Until this conversation, I merely wanted to fade away and never see Drew again. I would’ve been happy to never hear his name again. But in no uncertain terms, Elle is giving me the opportunity for revenge. I can’t think of anything I want more besides knowing Javi is safe next to me.
“Do you have a shovel or two?”
“Madeline, I’ve got every tool we could possibly need to unearth things that have been buried for generations.”
“What do we go after first?”
“I need to get in touch with a couple of contacts. Do you know where Drew would be right now?”
I shake my head. “He could still be up in Albany and sending men down here to deal with me. Or he could’ve come down here and is hiding somewhere.”
“He believes Javier’s family won’t find him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then that’s the first thing I need to do. Once we know where he is, we can decide what to go after first. It all depends upon how easily he could get in the way. You can’t overhear these conversations I need to have.” She stands. “And it’s safer if you stay down here. You saw me turn on the jammers, but that’s no guarantee someone hasn’t figured out where we are.”
I bite my bottom lip but nod. There’s nothing I can do, and it’s not worth arguing over something that’s none of my business. She might already know several of my secrets, but that doesn’t mean I’m entitled to know hers.
I stay in the panic room while she heads into the main part of the basement. Once the door’s closed, I can hear nothing. I’m left to my own thoughts, but I force myself to sit and count. I’m not trying to get to a specific number. I’m not even counting the seconds or minutes. It’s something to focus on so my imagination doesn’t run wild.
With the lack of reception down here, the burner I have doesn’t register the time. I don’t know how long it’s been since Elle stepped out of the room, but she comes back in with a smile.
“I made some calls.”
I don’t ask for any specifics. Even if I wanted to know, she can’t and won’t tell me.
“You said your boys helped you make this into a panic room and then into a storage room. What are they like?”
Her smile broadens. We chat for the next hour and a half about her three adult sons. They sound like nice guys, but if she’s Mafia adjacent, I wonder if that means they’re full-blown Mafia. She tells me funny stories about them when they were younger, and she’s clearly a proud mother as she describes them now. I tell her more about growing up knowing Enrique and what things were like with my sister.
The time passes faster than I expected, and it’s given my nerves a chance to calm down after our fucking car chase. I canalmost convince myself it didn’t happen. That it was the product of my imagination. I know it wasn’t, but I don’t feel as panicked. I’ll feel a hell of a lot better when Javi gets here. Fucking traffic. I refuse to consider any other reason’s delaying him.
We pause mid-conversation when her phone pings.
“It didn’t take my contact that long to figure out Drew’s still in Albany.”
She turns her phone toward me, and I see he’s in his favorite bar. The TV on behind him has the stock market ticker across the bottom. I can see the time and date and know someone took it an hour ago.
She turns the phone back to face her and taps on the keyboard.
“I texted Enrique that I know where he is.”
“Do you have any idea when that’ll be?”
“Probably five or ten minutes after Javier arrives.”
“How long do you think that might be?”
“Depends on traffic.”
That could be five minutes or five hours since I don’t know where in the tri-state area he’s coming from. It’s the same for Javi. I spoke to him before Elle made her calls, and he said he was on his way, but he’s still not here. I swallow my frustrated sigh as she continues to talk.
“Madeline, with Drew still in Albany, there’s plenty we can do to fuck him over without him knowing who’s doing it. He might assume it’s Enrique or Javier, but he won’t be able to trace it back to them. He doesn’t know enough about me to ever guess I could be involved. He won’t think it’s you because I doubt you have the skills or contacts to do what I can.”
I open my mouth, but she shakes her head.
“Told you, it’s a story for another day. We start with the Tremblays in Montreal. I have a favor or two to call in with them. What I can tell them about the O’Sheehans is information they’llgladly pass along to the O’Rourkes. Then Dillan can owe them a favor. It’ll also keep me in the Tremblays’ good books in case Enrique needs to have any dealings with them in the future.”
