Page 34 of Her Wolf

There was such a sucking silence, Neo glanced at the phone to make sure they were still connected.

“I…I can’t. Not—I mean, maybe if you give me a—”

“Tomorrow,” the man repeated slowly. “Our usual meeting place.”

“No, look—” Neo cast a pleading gaze at Sylvia, and she twirled her hand to encourage him to keep talking. “Please, there must be something I can give you. Money. How much money would the shipment have been worth to you?”

“Money?” The man let the word roll off his tongue. “I don’t want money. Your father and I had a deal.”

“Yes. You had a deal with my father. He’s dead, you know he is.” Neo tried to rein back his voice, but his heart was pounding so hard that it felt like it would shatter any instant. “In my mind, that cancels the deal.”

Another laugh, but this one bitterly short and cold. “No, my boy. A deal is a deal.”

“Then you get your drugs from Cora. She’s the one that killed him, not me. I shouldn’t have to pay for what she did. You call her and you tell her she killed the man you had a deal with.”

He looked at the phone again. The call was still connected, but the silence sucked at him like a black hole.

“The rumor is true?” the man asked.

“What rumor?” Neo snapped.

“Eleodora Rivera has been made capo alongside you?”

Neo struggled for a moment with his answer. As much as he wanted to lay every fucking ounce of this shit on Cora, he didn’t want to admit he was sharing the throne of El Calacas Vivo either.

“She’s my wife,” he said.

“And capo?”

“No woman will ever rule this cartel.”

“Interesting…” The man made a humming sound, and let out a long, expressive breath.

“You will deliver the shipment to me tomorrow before—”

Neo cut in with a harsh, “I just told you—”

“If not…”

His mouth clamped shut, nostrils flaring as he tried to clamp down his frustration. It wasn’t that difficult — he was coming to realize that the man on the other end of the line was anything but a hired gun. In fact…he was wondering if he wasn’t speaking to someone high up in a rival cartel, perhaps even the mafia, judging from his strong American accent. But why in heaven’s name would his father have made a deal with the mafia? Javier had his own connections to supply his product throughout most of the southern states of the US. Involving a third party just meant splitting profits.

“And if I can’t?” Neo prompted, when the man remained silent.

The quality of the man’s voice changed, as if he’d begun to smile.

“Then you will bring me Eleodora Rivera instead.”

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