Page 82 of Queens and Monsters

He looked at me as if he was shocked I knew the information he’d just shared. “Don’t you dare tell Mia you know. That goes for Jasmine too.”

“Won’t say a word. A little Reinaldo.”

“No way am I telling you his name. You’re going to wait like everyone else.”

Diego and Felipe met us at the docks and drove with us back to the airport. As the cartel’s Gulfstream came into view, I shook my head. “I was just on this plane and now I’m back.”

The four of us boarded the plane. After a brief talk with the pilot and attendant, we started working. I hadmy computer in front of me as did Jano. Felipe and Diego were coordinating with the famiglia guards through their tablets.

We hadn’t landed in Kansas City yet when Nick sent us the geocode coordinates of four yachts possibly belonging to Elizondro Herrera. “We need to send boats out to surveil these yachts. If we get license numbers, we’ll have a better idea if Herrera owns them.”

“The ownership would be buried under layers of LLCs,” I said. “It’s not like it will have Elizondro Herrera on it.”

“No shit,” Jano replied. “Check the file I just sent you. It contains sixty-eight LLCs we’ve connected to Herrera.”

“When did you get this?”

“Been working on it while you’ve been running around like a lovesick puppy.”

I wasn’t fucking apologizing. Opening the file, I scanned the spreadsheet. “Good work. What if we reverse search to see if any of these LLCs can be associated with Myshkin?”

Jano nodded.

Padre was right. We worked well as a team.

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

Jasmine

When I entered the dining room for breakfast, the somber mood was palpable. I took the seat across from Mia, Josefina to my side at one end where she always sat.

“Any word?” I asked, pulling out my chair.

Mia shook her head.

It had been three days since we’d said goodbye to our husbands on the boat ramp. Three days since we stood next to one another and watched the long cigarette boat soar out of sight.

Immediately, members of the staff were present, filling my coffee cup and serving me fresh fruit.

“Your omelet,Señora, will be a few minutes.”

“No, thank you,” I said. “Maybe just an English muffin.”

When the staff member walked away, Josefina reached toward me. “Jasmine, not eating won’t bring Rei back any sooner. I don’t want him upset with me if you lose weight.”

“I’m really not hungry, and I don’t want to waste your food.”

“It is our food. You need protein.”

Mia watched our conversation with an amused expression. “Jasmine, you might as well give in. I promise you won’t win. Especially if Josefina thinks there’s a remote chance you could be pregnant.”

“There’s not.”

Josefina opened her big brown eyes wider. “There’s always a chance. You need to take care of yourself.”

“I’m pretty sure you have to actually have intercourse to get pregnant.”

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