The Hustle (Irreparable #4) (4 page)

S
mog and soot cast an orange glow in the distance as the sun sets. The drive up the mountains to the Torrente mansion brings a rush of unwelcomed memories. Maria and I made this drive many times, laughing and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. As I glance out the window, nothing is beautiful. The rusty hue in the clouds matches the tarnished moments left behind by a woman who pretended she loved me. A woman who tricked me into believing she was mine and we were a happy family.

The moments when Maria would curl up on her side in bed and stare straight into my soul as though silently telling me she belonged to me still feel genuine. Her ability to plagiarize such sincere intimacy plagues me. Tori’s words surface, questioning if Maria did play me or if something else happened to explain the distance.

Eduardo is alive, when Torrente was set on executing him. Maybe it was Maria’s own father who perpetrated the hustle. Perhaps Maria was unaware of it. I have to find out how and why.

Marco, Torrente’s guard dog, and a man I considered a friend before this happened waits at the gate in a golf cart. An automatic rifle drapes his chest as he approaches the gate that’s opening. With a deep inhale, I exit the car, knowing I could die in a matter of minutes. As though we’ve never met, Marco spins me around, slamming my chest into the hood of the rental car. He searches me for weapons and finds nothing.

“I knew better than to come armed, Marco.” He doesn’t reply. “How’d you know I was here?”

He remains silent as he drags me by the arm to the golf cart and shoves me onto the passenger seat. When he settles into the driver’s seat, he turns his head toward me. “Mr. Montez is having you followed. You shouldn’t have come here.”

We drive to the house in silence as I don’t ask Marco to explain. His talking to me could have grave consequences. He escorts me into the familiar marble and glass foyer. Hushed voices filter through a door that leads to Torrente’s office. A moment later, the door opens and Eduardo enters the room.

His tailored suit emulates a businessman, but underneath, he still emits an air of the thug I watched begging for his life in this very room. He pours himself a drink and spins to face me. “Mr. Torrente is at the beach with his family,” he says, approaching me slowly. I’m not intimidated by him, although I don’t doubt he wouldn’t hesitate to kill me. “I assume you’re here because I have something you want.”

“Yes,” I answer with my chin high.

“You can’t have her?”

The protective edge to his tone is insight into the man he pretends to be, as if he genuinely cares for Maria. Only I know the truth about their past. Perhaps he doesn’t know she told me. “Oh, I didn’t come here for Maria. She was a lot of fun, but I don’t give a shit about her.”

He lets out a clipped laugh before draining the liquor in his glass. “Yet, you were going to marry her.”

“That was about appearances.” I shrug. “Helpful to my career. Once I was caught with a hooker, the only way to salvage my company was to play the love card and defend her. Certainly a man of your prestige understands.”

His taking a moment to size me up works in my favor. He’s struggling to respond in my world now. A world of calculated business transactions, not swift, rage filled gang wars where his reputation helps him. He wants something from me, or I would already be dead.

“Then why are you here?” he asks.

“My company made a large sum off of Mr. Torrente’s investments, as did Mr. Torrente.”

“Mr. Torrente didn’t make a dime off of his arrangement with you. I did.”

He can’t help but gloat. That’s why he’ll always be nothing more than a street thug. Real leaders, genuine gangsters, don’t have to brag. Everyone knows who they are and what they’re capable of.

“I take that to mean you’re now running the Torrente Cartel?”

“That is correct, and I’m sure you’re surprised to see me alive.”

Footsteps pound into the tile before I have the chance to answer.

“Daddy,” Javier sings as he runs toward me.

A smile overtakes my face as I instinctually bend over at the waist with my arms outstretched to catch my little boy who I’ve missed painfully. Javier breezes past me, jumping into the arms of a man he shares blood with—his rightful father.

I stand, closing my eyes to ease the sting of tears. If they come, they’ll ruin my plans to convince Eduardo I’m not here for my family.

“Hi, Mr. Hunter,” Javier says, holding Eduardo’s leg.

“Hey, buddy.” I manage to get the words out while maintaining my composure.

“Your son loves the beach.”

Her voice enters the room in singsong before she does, slicing through me like razor blades. Only the searing pain doesn’t come until I see her. The smile on her face confirms how happy she is without me in her life. She’s more beautiful than I remember. A pink sundress hugs every inch of her glowing olive-skin. Her eyes widen when we make contact. They move between me and Eduardo as she makes her way toward him.

“What is he doing here?” Maria asks with anger lacing each steady word.

“That is none of your concern,” Eduardo answers, grabbing her roughly by the arm. She stretches up on her toes and whispers in his ear. His features harden as he whispers an answer. I resist the urge to piss all over Eduardo’s leg and carry Maria out of here over my shoulder caveman style. The fear radiating from her as he releases her makes me want to defend her, but she chose him and this life. Taking care of her is his responsibility and if she wants to be abused, that’s her business. “Where’s your father?”

“They’re staying the week,” she tells him with her head down.

“Take Javier to his room.”

She nods, placing her hands on Javier’s shoulders and guiding him out of the room.

Eduardo grins. “She thinks I’m going to kill you.”

“Are you?”

“That depends . . .” His eyes twinkle with malicious amusement as he takes a step closer to me. “You still haven’t told me why you’re in my home?”

After a curt nod, I answer, “Business. I want to continue what Mr. Torrente and I started.”

His lip snarls as his obvious disgust for Maria’s father drapes his expression. “Mr. Torrente’s no longer in charge of making those decisions.”

“Then I’d like to make you the same offer.”

His head tilts slightly as his expressions shift to curiosity. “Why?”

“To make money,” I answer with a tone as though it should be obvious and wait to see if he reacts to my insulting his intelligence or lack thereof.

He eventually counters, “It seems you’re a fairly wealthy man, Mr. Hunter. What’s really in this for you?”

I’ll never share the hustle I’m working with him, although I know that’s what he’s fishing for. I have to play on his greed and hope it’s successful. If I’ve read him wrong, then my plan is doomed before it begins. “My company does well, but I pay an exponential amount in taxes as did Mr. Torrente with our last deal. I don’t intend to invest using Gibson this time, and I have a friend that can help us with the tax situation.”

“And why would I be interested in doing business with you? When I have all this?” he asks, glancing around the mansion.

“Because none of this belongs to you,” I say, knowing my words will hit another weak spot. Thugs always feel like they never get ahead. They always want more than what they’re given, even if they have to take it. That’s how he and Maria’s father became cartel leaders.

“Stay for dinner,” he requests, although the invitation isn’t optional. “We’ll discuss it further.”

Eduardo tells me to help myself to a drink before he exits the room. Marco stands watch at the door as I pour scotch over ice. My phone vibrates and I glance at a text from Peyton.

P: This is a lovely shade of pink. I think you’re really going to like it.

T: Get back to work.

Shaking my head, I slip the phone back in my pocket as an involuntary smile forms. I’m going to fuck that woman senseless when I return to the states.

“You should leave,” Marco warns, entering the room.

With my back to him, I say, “My being here is none of your concern.”

“Things aren’t what they seem.” He leans in close and whispers. “Eduardo will kill you if you cross him.”

I spin to face him, staring at the drink in my hand as I bring it to my lips. Before I take a sip, he warns me again to leave. “Your concern isn’t warranted. I have no intention of crossing the cartel.”

“That’s good to hear, Mr. Hunter,” Eduardo says through a dark laugh as he returns. “Let’s go outside and talk about what your intentions are.”

The large back patio table is set for four. Eduardo takes a seat at the head of the table in a chair Mr. Torrente used to occupy when Maria and I joined him for dinner. Eduardo gestures for me to sit in the chair next to him. A familiar giggle fills the air as Javier skips into the room in front of Maria. She avoids my gaze as she sits across from me next to Eduardo and Javier fills the seat next to her.

The pressure in my chest is unbearably heavy and when Maria leans over and kisses Eduardo, I hold my breath to maintain my composure. How can a woman I once thought was warm and kind be so cold and heartless? She continues to twist the knife as she whispers in his ear, giggling softly.

“Do you still like trains?” I ask Javier in an effort to ignore his slut of a mother.

“No,” he answers with a hint of frustration as he glances at Eduardo. “They’re for babies.”

Eduardo nods at his son with a look of pride.

It takes effort to hide my anger and not lash out at his parents. Eduardo intends to harden and break Javier, force him into a man before he’s ready. My anger is more with Maria, who should be strong enough to fight for her son’s childhood.

For the remainder of dinner, I avoid talking as the people I’m seated with are strangers. The Maria and Javier I’d grown to love never truly existed. They were created to hustle me and they succeeded. I smile inwardly as I stare directly at Eduardo.

You will pay for this.

Maria has nothing on my mother and the lengths she went through to hustle and get her way in life and in business. Deceit is in my blood and when I’m through with Eduardo and Maria, I’ll spit on their graves.

“Are you?” Eduardo asks.

“I’m sorry . . . Am I what?”

“Are you sure you’re prepared to go into business with me?”

“Are you?” I counter immediately and with the hint of a threat in my tone.

“Maria, take the boy inside. I need to speak with Mr. Hunter privately.”

She immediately obeys her lover and takes Javier out of the room. How can she stand living as nothing more than a pet?

With his elbows on the table, Eduardo tents his fingers and glares at me in a way that I assume is supposed to be intimidating. It’s hard to feel anything other than hatred as I watch him use his tongue to suck food from his teeth. The hissing sounds and his overall lack of manners simply remind me that he’s nothing more than an animal.

“I want what Mr. Torrente was planning,” he says, taking me by surprise.

“To escape?” I ask and he nods. “Then why did you take over for him?”

“It was the only way to save my life,” he admits, leaning back in the chair. His usual arrogance all but evaporates and I see how weak he really is.

“How so?”

He sighs as he taps the table with the side of his thumb. I was right. Eduardo is nothing more than a scared thug in way over his head. “I’d discovered who Maria’s father was. I knew it was only a matter of time before he found her, especially after her relationship with you went public. I built relationships with a few of the rival cartels and swayed them to my side, convinced them that when Torrente was ready to leave, I was the man who should replace him. When Torrente summoned me to Mexico, I called in a few favors, knowing he intended to kill me.”

I may have been right about his fears, but I didn’t give his intellect enough credit and in a small show of useful camaraderie, I let him know. “Leverage . . . that was smart.”

He nods agreement and the pride shining in his eyes causes the hairs on my neck to rise. Maybe I was wrong again. What I thought was fear might be ego. “If Mr. Torrente had killed me, the other cartels would have killed his family, including Maria and Javier.”

His statement throws me off. I can’t read him when he’s so manic. It’s difficult to decipher if the ploy was about saving his own skin, or somewhere deep down, he actually cares for Maria and Javier. I choose to believe he’s too narcissistic to care about anyone but himself. That saving them was a charade to acquire the life he thinks he deserves.

“So you have everything you want?” I ask, knowing he doesn’t or I wouldn’t be seated at his dinner table.

“I have what I thought I wanted, but now . . . I want out. I’ve been trying to contrive a plan, and then you showed up at my door.”

The crease between his brows digs deep, and I know his wanting out is about more than the responsibility that comes with his role. “Why?”

“I never wanted a child, but now that I have Javier, I will do anything to protect him.”

While his answer surprises me, I understand it. But I’m terrified of what Javier needs protecting from. “Is he in danger?”