Page 134 of The Slayer
“I can discern what it means,” Alaine said, still studying him, worry showing on her beautiful face.
“This is my lawyer,” Tino said as she gestured to Alaine. “Who I have on retainer in case I should get into an unfortunate situation. I had to give her a brief rundown of the issue and the circumstance surrounding it. Well”—he glared at Chuito—“not so brief. Fourteen fucking hours. Speeding the whole way. Do you know how hard it is to avoid getting a ticket in a Ferrari? Did you even stop to eat?”
“I—” Chuito frowned at the two of them. “Alaine’s your lawyer now?”
“On retainer.” Tino nodded and then looked back to the club. “Feel free to talk in front of her. Attorney-client privilege. Are we looking for someone?”
“You put her in bed with you?” Chuito was seriously going to kill Tino. “You brought her into the fold?”
“No, motherfucker, you brought her into the fold,” Tino countered. “I just made it legal.”
“Legalis probably a stretch. A huge stretch. As in, completely nonexistent,” Alaine added with a wince and then looked back to Chuito. “Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not okay.” Chuito shook his head and studied Alaine sitting across from him at a cigar bar in Miami. “I left for a reason, mami.”
“This has to be him,” Tino interrupted them as he let out a laugh. “Oh, please tell me it’s him, ’cause any motherfucker who wears a shirt like that needs to die.”
Chuito looked to the club, seeing a large entourage arrive, and in the center of them was Angel. “Actually,” he whispered, because he was seriously impressed with Tino right now for a number of reasons. Even though he still wanted to kill him, he was very impressed. “Thatishim.”
“I am so good at this. I really am wasting a unique life skill by living the good life in Garnet.” Tino gave Chuito a wide smile before he turned back and watched, asking conversationally under his breath, “Why are we watching him?”
“I don’t know where the new warehouse is. I drove by the old one, and it seemed empty. I think he’s got a new spot,” Chuito whispered, because it was sort of an extenuating circumstance with Angel standing there. He couldn’t beat Tino when he was trying to lie low. Angel could spot him from a mile away, and getting spotted would put them all in danger. “The old one’s just a decoy now.”
Chuito brought his phone up, pretending to be staring at the screen as he watched too. He didn’t know any of the guys in Angel’s crew. Most of them were young, too young. Angel would probably have to buy their way into the club, but he seemed to know the doorman and likely bought his crew’s way in on a regular basis.
All their old crew had left on Chuito’s insistence once Nova muscled his way into Los Corredores. Chuito couldn’t risk Angel retaliating against the takeover by hurting one of Chuito’s old crew.
Because they had always been Chuito’s crew and loyal to him first.
Chuito didn’t advertise that he was behind the Italian takeover of Los Corredores, but he suspected Angel knew, and he couldn’t afford the risk. It wasn’t exactly a secret that Chuito was friends with the Morettis.
A part of Chuito wanted Angel to know he was behind it.
“What does the saying on his shirt mean?” Alaine asked as she looked over to Angel’s crew. “Papi Chulo.”
“It means he’s a tool,” Tino supplied before Chuito could answer, his eyes still on Angel. “He’s basically wearing a shirt that saysI’m sexy. If you have to stamp it on a shirt, that’s just sad.”
“Is that true?” Alaine asked Chuito.
“That he’s a tool? Definitely,” Chuito agreed just as another group of six men walked up to Angel and greeted him like they knew him, as if they were meeting Angel there on purpose. “Who are those gringos? Why is he hanging with them? And it looks like the one on the left is strapped. Do you think he’s gone to the heat?”
“They’re all strapped.” Tino sighed, his hand casually on Alaine’s chair, as if he was leaning into her instead of spying. “That’s not the heat. Those are Russians.”
“Russians are bad?” Alaine asked.
“Russians are very bad,” Tino said as he looked back to Chuito with wide eyes. “Why are you here?”
“Marcos thought he was going to start a war with your organization,” Chuito admitted as he met Tino’s wide-eyed stare with one of his own. “I guess he was right. How did Angel find Russians? How did he even know to look?”
“I don’t know,” Tino mumbled as he looked back to the club. “We need to find that warehouse.”
“I was gonna follow them.”
“In a GL?” Tino turned back to him in disbelief. “That thing screamsCosa Nostra. You might as well follow them in an Escalade.”
“It’s your car, motherfucker.”
“I have a better idea.” Tino grabbed Alaine’s hand and jumped to his feet.
