Page 42 of Spice and Revenge

I gather my meager belongings, my mind whirling with thoughts the whole time.Something about the whole thing doesn’t sit right with me. My mind keeps switching from wondering if my uncle is lying to what possible reason would he have to lie.

Just as I grab my burner phone to throw it into my purse, it buzzes with a message. I immediately grab the phone and open the message. The four words on the screen make my blood go cold.

DO NOT TRUST PEDRO.

I try to call Maximo for an explanation of his cryptic message. The call rings and rings without a reply, which leaves a sense of dread at the pit of my stomach. The one rule Max and I abided religiously by was to always have our phones at hand to pick calls from each other. It could be the difference between life and death for us.

I slip into the elevator with my luggage and ride down to the ground floor. I suddenly don’t feel all that safe in New York anymore. Does Max know something? Is uncle Pedro lying after all? I need answers and I need them fast.

The ride to the airport is tense for me. I feel like I’m about to explode. I am lucky that the cab driver isn’t chatty, or maybe he reads the expression on my face and sees I am not interested in conversation. Either way, I’m grateful for the silence.

Fifteen minutes before my flight starts boarding, my phone rings. It’s an unfamiliar number, but only one person could be calling me.

“Max,” I breathe into the phone.

“You’re going to hang up, then walk calmly towards the bathroom on your extreme right, get into one of the stalls.”

Before I can say anything else, the line goes dead. I resist the urge to look over my shoulder to check if I have a tail. I follow Maximo’s instructions, unbothered by how he knows my location.

Just as soon as I walk into one of the stalls and sit on the covered toilet lid, my phone rings again.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“I think I’m just being a bit paranoid because Pedro found you,” he spits out the name like he’s trying to get rid of a bad taste in his mouth.

“You know about that,” I sigh into the phone, “are you safe?”

“Forget about me, I’m fine. I ditched my old phone and changed location. What did Pedro have to say?”

I recount my conversation with him, feeling my anger spike up once again. For so long, I have dreamed of having my revenge on those who took my family from me. At one point, I had given up, my resounding lack of success in locating the murderers making me lose hope. Now, I was so close to my vengeance, I could almost taste it on my tongue.

“Don’t trust that bastard,” Max says when I’m done talking.

“He has no reason to lie,” I argue, “and it all makes sense now; why I wasn’t able to find the killers, why my new boss is so feared, why my bags had to be scanned before I could enter the estate. The Vitale are mafioso, and not just any type of Mafioso. They are dangerous and feared, and Leonardo is the one who killed my sister.

“Can you just give me some time to dig deeper?” Maximo asks, frustration bleeding through his voice. “From what I’ve discovered already, something big happened fifteen years ago, but a lot of it has been covered up by someone powerful. My best guess is Leonardo tried to bury everything, but I’m close to making a breakthrough, I can feel it.”

I don’t understand why he’s still contesting this. I’m suddenly mad at him for not being completely on the side of my revenge. My whole life has been leading up to this moment and I won’t let anything stop me now.

“There’s no time, Maximo,” I say sternly. “It’s now or never. This is my one chance to kill Leonardo. He could discover who I really am any minute, and I’ll lose my advantage.”

Maximo makes a sound of disapproval. “This is crazy, Laura.”

My heart clenches at hearing my real name from him. Soon, I’ll be free to be Laura again.

“You can’t just kill him based off of what Pedro said. Don’t forget that your uncle is the same man who tried to turn you into his killing machine. You left that life once, but you’re letting yourself get pulled back into being Pedro’s puppet.”

“His story lines up perfectly. Leonardo and I are seven years apart in age. The kid who took my parents from me when I was eight was likely fourteen or fifteen. And then there's the name change…”

“Laura," he interrupts, his voice filled with concern.

“I’m not doing this for my uncle, I’m doing this for myself,” I grit out.

“How do you even intend on killing Vitale and getting away with it in a house surrounded by his men? Do you think a man like that just let’s his guard down?” he snaps. “Thinkabout this for God’s sake. You’re being irrational right now, and you’re going to get yourself killed.”

Maximo is right about one thing, though. I’m well aware that I’m jumping into the river without testing its depth, but in my defense, I still have the advantage of anonymity. Leonardo doesn’t know who I really am. If he did, I’d have joined my family in the afterlife the moment he clapped eyes on me.

My first idea is to poison him, but I know that I can't go the poison route. If Leonardo suddenly croaks after eating a meal prepared by me, all fingers will point at me and my head will roll beside his. I need to get him to lose his guard around me.

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