Page 12 of Vincenzo
“Phone calls and important conversations can be had in bathrooms, Teo, so of course I made sure all our fucking bases were covered.”
“Sure,” he says with a grin on his face that I shake off, bringing my attention back to my phone screen. Amalia’s already in the shower, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a tad disappointed I missed the show. I might not like the woman, but sheisfun to look at.
“She’s in the shower. I’ll make sure to keep an eye on it and let you know when she makes the call.”
Teo nods and says, “Good. We need to stay ahead of this. If we can avoid the war, let’s do that, but if it’s a war he wants, then we’ll start one on his territory first.”
“I’ll keep you updated.” I stand and leave his office to go get some work done, with nothing but my swirling thoughts trying to figure out what their next plan will be.
7
AMALIA
When I walk out of my room into the kitchen of our suite, Carlos is already sitting at the table eating arepa con quesito he must’ve picked up at the Colombian restaurant down the street.
“You ready to call your uncle?” he asks.
“Yup,” I say, taking the seat next to him. He offers me some of his food, but I wave him off and dial my uncle’s number, putting the phone on speaker.
“Hola, mija.”
“Hola, Tío,” I greet.
“Have you made any progress with the DiMaggios?”
“We met with their second-in-command, Vincenzo DiMaggio, and?—”
“I thought you were going to stay under the radar?” he interrupts.
I glance at Carlos who raises his brows and gives me anI told you solook. Ignoring him, I say, “We were, but we weren’t making any progress. Our contacts here don’t have much on the DiMaggios, so I decided to confront him myself. Speed things along. I know how much you want access to their ports.”
My uncle is silent on the other line, so I hold my breath while I wait for his response.
“And you decided to meet with theirsecond-in-command? Why didn’t you go straight to their boss?”
“He hasn’t been as easily accessible.”
My uncle lets out a grunt on the other line. “So? What did this meeting get us?”
Taking a deep breath, I say, “They refuse to work with us because of our association with sex trafficking.”
My uncle lets out an irritated sigh, and I can picture him pinching the bridge of his nose. “Giuseppe Silvestri already informed us months ago about their preferences on that, which is why I told you guys to stay under the radar and find a weakness so we can exploit it to get what we want. So, tell me, what was the point of meeting with him?”
Carlos drops his head into his hands and shakes it.
“We’ve been wasting time,Tío. I figured it would be best to see if we could strike a deal. Now that we know there’s no way they’re willing to do that, we can approach it in a different way.”
“A different way would be finding something to use against them,” he growls out, then I know I’ve fucked up. I let my personal stuff get in the way because I just want this job done so I can go back home and figure out what Felipe meant about my parents.
“You’re right. I apologize,Tío,” I say, unable to mask the disappointment in myself.
He lets out another long sigh and says, “Now that you guys have put yourselves out there, you need to come up with a plan to get me a port.”
I’m about to tell him that unless we want to start a war, there’s no other way, but Carlos speaks before I’m able to.
“Amalia and I have been talking about it, and she came up with an idea.”
I whip my sharp gaze to Carlos, but he’s not making eye contact with me.
