Page 3 of Cartel King

The treatments exhausted her, so she spent a lot of time at home. During that time, my brother didn’t travel nearly as much for work as he has in the past, which meant I often did. It gave me less time to be around them, and I regret that.

“Tío, are you listening?”

“I’m thinking.”

I don’t need to tell Alejandro I’m not thinking about whatever he’s talking about. I don’t have a clue what he’s talking about. I’m still puzzling over Elodie.

“The O’Rourkes are expanding into Eastern Europe and usurping the Kutsenkos’ territory. It means they need more product, and they aren’t buying from us.”

“Do they have more labs?”

“That’s what I’m thinking.” Alejandro turns his computer toward me and has a map pulled up.

It’s one I commissioned of the Amazon, a place with most of the cocaine labs spread out over hundreds of miles. Already marked on there are our production sites and ones we know for certain are where the Mancinellis, the Kutsenkos, and the O’Rourkes have most of their labs. We leave them alone because it’s not worth wasting money and men trying to shut down their operations. If we do, it’ll antagonize them too much. They’d partner with rivals I already have down there.

Only the other major New York syndicates get a pass. Anyone else who tries to grow or make anything in Colombia or the surrounding countries goes through me.

Alejandro points to a couple of locations. “We suspect this is where they are.”

“That’s creeping awfully close to our principal source of cocoa.”

“We know. We believe they’re trying to buy black market resources already promised to us.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me. I want to know for certain before we act. It’s one thing for the O’Rourkes to fuck over the bratva. It’s another for them to bite the hand that feeds them.”

They’re there because I allow it.

“TíoLuis is supposed to call me in an hour.”

My brother is two years younger than me. We’ve lived apart for large chunks of our lives, but it was never by our choice. He’s my best friend, closest confidant, and my conscience—which is saying something since he’s back in Colombia right now to deal with a man who’s been far too talkative.

Alejandro is one of our four shared nephews. We have two younger sisters, and Alejandro is our first sister’s only child. Our second sister has three sons, and Luis had two. My heart’s still torn when I think about that. Among my siblings, there are five young men in their early thirties. I have no children and need none since Luis’s older son, Pablo, is my heir.

“Make it a three-way call. I want to hear whatmanintoknows.”Hermanito—little brother.Manitofor short.

“If he’s on his way back, do you want me to go down there?”

“Let’s wait a little longer.”

We exchange a look, and we both know it has nothing to do with needing more time to investigate. Margherita goes in for more tests next week to ensure the cancer’s still in remission. I’ll move heaven and earth—truly because I will blow shit up—to be sure Luis is back here in time for those appointments, so I pray he’s already on his way. I don’t want any of my family away when we find out the results.

We’ve been discussing the situation in my home office, so Alejandro and I work at our computers on projects we each have until his phone rings. He holds up the screen, and I can see it’s Luis. Alejandro answers it and puts it on speaker.

“Manito, ¿qué pasa?” Little brother, what’s going on?

“Demasiado que decir por teléfono.” Too much to say over the phone.

Considering I have jammers at my house, and Luis has them at his home in Bogotá, something went so sideways he won’t risk anyone circumventing our protections.

We continue in Spanish since Luis won’t say anything he fears somebody in Colombia shouldn’t hear.

“Are you on your way back?”

“Yeah. I’m leaving for the airport in ten minutes. I wanted to let you know I’m on my way. How’s Margherita? She won’t tell me the truth. She always says she’s fine.”

Margherita could lie to God, and he wouldn’t know the truth. But she only does it to protect family. Otherwise, the woman’s a devout Catholic who obeys the ninth commandment. She just maneuvers around the truth when she has to. Protecting family means protecting the Cartel, so she has no problems lying about what any and all of us do.

She normally never lies to Luis, but any time he travels, she says nothing worse than “fine.” She admits it doesn’t make Luis stop worrying about her and the family, but at least he doesn’t know details to obsess over.

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