Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“Shouldn’t I be there then?”
“That’s up to you.”
“I think I should be there. Let whoever it is know that I’m not scared.”
To that, he nodded.
“Guess you should start looking up what kind of makeup we need to pick up… while I make you breakfast.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Santo
“Jesus Christ,” Luca said, standing on Dasha’s driveway with me.
Dasha was inside trying out her new makeup, getting dressed, and packing bags to come back to my place for the foreseeable future.
We’d made it over to her place after a trip to the pharmacy for the makeup guaranteed to even cover up tattoos and spent an hour gathering all of the most important paperwork—everything to do with the shipping containers, storage units, the mortgage for the house, and the business. It was all sitting in a box in my trunk to bring back to my place and pore over later.
Once we’d finished with that, though, I told her I needed to fill in my boss while she got everything she needed gathered.
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“That could potentially be… a hundred million in drugs.”
“I know.” I’d redone the math in my head over and over, sure I was calculating wrong. In the end, though, that was the exact sum if the other storage units featured the same amount of cocaine.
“Why so many units, though? If there are only a few boxes in each?”
“I was wondering that too. But when I saw the paperwork, it’s because they’re scattered all through the state. My best guess is Phil had dealers in different areas, so he opened the units closer to each of them to limit how much driving around he—or they—would be doing with the drugs on them.”
“Alright. That makes more sense. Christ, I can’t believe he was running this big of an operation under our noses.”
“I know,” I agreed. “And that he lived like this,” I said, waving toward the house. “I get living under the radar when you’re doing illegal shit, but he could have at least kept the place up.”
“Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t say anything to Dasha, but that foundation is cracked. If he was sitting on a hundred mill, why not fix that before it becomes a bigger problem?”
“So much of this doesn’t make sense.”
“What is your end game here?” Luca asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Say you figure out who hurt Dasha. You handle that. She’s in the clear. What is the plan? Does Dasha become a drug kingpin? What does she want to happen to all that cocaine?”
I’d had similar thoughts all through sorting the paperwork alongside her.
Nothing about Dasha said she would be comfortable becoming a drug dealer. But she was sitting on a shit ton of product. It wasn’t like she just had a baggie or two to flush down the toilet and wash her hands of it all.
“I mean, I guess it depends on what kind of deal Phil had going on with whoever was supplying. Did he pay up front? Does he owe installment payments as he moves the product? Either way, the only way this product goes away is if it gets sold.”
“I agree,” Luca said. “Cocaine is easier for us than heroin for that matter. We got a major cocaine dealer right here in town.”
That was true.
Richard Lyon was the biggest cocaine dealer on the coast. He funneled his illegal money through everything from clothing stores to a luxury car dealership. If anyone would know how to handle the situation, it was him. And while he wasn’t exactly an ally of our Family, we did have an ‘in’ to him through the biker club in town who were our allies. The club president’s father-in-law was Richard Lyon. If or when we needed to have a sit-down with the man, we had a way to get that arranged.
“And if there are still strings to the cartel where the drugs came from, Lyon would know how to handle that too,” I said.
“Yeah,” Luca said, nodding. “Alright. So what is the plan today? She’s hellbent on going to work?”
“She is. But I have Massimo bringing his car in to get a bunch of bullshit work done. That he is going to insist on waiting around for. So Dasha won’t be alone while Dom, Dante, and I clear out the closest storage units and get them into a shipping container.”
“Alright. Sounds like you got it all worked out. I want updates on this, though. This could turn ugly fast.”
“Every step of the way,” I assured him before watching him climb in his car and take off.
My gaze scanned the street but saw nothing unusual.
“Okay. Be honest,” Dasha called, making me turn. “Can you see the bruises?”
My gaze slid over her face and neck, knowing exactly how rough she looked before applying the makeup. But the reviews of that makeup were right—it covered just about everything.