Page 87 of Cartel King

“Thank you. Did they lose anyone?”

“The guy who started the fire trapped himself inside, so we don’t think he made it. Besides him, I don’t believe so. I hit one of their men, and Miguel shot at Pasha just before Pasha put a bullet through his heart.”

“Was Pasha the only one there?”

“No. Misha was with him.”

Of course.

They’re mutual cousins of the four Kutsenko brothers who run the bratva’s Ivankov branch. Misha’s mother and the Kutsenkos’ mother are sisters. Pasha’s father and the Kutsenko brothers’ father were brothers before the latter died in the Second Chechen War.

“Did they demand anything or leave a message besides the fire?”

“No. They were just in and out.”

“Mano.”

I turn to Luis as he hands me his phone. The warehouse manager knows to give us privacy.

“Who is it?”

“Paco.”

Our spy at the harbor.

“Hola.”

He speaks next to no English and doesn’t need to living in New York. It’s useful when he does minor jobs for us because there are plenty of street level men from the lesser syndicates who don’t speak Spanish. He can’t tell them anything they’d understand, and their threats mean little since he can’t understand them either.

“Pasha acaba de avisar a los agentes de aduanas en los muelles. Lo vi pasarle un fajo de billetes a dos agentes.” Pasha just tipped off Customs at the docks. I watched him slip two officers a wad of cash.

I keep speaking Spanish as the others join me. “Did he pay for them to inspect our ship or to turn a blind eye while he boards?”

“I think both. The agents boarded the ship, but he and a dozen of his men are standing near the gangway. Hold on…Yeah, he just went aboard after the agents came back on deck.”

“All right. We’re ten minutes out.”

“Do you want me to follow them if they leave?”

“Yes. Keep me posted if you leave the docks.”

“Will do,jefe.”

I look at Alejandro as I hang up. I raise my eyebrows to our chief strategist. Of all my nephews, he’s the one most like me. It pisses Matías off since people who don’t know us assume he’s my son. It shocks them to learn I’m not. It double shocks them if they see Matías. But they sound alike to a tee. The same pitch, inflection, cadence. All of it. It’s nature, not nurture because it’s uncanny.

“We can go to the docks, but likely show up too late. We can figure out where he’s going next, or we can retaliate.”

“Retaliate.” Three voices blend into a single insistent one.

Tres J’sparticularly detest Pasha since he confused Jorge for Javier when he jumped Jorge in high school for supposedly breaking his football pads. It was that little shit Carmine Mancinelli. After he did it, he dropped a hint that made Pasha go after Javier, but he and Jorge looked too much alike from the back. Jorge wound up with eight stitches across his left shoulder blade from Pasha’s knife. Pasha wound up with a concussion, two cracked ribs, and a nearly collapsed lung from Javier when he came to Jorge’s rescue. The brothers are extremely close after what they endured growing up in Bogotá without a father.

“Ifwe retaliate, what would we do, Alejandro?”

“We’re assuming this is about Ignacio since it involves Pasha. Do you think he believes we put the hit on his uncle-in-law?”

“Possibly.”

I brace myself for the inevitable.

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