Cartels (III): Worst Enemies, Bloody Murder

They sat down and made themselves quite comfortable. It didn't take long for someone to bring over a bottle of champagne and a few wine glasses. They were wary, probably thinking that I had poisoned the wine, funny. Even though that would have been interesting to see, it was not the way of the old families, we were above poisoning our guests, not like this lawless new bloods.

"Please drink, I assure you the wine is not poisoned." I said to them as I picked up my own wine glass and poured the exquisite champagne down my throat. I smiled in the process, and swallowed loudly just so that they would know I wasn't joking.

"Hahahaha of course it's not poisoned, you old families have this rule about both poisoning your guests. It's a stupid rule if you ask me, but I think the rule is one that should be followed, especially for this meeting. We wouldn't want to have blood on our hands now would we?" Pepe said to me as he nodded his head at my chest.

I looked down and noticed a red dot on my chest, lovely. They also came prepared, but every possible vantage point has to have been swept by my people, there's no way a sniper would have gotten on top of or into any of the buildings surrounding this park, we would have known. I heard Nanny Florence shift a bit and pushed her hands into her jacket, but I raised a palm up and stopped her from making any hasty decisions. This game was not yet over. And I rather not have Ron see his father get shot, or even hear the sound of any gun shots.

"You guys really have no respect for the old rules do you? But I understand wanting to have a little insurance. But I have to admit, using a drone is place of a sniper is quite smart, and based on the fact that I can't see it, said drone has to be camouflaged. That's military grade tech, it seems you guys are more resourceful than I first thought possible."

All three of them looked surprised, and that was all the confirmation I needed to prove that my assumptions were right. These guys should really take research seriously, because it would have helped them escape embarrassment and the hell that's to come. But because they underestimated me, they did not think it wise to find out anything about me, because if they did do a little research, they would have known that I was in the army, and the fact that most of my career as a soldier was on blank space, was more than enough proof that I wasn't your average soldier. So coming at me with military grade tech is just pure stupidity.

But calling them out on their move was not just to psych them, but also to let Nanny Florence know what we were dealing with here. Normally these guys or anyone else would not have dared to do this with my grandfather, so they were not really used to scenarios like this. But never the less, I had a harder life than my Baba, there's a whole lot I've seen that he hasn't.

"Well since you know what's up then there's no need to beat around the bush. I know what the rumors are saying, but we didn't do it lil amigo. The shipment was stolen from us and put on the black market, we have nothing to do with it." Pepe said to me as he leaned back on his chair and took a sip of his champagne.

Alejandro looked pissed, just as Jose scrunched his eyebrows a bit. Obviously Pepe was supposed to keep his mouth shut, but he's been running it ever since he got here, and his unremorseful answer was more than enough proof that this guy didn't see me as a threat. He was feeding me a cooked up story without the proper reactions to go with it. This guy didn't care whether I bought the story or not, he wasn't afraid of me.

"Young man what my associates was trying to say is..."

"Really there's another way or meaning to what he just said, I think you would find that I got the message loud and clear Mr. Jose. And so far all of you have been calling me without the proper title and it's beginning to piss me off, but none the less my ego is not why I'm here. All three of you are owing me 500 million dollars worth of merchandize that's so rare and expensive I could sell it to the proper channels for ten times that amount. And 500 million is fifty Bitcoins, and you three know it would be worth more on the black market. It would make you guys enough money to completely break free from the control of the old families, from the law, and definitely from me.

But here the deal, that's my money, and my drugs, and you were supposed to deliver it to my facility in Argentina for research. Yet you took it, and you're not even courteous enough to pretend you're innocent. If you were in my position, let me ask you. What would you do?"

Cutting the ever silent Jose off when he wanted to talk was quite satisfying, and playing this game was fun. I went straight to the point and called them out on their bullshit, sometimes politics, especially gangs politics didn't need a subtle approach. In cases like this, honesty really is the best policy. Plus none of them noticed that the red dot on my shirt was gone, Nanny Florence leaned over and whispered into my ears.

"The drone has been neutralized, all 10 of them. But get this, they're not just military grade tech, they're imperium industries tech. Looks like the board has been up to no good already." She said to me as she pulled back.

Damn it! Looks like this whole shit was more complicated than just three men getting greedy for more profit and what doesn't belong to them. They knew that if they fucked with even one of the old families, the rest would wipe them off the face of the earth. Not unless they ready had the support of one, these fools were pawns in my father's game, this was probably how he wanted to get into the Wade family's dark circle. He was going to undermine me, and somehow fuck with my operations.

If the entire Wade dark empire belonged to me alone, I wouldn't worried, but the Wade family had a council of elders that kept watch over the leader of the family. While they can't really do shit and are just figure heads, they had a lot of pull with every branch of the family. My father was still my grandfather's son, replacing the son with the father on grounds of me being inexperienced and not ready; was something that could happen in the blink of an eye.

Looks like the bible was right; a man's worst enemy is from his own household. But even if this was the case, I couldn't blow this situation out of proportion. Doing so would expose the conflict between me and my father, and that would undermine the Wade family in front of the other old families, it would give them the impression we're weak, and the more greedy families would want to come take a bit out of the pie that is the Wade Dark Empire.

"I'm sure you've realized what's really going on Mr. Wade. However I believe I can offer you a solution. We've been given a very lucrative offer to mess either your business by someone very familiar to the both of us..."

"Jose what the fuck do you think you're doing?" Pepe shouted, completely appalled that the silent Jose had exposed their backhand dealings with my father.

"I'm saving us from total destruction you idiot! Now sit still and keep quiet. We're dealing with a dangerous opponent here." Jose replied to Pepe as he gave Alejandro a look to calm down.

"Dangerous opponent? Are you talking about this child? Jose did the champagne you just drank dulled your senses, I...."

*Bang!*

I have had enough with this guy's mouth. We were sitting on a table carved from stone, that was the main attraction of this park, it was filled with stone sculptures. I had leaned over, moving too fast for even my own mind to comprehend and smashed Pepe's head on the table, busting it open. The other two had already gotten up in shock, but they didn't say anything. I moved my face closer to Pepe and asked him.

"Did you say something?"

He was afraid, I could see it in his eyes, and I swear I could almost smell it. He shook his head vigorously, blood soaking into his glossy black hair, trailing down the side of his face and into his well shaped beard. I guess now he knew I wasn't joking around, but why wasn't he answering me.

"I. *Bang!* Asked. *Bang!* You. *Bang!* A. *Bang!* Question!!! *Bang!*"

My white silk shirt was stained with blood, in fact the motif of the dragons on it seemed to come more alive as Pepe's blood and skull fragments clung to it. I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders before looking at his companions with an apologetic look. I threw his corpse to their feet with more strength and ease than normal for a healthy human male.

"I'm sorry about that, he didn't answer my question. Now I doubt he would be answering any other person's question again."

I turned around a bit and saw that the three maids had crowded around Ron and even had on a pair headphones on his head playing music. I gave them a grateful smile, before turning back to Alejandro and Jose, the blood of their friend still dripping down my face.

"Right! You guys were saying something. So what Solution do you have to offer, and keep in mind you also have to offer restitution for fucking with my business. Because quite frankly I hate you both more than I hate him, and you saw what I just did to him, so imagine how fucked both your faces would be by the time I done with you, it would give your children nightmares just to see the state of your corpses. Now...…give me 20 good reasons why I shouldn't flay you both alive and pour acid into your wounds in the process."