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I quickly went through my contacts and dialed for Carlo.
“Burner phone, huh?” Carlo asked, not needing any preamble to know that it was me. “What did she do this time?” I could sense a hint of smugness in the tone of his voice, which irked me, but I let it go because Carlo was the kind of man who would do anything I asked him.
“She left me, can we move on?” I said, the question being more of a statement.
Carlo understood and we got down to business.
“So, they said they would call within the next few hours,” I said. “The drop-off point is at this address.” I gave him the address. “You ok with that kind of a load?”
I was asking Carlo for a lot, but this deal would guarantee that the Reeds would have a sizable control of the meth sales west of Chicago. The only problem with this was that I had to dig deep with a lot of my business connections to get all the supplies for Carlo to take across the city.
If he was caught he would face a minimum of 20 years in prison. It was a pretty big ask because it wasn’t going to make us money, but I had eventually gotten a good price from Carlo in exchange for this job.
Now, we simply waited for the call. Carlo was to transfer the supplies within one hour of the appointed time, a generous yet dangerous allotment. His chances of getting caught increased, but he was also allowed to drive safely from point A to point B.
What Adriana didn’t understand was why I wasn’t telling her. If she knew about our activities, she could be listed as an accomplice in criminal activity. I couldn’t stand the thought of her in jail, though I suppose her current situation was pretty close to being on house arrest. Between her place - a loft that I had purchased secretly for her - and her father’s, yet another building I had secretly bought to hide him, she didn’t have much choice of where she went.
All I could hope for was that she would cool down so that I could explain everything to her. But first, Carlo had to succeed in the mission. If he couldn't, everything, including my love life, could go down the drain. Worse, Frank and Adriana’s lives would be in peril.
I got the call that Carlo was needed within the hour.
“Got it,” I said, then called Carlo. “You’re on.”
I waited eagerly, and soon received the news.
“Dropoff went well boss,” Carlo said. “There’s just a bit of a problem.”
“Doesn’t sound like it went well then,” I said.
“Yeah, these people are greedy,” Carlo told me. “They asked for more weight for tomorrow.”
I rolled my eyes.Of course they did. But why tomorrow?
“Was it Braden?” I asked. This request sounded more like the work of a lesser Reed, probably Marion, who wasn’t very bright.
“No,” Carlo said.
“Let me see what I can do,” I said. I laughed inside at the thought of Marion taking over for his father, then called Braden.
“We need to meet,” I said. There was no negotiating on this point. It was either meet or cut off relations with the Reeds.
Braden scoffed. “Didn’t like that my son was there?”
“He asked for more weight,” I said. “Tomorrow.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“Tomorrow, I’ll come to you, first thing in the morning,” I suggested. What I didn’t say was that I would bring Carlo.
The next morning, Carlo and I arrived at the Braden’s estate. The mansion was surrounded by brick walls taller than both of us combined.
“Paranoid much?” Carlo said, half joking.
I pressed the buzzer and a woman’s voice answered.
“Mr. Reed isn’t taking solicitors,” she said.
Annoyed, I let Carlo answer for me. Despite being a serious hitman, Carlo’s voice was pleasant to the ear, and he managed to flirt with the woman.
