Page 84 of Cartel Viper
“Exactly, and she realizes what a misjudgment that was because it meant Drew discovered she was near the city. But you meddling in my family’s business meant he tracked her to her specific location.”
“We don’t meddle in your business.”
I snort a laugh. “Cabrón, we meddle in each other’s business. None of us have the secrets we want to think we do. Just like you know things about some of our men, we know that about your family.”
He knows exactly who I’m referring to.
“Is that a threat, Javier?”
“No, it’s merely an observation. Why did you sell any of our secrets to the O’Sheehans? Tell me the truth, Misha, because this is about Madeline’s safety. You don’t have to give a shit aboutme or anyone in my family. But she’s Laura’s sister, and the one thing we can agree upon is keeping her safe. The only way for me to do that is to know what the fuck is going on, so I’m going to ask you one more time. Why’d you sell secrets to Drew?”
I hear voices in the background, and I’m certain it’s Maks. He’s either asking Misha what he’s talking about or he’s filling his cousin in on more details. When Misha speaks again, the volume is different, so I know he’s put it on speakerphone. I remain quiet now that he’s decided to fess up.
“Unsurprising to anyone, we’ve done surveillance on some of your men. We observed something interesting by entire coincidence while Niko and I were in Jamaica for a meeting. We are having complications with some of our deals in Eastern Europe, thanks to the O’Rourkes. We figured that nugget could be valuable.”
“Complications, my ass. They’re encroaching upon your territory in Eastern Europe. You want a way to push them out. Let me guess. You sold information to the O’Sheehans in order to get them to help you fuck over the O’Rourkes. They’re pissed at the O’Rourkes for having a stranglehold on all their imports and exports along the St. Lawrence.”
“Very good. Then again, Javier, you never ask a question you don’t already know the answer to.”
“I figured out that part. But you must have sold this information to the O’Sheehans before anything went on between Madeline and me. What did the O’Sheehans plan to do with this against us?”
“You know the O’Rourkes run their guns down the St. Lawrence. But your family has control over the other major product up there.”
Products of the semi-organic type.
I need to keep listening to keep from losing track of his explanation.
“The O’Sheehans are getting pissy that you’re expanding your reach upstate. They already hate that the O’Rourkes are stronger in Rochester than they are in Albany. They don’t want you pushing out any of their rivals in Buffalo to take over there. They think they can handle their rivals, but they know they don’t stand a chance against you once you dig in. They were going to blackmail you with that information or sell it to rivals in Latin America.”
“And you—what—thought we wouldn’t find out that all of this originated with you? You think you’re in any position to sell those kinds of secrets? Motherfucker, don’t come after my family. You can piss all the way off, Misha. You pretend your family is so fucking angelic, like your shit don’t stink and nothing sticks to you. But you’re just like everyone else. You’ll fucking sacrifice anyone—man, woman, or child—to get ahead. We’re not like you,carechimba.We’ve never used what we figured out about a couple certain someones in your family against you, and we never would. But you’re fucking hypocrites to the nth degree to tell anybody what you figured out about Tómas and Miguel. We could very easily do the same thing to your family, but we never would. You want to call us psychopaths as though we have no boundaries. But when push comes to shove and women in your family and the Mancinellis and the O’Rourkes have needed help, who the fuck has always been there? Us. Who the fuck caused problems in the first place? Not always us. You can’t pin everything that goes wrong on us because you can’t fucking protect the women in your family. Grow some balls, Misha.”
He lets me unleash as I allude to what my family knows about Anton and Sergei. I know he’s letting me vent my spleen because he’s figured out Madeline is mine. He’d do the same thing if we were talking about his wife, Katerina.
“Look, right now that’s neither here nor there, Javier. I didn’t know the extent of Madeline’s involvement in any of this. If I had, I would never have spoken within earshot of Drew O’Sheehan. Regardless of whether she’s a woman, she’s Laura’s family. You know I wouldn’t do anything to compromise Laura’s family’s safety.”
“Bull-fucking-shit,cabrón. You knew full well Madeline could’ve been caught in the crossfire of this, and you still did it anyway. You know Drew’s temper. You didn’t think he’d take this shit out on somebody if it went wrong?”
“Yeah, take it out on his men, not on his girlfriend.”
“What about Drew O’Sheehan has ever made you think he can control his temper once it gets fired up?”
Misha’s silent for a moment as he considers what I said. He knows I’m not exaggerating. I can’t fault him for his wishful thinking or believing Drew wouldn’t hurt Maddy since they’ve been together so long. For assuming that if Drew ever hurt Maddy, she would’ve left.
“Look, Misha, what’s done is done, and we’ll deal with that later. But for right now, I need to know what the fuck else Drew knows about my family and what he could do, what he could leverage against us to get to Maddy.”
I’ve tried not to use her nickname, hoping being more formal would keep him from manipulating me if he didn’t know how deep my feelings ran. But I don’t have the bandwidth to worry about that, and now that I’ve made it clear she’s mine for keeps, there’s no point in downplaying it. A man like Misha is like any other in this world. He didn’t draw his wife into his life without being certain he would marry her from the get-go. He knows it’s the same for me with Maddy.
“There’s nothing else I can think of.”
“Fine.”
“What’s she doing right now?”
“I don’t know. Are you not at Maks’s?”
“I am.”
I glanced at the clock on the desk. “Misha, she should’ve been at Maks’s house ages ago. Is he not wondering where she is?”
