The Muscle Part Two (3 page)

L
uca waited
until Sofia was home from school to leave the house again. He wasn’t crazy about leaving Isabel with Diego under any circumstances, but Diego seemed to mostly leave her alone when Sofia was there. Probably Diego’s fucked up brand of chivalry.

Luca didn’t count on it lasting. Diego had the energy of a wolf baring its teeth in the moment before it attacked. He wasn’t on the move yet, but he smelled blood.

Things were only going to get worse from here.

Luca couldn’t stand to see what Diego was doing to Isabel, and he knew it was just a glimpse of what was in store for Sofia when she got older and inherited her share of the fortune. He wanted to to curse Silvio Fuentes for leaving all his money to his daughters. Clearly Silvio had reservations about Diego, but leaving his daughters the money that his son would need to run their drug empire was a fuck up of colossal proportions. Didn’t the old man see this coming? Then again, it was hard to imagine anyone doing what Diego had done to Isabel, and it had to be exponentially harder when that person was your son.

He pulled the LaFerrari up to the valet outside an upscale bar near the water and took the ticket. It was another perfect, cloudless day in Miami, and while he was grateful for the warmth, he was also annoyed by the stubborn brightness of it all. Things were going to shit in the Fuentes house, and a storm of epic proportions was on the horizon. A little New York gloom would have been more fitting than the endless blue sky overhead, the balmy breeze blowing in off the water.

He shook off his dread and made his way inside. The walls were lined with paneling designed to look like driftwood, and beach themed detritus decorated the walls; empty bottles, fishing nets, life preservers he was supposed to believe washed ashore as opposed to being purchased from some kitschy wholesale outlet online. He stopped at the bar and ordered a beer, scanning the room while he waited. By the time the bartender put the cold bottle in his hand, he’d spotted the man he was looking for sitting in a booth at the back of the room. Luca paid the bartender and headed that way.

The man was enormous, even bigger than Marco or Elia, but with the alertness of a lion. Luca had seen him in action, and he had no doubt that if the situation called for it, the man would be on his feet in under two seconds in spite of his size. He was one of the few men who’d made even Nico nervous.

And any man who made Nico nervous should make anyone nervous.

Luca slid into the booth. “Farrell,” he said. “Thanks for coming.”

Farrell Black shook his head. “This is becoming a habit.”

He spoke with a clipped British accent that defied his blue-collar appearance. Luca knew from their time at the Syndicate together — Farrell had run the London mob — that he was educated at Oxford, the son of an esteemed scholar. He’d always wondered how Farrell had ended up in organized crime.

Not that he’d ever ask.

He had no idea what Farrell was up to now, but he found it hard to believe Farrell had willingly disbanded the group of vicious men who worked for him. Farrell had always been more about the violence than the money, though he had plenty of both. Whatever he was into wasn’t something Luca wanted to know about.

Luca nodded. “I know. Thanks for coming.”

He shrugged. “I was in the States anyway.”

He still wore his hair shaved close to his head, the shadows on his cheeks and chin hinting at the fact that he had bigger things to worry about than shaving. Tattoos snaked out from under his T-shirt, and the scar on the left side of his face gave him an even more menacing appearance, something Luca wouldn’t have thought was possible.

“How are things in London?” Luca asked.

“It’s a shit show,” Farrell said, taking a drink of his beer. “I’m trying to take advantage of the situation.”

Luca couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Good for you.”

“How are Nico and the girl?” Farrell asked.

Luca couldn’t remember ever hearing him call Angel by her name, and he wondered what had happened to Farrell that had soured him on women. Luca had never been marriage material, but he liked women, and he didn’t inherently distrust them. Farrell seemed intent on keeping his distance from even the appearance of being sympathetic to women.

“They’re safe,” Luca said. “Have a baby daughter now.”

Farrell took another drink of his beer as a shadow passed in front of his eyes. “Poor bastard.”

Luca didn’t know what to say to that, so he dove right into the reason for their meeting. “What I need is an easy thing, but with everyone underground or being watched by the Feds, I couldn’t think of anyone else to ask.”

“How do you know I’m not being watched by the Feds?” he asked, meeting Luca’s gaze.

“You probably are,” Luca said. “But we’re old friends. Figured we could have a beer without it being a thing."

“I’m listening.”

“I’m going to set up one of our guys as a bodyguard, but I don’t have anyone to vouch for him,” Luca said.

“Wouldn’t one of the New York crew make more sense?”

Luca thought about his answer. Diego was hiring his own men for a reason. He wanted to make sure the people he brought in were loyal to him and not Luca, which meant he probably wouldn’t consider anyone with ties to the Syndicate in New York.

“Not in this case,” Luca said. “I need some distance from the Vitale family.”

“London isn’t much of a distance,” he said. “We were all part of the same machine, remember?”

“But the Syndicate ran everything, all over the world,” Luca said. “It’s not suspicious for my guy to have worked for you in London. I just can’t have him connected to me in New York.”

“What do you need me to say?”

“Just the usual,” Luca said. “Guy worked for you as hired muscle. Collections, sending personal messages, keeping people in line, that kind of thing. Loyal, vicious, all the usual requirements.”

Farrell nodded, but he was silent so long Luca started to wonder if he was going to say no. For all he knew Farrell was as anxious to keep his distance from New York as everyone else. A moment later, he spoke.

“I’ll do it.”

“Thanks.” Luca tried not to show his relief. Having Marco on the inside would be another layer of safety for Isabel — and another layer of backup for himself. He reached into his pocket for a pen and scrawled Marco’s name on a napkin, followed by Diego’s. “This is the man who’s going to call you. I need you to vouch for Marco. Tell Diego that Marco’s been with you awhile, that you’d trust him with your life in any situation. If he mentions me, say you’ve heard of me, but you don’t know me personally.”

He pushed the piece of paper across the table. Farrell took it and put it in his pocket. “Something tells me this isn’t all business.”

“Not entirely,” Luca admitted.

Farrell shook his head. “You guys never fucking learn.”

“
W
hat do
you think he’s up to?” Isabel asked.

“I don’t know,” Luca said, squeezing her hand.

They’d left the house early to pick up Sofia from school. Luca had insisted on taking her to lunch, and they’d stopped at one of the little Cuban places by the beach, then wandered onto the sand where they walked hand in hand. She didn’t get out much, for obvious reasons, and it was nice to do something so normal for a change. She could almost forget she was being held hostage by her brother. Could almost forget she was in the impossible situation of choosing between a good, healthy life for her and Sofia and the horror of having Diego release the video he’d made of Hector and Juan raping her.

At least now she knew that’s what it was. For a long time, she found ways to blame herself, aided by the echo of Diego’s voice the morning after it happened.

You shouldn’t have had a drink with a room full of men, punta.

You know you liked it.

I saw the way you looked at Juan…

By saying them, Diego seemed to make these things true, and Isabel had spent the last year wondering if maybe he was right. Maybe she deserved what had happened to her. Maybe she’d even asked for it.

But she knew now that it was just another one of Diego’s lies. Just another way to keep her under his thumb. She had been drugged. Raped. Violated further by Diego’s video of the assault. There was a kind of relief in the knowledge. At least it wasn’t her fault. It was liberating, and it made her want to fight harder for the life she knew she and Sofia deserved.

“Have you heard any more about the new guards?” Isabel asked, looking out over the water. A woman stood in the shallow surf with a toddler, lifting the baby into the air every time a little wave rolled in. Isabel could hear the child giggle even from up on the beach. “About your friend, Marco?”

“Not yet,” Luca said. “Diego’s playing it close to the vest, and I’m keeping my contact with Marco to a minimum. But I know someone who will vouch for him when the time comes, and I sent him to the man who found me the job. If Diego has put the word out, Aldo will know, and he’ll send Marco.”

“You won’t be able to let Diego know he’s a friend,” Isabel said. “That would make him an enemy of Diego’s.”

“I know,” he said. “And you’ll have to act like he’s your enemy, too. Like any of the other guards.”

That was most important of all, Isabel knew, because any friend of Isabel’s wasn’t only an enemy of Diego’s, but a target for his mercurial wrath.

She smiled up at him. “Except you.”

He leaned down, kissed her so they staggered a little in the sand, then steadied her with his big arm. “You weren’t crazy about me in the beginning,” he reminded her.

She laughed. “I liked you more than I was willing to admit, even to myself.”

His expression grew tender. “The feeling was mutual, sweetheart.”

They kept walking, and Isabel leaned her head against his arm as the rhythm of the waves soothed her frantic thoughts. The rush of them speeding up the sand, the gentle withdrawal back into the sea. It was hypnotic, and she took a deep breath and said what was on her mind.

“We can’t do this forever. Diego is up to something, and whatever it is, we’re not going to like it when it plays out. He’s keeping you close for some reason when he has every reason to kick you out of the house — or worse.”

Luca nodded, letting her take her time. She loved that about him. The way he always seemed to know when she was thinking out loud. The way he let her take as long as she needed to get her thoughts out, circling back to the point she was trying to make. Sometimes she even thought he knew what she wanted to say ahead of time. But he never said it for her. He waited patiently, letting her find the words in her own time and then acting like it was all new to him.

“He’s not a good man,” Isabel continued. “I know it’s true. But I can’t have him killed. I’ve thought about it over and over again, and I just wouldn’t be able to live with myself. It would be a dishonor to the memory of my parents, and I’d never be able to look Sofia in the eye again knowing that I was the one who okayed Diego’s death. He’s our blood, for better or worse.”

“I understand,” Luca said, kissing the top of her head.

“The other thing — setting Diego up with Lorenzo Sanchez — is an option.” She laughed a little as Luca looked down at her in surprise. “You don't think I know about Lorenzo?” She continued without waiting for his answer. “I keep quiet, but I listen. I probably know as much about the business as Diego.”

“That could be useful,” Luca said.

“Maybe, but I also know enough to understand how conflict among rivals is resolved, and that makes it feel too much like an execution.” She paused, searching out the woman and child in the waves. She was carrying the toddler to shore, the child’s dark hair curling around its cherubic face like a little Botticelli angel. “I guess I could live with it if I had to, but it’s still not my first choice.”

“I hear you,” Luca said. “And to be honest, it’s not my first choice either. Sanchez isn’t exactly a pussycat. We’re talking Columbian cartel. I’m not in a hurry to put you and Sofa on his radar.”

She drew in a breath. “Which means there’s only one thing left.”

He squeezed her hand. “We have to find the video.”

She nodded. “We have to find the video.”

A
week
after his meeting with Farrell, Luca entered Diego’s office to find Marco sitting with two other men in front of Diego’s desk. He entered the room and gazed at his old friend dispassionately, careful not to register any kind of familiarity.

“Ah, good,” Diego said, puffing on his cigar and not getting up. “Luca. These are our new guards, Eduardo, Marco, and John.”

Luca nodded and held out his hand. He was relieved to see that Marco’s expression was entirely blank. Keeping him here — and alive — would rely on them maintaining the same relationship Luca would have with Eduardo and John, at least outwardly.

“Luca is my head of security,” Diego said. “He will speak to you about your pay, the job requirements, and the rules of the house.”

It was the first time Luca realized Diego kept all his guards under close watch. The other guards had lived on the premises under Hector’s leadership, but Luca had never been sure if it was optional. He’d planned to get his own place when he came to Miami. Then Diego had offered him a room in the house, and Luca had made the mistake of thinking it was temporary. Now they would all be under one roof, just as they’d been when Hector was in charge, and Luca couldn’t help feeling like a piece on Diego’s fucked up chess board.

The trick was letting Diego believe he was a pawn, when Luca was in fact a knight.

Diego went on about the house and potential threats — most arising from rivalries and other negative aspects of the drug trade. Luca used the opportunity to study the two new guards. They’d been hand-chosen by Diego, so Luca would have to assume they were well-versed in personal security. Eduardo looked very much like Hector, Robert, and Albert — big, beefy, some kind of Hispanic descent. He glanced at John, then tried to figure out why he seemed slightly familiar. Tall and fair haired, he didn’t fit the profile of the men Diego tended to hire, and when he spoke, Luca thought he caught the hint of an Irish accent. He wondered if maybe the guy had been connected to the Irish division of the Syndicate. Luca would have to keep an eye on him, make sure he didn’t recognize him or Marco.

“Luca will show you to your rooms,” Diego said, “and give you a tour of the house.”

He stood, and the others followed suit, a king and his loyal subjects. Luca led them out of the room and gave them the same tour Robert had given him less than a month before. He wondered idly what had happened to Robert and the others. Had they been unceremoniously fired after the incident in the media room? And what about Hector? Had he faced an even more severe punishment after Luca beat the shit out of him? He couldn’t help hoping so. He wished Hector a slow and painful death for what he’d done to Isabel.

He assigned Eduardo and John to patrol the property, putting them on rotating shifts that covered both the house and grounds. Like so many of the things Diego did, security was half-assed. No wonder Isabel had been able to sneak off on her own. Diego liked to put on a big show, but there were holes everywhere. The guy was too hopped up on coke and his own ego to realize he was his biggest liability.

It would be easy to discount him as a threat. His attempts at security were uneven, his hold over his men due to fear and not respect. It wasn’t the way to lead. Luca knew that from his time with the Vitales, from working with Nico. You could keep people in line through fear for awhile, but eventually they’d turn on you, and when they did, they’d rip out your throat.

But the danger in Diego lay in his disorganization. He was surrounded by an aura of chaos and disorder so that it was impossible to know which Diego you were dealing with — the magnanimous leader or the coke-fueled five-year-old who was still pissed Daddy left all his money to his little sister. Sometimes Luca saw both of them within minutes of each other, and he found himself twitching for his weapon more often than he cared to admit, ready to take Diego down in spite of Isabel’s wishes if he went too far.

Once he got Eduardo and John settled in their private quarters, he took Marco to Isabel’s room, keeping up a bored patter as they moved through the richly furnished halls. He told Marco all the things he would have told any new guard — about Isabel and the rules surrounding her ability to leave the house, about Sofia, about Isabel’s history of escaping the house’s security measures — just in case Diego overheard them.

He was oddly relieved. He prided himself on his self-containment. Need no one and you have nothing to lose. That had always been his motto and it had always worked.

Until now.

He needed Isabel in ways he couldn’t yet define, and that made him vulnerable in a way he didn’t much like. He felt new empathy for Nico. The poor bastard had been hit hard with his feelings for Angel, and he’d risked — and lost — everything to prove it. Luca had half thought Nico was crazy at the time, and he had the sudden urge to contact his old friend and apologize.

But there was no time for that. He would get Isabel out, and one day, he and Nico would talk about it over beers on a beach somewhere. In the meantime, Marco was here, and Elia was on the outside looking in. They were his brothers, and they would do whatever it took to help him save Isabel and Sofia.

They got to Isabel’s door, and Luca knocked. “It’s me.”

She opened the door, and her smile lit up his heart. It was just for him, that smile, and for a second he felt like the happiest man on earth. Then he remembered how easy it would be for Diego to take it away from him and he hurriedly moved into the room and shut the door behind Marco.

“Isabel, this is Marco. He’s going to be your new bodyguard.”

Luca would have preferred to keep the role himself, but this was part of Diego’s game, and Marco was the next best thing.

She smiled, and held out her hand. “Nice to finally meet you.”

“I’m assigning Marco to your personal detail,” Luca said softly. “He’ll take Sofia to school, take you to do errands — anything I would normally do — to avoid suspicion.”

“You and I won’t be able to leave the house together at all?”

He heard the panic in her voice and reached out to smooth her hair. “We just have to be careful.” He spoke quietly, wanting to be sure Diego wouldn’t be able to overhear. “I’m sure we can make it work now and then, but until we find the video, we need to play Diego’s game, let Marco act as your bodyguard.”

Isabel nodded. “Whatever it takes.”

“So what now?” Marco asked.

“Now we find the video,” Luca said. He looked at Isabel. “Have you thought about where it might be?”

“I think his study is our best bet,” she said. “It’s where he spends most of his time, and I know he locks his computer in one of the desk drawers when he’s not in there.”

“How do you know?” Luca asked.

She leveled her gaze at him, and he was reminded how strong she was. How strong and brave to have come so far with so much grace.

“I know,” she said with certainty.

He nodded. “The study it is then. Now we just have to figure out how to get access to it.”

“Can’t we just search it when he’s not home?” Marco asked. “The guy’s a drug lord. I assume he has to leave the house at some point.”

“It’s not that simple,” Luca said. “Unlike the bedrooms, the study has 24/7 video surveillance, and Diego hasn’t given me access to the surveillance room.”

“Leave that to me,” Marco said. “I’ll dig around, see what I can find.”

“Sounds good,” Luca said. “In the meantime, keep your head down. Diego is a loose cannon. There’s no telling what will set him off. And be careful with the other guys, too. One of them could be a plant to get everybody talking.”