[Aldo]
It’s been three days since Andre disappeared, and I’ve been working myself non-stop. Luca, I should correct myself, has had me working non-stop.
Andre was my friend after all. And it is my friend who has made off with over three hundred K in goods and disappeared. We haven’t heard anything from anywhere or anyone.
We’ve got all our ears open and are even talking with other families. If anyone hears even a mouse fart, Luca is going to know.
Which means my meeting today isn’t a good one.
I grind to a stop on the gravel driveway and get out of the car. I look back down at the entrance again. It was Rocko who let me in.
Rocko, who had been on duty with Sophie all those years ago when she escaped and began dating Luca. Rocko, who wasn’t even working for Luca when she slipped past him.
Luca was still keeping him as a guard because of her father’s wishes. If he’s still playing guard after all these years, what the hell is gonna happen to me?
The world feels like it’s trying to burn me before I get inside. The sun is boiling today, more than that, it’s just been raining for the last hour, and the humidity is unbearable.
It’s like I’m in a sauna, the fact that I have to wear the damn blazer is making me perspire even more.
The house is cool when I enter from the side door, and I hear the faint sound of Michael and Sophie playing. They’re giggling away and singing together. It brings a faint smile to my face as I walk through the house thinking of my fate.
I eventually come to Luca’s study and knock once. He calls for me to enter.
The room is dark and hot. Almost as humid as it is outside. I can’t see Luca in the shadows behind his desk, but I know he’s there.
“Sit down, Aldo,” he says coolly.
I’m sweating, and sitting down in a leather seat is the last thing I want to do, but I do it because he’s the boss. He’s in charge, and the friend I vouched for has backstabbed me.
My body is wound like a compressed spring. I’m ready to jump out of my skin and flee my body.
“You’ll be happy to know that Andre has turned up.”
I go loose. “Oh good.”
“Not good,” Luca says, shaking his head. He comes out of the shadows and sits down in a chair across from me. We’re separated by the vast distance of a single desk.
He folds his hand and points his fingers at me. “He turned up in New York, trying to sell my goods to my people.”
I go still, and the air escapes my lungs.
Shit.
“Huh?” Is all I can manage to get out.
Luca is pressing his fingers together, and his eyes are burning pits of flame. “He also tried selling it to the Kumarin’s. As well as Sergei’s enemy, Alexei Petrov.”
My gut knots back up immediately, and I feel that everything is about to get a lot worse.
Luca leans back and rocks in his chair. “Who it turns out, your friend was in a little bit of trouble with. Andre Martinez owed quite a bit of money to Alexei. About three hundred grand, to be precise.”
The pit in my stomach deepens and somehow turns into a tighter knot.
I’m staring at Luca, but I may as well be staring at the floor.
“So not only was Andre trying to pay back Alexei Petrov, but he was trying to sell the goods to the other parties too.
He was aiming to settle his debt and keep a tidy sum for himself. But do you want to know what the worst bit is?” He finally asks, coming around the table and standing over me.
“I get the feeling I don’t even know the worst bit yet,” I say.
Luca nods. “That you didn’t even mention to me that you’d been trailed by Russians on the drive up. I had Leandro tell me this fact himself. Just after you left in fact. I’d been letting it go, hoping you would tell me…”
Luca is pointing at his phone now. Like the very object that had delivered this news to him was just as guilty and stupid as me.
“Luca, I meant to tell you. I wanted to sort it out. And well, once Leandro said that it had nothing to do with them, and I figured it was all Andre-”
“Did you even ask Andre?” Luca asks, sitting back against the desk. Calm like a viper.
“The man hasn’t told me anything about New York since he returned. He’s been tightlipped.”
“And you vouched for him to work for us. Not even knowing if you could trust him. If he was undercover.”
“Hey, I’m as betrayed by this as you!” I snap back. “I’ve been friends with Andre since we were kids. I vouched for him because we were brothers.”
“And don’t brothers know each other?” Luca folds his arms. “Or what about respect?”
The move reminds me of who I’m talking to. “Fuck man. Look, I’m sorry I fucked up. But I can’t exactly drag Andre here to apologize either.”
Luca picks up his phone and then unlocks it. “You’re more right about that than you realize,” he says, handing it to me.
“What’s this?” I ask, taking the phone and reading the screen.
“Andre is dead. My van has been found torched in the dockyards. The drugs are missing, and a body was in the front seat. Dental records already proved it was Andre.”
I’m punched in the gut and can’t breathe.
I clutch at the phone and my vision blurs. Andre is dead? I look up at Luca in shock.
Then anger when I see his face. “You didn’t want to lead with that?”
“I had to know.”
“Know what?” I ask, shocked.
“Know that you didn’t know.”
“That he’s dead?” I say, the shock making me rise from the seat.
“Andre was killed for being a dumb fucking idiot, and you think I withheld it from you?”
Luca just watches me and says nothing. It feels like it’s all my fault. We’re eye to eye and all I feel is even more stupid in my anger.
“You should’ve told me about the Russians before Leandro,” Luca says. “You know I’m right. But see how we should lead with the important things?”
I shake my head and then let it hang, slumping back down into the chair. “I know you’re right, I’m just being a fucking idiot.”
I sigh and it’s like a bull is sitting on my chest. “I should’ve seen he was doing something stupid like this.” I throw my hands on my head.
“Let me guess, he tried selling it to everyone at the same time so as to cause a little standoff?”