Chapter 5 - THE CARTEL CONNECTION
The rain started pouring as I got back into my armored SUV. Dante was behind the wheel.
“Did she walk?” he asked, looking at me through the rearview mirror.
“Yes. Vance got her out.” I pulled out my phone and dialed my chief accountant, a genius named Silas who operated out of a heavily guarded server room in my downtown nightclub.
“Silas,” I barked as soon as he answered. “I need a full forensic trace on Rebecca Moretti’s financials. Offshore accounts, shell companies, crypto wallets. I also need every phone record for the last six months. Cross-reference her contacts with anyone affiliated with the Reyes Cartel.”
“Boss, that’s a massive dragnet. It’ll take hours,” Silas replied.
“You have sixty minutes. Or I’ll find a new accountant.” I hung up.
I looked at Dante. “Gather the capos. Call in all the favors. Arm every soldier we have.”
Dante’s eyes widened. “We’re hitting Reyes? Over a custody battle?”
“Reyes is backing her. That means he has a stake in Ethan’s money, or he’s using her to get to me. Either way, they crossed the line.”
Thirty minutes later, we arrived at the hospital. The perimeter was secured by my men, looking like ghosts in the rain with their heavy coats concealing automatic weapons. I took the private elevator to the top floor.
Leo was awake when I walked in. He was holding a small cup of apple juice, his hands shaking slightly. Maya was sitting at the foot of his bed, watching cartoons on the mounted TV.
“Hey,” I said softly, pulling up my chair.
Leo looked at me, his dark eyes—so much like Ethan’s—searching my face. “Is she coming back?”
“No. But she is trying to play games with the police,” I admitted. I wasn't going to lie to him. He had been lied to enough. “Leo, I need you to be brave for me. Can you tell me about the men who came to the house? Did Rebecca have visitors?”
Leo gripped the cup tighter. “There was a man. He smelled like smoke and expensive cologne. He came when Mommy... when Rebecca locked us down there. They argued upstairs. I heard them through the vents.”
“What did they say?”
“The man said the money was locked in the trust. He said he needed his cut, or Hector would be angry. Rebecca was crying. She said she couldn't access it unless... unless something happened to us.”
My heart stopped.
They weren't just abusing the kids to keep them quiet. They were torturing them, hoping to break them mentally, driving them to an 'accidental' death that Rebecca could blame on Leo's fabricated mental instability. If the children died, the trust would legally default to the surviving spouse. Rebecca.
She was trying to murder my brother's children to pay off a cartel debt.
My phone buzzed. It was Silas.
“Thomas, you were right. Rebecca has a massive gambling debt. Over four million dollars owed to an illegal casino run by Hector Reyes. But that’s not all. Six months ago, right before your brother had his 'sudden' heart attack... Rebecca bought a highly untraceable, specialized cardiac-arrest-inducing toxin on the dark web.”
The room spun.
Ethan didn't have a heart attack. He was murdered.
“Where is she right now, Silas?” I asked, my voice a demonic whisper.
“She didn't go home. Her phone pinged at a safe house in the industrial district. It belongs to Hector Reyes’s top lieutenant.”
“Send me the coordinates.”
I hung up the phone and looked at Leo. I reached out and gently brushed a piece of hair from his forehead.
May you like
“You did so good, Leo. You saved your sister. Now, I’m going to fix everything.”
I walked out of the room. I wasn't an uncle anymore. I was the Don of Austin. And the city was about to bleed.
