right. It all sounds good.” There’s one thing I’m wondering about, but my brother might bring it up here in a few moments.
“You look like something is on your mind.” There he goes, my overly analytical brother.
“I’m wondering where Mona will be in all of this.”
“I’d like her to go with Lom. She’ll be protected, and the children obviously know their mother. If we want this to go off without a hitch and be okay, then the girls need to see their mother. I think if we don’t have her there when we extract them, it will only create issues we don’t need.”
“I agree. I know she’ll want to be on the front lines getting her children back anyway.” I wouldn’t want to keep her from this opportunity, either. It’s been a few weeks since she’s seen her children, and I’m beginning to learn more and more about Mona every single day. The fact she isn’t near her children is eating her alive, bit by bit.
“Good. For the sake of being thorough, ask her and make sure she wants to. The situation is bound to be dangerous at some point, and she needs to be aware of what we’re asking her to walk into.”
I know what he’s asking of me by doing this, but I know her. I know she’s going to want to be there with her children.
“Perfect. What sort of time frame are you thinking about?”
Ruslan inhales slowly through his nose and then rubs his fingertips on the bridge of his nose. “Honestly? I want to take some time to plan this out, but time isn’t on our side. We already have other issues at bay. At this point, Julio knows we’ve betrayed him and turned his only son against him, so I’m waiting for hellfire to come down on us. We’ll handle it, but it hasn’t reached us quite yet. I know what he’s been saying in some smaller circles, and he’s making threats. Only, he hasn’t actually done anything.”
“It’s only a matter of time before he does.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking, too,” my brother confirms.
“Have you made any plans on how we’re dealing with Julio?”
Ruslan shakes his head. “No, not yet, but I want to see how he acts. I’ve heard whispers, but I haven’t dealt with anything firsthand, and that’s what I want to see. I want to know if Julio is going to act like a coward or if he’s going to act like a man.”
“Okay.” There’s not much I can say to my brother about this since dealing with Julio is his call. If he wants us to wait, then we will wait. What our family did to Julio is no doubt pissing him off. Julio was under the impression that an alliance with our family, a marriage with his son to Eset, would only solidify his claim to the Ramirez cartel.
In actuality, his son pledged his allegiance to the man we support, who happens to be Julio’s uncle. Most of the time, we don’t interfere in another country’s political business, but this time there was a good reason. Mexico doesn’t need another bloodthirsty Ramirez running it. What Mexico needs is what it’s currently had for many, many years—a good, well-rounded, decent leader.
“Ruslan! Are you still busy? I need you to come here,” my sister-in-law, Amelia, calls for my brother, and he immediately rises from his seat.
“Okay, I need to go. We’ll talk soon and work out the details of what’s going to happen,” Ruslan states, and I nod.
The two of us say our goodbyes, and then I head downstairs with Paulo into the parking garage. In no time, we’re in the vehicle, and he’s driving me back to my house.
As I walk in through the front door, Mona’s sitting in her reading nook with a blanket draped over her and a hardcover book in her hands. I walk right up to her, and there’s enough room for me to take a seat beside her, so I plop down on the plush cushions and place my hand on her leg.
“How did things go?” Mona knows I was away at my brother’s house speaking to him, and based on the slight inflection in her voice, I know she’s anxious to find out what we discussed.
“Some family matters and then some business ones, but we did discuss your girls.”
Immediately, Mona puts her book down and looks right at me. Hope and fear are evident all over her face. She’s waiting for me to say something else, but I’m giving her the opportunity to speak first.
