Page 110 of Cartel Viper
“I don’t know. Javi was taking care of something yesterday, but I don’t know what. I fell asleep at Elodie and Enrique’s and then shit went crazy. I didn’t ask, and I know he won’t tell me.”
Laura isn’t on friendly terms with anyone in the Diaz family, so it feels a little off to use Elle since it’s a nickname. It’s a little too familiar.
“Javi has his family guarding you around the clock, right?”
“Yeah. I figure it’ll be like your family. One of the men in his will be with me if he can’t.”
She sighs. I know she wants to ask if I’m all right with that. If I think it’s adequate protection. But she’s trusting my judgment. That’s saying something after the shit ton of errors I made.
“Javi’s as devoted to me as I am to him. His family knows we’re serious. It’s the same as when you started dating Maks,and his family realized you were Maks’s future. They get what Javi and I mean to each other. They’re as dedicated to my safety as the Kutsenko and Andreyev men are to yours.”
Maks’s cousins on both sides of the family were Laura’s guards from the get-go.
“If anything like this ever happens again, you go to Javi’s family immediately. If you need me to get you there, then I will. Only come to a bratva house if you can’t get to a Cartel one. You have to be on the edge of death before you go to a mob or Mafia one, but you will get sanctuary until Javi or his family can get to you.”
“I know, but thank you for confirming that. Laura, is this going to get between us?”
“It might make it tough, but I refuse to allow it to. I’m still as close to Michelle as I ever was, and she married Lorenzo. Neither he nor Maks ever stand in the way of Michelle and me hanging out. I don’t believe Javi would ever keep you from me unless there was a viable and imminent threat. Just the opposite, I think he’ll be like Maks and encourage us to spend more time together now that you’re back down here. Are you moving in with Javi?”
“Pretty much. He asked, and I told him I needed time to decide. I wanted to breathe on my own for a bit. But I made up my mind last night. I don’t want to be apart from him after all. Would you be comfortable coming to our condo?”
“Of course. And before you ask, yes, I will bring Mila and Konstantin when it’s appropriate. We’ve known the Diazes our entire life. Fucked-up shit has happened between their family and mine. Things will change now that you’re a Diaz for all intents and purposes. It can’t not. You’re truly part of Enrique’s family now, so we’ll have a truce. Juan was responsible for the shit that happened to me, not Enrique or any of the others. Yeah, Javi and the others played a part in shit that happened to otherbratva women, and I haven’t forgiven them that. But this is just different.”
I test the waters with my next question.
“Do you think bratva women were targets or collateral?”
“Mostly collateral, but that’s because they didn’t care enough to think about how it inevitably made them targets.”
“Enrique’s never changed his tattoo.”
“He never will. No matter how I’ve felt about him, he’s always been devoted to us as much as he was to Pablo and Juan. I think he keeps the J as a memory of the kid he once knew and the man he thought Juan became. He keeps our initials on the cross’s points because he’s never given up hope that he and I could reconcile. He’s never thought of you as anything less than an adopted niece.”
“What if I was collateral damage?”
Laura stiffens and once again looks toward the living room, but this time, I think she’s picturing her shared office with Maks.
“Maks knew who and what Drew was and never spoke up, never confronted me about it. Did you tell him not to?”
“No.”
“He never expressed any concerns about me being with Drew?”
“No. I would have gone straight to you if he had. He doesn’t know Drew that well.”
I stare at Laura. She’s too intelligent to believe her husband, who leads the NYC bratva and pretty much controls all the Russian syndicates along the Easten Seaboard, doesn’t know a mob boss in Upstate New York. I figured Maks knew who Drew was but chose silence because he believed Drew was an okay guy for me to be with, that he didn’t know what Drew was like behind closed doors. Elle’s comments yesterday make me question why Maks was never suspicious.
Before either of us can say more, voices float past the window. The men are speaking Russian, but I recognize Maks, Misha, and Sergei’s voices. My sister’s been a fluent Russian speaker since college. Her professor was a former Soviet instructor and dogmatic in making sure his students sounded like native speakers. She listens to what the men say as they pass by. Something catches her attention because she rises and heads to the door leading outside. She eases open the window to eavesdrop. I watch her before creeping next to her. Whatever Sergei is saying makes Laura clench her jaw.
“Should we be listening?” I more mouth the words than whisper.
“No. But I don’t care. It’s about you, so there isn’t a fucking chance in hell I’m not listening.”
She puts her lips to my ear to whisper all of that. She doesn’t move away, instead interpreting for me. It’s Sergei still speaking.
“We are going to lose a shit ton from this, Maks. I warned you something was up between Madeline and Drew. I didn’t know what happened behind closed doors, but I told you it was something shady.”
It’s Misha who responds instead.
