Page 90 of Cartel Viper
Italian, specifically Sicilian.
“Yeah.”
“Did you know I lived in Boston before I moved to New Jersey?”
“No, I don’t know that much about you, to be honest.”
She offers me a soft smile. “Well, I grew up in D.C. while my dad was in med school, then doing his residency and specialty training. Then we moved up to Boston, where my parents are originally from. I went back after college when I got married. I didn’t stop being Mafia adjacent until I moved down here. The ties that bind were finally severed when I married Enrique. But I know a guy or two.”
Her gaze pins me in place. That sounded about as Guido as it gets. To fit the Jersey Italian stereotype, she just needs to be a short, overweight, balding, middle-aged man with gold chains.
“The O’Sheehans have a reputation about how they treat women. Drew’s a chip off the old block. I don’t know how your in-laws don’t know that. I have to assume it’s something they never learned. There’s no way on God’s green earth your brother-in-law would’ve allowed you to be with Drew if he fully knew what he’s like.”
“If Maks doesn’t know that, how do you?”
She stares at me for a moment before she frowns. “Just like Maks must not know about Drew’s family history, I didn’t know you were the woman he was with. I knew he was involved with someone and had been for a few years. But your name never came up. Do you know how Drew came into his position?”
“Yeah, his dad died. I knew nothing about their family business until then. He kept it entirely hidden from me. I don’t know how he did because I don’t want to think I was entirely blind to everything. But I never suspected. It wasn’t until he took on the role as boss that he stopped trying to hide things from me.”
“Drew’s father, Donald, was a shitty man who did shitty things to good people. He did one too many shitty deals inBoston, and it came home to roost. He didn’t die of natural causes.”
Her gaze still pins me in place, but now it bores into me like a jackhammer. Not only do I get the sense she knows how Donald died, but she had a part in it. Her expression tells me I shouldn’t ask questions. That whatever I deduce is probably a fraction of the real backstory.
“Madeline, you can tell I’m familiar with Drew. I don’t know him personally, but I know about his family. I knowa lotabout his family. What do you know about his mother?”
“That she’s a retired librarian.”
Elle snorts. “Librarian. Okay, I haven’t heard that one before, but sure.”
“I thought she worked at the public library.”
“Madeline, that woman kept books, but they weren’t the type you read.”
My brow furrows.
“She kept the books that recorded everybody who didbusinesswith the O’Sheehans.”
The way she stresses that word, it makes me think I’ve been stupidly naive the entire time I’ve known that family.
“Do you mean like a little black book of names and numbers and dates?”
She arches her left brow but remains quiet. That’s exactly what she means.
“I thought women were supposed to stay out of things.”
“Like how Drew kept you out of things?”
Touche.
Her expression softens, and it becomes motherly.
“Madeline, you only knew what Drew let you know. You probably pieced together other things without confirmation. But the absolute secrets his family wanted to keep are ones they’ll take to the grave and would have even if you married him. TheO’Sheehans don’t get along with their Canadian neighbors in Quebec. They’ve tried expanding over the years into Rochester and into Buffalo and up along the St. Lawrence into Canada. They’ve stomped on the Montreal mob’s toes too many times. Now that the O’Rourkes have a connection to the Tremblays, they’re even more pissed and feeling even more shut out than ever.”
She pauses and observes me. I suspect she’s going to tell me far more than anyone else ever would.
“I know where they buried all the skeletons, Madeline. I also know who wants to dig up each one. There’s more than one way the Diazes can make Drew suffer for how he treated you.”
I stare at her for a moment before I lift my chin. “Javi can do whatever he wants to Drew, but only after I’ve had my turn. I want Drew to lose it all and see every bit slip away before he takes that last breath.”
