The Secret Between Us
Chapter 42

Mateo parks the car in front of what looks like an abandoned shed and once he turns off the car, he gets out of it and I quickly do the same -Where are we? – I ask rather confused.

-Come on, don’t ask so many questions,” he indicates and continues walking until he opens the huge gate in front of us and we enter.

The place is dark, at first sight it seems to be completely empty, but suddenly we find a kind of false wall where there is a door that he opens with a key and when we cross it, I feel like I’m inside one of those movies where they show the secret offices of the FBI or the CIA, and in fact I’m inside a CIA office where there are dozens of monitors, computers, and people working -Wow- It’s the only thing I can say and despite all the internal chaos I feel because of Giovanna, this is very difficult to ignore.

-As you can imagine, you can’t tell anyone about this place,” he points out.

-I know,” I reply and follow his steps until we enter an office.

-Take a seat, Izan.” He offers me a seat while he does the same on the chair on the other side of his desk.

-I need to get out of all this, I can’t take it anymore,” I repeat once I’m sitting in front of him.

Mateo takes a deep breath and stares at me, “I understand Izan, what you told me is very serious and I understand that you are furious, but before we make a decision about you, I need to know what you have been able to find out. – He explains, maintaining his position on the situation.

As requested, I gained my father-in-law’s trust and he told me it was time for me to get down to business and had my brother take me to an area of the casino that looked like a wine cellar, but to my surprise it was a sort of private room that led to a hallway where there were many doors. There were men with very beautiful women dressed in very sensual clothes talking, others were even touching each other provocatively and were going towards the corridor where the doors were, obviously it was a brothel. Then we went down a staircase that took us to a part of the underground car park of the casino, and it was empty, there was only a van there and nothing else. At that point Batista asked me to help them and I didn’t know what he was talking about until he opened the door and there were several women inside. Each one of them was dressed to kill, they were physically perfect, and they threatened me not to mess with any of them. I asked him what he was talking about, and he told me they were all “brand new” and worth a fortune. – Story.

-And what happened next? – Mateo asks.

My brother told me to go to him and he would tell me a bit more about all this because my father-in-law wanted me to take charge of the place.

-And what else? –

They took me to one of the VIP areas, where my brother, my father and I met with my father-in-law. They were talking about how everything was going great and that the merchandise was of high quality. They said they would pay a fortune for them, that’s what my brother said. Lorenzo told him that I would be in charge of negotiating the new merchandise, obviously they were talking about the women. At that moment I explained to him that I was not very familiar with how the business worked, but that if he explained it to me I would do it,” he said and Mateo took notes as I told him what happened.

-And what did he tell you? – He asks.

He explained to me that each “merchandise” has a pre-established destination, and others would stay there. He told me that my job is to make sure they get to their destination and that I get paid when I receive them. – I explain. -I questioned whether they were already sold and he said yes, I should just deliver them and make sure nothing happens to them. –

-Did he tell you the places? – Mateo asks and I deny.

-He told me that tomorrow he would give me the list, that the “merchandise” could not remain here for more than 48 hours because it would be in danger of spoiling before it reached its final destination.

-Did he tell you anything else? – Press.

-We only talked about money, they told me that, if I was trustworthy, they would make me part of the business.

-And where were the women from? – He asks.

-Russians… or well, from around there, but they spoke Russian.

Mateo looks at everything I’ve written down in his notebook and then looks at me while he doubts his words. “Izan, we’re a long way from being able to dismantle this whole network… the information you’ve obtained and the information you’re about to obtain could lead us to put an end to all of this once and for all,” he explains.

-What are you asking me? – I ask, extremely frustrated.

-48 hours for them to give you the information on the locations and set up an operation,” he explains and I snort.

-Do you realise what you’re asking me? – I ask him seriously and he nods.

-That you go with Giovanna, pretend that everything is fine and that you tell your father-in-law that you just needed a bit of air to come to terms with what happened, but that everything is as it was before.” He sums up, “48 hours and you and Mia can go wherever you want and have your baby.” He asks me and even though I don’t want to, I think of Mia, my daughter, and those women, and I know it’s the right thing to do.

-48 hours, not one more, not one less,” I say and he nods.

-Perfect, then let’s go, we have an operation to set up.” He speaks and stands up making me follow him while I think that maybe I’m taking a bigger risk than I should.