“I guess I don’t really have a choice now, do I?” he finally grumbled. “Fine. You have a deal. But I want a fifty-thousand dollar donation to my campaign fund.”
“Done,” Alvaro said with a smirk as he rejoined us at the desk. “I’m glad that you made the right choice. The boys will be released tomorrow morning.”
“Sure,” the judge huffed. “I’ll make some calls when you leave.”
“I have an appointment at nine a.m. at Everson,” I said as I stood. Our business was done, and I didn’t want to stay any longer than I had to. “They should be ready to leave with me.”
“Fine,” Judge Travis Williams muttered as he picked up his cell phone.
“See you soon,” Alvaro said with a smirk as he opened the office door. “We’ll see ourselves out.”
My heart raced as I followed the giant back through the house. The judge had accepted the deal, no one had been hurt, and Camilo would be released in the morning.
All I had to do was bring Osvaldo up to date and hope that he was as pleased with the outcome as I was.
Chapter 21
“How’d it go?” our driver asked as we strolled down the sidewalk toward him.
He leaned against the shiny black SUV with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, the white smoke curled up over his head, and the sleeves of his black button up shirt were rolled up to his elbows. He looked like every stereotypical mobster that I’d ever seen in the movies.
“Fine,” Alvaro responded in his low, soft voice as he walked around to climb into the backseat.
“Good,” the beefy man said while he tossed his cigarette on the concrete driveway and ground it out with his foot.
I walked around to the passenger side, opened the door to an air conditioned cabin, and slid into the leather seat. I was still shaking from the encounter with the judge, but the adrenaline had started to wear off, and the joy of winning began to take its place.
“You okay?” the driver asked as he took his place behind the wheel.
His dark eyes swept over me like he was checking for wounds, but when he didn’t find any he lifted an eyebrow at me curiously.
“Yeah,” I said with a smile.
“Good,” the man said again with an approving nod.
The beefy man cranked up the SUV, checked his mirrors, and then began to back out of the judge’s driveway. The magistrate stood at the front window, his eyes locked on us, and his hands clasped behind his back.
“So, am I going home now?” I asked as we sped along toward the highway in silence.
“No, Jipato,” Alvaro said from the back seat.
He had his legs stretched out as much as possible and his hands folded in his lap. His almost black eyes stared straight ahead when I turned to look at him, and the familiar smirk tugged at his lips like he was amused by the situation.
“Where are we going, then?” I asked.
My mind flashed to the drive I’d taken with the two men on our way to the police station, through the Everglades, and the alligators that waited to devour me.
“To see the boss,” the giant second in command said. “You need to give him your report.”
“Of course,” I said with a relieved sigh as I turned back around to stare out of the window.
“You did well in there, Jipato,” Alvaro told me.
“Thanks,” I replied. “I’m glad that the judge accepted our first offer.”
“Me, too,” the terrifying enforcer mumbled to himself.
I glanced at the dark haired man using the side mirror, and I saw that he was staring out of his window with a small frown. He ran his hand over the top of his hair and then down into the loose hair that hung around his shoulders. He shook his head and then pulled out his phone to text something.
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked as our driver wove through traffic.
The highway was bumper to bumper leaving the city, but rush hour traffic into the concrete jungle flowed steadily, and the beefy man behind the wheel sped around anyone who drove too slow for his liking.
“You asking me?” the man asked.
“Both of you, I guess,” I said with a shrug as I twisted in my seat to look at both of the men in the SUV with me.
“What’s up?” the driver asked while he slammed on the brakes and shifted lanes to narrowly avoid crashing into the car in front of us.
“How did you get into this business?” I wondered.
“Grew up in it,” the man replied. “It’s a family business.”
I turned my attention to Alvaro. I was curious how the giant had become the second in command for the Miami branch of the Cuban Cartel. I imagined some kind of cage fight where only the strongest survived, and the giant man emerging victorious.
“Family business,” the black-eyed man said without looking at me.
He didn’t add anything else, and I was left to wonder if he’d climbed the ranks by offing his family members. I didn’t think he would actually kill someone he was related to, but he had threatened the judge’s wife and son, so I couldn’t rule anything out.
“Does the boss know we’re on our way?” the driver asked.
The question cut through the silence that had filled the SUV, and I realized that I’d been holding my breath as I waited for Alvaro’s shoulders to relax. The second in command sighed as he turned from his
