Page 40 of Leave Me (Touch of Death 2)
With a heave, I hoist the body over my shoulder and dump it in the trunk of the small car. He barely fits, and I have to bend his limbs at tight angles to squeeze him into the ridiculous vehicle.
I follow the coordinates Una gave me, deep into the countryside along winding roads. The scent of the ocean drifts on the warm night breeze, blending with the fresh smell of eucalyptus. It’s almost soothing and fits my upbeat mood. I’m happy to be working again, even if it is only this. It’s something that will hurt Enrique, and that in itself makes me smile.
I reach a point where the road ends, and my headlights sweep over the expanse of scrubby, dried-out land ahead of me. I pull over and cut the engine before climbing out of the car. For a moment, there’s nothing to see or hear but endless darkness. Then I spot a tiny flicker, maybe half a mile or so away. Using a small flashlight of my own, I extricate the driver from his undignified position and heave him over my shoulder once more. Luckily he’s not a big man. I pick my way over rough, uneven land until I finally reach the source of the light. I hear the distinct click of a safety being flicked off. Then the blinding illumination hits my face before dropping again. Black spots scatter over my vision for a moment.
“Jesus, don’t creep up on me like that,” Una hisses.
“You’re losing your touch. I was making enough noise to wake the dead, walking across there,” I pant, dropping the body to the ground.
Gio snorts. “Sasha, you’re like a ghost, a creepy ghost.”
Whatever. I ignore them both and stare down into a hole in the ground. A body lays at the bottom with a second half hanging out the back of an SUV.
“Grab that one, will you?” Una says.
I go to the car and grab the large man under his arms. Gio gets the legs, and we lift.
“One,” Gio says, swinging the weight back. “Two, three.” We both let go, and the corpse lands on top of the other. Fianlly we put my guy in there. When he’s at the bottom of the hole, Una hands Gio and me a shovel each. She then takes a seat on the back of the SUV and folds her arms over her chest.
“You could help,” I say.
She wiggles the flashlight around, making the little spot flicker from side to side. “I’m holding the light.”
Gio snorts and drives his shovel into a mound of dirt.
“How did you even dig this up?” I ask. That hole must be five feet deep, and the ground is like concrete.
“Grenade,” Una says casually.
“I think it was actually three grenades,” Gio adds.
Of course they did. “Subtle.”
Una waves a hand in the direction of the grave. “Yes, well, I don’t like manual labor, and I sure as hell wasn’t taking a pickaxe to the ground just to bury them.”
Over an hour later, a patch of fresh earth is all that’s left. Una’s phone rings, and she answers it, speaking only a few terse words before hanging up. “The guns are on their way to Egypt,” she says, and then hangs up.
Nero arranged a deal with his long-time friend and brother-in-law, Rafael D’Cruze. Rafael runs the Juarez cartel. It was a good move. The weapons are off to a holding facility on the border of Egypt. The intention is that Rafael will make contact to sell the same product to the very men who intended to buy them from Bianchi in the first place. Rafael and Nero split the money, and Rafael persuades them to trade with him in the future instead of Bianchi. Rafael gains new business, Bianchi loses, everyone wins. It’s one brick in a giant wall, but it’s the beginning of the end for Bianchi. He just doesn’t know it yet.
The shipment will never touch either Sicily or New York, meaning no one is obviously culpable. And well, even Bianchi won’t want to tangle with the cartel. Gabriella and her men will know nothing of where the weapons go beyond tonight because we don’t know who we can trust. Everyone has a price. Despite appearances, Nero doesn’t actually want a war. Or not yet at least. He wants Bianchi dead and for him to walk away clean. If we pick apart Bianchi’s empire and allow the Ricci’s to go in for the kill, no fingers can point to Nero for getting involved in Sicilian affairs. Nero can be ruthless to the point of cruel; he’s nothing if not intelligent.
Enrique Bianchi will fall, one way or another.
10
Adelina
It’s been two weeks since the engagement party. Fourteen days of staring at the four walls of this room, and every night I’m on edge, waiting for another visit from Enrique. The burn on my neck is now an ugly scab, a horrible reminder of exactly what I let myself in for here.
