Page 119 of Cartel Devil
Tortured his worthless ass. So glad I never slept with him.
“How do you know I’m pregnant? I’m sure Nicolina and Sean didn’t give it away.”
“You don’t think I have eyes and ears at Mass General? You and Joaquin go to the ER twice in two weeks, and no one notices? Everyone knows you’re pregnant.”
The secret’s out among the Volkovs and Iglesiases—los Iglesias—I’m learning. I’m sure Joaquin already knows that. Whether he told Dad or Dad told him, I don’t know.
“Then who hates my dad or uncle more? The Russians or the Mexicans?”
“That’s a hard call. Neither of them can stand your family. The Diazes have had a few run-ins with both families in the last year or so. I can’t imagine either of them would risk running afoul of Enrique, even if it meant getting back at your family.”
I look at Joaquin, and he nods. I don’t know if it’s in agreement or to encourage me to keep going.
“All of you have a price. It’s just a question of how much and who can afford it. How much would a hit on me go for?”
Joaquin cocks an eyebrow. I think it’s something he’s been searching for but hasn’t found the answer to.
“Before you got pregnant, probably three or four million.”
There are houses that cost more than that.
“Now that you’re pregnant with a third-generation Diaz, at least twenty.”
That makes me feel a little better—I suppose.
When I meet Joaquin’s gaze again, he sighs and nods. I suspect that confirms what he’d already deduced. I mouth, “what else?”
He mouths back, “Volkovs.”
“Since it isn’t you, and it isn’t my family, and los Iglesias won’t move against me because of los Diaz, that leaves the Volkovs. That kinda money only comes from the Kutsenkos.”
“You’d have to talk to them about that.”
“I’m supposed to knock on Maks’s door—or better yet, ask Joaquin to do that—and say I’ll pay you twenty mill if you don’t kill me and my baby.”
“You might do better going straight to Maks than Rurik. You need to talk to Joaquin about what the Volkovs did to Alejandro and his wife.”
I look up at Joaquin, and there’s a tight expression on his face. I know Yuri Volkov, who’s now dead, was Rurik’s uncle. He’s the one who spread the rumor about Alejandro being a deadbeat dad. That he’d gotten Rurik’s sister pregnant a few years ago and abandoned her. I heard that if Catalina hadn’t finished him, Rurik would’ve. It would’ve been the excuse he needed because I’d seen them together—Rurik despised Yuri. His uncle deprived his own sister—Rurik’s mom—of cancer treatment while Rurik was away at college.
“One more thing before I consider your debt paid.”
Ewan snorts. “I never had a debt.”
“The fuck you didn’t. Going back to Maks. He knows what the Volkovs did.”
It’s a statement, not a question.
“Let me ask you one more thing, Tricia. Would the Volkovs make a second move—a move this big—against the Diazes if Maks didn’t know?”
“Know and condone are two different things.”
“To condone something, you have to know about it. The murder attempts happened.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Joaquin
Five days in the hospital, and Tre and I are finally unpacking in my room at Tío Enrique and Tía Elle’s place. Tre felt better each day, especially after Tía Margherita and Madeline showed up with a stack of papers this morning. They spread them out across the bed, and I immediately gravitated to the data tables—except they meant next to nothing to me.
