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That gets my attention. I sit up straighter. “You’re not calling about Ruben Escalante?”

“No, but we’ll get into that next. The trucks are late.”

I let that sink in. I’m as surprised as he sounded if not worse. “They haven’t arrived yet?”

“They’re still not here. I assume that’s a bad sign.”

I curse and pull up my calendar. “They left two days ago. This was supposed to be a test run. Small amounts, nice and easy.”

“Your nice and easy is falling apart.”

I close my eyes and steady myself. “I have a feeling I know why.”

“Listen to me, Bastiano. I trust you, I truly do. You’ve been nothing but skilled, loyal, and dependable. That’s what I need right now. But this is not looking good. The very first run, what was supposed to be the easiest of all, is already looking like a failure.”

“The trucks will show up.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I think Ruben Escalante is delaying them to punish me.” I explain to him the situation as simply as I can.

Carmine doesn’t sound happy. “You’re supposed to be the middle man between our two organizations. Your whole job is to maintain this relationship. Instead of playing nice, you decided to get involved in their family affairs and cause trouble?”

I open my mouth to explain, I did it for Marisol. I did it for my wife, and I’d do it again, a thousand times over, because that fucking prick Ruben is a piece of shit and deserves a bullet in the skull.

I got the full story from Cruz last night after bringing him here. Ruben was using Cruz as a messenger, having him carry orders to different stash houses across Austin. But at one of them, some crackhead went nuts and started kicking the shit out of the boy. Instead of protecting him, the guys thought it was funny and watched it happen. Ruben only laughed in his face when he got back with busted ribs and a story about a crazed, drugged-out psychopath.

But Carmine won’t care, even if I explained it all.

“I’ll fix it.” That’s all I can say. Anything else is an excuse and Carmine’s not interested.

“You will,” he agrees. “Because you know there are other families in Texas. I have very good, competent friends in Dallas who would be more than happy to play your part, regardless of your new wife. I don’t want to go that route, but I will.”

“I understand. You won’t have any more problems.”

“Good. Find out where the trucks are. No more late shipments without a damn good reason.”

The line goes dead.

I stare at my hands and sigh.

Well, fuck.

That’s about what I expected. Maybe even better than I thought.

Carmine’s not my friend. He’s my boss at best. His entire life is running his multi-million-dollar drug empire, and if I fail him, that means I’ve fucked up on a scale that’s hard to fathom. I rolled the dice on this corridor and put my family name on the line, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll let down everyone.

There’s a knock at my office door. I glance up as Mari pokes her head inside. “You have a sec?”

“Come in.”

She steps through. She’s in jeans and a button-down, the blouse clinging to her figure, her dark hair down around her shoulders in pretty ringlets and waves. Her soft eyes are bright and shiny, and her lips are pink and full. I realize right then I wouldn’t have done anything differently.

“I wanted to thank you.” She walks over and leans against the side of my desk.

“For what?”

“You’re going to make me say it?”