6
Ricardo Mendoza lit a cigarette, took the first long and deep inhalation and let the smoke slowly flow through his nose and mouth. He was sitting behind the wheel of his black Lincoln, parked in front of The Rose, waiting for a report which would perhaps help him carry on the plan he had been setting in motion in his head for years. The corners of his lips initiated a brief smile, but an ironic one, hiding much more than a long hoped-for satisfaction, nesting a long-hidden anger. He had held every single impulse of aggressiveness or rebellion carefully prisoner of a so-polished controlled attitude.
Now the time had come to let out just about enough to make his entourage understand he was not to be considered as The Little One any longer. His first disciple had been Matt, willingly and totally dedicated to his master. And he never doubted there would be more along the way, soon... very soon.
Little Ricardo had been raised by his uncle Al, with the view to making a "tough" guy out of him. Though he was the son of Al's best lieutenant and the nephew and potential heir to the Fuentes heritage, Ricardo Mendoza was often referred to as "El Niño", perhaps because of his short stature, but most certainly because everyone had seen the little boy for so many years, as a kid, following Alejandro almost everywhere, mimicking him in every way, trying to get the attention of everyone around and often exploding in uncontrollable rage when no one would recognize his modest achievements as a genuine member of the clan, when he reached the age to take care of certain aspects of the business.
He always paid his respects to El Fuerte and never questioned any of his decisions. The latter even made him abandon his country and secret love, a young girl from a modest family he had to visit once for lack of "protection" payment. He reluctantly left his love behind, yet was so excited about the prospect of new doors opening to him in the United States that he actually left everything else without the slightest trace of a regret. He was soon to be disenchanted when Al did not let him help expand the business as he had expected to.
In the years that followed, Rico had been holding the frustration carefully hidden deep inside his heart and was waiting for the right moment to either present the new reality to his uncle or to take even more radical measures.
In the eyes of everyone, Ricardo was the perfect nephew, obedient and serving Alejandro with utmost devotion and respect and learning with great attention all there was to learn about the business.
For Rico, it was just a matter of time before he could finally take his place in the hierarchy and be acknowledged as a true representative - even more than that - of the Fuentes empire. He had learned patience and indeed, patience was his most valuable asset right now.
The only detail which had disturbed the past few weeks' tranquility had been the arrival of Tessa in the neighborhood and the fact that she was Alejandro's property, or so it seemed. She had appeared one evening, out of the blue and all of a sudden, his uncle had not been able to take his eyes off her, even though Ricardo was pretty sure that she never shared his uncle's bed. He could not clearly make out what her purpose was to be there - to sing each evening until most of the clients would grant her a standing ovation, to share some time with Alejandro at The Rose, to walk with him along the beach. And yet Rico had the weird impression they never shared a night together, and this was bothering him more than he would admit.
He was strangely and irremediably attracted to Tessa. Since the first day he saw her. There was something about the way she talked - with so few words and always in a low voice, and the way she usually behaved, moving as if speed was her worst enemy and could jeopardize her health - that had turned his head even though he was known to be the cold-blooded type.
He had made a few attempts at inviting Tessa for a drink. She had turned him down, politely, coldly, if not roughly at times, making it clear she was Al's. This had made him even more irritated and keen to take revenge on his uncle, first because he was not allowed to help in the business as he wanted to, and then because there was some beauty there who would not even look at him, but ignored him or worse, rejected him. His pride could not take it and a bitter feeling of disgust slowly grew in Ricardo's heart.
Only a few months before Tessa arrived, he had managed to discreetly put Matt Perkins on Alejandro's path, while his uncle was looking for a body guard replacement. Ricardo considered Perkins to be his secret weapon. After the Miami failure - what Ricardo indeed considered to be a master failure, because Al had only stayed there for two years and decided he wanted to move West - Ricardo started to carefully take care of his future, positioning his pawns here and there, gathering valuable recruits around him and waiting in the dark, like a patient cat waiting for the mouse to come out of the hole. He was waiting for the final strike.
Perkins had been instructed to spy on Alejandro Fuentes since day one and had done a good job at that. Because he had been trained in the most perfect way there was, Perkins had revealed himself to be the most perfect recruit for Rico. Every day they were exchanging details and impressions and feedback and finally Ricardo had entrusted a special mission to Perkins. What he had asked Perkins to do allowed him to keep an eye both on his uncle and Tessa and be aware of what was really happening between the two. What had been reported until now had only been disappointing, although he had hoped for a real good reason to be mad at one of them... or both. No such thing for now.
Perkins was a tough guy, tall, strong, stately; but somehow, he gave the impression of being fragile sometimes - at least to the trained eye - perhaps because of his reaction when spoken to in an aggressive manner. He then started to look at the floor and his shoulders seemed to lower accordingly. His attitude was then more the one of a lectured kid than the one of a drug lord body guard. What made most people, except Ricardo that is to say, fear Perkins was his strong build, square jaws and the extraordinary swiftness of his reactions and way of pulling his gun. It was common knowledge in the milieu that more than one never saw the fist that smashed their face or heard the sound of the bullet that hit them before it was too late. Sometimes, Ricardo had thought of his favorite ally as "Speedy Matt", which was a well earned nickname, if ever.
That's why he had entrusted Perkins with that special mission a couple of weeks ago. Even though it had not given the expected results yet, Ricardo never doubted that this would finally bear its fruits and he would be more than pleased with the feedback. The only question now was when he would collect the fruits of his patience. Maybe tonight. He opened the window to throw his cigarette on the road and closed it again. The sky had been reluctantly granting a truce for a few hours but more rain clouds were traveling from the horizons and the city would soon be the victim of the skies' fury one more time.
S*H ~ S*H ~ S*H ~ S*H ~ S*H ~ S*H ~ S*H ~