is something completely unrelated to the problem for a little while. So I focus on the stabbing blade. For a little while, it even works.
By the time Giraldo answers, I am something approaching calm.
“Angelo, amico, what is it? Is something wrong? You’ve been calling me more than my wife, man.”
“Are we friends, Giraldo?” I say. “Amico, you call me. And yet this morning I get word that you’ve sent me fucking heroin. Heroin, Giraldo, some fucking rat poison. My product’s filling every hospital ward in the goddamn city. What’re you thinking?”
“Whoa!” Giraldo yells. “Angelo, I assure you, we send only the purest. You know that. We’re doing good business together. Why would I sneak in some poison? What sort of business sense does that make?”
“Maybe one of your old-timers wants to make a play on New York,” I say. “Maybe they convinced you to poison the shipment, and maybe right now they’re gearing up to use the chaos to their advantage. It’s not hard to think of a reason, Giraldo.”
I finger the letter opener as I imagine slitting the man’s throat. Just before Giraldo replies, my phone starts ringing with a call on the other line. I glance at it. Dani. “I’m putting you on hold,” I tell the man. “If you’re not here when I get back, it’s war. I mean that.”
“I’ll wait, Angelo,” he says. “I want to straighten this out as much as you.”
When I switch the call to Dani, I can hear something is wrong right away. It’s in the way she’s breathing. It sounds hollow, like she’s been crying.
She doesn’t talk for a few seconds. Then she says, “Guess where I am, Angelo.”
I swallow, because I already know. It doesn’t take a genius to figure it out. Her brother is a junkie college student. And this shipment of King Kong hospitalized dozens of people just like him.
“I’m staring at my comatose brother,” she continues. “Your King Kong put my brother in the hospital. And I actually thought I had feelings for you. Can you believe that? What a fucking idiot I am. Our deal is off. I’m not your fake wife. I’m not your anything. You’re nothing to me.”
“Dani, wait—”
“No!” she cries. “Leave me the fuck alone.”
“It’s heroin,” I tell her. That bit of information might help save her brother. It is the only thing I can do right now. “It was cut with heroin.”
A pause, and then, “I’ll let the doctor know. Goodbye, Angelo.”
She hangs up; the call automatically switches back to Giraldo. I pick up the letter opener. I feel like I’ve been punched in the chest. Only now, when I’m going to lose her, do I realize just how much I’ve begun to care.
“You need to fix this, Giraldo,” I snarl.
“Angelo, of course,” he says. “But I swear to you, I am not behind this. I swear on my life.”
“Let’s say I believe you,” I muse. “Is it possible that somebody tampered with it on your end?”
“No, Angelo—”
“Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear,” I say coldly. “Tell me the truth.”
He sighs. “It is possible, but very unlikely. I run a tight operation.”
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Investigate things on your end. Pay special attention to any old-timers who might not like us young men making a play of our own. I’ll look into things here. But Giraldo, you know what happens if I discover you’re lying to me, don’t you?”
I hang up before he can answer, tossing the letter opener from hand to hand. My head is spinning with everything that’s happened, but I know I have to stay focused. I think about going to the hospital to see Dani, but would she even see me? I haven’t even explained to her that this was an accident. It was never supposed to happen like this. Would that matter to her?
I growl, standing up, conflicted and angry. If Giraldo isn’t responsible for this, then surely it’s the Albanians. Which means we have a rat somewhere in our organization. How else did they get access to our warehouse?
I decide to head down to the warehouse and do some investigating, but I’ll swing by the hospital first. I need to see Dani, even as I tell myself that I need to be hard. But I can’t get her words out of my head.
I actually thought I had feelings for you.
I go down to the garage and get in my car, driving out to the hospital. When I get there,