“The money and product I buried. I want to go back to Albany and get it. I want your family to have it to do what you want with it. I know where other shit is stashed in the place I shared with Drew. Shit no one knows about. I wasn’t supposed to, but he wasn’t the only one who watched our place. It wasn’t hard for me to figure out the login to the app he used. I’d wipe my activity on it, so he never knew I spied on him just like he spied on me.”
“Tell me where to look and what I’ll find.”
“He never knew I added my biometrics to lockboxes and safes. Unless you want to blow shit up in a residential area, you need me to slip in and out of the house.”
“No. I’ll find a way to get the shit out of there and bring it to you.”
“He had it sunken into the foundation. You can’t take it out. That was the point. Apparently, he had a small team of guyswork on the foundation. A fire burned some of the building materials at a warehouse, so it delayed the build. Really, it kept people away from the site while the foundation set and the slab was laid around these safes. He killed the guys on that first team, including the foreman. People knew they went afoul of him, but they never knew why. It kept his new team from asking questions. I found out all of this a few months ago when he was talking to Jacob. His cousin warned him about a potential raid, and Drew reassured him shit was so well hidden, the feds would never find it.”
“If it’s in the foundation, it means removing the flooring.”
“Yeah, which is tile in the areas above the safes. There are lockboxes hidden in the attic insulation too. There’s cash and drugs. My guess is also forged documents and identification. There could be more, but I don’t know what. I know which tiles are loose and how to get them out without disturbing the ones around them. There was a power outage during a storm while he was in LA a year ago. I went into the attic and found the lockboxes and added my biometric credentials to them. We had a cable and internet outage six months ago, which meant the app couldn’t record or transmit anything. I used that opportunity and him being down here in the city to deal with the safes. You need me, Javi.”
It would be faster to take her up there, but I don’t like it. We don’tneedanything the O’Sheehans have, even if I mightwantthe shit. It’d be impossible to excavate the place without knocking it down first. Someone might notice.
I can have a wry sense of humor even at times like this.
“Let me talk to the others before I rule this out. I won’t advocate for it, but I will share your ideas.”
“That’s fair. If you agree to it, I will follow whatever rules or instructions you give me, Javi. I want a long life with you. I’m not looking to end it because I fuck up the mission.”
“You also don’t want the sore ass and needy pussy I leave you with after I punish you.”
“I definitely don’t need those, Daddy. Thank you for listening.”
“Always.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Maddy
It shocked the shit out of me when Javi told me Enrique agreed to me going up to Albany with the guys. You could’ve knocked me over with a feather when I discovered Maks and his family are coming too. I guess they have their own grudge to settle with the O’Sheehans after learning what Drew put me through. The bratva are going to shake up some shit and draw the O’Sheehans’ attention to them while the Diazes—I consider myself one now that Javi and I have been together for nearly a month—ransack the house I used to live in.
It’s taken three weeks of coordinated planning to make sure the plan is solid. I think it also took that long because Javi and Maks kept getting into arguments about how to handle this. They needed to walk away and cool off. I’m certain neither family encouraged them to simmer down. Just the opposite.
But here we are. Javi, his cousins, brothers, Enrique, and I just pulled up outside the house. Luis is back in Bogotá dealing with his and Enrique’s uncle. Apparently, after all these years of house arrest, Humberto has reached the end of his usefulness. I think Luis is giving him one last chance. It had something to dowith Elle, but I only pieced that together. I didn’t dare ask. I took my garage door opener with me when I left. It was in the car I left in the underground parking lot in Jackson Heights. Someone got it for me, so I use it now.
Arrogant bastard. He didn’t replace it or change the frequency. Not because he was too lazy or didn’t worry about someone getting ahold of it and breaking in. No. He assumed I’d come back to him.
The door rises without a sound. He made sure the chain was always well oiled, and the door never rattled. How the motor makes no noise is beyond me. He must have left his car somewhere before he flew to New Jersey because both spaces are empty. That’s how he got down there so fast. It’s only an hour flight. We discovered Elle’s contact was double dipping and delayed sending the photo, and he tipped off Drew that people were asking about him. That’s why we thought Drew was at the pub when he was really on his way to Jersey. Elle went out of town for a day. That’s all I know for sure. I can guess what no one told me.
Once both Diaz SUVs are inside, I hand the clicker to Javi. He closes the door, and we all pile out. Javi, his brothers, and I were in one vehicle while Pablo, Alejandro, and Enrique were in another. Technically, all seven of us could’ve fit in one SUV, but these men are huge. It would have been uncomfortable, even with me in the middle of the third row. It also means they have construction tools in the back of both. We weren’t sure what they might need once we arrived. My key still works, and the fucker didn’t change the alarm code either.
“Javi, there are cameras and mics all over the place. Do you want to destroy them before we get to work? Even if you cut the power, there’s now an emergency generator backup Drew installed after the storm that gave me the chance to go in theattic. There are four lockboxes in the attic you can bring down to me, and the safes can be accessed from the basement.”
Javi looks at his brothers who nod and head to the stairs to lead them to the second floor. They’ll take care of the surveillance devices up there. They’ll easily be able to reach the hatch to the attic and pull down the ladder. Javi leads the way to the basement, his gun drawn. Even though I’m certain we’re alone, he won’t risk taking me anywhere without his weapon handy. Pablo remains on the first floor to keep watch and to find the cameras and mics there while Alejandro and Enrique follow Javi and me to the basement.
It’s finished, so I point to the workout equipment that covers one of the safes. Javi looks at me in surprise.
“You moved that by yourself?”
It was a fucking struggle to move that. “I had to take all the weights off the rack, then move the rack. I was exhausted and sore the next day and needed a shower afterward, but I was highly motivated. The other one is over here.”
I point to where we kept our Christmas ornaments and other holiday decorations. Moving those tubs was annoying but not challenging on my own. Javi tackles the tubs while his cousin and uncle handle the weight rack. They lift even the heaviest dumbbells as though they’re as light as a scrap of paper. I nearly broke my toes a few times trying to lug the heavy ones off the bottom rack. I let them fall more than lifted them.
I remain quiet while the men work. There’s no need for me to prattle, and they haven’t asked any questions. They work in silence as well. Javi moves the tubs faster than the others move the weights, so I show him which tiles he can pry loose to access the safe.
“This one should have a cache of weapons as well as product.”
