Altata is about thirty minutes southwest from Navolato and ever since it’s been declared neutral ground between the bosses, it’s where most meetings take place.
Granted, none of the men who run the empires are ever there. It’s much too high of a risk in case there’s a raid by the Federales or those fucking American Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
Papa had such a hard time deciding who in his organization he wanted to attend these get togethers, only relenting when I kept insisting that I could do it.
Besides, I’ve never been to America and if I get taken into custody, it would be almost like tourism for me.
I would see the inside of their jails for as long as I could stand it, then I’d either escape and make my way back home or Papa would wage war ontheirterritory to get me back.
Either way, it has never once occurred to me to be bothered if I were to be taken into custody.
I cut over three lanes toward my exit, laughing when the angry drivers around me honk their frustrations at almost getting into a massive highway pile up.
I let it go.
Little things like this shouldn’t matter to someone like me because I hold way too much power in the palm of my hand, and I don’t like to abuse it.
Honestly, before Ana Sofia came into our lives, I was a bully to the neighborhood kids because I knew they could never do anything to me.
If they complained to their parents and they tried to ask Papa to control me, their houses would mysteriously burn down.
I never knew until my later years that those fires weren’t a mystery at all, but instead a well-placed warning to let me have my way, within reason of course.
Papa has always been strict when it comes to his daughters, but never physically. We’ve never been spanked, we just had privileges taken away, so as the houses burned down around us, I would lose things like my television, favorite toys, or anything else he thought I would miss to help me behave.
And that’s why I’m the young woman I am today.
I follow the rules our father set forth for me; to be fair yet stern, to make sure that my point can be made without violence, and if all else fails, that’s when Ana Sofia is sent in to finish any “negotiations” that I haven’t been able to.
As I begin to travel down the main road in Altata, I roll my window back up. The cars that Papa has for us are all reinforced to withstand impact from bullets.
The glass is shatterproof, the body reinforced with fine, light weight armor, it would take a fifty caliber Barrett to blow out the tires.
Which is why his level of worry is far less than any of the other bosses fighting to expand their empires into other territories. Papa is a wealthy man, monetarily as well as in foresight, but he doesn’t spend either on frivolous things as the other bosses tend to do.
I clear my throat as I pull the car into my designated parking space. As odd as it may seem to anyone on the outside looking in, we have places we’re supposed to leave our cars so that we can be accounted for as having attended these meetings.
Not to mention it makes it easier to figure out who is missing and who had a hand in it when more than one spot is empty.
Even with the potential dangers constantly hanging low over my head, I always find myself unafraid.
No one, not even the other bosses would ever dare to cross the Cancio Cartel, because if they did, not even God would be able to help them.
Chapter Three
I removemy sunglasses as I walk through the front doors of the building. What looks like a regular office complex on the outside, is nothing more than empty rooms, all except for one, and the aura of death that we each bring to the table.
Flicking my hair over my shoulder, I make my way down the long corridor, my heels echoing throughout, until I see a man posted outside of the main room.
I approach him with my head held high and an extra sway to my step. I’m the only woman allowed to attend these—the others are considered much too fragile—and in Sofi’s case, much too dangerous.
I’m the perfect mix of both and I fear no man except for our father.
“Tatiana,” the guard greets me with a nod as he pulls the door open for me. I pull open the zipper on my purse and hand him my cellphone, giving him the next few seconds to inspect the rest, before he gives me the go ahead to walk in.
I give him a small smile as I breeze by and into the room toward the large office table in the middle.
Pulling one of the lead chairs out, I sit down, cross my legs, and get comfortable. It seems that most of the captains who were required to attend are here, except for one.