Tempted by the Sinner

If she were smart, she’d turn around and run away. She should go home and pretend like she never saw anything, never entered into a deal, never met me before in her life.

If she had any clue, she’d get the hell away.

The box was a nuclear bomb, dangling in the air. It was a doomsday weapon about to explode.

It was poison in the veins of the city.

And she was right in the center of it all.8MonaI thought he would take me back to his house, but it became clear that we were going somewhere else. I stared out the window as we pulled into Old City, into one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city where million-dollar homes were the norm.

I shook my head and tried to get the image of the snake skeleton out of my mind. He’d turned pale when he saw it lying there in the box, the bones bleached white. I thought I saw fear in his expression, but it quickly disappeared, replaced by something different.

Anger, I thought at first, but then I realized it was determination.

“You told me you’d explain,” I said, breaking the silence.

He glanced at me and I could tell he was chewing it over in his mind. I leaned a little bit closer, my heart racing. I was looking forward to our little dinner together, I thought I might be able to get a few drinks in him and maybe pry some information out, but this was better. He was off his game a little bit, and that snake thing was a big deal.

That snake was probably something I never should’ve seen.

“Come on,” I pushed. “This doesn’t have to be in the article if you don’t want it to be.”

“You can’t write about this,” he said, staring straight ahead.

“I won’t then,” I said.

“No, Mona, I’m serious,” he said. “You can’t write about it, not because it would piss me off, but because it would endanger your life.”

I leaned back in the soft leather seat of his fancy sports car and stared at him.

“What does it mean, Vince?”

He grunted and gripped the wheel tighter.

“What do you know about cartels?” he asked.

“You mean, like, the Mexican drug gangs?”

He nodded. “Exactly.”

“Not much,” I said. “Just that they’re big and powerful down there.”

“They’re big and powerful all over the Americas,” he said. “One particular cartel has been aggressive these last few years and has been gaining a lot of ground. They’re called the Jalisco, and we’ve been buying their product almost exclusively since we stole a deal with them away from the Russians.”

I frowned a little. “Drugs?” I asked. “I thought you were a legitimate businessman?”

He stared at me, his expression flat. “You want to fuck around, Mona?” he asked. “This isn’t a fucking game.”

I bit my lip and nodded. “Go on,” I said.

“I don’t know exactly what the box means, but I can tell you that it’s from them,” he said. “That snake is the calling card of the Jalisco. They send it as a warning when there’s something serious going on. When a snake skeleton shows up like that, and you don’t pay attention and do what it says, then someone ends up dead. The Jalisco don’t do second chances.”

I shook my head. “I don’t get it,” I said. “You’re in business with them, right?”

“Right,” he said.

“So why would they want to hurt you?”

“I don’t think it’s directed at me, exactly,” I said. “And I have some theories about what it means.”

“They should just come out and say what they want.”

He snorted. “Not how they operate,” he said. “They’d rather play games from the shadows, push things this way and that way, cause a little havoc, plant a little fear. That’s what they’re all about.”

“They sound like great people to be in business with.”

“They’re reliable,” he said. “They show up with the agreed-upon quality product, they don’t make last-minute changes, they don’t demand more. We do business and that’s it. But this snake shit…” He trailed off.

I watched him but it was clear he didn’t want to finish that sentence. I sat back and leaned my head against the headrest.

Mexican cartels and dead snakes. This was already so far from what I expected to find with Vince.

I knew he was a gangster going into this. I knew there’d be some violence, maybe a little danger. But the mobs hadn’t been all that active over the years. Gang violence was at an all-time low, and I figured things would stay that way.

But now I realized violence was down only because the pot hadn’t quite boiled over yet.

It was coming, though.

Vince parked in front of a simple brick facade home with a bone-white stoop, black railing, navy shutters, and a black door. He parked and stared at me for a second before clearing his throat.

“You’re about to meet someone,” he said. “Few people in your profession ever get to meet him. I’m warning you right now, if you open your mouth at the wrong time, if you say the wrong thing, he’s going to hurt you.”