He turns to me first, and when he pulls a sheet of paper from his pocket, I know something’s up.
“Take a look at this, Alejandro,” he says, handing it to me.
It’s the balance sheet for last month. It’s short by two hundred thousand dollars.
Great, now someone is fucking stealing from me.
“What is this?”
“Figures I did myself when something looked off to me on one of the reports. That’s for the fentanyl sold last month to the private buyers. I checked it ten times and still came up with that figure, but on the system everything looks fine. Carlos’s men are responsible for these accounts.”
Carlos.Could it be him?
“I’ll speak to Carlos about it.”
“I suggest you take care when you talk to him.”
“Why the fuck should I do that?”
“Because either he’s being played or he’s part of the plot.” He pulls in a deep breath and rests his hands on the hardwood of the table. “When I did the reports, I called the base in Bahia. The supervisor complained he’d been working sixteen-hour shifts while the men were there last month. He said Thiago, Carlos, and Lorenzo were away the whole time. The supervisor and Marcus had to man the fort. He thinks they were with women. Obviously, I don’t think so.”
My jaw tenses at the realization of what that could mean.
Thiago, Carlos, and Lorenzo all together, but not Marcus, and he didn’t kick up a fuss for doing all the work. I guess, though, if they told him they were with women, he would have covered for them. So, does that rule him out?
No.It’s not enough to do so, but it might be something.
But wait a minute… there’s another problem here. We’re supposed to have surveillance on their movements. Eric would have received a notification of them leaving the plantation. If he did, he would have told me, even if wherever they went was useless to us. He sends me a report every day.
“Cristiano, we had them all listed as being on the plantation the whole time. If they went somewhere, Eric should have picked that up.”
He nods. “And that’s the other problem. I don’t know what happened there.”
“I’ll call him in a sec.”
“Good. I also think I should check in in Bahia while the men are there, but I won’t make them aware of my presence.”
“Okay, but watch your back, amigo.”
“Always.” His brows snap together. “They caught me off guard last time and shot me in the back. That’s like tying me up to beat me. I’ll be ready for them. My gut has always told me it’s not Marcus, but I’m not ruling him out until I have hard evidence.”
“No, we can’t risk that. He could have been left behind to watch the place and simply cover for them.”
“Yeah, he could. On the other hand, if it’s not and it’s not him, it could be Thiago, Carlos, and/or Lorenzo. Things are much too quiet, Alejandro. It’s like the fucking calm before the storm, but we don’t know what kind of fucking storm will blow our way.”
“Whatever it is, if it gets me, I still want you to take Mia and leave.”
“Alejandro, what the fuck is—”
“You heard me. You take her and leave. That’s my daughter. My child. Promise me you’ll do exactly that.”
“Yeah,” he says with reluctance. “Of course.I’m just hoping it won’t come to that.”
Me too, but hope is a dream to dark devils like me.