JOAQUIN
Sleeping alone wasn’t easy these days when you had the entire world on your shoulders. Running a business that dealt in the public eye and masked my underworld dealings caused many sleepless nights. I was in my car, heading to a meeting with Lin-Sae of the Chinese mafia. The underboss was meeting me at neutral territory at Antonio’s restaurant, a place where most deals were struck. Gael was driving, as I had let Leonardo have the day off to be with his family. Gabriella was driving behind us with Hugo and a few more men. She was the only woman on my team who was a better shooter than me. Even though Gael was my right-hand man, I called on Gabriella to handle the cleanup as the enforcer. We met when she tried to steal from my family’s store back in Portugal, and my father wanted to
