Loving a Bad Boy (10 page)

“
Daddy was special. If you
saw him walking on the street, you’d never guess what he did for a
living. My friends thought he worked at the bank. He dressed in
suits, carried a briefcase, even had a car that picked him up. The
Feds were never able to bring him down either. He was legit enough
that it cancelled his other stuff. You’re like him. You can fit in
any situation and own it. I’ve watched how you talk differently to
different people, making them comfortable or scared as hell. It’s
like you have this gift of dealing with people. It was his greatest
asset, kept him out of prison and you’ve got it in
spades.”

Floored, Julio stared at her speechless. He
hadn’t seen that coming. Most times he didn’t know what to say to
people and remained quiet, preferring to listen. Granted he could
take in a situation quickly and act accordingly, but that didn’t
seem like a gift, more like survival. “Wow, thanks mom, I
think.”

Her tinkling laughter filled the room.
“Nothing seemed to get him down. When mama died, he cried with me.
Not many men do that. Those men make great fathers.” She looked at
him, her eyes saying it was okay to be vulnerable. The idea
repulsed him.

“
Fathers? Now you want me
to become a father? With my job? Now I gotta find someone to give
me a kid, because I’d be good?” He laughed at her ridiculous
notions.

She didn’t.

“
Come on, you know how
this job works. I can’t have a family.” He removed his arm from
around her, feeling boxed in.

“
My dad did. He married
twice. He raised me. I don’t think he did a bad job,
you?”

Recognizing that trap for what it was he
shook his head. “No, you are a marvel and I thank God for the genes
that gave this world such a unique gift.”

“
Smart-ass.” She smacked
him. “I still want grandchildren. You can make it happen if you
try. Think outside the box. When you find the right woman, you’ll
want to change for her.”

He choked on his drink. “Yeah okay.” He
snorted. Obviously she had forgotten how unhappy she’d been growing
up living within the Cartel. He couldn’t imagine doing that to a
kid. “Be careful. My daddy had a lot of women and from what I heard
you do to. You got it going on, a lot to offer a woman. I’m your
mama and I know these things.”

Face heating from her remarks, a flash of a
certain brown honey crossed his mind. Now she was someone he
wouldn’t mind feeling comfortable around. Her defense of the older
woman had snagged his attention. Not many people cared how others
were treated. Plus, if she could laugh at herself she was a rare
find. That was impressive.

“
Thanks. I don’t know what
I’d do without you puffing up my ego. Is that in the mother’s
handbook or something?”

Her face lit up before she hugged him tight.
“No, that’s just because I love you smart-ass.”

His eyes closed as he reveled in her
familiar scent and embrace. A feeling of well-being encompassed
him. “I missed you too.”

The following morning, he met up with Tex in
the kitchen while getting a cup of coffee. “You got that file we
talked about earlier?” Tired, he scratched his chest as he moved
from the picture window toward the kitchen. He wanted a can of iced
tea before they started going over files again.

Tex pointed to the dining room table where a
few files lay. “Yeah, I want to show you something I found first
though.”

“
Let me get something to
drink. You eat already?”

“
Yeah, and I’ll tell you
what I came up with.”

He nodded at Tex, who sat at the table.
“What'd you find?”

“
There’s a pattern here.
You don’t see it if you only look at the op for six months, but
once we started going back over a year, it became clear. Shipments
are three days after the previous month one year
before.”

Impossible
. Slowly he replaced the
spoon in his bowl, his hunger forgotten. “No way.” His thoughts
jumbled at the implications. If it had taken them such a short time
to figure out the shipment dates, then others would have as well.
No wonder Francisco wanted this information on Roberto; he had been
careless or lazy, either reason would end his career and life
early.

“
Check this out.” Tex
opened a file and showed him all the dates on a grid. Sure enough,
after a year, the dates looped back to the previous year with the
three day difference. Tex had tracked over two years of shipping
info.

Julio studied the sheet closely. “I’ll be
damned.”

“
This would make it easy
to pinpoint when the shipments arrived, but not how. That’s the
second part of the puzzle. Have they mentioned how that works yet?”
Tex asked, as he pulled out his tablet and pen.

“
No. And I haven’t forced
the issue yet. But now that we have this bit of information, I’ll
get that. Shake the tree a bit, see what falls out. I don’t really
need to know much more since I’ll bring in a new crew to deliver
the product.”

Tex snorted. “The little diva ain’t going to
like that. He’s been fighting everything you do, I understand
jealousy, but something else gotta be going on.” He glanced at
Julio. “What d'you think?”

Julio tapped the file with the graphs
inside. “Carlos is cheating on his wife. She’s the daughter of
Benito Maderas. High ranking Cartel with a badass son who does hits
for Francisco from time to time. From what I understand, he warned
Carlos before allowing the marriage to proceed, what would happen
if his daughter was hurt.” Julio shrugged. “I guess cheating on his
wife falls in that category.”

Tex leaned back in his
chair and sneered. “You guess? C'mon. Few women agree to share
their husbands once they catch 'em. And if you’re saying
he’s
cheating
,
she probably doesn’t know.”

Julio had resumed eating, and swallowed
before responding. For a player, Tex had some prudish ideas when it
came to having a woman. “Women know when their man is unfaithful,
they may not want to acknowledge it, but I think they know. How
they handle it is different. Some cry, some fight, some get even.”
He shrugged. “People are different.” Since he had never had a
serious relationship, it mattered little to him.

Tex shook his head. His eyes took on a
distant glow. “Maybe, maybe not. But a man who cheats, deserves
whatever he gets.”

“
Everyone is responsible
for their own actions, I agree. Now, what’s up with accounting, you
got something else?” Julio asked as he pushed aside the now empty
bowl. “Somewhere in all of that is Carlos' secret. Let’s start
looking at the bank accounts of the women in the
company.”

Tex flipped open his laptop while Julio
grabbed his. Two hours later they had found nothing.

Julio stretched. “The female employees look
good. I’ll start on the list of associates Roberto gave me.” He
looked over at Tex, who was still typing. “If you want to share the
rest of your list, I’ll help so we can wrap up at a decent hour.” A
bone-deep tiredness had latched onto him. Perhaps the discovery of
the shipping pattern had eased some of his tension. He wasn’t sure,
all he knew was for the first time in a week, sleep called to him
like a siren and he planned to answer soon.

“
Here.” Tex slid him a
sheet of paper.

His brow rose as he looked at the names.
“What the…” He glanced at Tex, who stared at the monitor. “These
are men,” he snapped.

“
One is a
transvestite.”

Julio’s mouth dropped. “What? A what?”

Tex chuckled. “You heard me.” He stopped
typing and met Julio’s gaze. “We have to check the men out as well
as the women. It’s possible he’s having an affair on the down-low.
If that’s true, it would explain his fear. His father-in-law might
forgive him screwing a woman, but probably not a man.”

Julio snapped his jaw tight. His mind
whirled at the implications. “Shit.” The older men who ran the
Cartel were a homophobic bunch. No telling what the Maderas clan
would do if Carlos was stupid enough to have a man on the side. He
gazed at the names on the list and couldn’t search through the
list. “You finish these, and I’ll start on the associates.” He slid
the paper back to Tex, ignoring his grin.

“
No problem, I’m almost
done here. If it makes you feel better about your cousin, there are
only two anomalies. I doubt he’d play the field with more than one
man in the company. That would be too messy.”

“
Thanks,” he snapped. He
had every right to sound angry at the problem Roberto’s son
created. If Carlos was cheating on his wife with another man, using
Cartel funds, he might as well go straight to the undertaker for
measurements. Unfortunately, his wife, father, mother and siblings
would suffer for his weakness.

Roberto was Julio’s mom’s
favorite relative, which meant she’d be hurt over this fallout.
Although she’d never interfere or ask for his assistance, how could
he, in good conscious, allow her to be hurt for any reason when he
might be able to alter the outcome?
Damn,
Carlos
. His jaw clenched at the cost of
another favor.

The next hour crept at an excruciatingly
slow pace. Julio knew it was only a matter of time before Tex had
all the pieces together on Carlos. Tex would never have mentioned
another man as a likely scenario if he didn’t have a hunch. Over
the past year, Tex’s hunches were preludes to facts. They had saved
his life and the life of his men quite a few times.

Julio had tried to show his gratitude by
setting Tex up in his own territory, but the man had refused. Ever
since he and his ex-girlfriend had spent a day together, clearing
the air, Tex had mellowed in one aspect and sharpened in another.
He never discussed that day, and Julio had wondered what'd
happened. Tex would still drop a man without blinking, but he
preferred to work behind the scenes and was good at analyzing data.
Julio respected Tex’s skills and moved him up the ranks as his
second.

“
Aw hell.”

Julio stiffened. “What?” The sour tone in
Tex’s voice meant bad news.

“
I was wrong.”

Julio’s head snapped up from the monitor.
“What?”

“
I was wrong, he’s not a
cross-dresser. He’s a transsexual.”

“
Huh?” Julio stared at the
picture Tex slid across the table. At first glance he thought it
was a woman. A very attractive woman. Small boned, heart shaped
face, dark thick hair, hazel eyes. He held the picture up and
stared again, searching for something masculine.

“
Even though he looks like
a woman, he’s a dude, or was one. Had the breasts done. I think he
still has a penis though.” Tex’s abrupt explanation broke the spell
and Julio placed the photo down, shoving it forward. He forced his
face to remain passive as a surge of confusion swept through
him.
Why would anyone do
that
? Obviously, he was not above certain
biases. Another thing for him to work on, but not now.

“
Tie this together. How
does…” he pointed to the picture.

“
Lisa Simmons,” Tex said
without looking up. The printer spat out a few more sheets and he
stood to retrieve them.

“
Simmons?” Julio shook his
can of tea, it was empty and he was too tired to get
another.

Tex placed the sheets in front of Julio and
tapped a column on the first sheet. “Look here, between the first
and fifteenth, there are these small incidentals. Office supplies,
lunches, and a gift or so.”

Julio nodded, still not seeing whatever had
set Tex off.

“
Separately they are
nothing, but added together, they equal this amount.” He pulled a
sheet from beneath the top and slid it next to the other paper. It
was a bank statement for the Simmons…person. The deposit amount was
$2,500.

“
How did you come to this
conclusion? Why can’t this be a real office supply purchase or
lunch expense?” Julio continued looking at the accounting sheet,
noticing the pattern of small expenses over time and corresponding
deposits into Simmons' account.

Tex returned to his seat, his eyes lit with
excitement as he started to explain. “Two things. First off,
Simmons works in accounting.”

“
Shit.” Julio shook his
head at Carlos’ stupidity. “Don’t tell me. There was never any
corresponding paperwork to support the expenses.”

Tex laughed. “Some do, some don’t.
Basically, you have Carlos signing off for the company reimbursing
Simmons for these small expenses. The items are probably returned
and Simmons pockets the cash or something like that.”

“
Why hold on until it
reaches a certain amount? He should know it would raise a
flag.”

Tex stretched and placed his hands across
his waist. “Not if it’s a money order or traveler’s check. Take a
good look at the deposits.”

Julio looked again, and saw that the
deposits were traveler’s checks and money orders in smaller
increments. He didn’t want to know how Tex had accessed actual
copies of the deposit slips. “This is sloppy.”

Tex tugged his ear and grinned. “Well, you
did say the Cartel had someone go over all the records and they
hadn’t been able to find anything, right?”

“
Yeah.” He looked at Tex
and snorted. “Okay, maybe not
too
sloppy. No one else picked up on what you did.
Good job by the way. Time to make a few changes.” Julio tapped the
files. “But this is only what?”