Alvarez openly stared at her. He shifted in his seat, palms sliding across the glass top. They squeaked and left a smudge behind, but no one dared interrupt his stunned silence to comment.
Bill sneezed in the kitchen. ‘Sorry.’ He wiped his nose on his apron. ‘Sorry, everyone.’
Alvarez blinked, twisting his expression into one that suggested he was vaguely impressed, and Bee relaxed.
She had a bite. Time to set the hook.
‘Why don’t you explain to me what you mean by that, Mrs Cardello,’ Alvarez said. ‘I will listen and make up my mind about your fate, and the fate of your son, when you are finished.’
‘Thank you,’ said Bee, meaning it. Alvarez promising to wait until you’d finished to decide whether or not you lived or died was practically on par with being knighted.
Or … damed? What happened for women?
Anyway. ‘Please, it’s Ms, but I prefer Bee. It’s true, I do have a history of … let’s call it, creative entrepreneurship. But I’m smart enough to realize a man like you shouldn’t be the target of such an endeavor.’
‘And yet’ – Alvarez crossed his arms – ‘your husband—’
‘My ex-husband is an idiot,’ Bee snapped. She rolled her shoulders back and dared anyone at the table to argue with a glare. ‘That’s why I divorced him and took half his stuff. And I would have been happy to leave it at that if he hadn’t put my son’s life in danger.’
Alvarez looked at Adam. Her bodyguard kept eating his lobster like nothing was amiss.
‘Well, Ms Bee,’ Alvarez said, ‘what is it you are proposing?’
‘I can get you the money.’ Bee held up her glass for a refill. ‘He hasn’t spent a dime. I know where it is, and I will happily retrieve it for you. On four conditions.’
He stroked the stubble on his jaw.
‘First, I want Oliver back, and I want you to call the hit off. I don’t want anyone else coming after my son or me again.’
He considered her for a long moment. ‘As far as the hit goes, I can put the word out. That doesn’t mean everyone will hear it. Your son is safe, unharmed and happy. For now.’
He waved two fingers, and a go-fishing guard handed him an iPad. ‘So you know I am an honest man.’
He let Bee look at the screen. Oliver was on a couch in someone’s living room, playing video games with two grown men at either side of him, a giant smile on his face.
Her heart fluttered in her chest at the sight of her son. ‘How do I know this is live?’
Alvarez nodded at the guard, who in turn waited for Bee’s order.
‘Three,’ she said.
The man pulled a phone out of his pocket and typed something.
Seconds later, the man sitting on Oliver’s left held up three fingers at the camera.
Bee took a bite and chewed, trying to get her thoughts in order before she spoke again. Oliver wasn’t here, and she wouldn’t be walking away with him until Alvarez had the money in his sights. She swallowed her mouthful. ‘Second, I want the twelve percent.’
Alvarez grinned. ‘You want the finder’s fee. I can do that. What else?’
‘I want you to kill Charlie.’
His grin stayed the same even though the smile fell off the rest of his face. ‘Do you now?’
‘Yes. He’s proven himself unworthy as a father.’ Bee took another bite of lobster. ‘I realize that killing Charlie causes a … hmm, territory issue. That’s why Mr DiMarco is here. I take it you two know each other.’
‘We’ve met,’ Alvarez said.
Banks nodded.
She wiped her mouth and set her napkin on the table. ‘Cardello Industries is, of course, the largest manufacturer and distributor of ketamine in the south-east. I’m sure this is why you’ve been able to work with Charlie amicably until now since ketamine isn’t in your – nothing short of impressive – inventory.
‘Banks will be taking over Cardello Industries with your full support.’
Alvarez barked out a laugh. ‘And why would I do that?’
‘I was hoping you’d ask.’ She smiled. ‘You’re not the only one who does their research, Mr Alvarez. I know that your guys still do some good old-fashioned cargo stealing. And I know that a large quantity of hospital-grade propofol was stolen on one of your preferred spots along the border.’ She clicked her tongue. ‘That’s a hard drug to move, even with your vast connections. Your average junkie isn’t really looking for a good nap, is he? Especially now that the King of Pop has been dead for quite some time, anyone looking to try it out has already done so and gone back to their staples.’
He tapped his finger against his lips, twice, three times, and shrugged. ‘Let’s say I do have a windfall of such a drug. What can you do to move it? Hmm?’
She touched her chest. ‘Not me, oh no. But Banks here, he can move it. Cardello Industries already has the routes and buyers in place. Most legitimate, some less so. But we don’t sell it on street corners, Mr Alvarez. We have a team of young women, all recruited from their recent state fair pageant win or high school cheerleading squad, with Special K stored in rolling suitcases who march into doctor’s offices and hospitals and fraternities all across the country and sell it for us at a much more reasonable price than our competitors.’
Banks said, ‘It’s true. A lot of places buy from us to give their patients who might not have insurance a break. Others buy it from us to make a bigger profit. And we do have the occasional, you know, on-the-street wholesaler who can move it with marijuana.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s turned into a popular party drug over the years. Effective and quick.’
Bee leaned across the table and dropped her voice down to a whisper. ‘You know who never gets stopped at the border? Who’s never held by the TSA? Pretty little twenty-somethings in pencil skirts.’
‘You know a lot about your ex-husband’s business model.’
‘She should,’ said Banks. ‘She set it up.’
She languidly sat back in her chair, reaching for her glass and watching the bubbles pop. ‘We’ll use our team, our system, our contacts, to move your propofol for you. At, let’s say’ – she winked at Banks – ‘twelve percent of the profit.’
His lips disappeared, but he didn’t argue.
She took that as a good sign and sipped at her drink as she turned back to Alvarez.
He knocked his knuckles against the glass. ‘You are a brave woman. Crazy, yes. But brave.’
She smiled. ‘Sounds like we have a deal then. You call off the hit, you kill Charlie, you give me the finder’s fee, and you support Banks in his takeover of Charlie’s company.’
‘And you get me the money and you sell this damned propofol. But.’ He exhaled through his nostrils. ‘I have a condition for you.’
‘Oh?’
‘My niece, Cassie.’ Alvarez shook his head. ‘She got caught up in this. She is too good of a girl for the world she has found herself in. I want her back, safely, with me and my wife.’
‘I can do that,’ Bee said. ‘I can get you Charlie, the money and Cassie all in one go. But I want Oliver in the trade.’
‘Can you do it in forty-eight hours?’ he asked, and she understood that it wasn’t a question at all but a hard deadline. If she went past it, the deal was off the table, and she’d find herself without a face fairly quickly thereafter. She didn’t want Oliver subjected to her muscular system.
She held out her hand and arched her eyebrow, still smiling. ‘What do you say?’
Alvarez sent one last look in Adam’s direction before shaking her hand. ‘You have a deal, Ms Bee. Don’t let me down.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it, Mr Alvarez.’
Joey Triggerman held her hand when she super gracefully climbed back into the helicopter.
‘Here you go.’ She handed the pilot a tinfoil-wrapped paper plate. ‘Gluten-free lobster, I’m pretty sure.’
He frowned and started up the blades. ‘I’m allergic to shellfish.’
‘All right.’ Bee buckled herself in and set the plate on her lap. ‘That’s totally fine. Not annoying at all. Had to borrow a notorious kingpin’s tinfoil, but whatever.’
Malika said, ‘Well, I’m starving.’
‘It won’t be any good by the time we get back. Will it? I mean, it is lobster.’
She sighed. ‘I’ll just order room service on Mr Lynch’s dime again.’
Joey Triggerman and Banks got in next. Adam and Alvarez stood on the grass, still talking, but the blades were so loud she couldn’t hear what they were saying.
Banks chose to sit kitty-corner from her – apparently he was regretting last night – and put his headphones on. ‘They’re chummy,’ he groused, frowning out the window.
Bee shrugged and kept her mouth shut.
They were chummy.
Adam and Alvarez parted ways with a brief hug. He shook Martin’s hand and boarded the helicopter, blessedly taking the seat across from her.
Banks waited until they were well on their way before speaking again. ‘You know where the money is?’
‘Oh, no.’ She fiddled with the tinfoil. ‘I have no idea where he put it or if he even still has it.’
Banks’s jaw went slack. He licked his lips and got them moving again. ‘At least you’ll be able to get Charlie down here pretty easy.’
‘Yeah.’ She tore a hole in the foil. ‘Oops. Actually, um, we parted on not-so-great terms, so … might be a little harder to get him to come down here, you know, where everyone is trying to capture him.’
He touched his forehead. ‘What are we gonna do? We’re screwed!’
‘Calm down,’ Bee said. ‘It’s fine. I got this. Besides, your job is done. You sat there and you supported me, and that’s all I needed. You let me handle the rest, OK?’
‘Do you at least have a plan?’
‘I have parts of a plan,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry about it.’
He bent forward at the waist and put his head between his knees.
Adam reached over and smacked him on the back. ‘Buck up, buttercup,’ he said. ‘We got this.’
Banks sat up to stretch the pain out of his back, his lips a tight grimace.
‘That’s better,’ Adam said.
‘What is the play, Bee?’ Malika asked.
Bee pretended to cough and clapped a hand around her microphone. ‘Expand the team.’
‘I need to speak to your CIA contact.’ Bee wasted no time getting to business; the moment the coupé’s door closed, she fished out her phone. ‘Patch me in, do what you gotta do, but I need to speak to her now.’
Malika yawned. ‘OK, OK. Let me give her a heads-up. We’ll do a conference call, OK?’
‘Works for me.’
Adam pointed at the plate of food on the backseat of the car. ‘What are you gonna do with that, Bee?’
‘I only got it for that pilot, but he was super picky.’
They stopped at the next intersection and Adam waved over the nearest panhandler. ‘Here,’ he said, handing him the plate. ‘Fresh Florida Keys lobster. Cooked it myself today.’
The man took it with a perplexed smile. ‘Aww, thanks a lot, sir.’
‘Yeah, no problem.’ The light turned green. ‘Have a good day.’
He drove on, rolling up the window.
‘Are you done?’ Bee asked. ‘Robin Hood, have you done your good deed for the day?’
He grinned. ‘That guy did me the favor.’
Bee’s phone rang in her hand. She jumped.
Adam chuckled. ‘Calm down. You’re as bad as that jerkoff on the helicopter.’
She fixed her hair before answering with a cheerful, ‘Hello!’
Malika said, ‘Bee, this is Agent Cardova. Cardova, this is Bee. I’ve given her a rundown of what we’re looking for, Bee.’
‘Hey, yeah,’ Cardova said. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you.’
‘I can’t say the same.’
‘No, you better not,’ Cardova replied, her tone light. ‘Listen, uh, what you’re asking for isn’t completely legal. Um, at all. Plus, it’s super out of my jurisdiction. But Malika is a huge asset to me, so I’m going to call in a favor, OK? I’m going to send you to this guy I know in the FBI. He’s the worst, truly. He’s a ferret in a suit. But he’s promotion-minded and will help you for his own personal glory. And when you meet him, you tell him that to his face.’
Bee laughed. ‘Yeah, sure.’
‘I’m serious.’
Bee stopped laughing. ‘Oh.’
‘I’ll set up the meeting, and I’ll give Malika the time, OK?’
‘Thank you so much,’ said Bee. ‘We owe you.’
‘Maybe you do,’ Cardova said in that light tone of voice. ‘But I’m doing this for Malika.’
‘Aww, shucks,’ Malika said. ‘I love you too, Cardova.’