Café Rouge

Chapter 31: Sailing off a Flammorian engraving

Chapter 31

"So I send the signal out. You'll get the location of all the documents. It's enough to get at least an arrest so then you haul your ass over to my location. I get myself and my girl out and that's it, I'm done. I disappear and you don't come looking for us ever again. Got it?"
He doesn't like this but tough. It's all Carlos is giving him. His conditions or he's out. And they need Carlos Castellano. Never thought they'd be on the same side, though, even temporarily.
"Your girl, she got a rap sheet?" retorts the agent with a jerk of his chin.

It's not a question Carlos is expecting but he answers honestly anyway, "pure as fúcking snow."

The man opposite Carlos weighs this for a moment to assess it's worth and for whatever reason he deems it significant.
"Alright, I'll do what I can about the immunity but not my call. We catch you, gotta process you but...things could get a little busy. Hard to keep track of everyone among the chaos. And after the chaos, there's always fallout to clear up."

Silence blankets as the two men share significant looks, each sizing the other up once again on their foundations.
Finally, the agent breaks it and asks, "Moretti?"
Carlos shrugs, "don't know-"
"Bullshit. Rumour is you're marrying his daughter."

Carlos levels him with a steady stare, gritting out firmly, "you'll find what you find. Never promised Moretti and I'm not going to. Now, are we done?"

A deep sigh from his partner who lastly concedes, "yeah, we're done."

**************

The next stop on Carlos's list is his father's hideaway safe. Telling the staff not to alert his mother of his presence back home, he heads out to the vault and sets himself up to sort through more of the files.
He'd gone through many of them briefly but there's just...something bothering him about some of the documents earlier in his father's life. The time when he would have been only a child. It's in the middle of riffling through that when he gets an unexpected call.

"Not a good time right now, brother," he states distractedly.
"So I heard. Shit, Carlos."
"Yeah."
"You okay?"
"Just a few bruises."
Marco chuckles on the other end before asking, "and your little happy-ending maid?"
"She's fine too. Those ássholes were amateurs."
"Fúckers. You leave any of them breathing?"

There's a bout of silence before, "not many."

"Jeez."
"Yeah, anyway, listen I have to get back to Lola-"
"Dude, come crash at mine. But if you bring your maid along, expect to share. Who know maybe she'll think 2 Castellano's-"
"Marco-"
"Fine, drop her off at the strip club or something then. One of the bítches there can-"
"Not happening. I'm going now. We can talk later."

Carlos only faintly hears his brother's greetings before the phone goes dead.
Not a who minute later and it's ringing again. Carlos takes a minute to accept the call before concentrating back on the piece of paper in his hand.

"Ray?"
"You're not going to believe this shit, Carlos."
Carlos grimaces, "I think it might be easier than you think, Ray."
And just as he suspects, he's completely right.

"Good, now cut him loose."
There's a beat of silence before Ray asks, "what?-"
"No point in getting our hands dirty. He'll be dead soon anyway, especially as his mission failed."

And when his employer gets wind he's the only survivor and has had information extracted.

**********************

She doesn't understand a word they're saying. Well, maybe a word or two but the rest of the Spanish is spoken far too quick for her to grasp. Though, their actions certainly speak louder than the sparse words they say. A few episodes ago, Lola was laughing at how stupid it all was. Now...she totally gets why Maria broke up with Antonio even though he's really hot but then again he did sleep with her mother and the sister she never knew she had. Though, now it's seeming as if letting her sister Teresa into her life is a huge mistake because Teresa's a real piece of work and frankly a two-faced bitch who just acts nice to Maria but slept with Maria's boss Lucas to try and make a play to get Maria's job. On top of that in the last episode it turned out her absent father was actually just a good guy caught in the middle of one of the biggest gangs and had been held captive all this time, but now he's managed to get free, he's tracking down Maria.