Page 78 of Cartel Viper
Each Kutsenko couples’ home—plus their Andreyev cousin’s—is in a gated community with a private wall and gate around their property. They have armed security patrolling around the clock. They aren’t out of shape rent-a-guards. These are bratva men. It’s the same as here at Enrique’s.
I never understood why Luis and Margherita didn’t have the same security as Enrique. I figured it was because he wasn’t thejefe, just thejefe’syounger brother. Then I’ve watched Maks’s relatives marry and move into properties like his and Enrique’s. I think it’s Luis’s reputation. I overhead Maks’s brother call Luisel Espíritu Santoonce. The Holy Spirit. I asked Laura about it. She frowned but told me if Luis visits someone, they know their soul is about to depart their body.
“Laura, you know why I’m safest with Javi. You already said it.”
“Madeline, Javi can finish him, but I will see Drew before he dies.”
“I don’t want you in the middle of this.”
“Too fucking bad. You’re my sister.”
“Laura, there’s still more to this story.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Javier
I’m about to knock on my bedroom door when I hear Maddy’s voice. I lower my fist, though I know I shouldn’t listen to her call with her sister.
“Laura, I amnotgoing to your house. You already admitted you understand why I came to Javi and why I’m staying here.”
I can’t hear what Laura says, but I can guess.
“No. Absolutely not. I didn’t tell you what Drew made me do because I’m asking for help. I’m admitting the fucked-up shit I’ve done for the past two years. The weight of these secrets has been strangling me, and you need to know because he threatened your family. What I did for the O’Sheehans has no bearing on whether the Diazes can protect me properly.”
Yet again, I don’t know what Laura’s saying. However, I’ve known her for more than twenty years. I might not guess the exact words, but I know the sentiment.
“I’m not going the fuck over there, Laura. I?—”
Fucking hell.
I knock, and Madeline goes silent for a moment.
“Who is it?”
“Maddy, it’s me. May I come in?”
“Yes.”
I step in and shut the door behind me. Splotchy red patches darken her cheeks. She’s pissed. A year before I rescued her, she found out about a huge fight—a melee—the guys in my family got into with guys from the other rival families. She was pissed and disappointed in me the next time we wound up at my aunt and uncle’s for Sunday dinner.
My brothers and I were complete douche’s to Maria Mancinelli because we were all too immature to handle finding out one of her friends had a crush on Joaquin. We all thought our balls had dropped. He thought, as a senior, he was too good for some freshman girl. Maria stood up to him, and I made a comment she misunderstood. I didn’t say it loud enough for her to hear clearly.
Before I could correct her, she was yelling for her cousin Carmine. With him came his goon of a friend Gabriele. That got all the Mancinellis’ attention along with the Kutsenkos and their Andreyev cousins. They stuck up for Maria, and the O’Rourkes egged us on along with telling the Mancinellis they couldn’t defend Maria without the bratva’s help.
She swore I saidperra de pecho plano. She told her family I called her a flat-chested bitch. Before I could correct her, fists were flying. Then there were knives and guns. It was an utter shitshow. All of us wound up in more trouble with our respective leaders than any of us could’ve ever imagined in our relatively brief lives.TíoEnrique was ready to cut out my tongue. I barely had a chance to tell him what I really said. I was fifteen and hiding behindMamáto do it.
The only part Maria caught wasperro aplanado—flattened dog—which is what I said my brother would be if any of our uncles found him sniffing around a fourteen-year-old girl. Shewas only proficient in Spanish back then, and there was too much noise with the music for her to hear me properly.
Maddy looks the same way now as she did that night at dinner when she had to sit next to me.
“Is everything all right?”
“No.”
Laura must have heard me because they answered at the same time, and I could hear Maddy’s sister.
“Can you call Laura back in a few minutes? I need to talk to you.”
