Page 102 of Urgent Vows
Does it indicate something else? Something more?
"What then?" I demand.
"She has been limping on and off since lunch."
Something inside me tenses. "Did she fall?"
"No, I was with her the entire day except when she was in the changing rooms. She seemed to be trying to hide her limping from your mother and sister."
"Did she?"
"Neither asked about it, so I would say yes."
Fuck. Why was my wife limping? And why hide it from my family?
I'm going to find her and demand an explanation, but my phone rings and it's Brogan fucking Shaughnessy. I take the call.
I don't waste time with pleasantries. "We think it's the Gutierrez Cartel behind the attacks."
"They've got a toehold in Florida," he replies. "But they aren't coming all the way to New York."
So, his intel is as inadequate as mine was. Before Catalina showed us her research.
"They're behind the takeover of mafia businesses in Detroit and they've already done this same shit in two port cities here on the East Coast. Those times they got rival gangs to go at each other. When the gang wars were over, they moved in on the weakened territories."
"And they think they can do the same thing here?" Shaughnessy sounds as pissed as I feel.
"You need to find out who your leak is. I'm working on pinning my rat down." And it's not my wife.
Big Sal has an idea about who it might be, but I hope he's wrong. He sure as hell was to doubt Catalina.
"I'll find my mole. Don't worry about it."
I'm glad I don't have to try too hard to convince the Irish mob boss that the cartel is behind the attacks. I don't have the patience. If he gave me a raft of shit, we could end up at war even if he's not the one that ordered the latest hijacking of one of our shipments.
"Your people are good, I'll give you that, De Luca."
My wife is a marvel, but I'm not telling him that. "They are."
Shaughnessy will confirm the intel with his own people regardless.
"You want to coordinate hitting back?" he asks.
"An alliance?" We haven't had an actual alliance with the Irish in generations.
"I've got an idea about that."
"You find your mole and we'll talk." I'm not agreeing to an alliance with any boss who can't control his people.
I ignore the fact we haven't identified our own rat. We will. It's just a matter of time.
~ ~ ~
Chapter 33
SEVERU
Catalina isn't limping when she comes to dinner, but she is walking slowly, and her expression is not open toward my mom and sister like it usually is. She's wearing a mask and I don't like it.
