Chapter 13
It had taken too long to pack up her apartment. Her nerves were shot and now with her suitcases stacked against the wall near the front entrance, they were trapped like rats in a sewer with no exit. She, Amal and Susana exchanged long glances as they stood in the window across the street, hidden behind a curtain and watched as Torquato Lozano and his crew descended on the apartment complex across the way like flies on shit.
“Is that him?” Susana asked curiously.
“Yes.”
“He’s as big as a house. No fucking wonder you have the biggest kid in all of kindergarten.”
“Yup.”
“How the fuck are we getting out of here?”
this building came up for sale and then I “I don’t have a clue.” She rubbed her jaw. “The thing is my address at work is there. I lived there bought this building, moved here but I never rented out my old apartment. The number of times I’ve seen my father send someone there and leave frustrated makes me laugh. It made me realize how important it was for me to have a second place which was hidden. Since the apartment
apartment and know my address is over there I keep vacant as my dummy place, he’s going to go in there and see there is nothing in wrong. He went to an address which I never corrected and he’s going to presume, correctly, I’m running.”
“Running.” Susana whispered under her breath. “Look at the size of him. Can you outrun a fucking grizzly bear?”
“I don’t know but we need to try. My hope is he’s simply considering me a loose end from the mornin
he knows about Antero.”
after when he offed those guys. My fear is
“How the fuck did he figure it out so fast? You’re sure he didn’t see your face?” Susana questioned speaking so quietly Alcee was wondering if the girl through the man possessed superhero hearing.
“Tito. He was the guy back then who dragged him back into the room where he murdered those men. He must have figured it out. I was never permitted to be in a room during any of my father’s meetings so I never knew who he was but I’m telling you I’ll never forget his face or the blood spatter which had been all over shoes.”
“Why are they chasing you? Look at them. It’s a small army.”
“I’m a loose end, Susana. I saw him kill those men. They aren’t coming at me because the big bad mafia Don fell in love with me at first fuck. I saw what he did. I’m a witness.”
“You’ve kept your mouth shut”
“Or maybe like you said he read your file and knows about Antero, put two and two together and came up with four.” Amal finally joined in the conversation as they watched from the apartment window into the empty living room across the street. The men were scouring the apartment as if looking for clues. Aside from having it cleaned once a month, there was no trace of her in the unit. Yet they were leaving no stone unturned. Every drawer in the kitchen was removed, checked for false bottoms, tipped upside and shoved back in.
She watched as the man who made pro wrestlers look tiny ruffled his fingers through his hair and then punched a wall. She jumped at the
movement.
“He seems really angry. He’s not angry because a witness left, Alcee. He has to have figured out he has a kid. No man is this furious who kept her mouth shut.”
Ver a woman
“He’s going to sit on this place if he thinks this is my last known address,” Alcee sighed agreeing with Amal’s assessment. He knew. Alcee grimaced as her phone rang, and she noted her brother’s name on the display. “Coincidence?” she asked the girls before answering it.
“No such thing,” Amal snipped back.
She answered the phone knowing there was no point in avoiding it, “hello Mercurio.”
Where are you Alcee?”
“Home. Where are you?”
“Funny you should ask. I was visiting Mom this evening because she was feeling a bit under the weather.”
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Chapter 13
“Is she alright?” she wasn’t sure why she was asking. It wasn’t like she believed her mother even once inquired on her after Alcee had been thrown out of the house.
“She misses you. She asked about you and when I didn’t have an update she was very sad. She asks about you all the time.”
“Does she? She never calls.”
“Because he’d shoot her in the head if she did.”
“If someone tried to take my son from me or keep me from reaching out to him, I’d take the bullet.”
“You were a grown woman, and you made your decision. You can’t fault her for letting you live your own life. Speaking of, its why I’m calling. Why is Don Lozano threatening a war with Dad over you?”
“Funny story,” she sighed, “the guy I hooked up with back then gave me an alias. We both lied about our names and identities. I didn’t know who he really was and he didn’t know who I was. For me, he served a purpose to get me out of a marriage. He was long checked out of the hotel where we spent the night when I went back after finding out I was pregnant, and he’d checked in and out of there under a pseudonym. I never knew his real name because he never provided it.”
Mercurio was quiet for several long seconds before he expelled breath, “oh god, don’t say it.”
“You know how I’ve been working for a security company since college. It was bought out three years ago by the Lozano family from Tyrell.”
“I didn’t realize you stayed there after they bought it out.”
How little her brother asked or even cared about her echoed in this statement. “I did. The Lozano family didn’t anything. It’s good money. I like the work.”
“What changed?”
ask me to quit, and nobody said
“The CEO showed up today and I got my first look at Don Lozano in the flesh and realized it wasn’t my first look and I’ve seen a hell of a lot more of his flesh than most people.”
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