Greed (The Deadly Sins)

“Apparently she’s a friend of Geno’s.”

“Geno? Who’s Geno?” Shy asked.

“He’s one of Carter’s men,” Black informed her.

“They me

t when you invited her to Ryder’s party,” Xavier said, as anger and frustration washed across Shy’s face.

“Tell me what you got on The Comodoro Cartel?” Black asked.

“The Comodoro Cartel was founded by Juan Esteban Ferreira and Sebastián Esteban Ferreira, and Garza Cabrero. They used to work for Barrera ‘El Loco’ Iñíguez before they broke away and formed their own cartel.”

“No shit.”

“I knew you’d find that interesting. The Cartel leadership is comprised of the Esteban Ferreira brothers, Garza Cabrero and Valentino Hidalgo, and Camilo Patiño,” Carla said, and continued telling them all that she had found out.

“Thank you, Carla. I know I don’t have to tell you to stay on this,” he said, and he and Shy stood up.

“No, you don’t. I’m on this hard for you.”

“Thank you, Carla,” Shy said. “I really appreciate it.”

When they left the office, not knowing that she was on a flight back from Nassau, Black wanted to go looking for Valencia. Carla had provided them with her home and office addresses. Shy knew her husband, knew what he’d want to do, and normally, Shy would be down. She had even brought along her big purse just in case Black wanted to go hunting. But instead of saying, Yeah, let’s go get that bitch, she glanced at her watch.

“But we should go home first.”

“You’re right,” Black nodded in agreement, thinking about their children. “No point disrupting their schedule any more than this already has.”

“Take us home, Chuck,” Shy said.

The second that the car had parked in front of the house, the front door swung open and Michelle came running out. She breezed by Shy, “Hi, Mommy,” ran up to Black and threw her arms around him. “Hi, Daddy,” she said, burying her head in his chest.

“Hi, baby girl. How you doing?”

“I missed you.”

“Really?” he kissed her on the forehead, and then they started for the house. “I missed you too. Maybe next time I’ll take you with me.”

“Really? That would be so cool,” she said, excitedly.

“Welcome home, Mike,” Joanne said, with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Hey, Sandy.”

“Hey, Mommy. Where is everybody?” Shy asked, as she went into the living room and put down her purse.

“M and Mansa are taking a nap, and Easy is in his room. He’s on punishment.”

“What did he do?” she asked.

“I’ve told that boy a million times not to play with that basketball in the house because he could break something.” She pointed to the table where a lamp used to be. “But a hard head makes a soft behind.”

“I’ll go talk to him,” Shy said, and headed for the stairs to go talk to her son.

That evening, the Black family had dinner together as they always did, and then Black and Michelle disappeared into the media room and played Tekken, her favorite video game, until she announced that she was tired of beating him and went up to her room.

Black gave some thought to going to J.R.’s to talk to Rain, and then they’d pay Valencia a visit, but then he had a better idea. He got up, turned off the lights and left the media room. Black went upstairs and saw Shy coming out of Easy’s room. After dinner, his punishment was to stand and read aloud to Shy, and then tell her what he read had meant.

“Hi, baby,” she said, holding the open door.