Chapter 85

Nico

The ride to the private air strip I own is tense between Antonio and myself. “Any news on Dario?” I ask. God only knows where he has gone to now. He seems to have gone dark again. He better not be using. If he is, I swear to the heavens above, I will lock him away for good.

“He’s fine, don’t worry about him, you have enough on your plate right now, brother,” Tony replies whilst not taking his eyes from his mobile.

“What’s got you so intrigued on your mobile?” I know I sound tense and wound up, that is because I am. Clearly!

He sighs and takes his dark eyes away from his mobile and looks directly at me. “If you must know, I am clearing down emails and I put out an alert on Carlos to find out what the asshole has been getting himself into. By the way, has he even replied to you yet?”

Jeez he is pushy this morning. I only sent the message thirty minutes ago and we have only just started on our ride to the airstrip. I shake my head.

“Anything I need to know about?”

“As it happens, yeah. He is into the prostitution racket now. How you like that then, Nico? And this is the man you want to do business with.”

I almost growl at my brother, older than me or not. I am the boss around here. I am the one in charge.

I shrug my shoulders. “Not my cup of tea, you know that. We don’t touch girls, drugs or anything like that. Trafficking and taking advantage of women has never been in our business. Not even in our grandfather’s day. I need him, Tony end of story. Are you going to let it drop now?”

“No, but I am keeping tabs on him. What’s the plan when we arrive in Mexico City?” He crosses one leg over the other. I glance out the window seeing a dark sky still. It’s only just after five in the morning.

“Carlos will get back to me, Tony. I will set up a meeting and we head straight to wherever he suggests.”

This gets me a balking sound from Tony. What is he choking now? I raise my eyebrows at him. “You want to go to some joint without any protection? Are you insane?”

“We have protection in the second vehicle, you organized it,” I tell him pointedly.

“That doesn’t mean shit, little brother. You know Carlos won’t meet with you with your men around you.”

I turn slightly in the back seat of the car so I am almost facing Tony head on. “Listen, Antonio,” he glares at me. He doesn’t like it when I use his full name. In fact, I hardly ever do, except when I am pissed at him. Which I am right now. He is doubting me and my decisions. It makes my gut feel heavy.

Every second that ticks by, is a second, I am wasting not finding Lucky. Still there has been radio silence. No calls from whoever has her, which we already suppose is Yelena from the footage we caught up on.

“I am going to do whatever it takes to find Lucky. God only knows what they have done to her already. Carlos has the best nose in the business for sniffing out shit. We all know that, it’s why he was on our bank roll.”

Tony raises his hand in a dismissive way. I get he doesn’t pay much respect towards Carlos. Hell, I don’t either. He was good for our business for a while, way back collecting debts and money. Then he got a little big for his boots and the closeness to being one of my right-hand men, Let’s just say he got a bit power crazy. Branding our name and business around. He had to go.

Off he took himself to South America with his tail between his legs. At least there was no bad blood between us. You never know when you need someone and right now, I need someone like Carlos in my back pocket. It won’t come cheap. However, what price can you put on Lucky’s head? She is worth more than all the money I have. She owns my heart, she quickens my pulse, my eyes only see her.

Neither one of us speaks to the other as we ride the rest of the journey in silence. I take out my mobile from the pocket of my handmade, black jacket and key in the digits to unlock it.

Sure enough there is now a message from Carlos.

What’s up, Nico? Long time no speak. What’s it been a few years already? You must need something bad. Tell me what you got.

My jaw ticks, again. It seems to do that a lot, at this rate my molars are going to need replacing. I cross a leg over the other and let my fingers move across the device.

Lucky has gone missing, apparently, they flew her into Mexico. I need your help for private flights coming in and out of the area.

I wait for what seems an eternity then see the bubbles appear.

I can help out with that. I’ve got a man on the ground who can call in some favors. It ain’t gonna come cheap, you know that, right?

Of course it isn’t going to come cheap. What does anymore these days? Everyone has their hand held out, especially when they know Nico Santangelo is coming to town.

Tony is still ignoring me. He’ll come round, once he sees that Carlos can actually help us. I never worry about my elder brother, he is a good man and always has my back. Even when he is hating on me like right now.

Understood. Name the price. I need the logs asap. Getting on my jet in the next twenty minutes. Work fast, Carlos. There is no time to waste.

Instant reply. You got it, Nico. Where you stayin’, maybe we can hook up.

I am not about to divulge to Carlos where the hell I am staying. You never give your secrets away. He may have worked for me once. He may be assisting me today. But he was also once a complete asshole who I fired.

Classified information, Carlos. How about you send me the details when you have them and I will let you know where we can meet. And leave your piece at home!

My phone vibrates with an incoming message from Lucky’s mobile. What the fuck? Has she managed to break free? Is she still okay? Or has someone got hold of her phone and is finally reaching out?

I open the message and see there is a video clip.

My heart sinks to my feet!