Chapter 93
Nico
“Money first,” Carlos tells me as I raise an eyebrow at him. The man has become an over-inflated, cocky, son-of-a-bitch.
“Don’t you trust me, Carlos? You know I am a man of my word. I need proof that you believe where Lucky is.” I uncross my legs and stretch them out. I feel like I need to let off steam and go for a run. First being cooped up on the jet for a few hours and now sitting in buys foyer of the Four Seasons hotel.
Tony shifts in his seat. I already know he isn’t happy for me to transfer a cool, half a million without more evidence.
Carlos leans forward. “Hey, Nico. Of course I trust you. Man, I worked for you. You always had my back but you know, business is business. I got the goods and you have the cash. So, let’s say we cut the deal and we can both get out of here.”
“What’s the rush?” Tony asks him. I can sense my brother’s anger coming off in heat waves. The man has always hated Carlos. They don’t have good history.
“No rush, Man but you know being out here in public like this, it ain’t good. You hear what I’m saying?”
Even the way he speaks irritates me. Yet he was a good runner and he got the job done and he collected my cash when needed. No doubt he used unscrupulous methods at times but that was then and this is now.
“More details, Carlos then I will transfer the cash via my mobile app. You know of all people how I conduct business.”
He does, however, have the upper hand since he seems to know where Lucky is being held and I don’t. It’s unlikely he would pull a fast one, he knows my men would come for in before his heart beat could go from the up to the down. I’d have them slit his throat and put him in a dumpster in an alley.
“Okay, okay, no sweat,” he says as he raises his hands in the air. “Tsk, you guys are not trusting old Carlos. Shame on you both.”
“Fuck you, Carlos,” Tony says heatedly. “You don’t exactly have a good reputation, do you?”
Carlos smirks at him, displaying a gold tooth at the front of his mouth. Unsightly!
“There is an industrial estate ten miles out of the city, along a dirt track road. It’s unused, not been touched for years. We managed to get some information from one of the landing crew of the planes that came in. A black vehicle arrived and four people got out.” He pauses. Jeez-us, what the hell is he waiting for? Applause.
“Carry on,” I say as a smart dressed woman with black hair tied in a bun at the nape of her neck.
“Gentlemen, can I get you anything? You have been sitting here a while.” She smiles graciously at us. Once there would have been a time that I’d have considered taking a woman like her with her curves to bed and showing her a good time. Not anymore. Lucky dominates my mind on a constant basis. There is no woman alive that can compare to the woman called Lucky Gianluca.
Her fierceness, the way she spars, her sassy mouth and her looks far outshine any other woman in existence.
“I’ll have a scotch on the rocks,” Carlos says. Of course, he would and it’s only early in the morning still.
“Nothing for me, thank you,” I reply as Tony shakes his head.
“Very well, Sir. I will return with your scotch on the rocks.” She sashays her hips as she walks away, Tony and I merely look away. Carlos on the other hand watches her every move, his tongue practically hanging out of his mouth.
“I could show a woman like that what a real man feels like. I bet she ain’t had no hard cock like mine before.” The man disgusts me. He is the scum of the scum. I honestly thought my days of having to deal with the shit on the street was well and truly over. Obviously not.
“Put it away, Carlos. We don’t want to hear about your slimy cock,” I tell him, my tone harsh, my face poker.
“Man, why you gotta be like that?”
“Business, Carlos. You want the half mill or not?” Tony’s voice matches my own. Hard like frozen ice in the Tundra.
“One of the people getting out of the vehicle was slim build, tall, a red head. The contact claims she had some kind of accent, Russian he believes.”
My hear rate instantly picks up. Tony glances sideways at me, my jaw ticks. I am not giving anything away. But it can only be Yelena. She must have been wearing a wig or have dyed her hair since it was white-blonde from previous camera images after the shooting in New York.
“Two guys were obviously her protection, big fuckers, bald heads, earrings in their ears, dressed in black combat gear and boots. They had big guns with them, and looked like they meant business. You know what I mean?” Carlos says. Tony and I nod waiting for him to continue. Talk about drawing this out. I bet the fucking weasel loves feeling like he is in control and important.
“And the fourth person?” My heart is in my mouth. It has to be Lucky.
“Some woman with jet black hair, he didn’t get the face as it was covered up so she couldn’t see.”
“How does he know it was a woman?”
“Man, I told ya. The person had jet black hair that was hanging down her back. He told me that only a woman would have curves like that, her ass apparently was something else.”
Anger fills my veins quicker than lightning striking. Without even thinking I stand and curl my hand into a fist and plant it right into Carlos’s face. He moves back and clutches his nose.
“The fuck is wrong with you, Man?” A few people stop and stare. I ignore them and straighten my self out and sit back down, crossing one leg over the other. The woman has returned with the scotch on a silver tray and stays motionless.
Tony places a firm hand on my forearm. “Not here, Nico.”
“That,” I say pointedly, “is for talking about Lucky like a piece of meat. The hell type of scum bags do you know, Carlos? The woman was obviously kidnapped and some cunt is talking about her curves and her ass? You make me fucking sick.”
He still cradles his face. What an asshole? It wasn’t even my best punch. If I had wanted to, I would have broken his fucking nose.
“I want the details of this unused industrial estate and I want it now,” I say with a very low tone, the anger seething as my teeth remain gritted. My jaw is flexing overtime. I can feel a headache coming on.
“The money first,” he says belligerently.
“The fuck, do you want me to finish off what I started you cunt?” My temper is threatening to get the better of me. Tony gives me a nudge to get my shit together.
“I want the details now, Tony or I will find someone else. Let’s face it, Mexico City is full of rats like you and assholes who’d sell their grandmas for a buck.” I lean back in my chair and make out I am inspecting the nails on my right hand. Cool, calm and collected. I need to stay in charge, not this douchebag in front of me.
“I’ll send you the information,” he says knocking back the scotch then retrieves his mobile from his pocket, and starts typing into it. Moments later, my phone pings informing me I have a message.
I scan the address details. Never heard of it but we will find it. First, I need to transfer this asshole half a million then get our resources on to how to find this shit hole of a place.
Leaning towards Tony who leans into me, I whisper into his ear. “Get a drone out on the location. I want to know what we’re dealing with.”
“I don’t want to ever have to do business with you again, Carlos. And don’t ever refer to Lucky again or mention her name. Give me your bank details, I’ll transfer the cash now.”
A few minutes later the cash has left my account. He gives me a cocky grin. Fuck, I am so close to busting his nose. “Pleasure doing business with you, Nico. Let’s hope you get your girl back.”
He stands and shakes hands with me. As soon as he has gone, I wipe my hands on my pants.
Tony turns to me. “I’ve sent the details to our team, Nico and requested eyes in the sky. Let’s go and get some breakfast, we have to eat.”
Is he insane. “I want to get to the location, Tony.”
“No, brother. Safety first. Don’t be a hot head. You know they won’t do anything to Lucky yet. We need sustenance, we need to regroup and wait for the intel from our team.”
He has a point.
There is no merit in charging in like a bull, it will only cost us our lives and Lucky’s.
Patience, they say is a virtue.
I am all fucking out of patience.