This picture came from my hometown. It was an image a friend of mine had taken of the Alacrán transporting product from the south to the north for shipment.
This image and this receipt proved Luciano Vero had been buying cocaine from the Alacrán Cartel for years. That was their door into New York. Together, they must have stolen the drugs from the Russians.Thatwas how Luciano had gotten away with it.
That was how they connected to Volpe now.
A pop-up window flashed across my screen.Recognition confirmed.Two images loaded, side by side, confirming that two more of the men who attacked the Russians last night matched members of the Alacrán.
They were definitely here.
But now I had to determine—were they the ones who killed my parents? Was Rafael Arboleda in the city?
If he was, I would find him.
This time, I wouldn’t be a scared little boy, hiding under the floorboards, and listening to my mother scream.
This time, I had the full power of the Shadows and our Russian alliance to finish this.
I was going to find the leader, and I was going to cut his throat the same way he cut my mother’s and father’s.
My phone vibrated with Wynn’s number. “You guys all set?” I answered.
“We’re about to head home,” he responded. “The rest of them are done.”
Cas, Wynn, and I had been helping Makarov chase the rest of their attackers through the city. They’d cornered them in themanufacturing district and eliminated them, but a few of the Russian men had been injured. They’d been doing cleanup and triage for Makarov in the time I had been working.
“Good. I’m collecting more data on the Alacrán. Hopefully, we can track them to a source so we can take them out once and for all.”
“Makarov is still livid,” Wynn said. “He’s been ranting in Russian all night.”
“I bet.” I chuckled. Tonight’s attacks had felt like they were poking around, trying to find Makarov’s weak spots, and wear him down. Like throwing spaghetti at a wall and hoping it stuck.
But still, they knew the location of Makarov’s warehouses and they knew the timing of his most recent drug deliveries. It was too much of a coincidence to come to any other conclusion other than they had help.
They must be using Max’s hacker.
“I called because Makarov wants to know how to keep his information safe,” Wynn said. “He thinks he has a security breach.”
I leaned back in my chair and drug my hand down my face. “Tell him I’ll send him a full evaluation of his security systems with a list of recommendations. I don’t have the bandwidth to make the changes for him, but it’ll be a start.”
Wynn’s voice came out as he relayed my message to the Russian. “He says thanks, Ciel.”
Another thing I had to do, but it was necessary.
If we hadn’t helped him tonight, he would have lost a lot more than he did. And if we lost him as an ally, this war would be impossible to win.
“You’re heading back now?” It was now almost dawn, but there was no way I was sleeping for another few hours at least.
“Yeah, we’re hopping in the SUV now,” he replied just as the engine turned over. Cas mumbled something in the background.
“What did Cas say?”
“He said that was a good distraction.”
I huffed a laugh. That was true. We were all missing her. “He has a really good point.”
“I know.” He chuckled. “All right. We’ll be home soon.”
We hung up, and I typed up a quick update and sent the report off to Leona, Ryuji, and Obi. They needed to know whether the Alacrán were pushing boundaries, creating a turf war. If we wanted to make headway here, weaken Volpe’s position, we needed to help Makarov take them out.
