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Javier and Tomas are two of only a few I care to keep around. Our shared bloodlust is why we became friends in the first place, but their continued respect keeps them in my favor.
“Isn’t it fun when the situation is reversed so effortlessly?” I ask dryly. “You don’t even know who I am, but you thought... Why the fuck not? Let me point my gun at her and give her a fright. How’s that working out for you now?”
Miguel sneers. “I know you work for the Maldon—”
“I don’t work for them. I am them.” I laugh as he scrunches his face. “You work for me.”
“I don’t fuck with nobody except Estra—”
“You fuck with me now,” I tell him. “Or you die. It’s as simple as that.”
Someone moves in my peripheral, and with my left hand, I pull my gun from my jacket and shoot him. A body drops in the far corner of the room as another man curses under his breath. I almost tell Miguel I’ve just shot his favorite cousin, his second in command.
Lory sighs louder than the gunfire… But I don’t let him dampen my good mood.
“See, Miguel. The difference between you and me, other than the obvious stuff, is that I don’t show a gun I’m unwilling to use,” I explain. “You carry for show, because it makes you feel big, seen, and powerful. I carry because I’ll use it, not just for protection or defense, but for fun. Which is what today is all about... Fun. And fucking with Estrada. But mostly for fun.”
“Found it,” Tomas mumbles to me as he moves past to stand by the door.
“Perfect.” I purse my lips as I stare at Miguel. “You understand you work for me now, that you report back to me, that you no longer answer to Estrada?”
Miguel grinds his teeth together, trying to keep his dignity intact. “He’ll kill me—us.”
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” I inform him. “Do I look like I’m worried about Estrada or what he’ll do?”
“He’ll kill us all,” he harshly warns me, though that’s what I’m hoping for. “You too.”
I shrug, unperturbed by his words. “And I’ll kill your entire family if you breathe my description to him. You might have some sway with Estrada, but no one is safe from me.”
Miguel jerks his head away from me, growing angry now that I’ve hit his button. I casually use the barrel of my gun to make him look at me as I continue.
“Not your grandmother in her cute little one-bedroom apartment on fourteenth avenue with the sage green drapes hanging in her kitchen window. You know which one I’m talking about, right? The window she likes to leave open during the day because there’s a level of security one feels when they live on the upper floors of a building. Never worrying about the vantage points from across the road.
“Or your mother. She visits your grandmother on Wednesdays and Saturdays to help sweet Mariana with the laundry. They carry their baskets from the apartment to the dingy red minivan, and then they drive three-quarters of a mile to the laundromat the Yang family owns. Your mother, Isabella, brings magazines for them to read while they sit with their backs to that wall of windows, open for anyone to see.
“Or your girlfriend, Sophia, who works at the Crimson Harvest five nights a week, waiting tables and flirting with the kitchen staff. She’s adorable, by the way. I didn’t know how you bagged her, until I saw her little coke habit while she was on a smoke break with another waitress. Her sister, I believe? They both speak so fondly of you.”
Miguel glares at me, keeping his mouth shut while my gun rests at the edge of his lips, forcing his head in my direction. I nod and smile, showing him he’s got my full attention.
“I know all about your cousins too, three of which are in this room. Well, two. Pretty sure I shot Jorge. I can tell you all about your extended family from So-Cal all the way to lower Mexico, and even a few strays in Puerto Rico. I think I may know more about your family tree than you do.
“But let’s not forget the baby-mama. Amora, is it? And that cherub-cheeked little boy you neglect. Pascual looks so much like you. Does Estrada know about them too? I might spare them, but only because you refuse to be decent and help her.”
He swallows thickly as I continue to grin down at him.
“Good. I’m glad we’re on the same page. I’d apologize for putting you into this corner, but I’m not sorry.”
I back off of him and away, my eyes locked on his as I tip my head, acting as if we’re in agreement.
“I’ll send my guys by with a form of contact, and then we can chat about when future pickups will happen. Make sure you have my money ready on time. You don’t want to catch me on a bad day, Miguel. I’ll hunt your entire family into extinction and make you watch.”
I scowl at my desk, at the mess I’ve made of the only files I can find on two different cartels that live within the city limits of Crimson Bay.
How can there be nothing on them?
All the arrest records have gone missing, except the most recent ones. Those larger profile names that shouldn’t have been so easy to catch, but their rap sheets are clean of violent crimes or drug charges. Only misdemeanors and petty shit. That, in and of itself, is a red flag to me.
Eduardo Maldonado Senior was picked up on a routine traffic stop. The report says he was alone, speeding with his headlights off in the middle of the night... And just no.
