Читать книгу The Game Never Ends - Zaire Crown - Страница 16

Chapter Nine

The drive home was quiet and eerily surreal. The strangeness at Dominic’s—the trap, La Guapa—made Tuesday feel like only that part of the evening had been real, while everything that preceded was a dream. They navigated the streets, passing motorists and pedestrians while Tuesday looked at them curiously. It fascinated her how they were totally oblivious that there was a popular Italian restaurant where the entire staff was murdered and stored in the meat freezer, totally oblivious that they lived in a world where that could happen outside their movie studios.

Tuesday was in the passenger seat continuing the silence Marcus had demanded at Dominic’s. She did place a quick call to the sitter just to check on the girls but said nothing else. Every now and then she glanced at the side-view mirror to find the same set of headlights tailing them. La Guapa’s men.

Marcus had the Wraith by the wheel and seemed equally content to let silence be the theme. There was no talk or music. The sodium vapor street lamps threw shafts of pale orange light into the car, briefly illuminating a dark face strained with concentration.

After a while he unexpectedly broke the silence. “Reina took over her father’s business when Rene got too old and his health started to fail. She was a scholar who was never supposed to be in this life. Usually that would have fallen on the oldest son, but without Rico—” He allowed the thought to trail off.

“What happened to their brother?” Tuesday made sure it didn’t come off like an accusation.

“I worked for Rico back when he was being groomed to take over for his father. I was his right hand, and in charge of his security.

“A rival crew caught him leaving a club in Houston. They sprayed over two hundred rounds in his Maserati. I was supposed to be with him that night but got caught up doin’ some other shit.”

Tuesday said, “Somewhere doin’ his sister.”

He confirmed it with his eyes. “She was real close to Rico and the loss hit her hard. She blamed me for that shit.”

Even though Reina and Marcus were ancient history, Tuesday still couldn’t stop the childish game of comparing herself to his ex.

“Why do they call her La Guapa? Is it like guap—slang for money?”

“I actually gave her that name a long time ago.” Marcus focused on the road to avoid looking at her. “Rico was teaching me Spanish back then and when I learned guapo meant handsome, I thought it had a feminine counterpart. I started calling her La Guapa—The Pretty One.”

Tuesday sucked her teeth. “Ain’t that a bitch.”

“It was twenty years ago. I didn’t think it would stick.”

“How did she know we were going to be at Dominic’s when I only reserved that table a few hours earlier? How tha fuck did she do that?” Tuesday thought about all the scams and heists she’d ever planned, and remembered how she would plot for weeks. “How in the fuck did she do that?” she asked herself more than Marcus.

He said, “Reina is very smart and meticulous.”

Tuesday shook her head, rejecting that simple explanation. “We’re smart. We’re meticulous. I called for a table around four thirty. This bitch somehow found out, flew up from Texas and set that trap in six hours. Nobody’s that good.”

Marcus sighed. “Bae, Reina was one of those child prodigies. She graduated from high school when she was thirteen and had a Master’s degree by seventeen. When I met her she was twenty-three and had already earned her second Ph.D.”

Tuesday was already intimidated by her looks, so hearing that she was also smart did not help her self-esteem. “So what, you sayin’ she like a genius or somethin’?”

“Well yeah.” Marcus was hesitant. “That’s exactly what she is.”

Tuesday crossed her arms over her chest. She was trying to decide if he was giving that bitch a compliment or merely stating a fact.

“She still got a thing for you. She didn’t go through all this just to come pick you up. I know bitches. That was her stuntin’. You see the way she made her entrance. That whole little show was to impress you.”

Marcus said, “She wanted to impress me but not for the reason you think. While I’ve been retired, she’s been getting stronger—to the point where she has a few cartel bosses in her pocket. That situation at Dominic’s was about showing me her reach, to let me know that she can get to me any time she wants. The only reason I’m not dead already is because she can’t do it. Rene won’t allow it, plus she kinda needs me.”

Tuesday’s mind was taking her in the wrong direction. “What the fuck she need you for?”

He explained. “Since forever, the Rodriguez family controlled the border towns—that’s where most of the contraband is being smuggled into the country. Lately the feds been crackin’ down and the pipeline is getting choked off. Reina and her friends have been taking some big losses this year.”

Tuesday remembered the news story from the previous night and was able to connect the dots. “And you just happen to have a big ass shipping company. They want to use Abel to get their dope into the country.”

“And to get their money back out to the cartels.”

Marcus maneuvered the Rolls Royce around a slow-moving Lincoln then took a hand off the wheel to rub Tuesday’s thigh. However, as the final pieces of the puzzle fell into place for her, she got so mad that she pushed it away.

She glared at him. “You sonofabitch! That’s what this this fuckin’ meeting is all about. They gone ask and you gone say no.”

She gasped. “And when you do, they gone kill you!”