Chapter 321

Lucas Mario beckoned for me to sit down while he continued his conversation on the phone. It had only been a few days since the positive DNA results, but playing with Mario’s feelings wasn’t all that difficult.

I could clearly see that he felt guilty for not taking care of me from the start, which would hopefully make it a bit easier for me to manipulate him.

All I had to do was make him trust me so I could get to all his secrets and send him to prison, where he belonged. I only had one goal, and that was to get rid of him.

The only person who might get in my way was him. Victor.

As I sat down on the chair, he stared at me with an angry look in his eyes. He didn’t want me here, and trust me-I didn’t want to be here either.

“Yes, yes-you have to come by and meet my son!” I heard Mario Castillo speak over the phone. As expected, Victor rolled his eyes.

“What kind of work he does?” Mario laughed nervously. “Oh, you know…just some government stuff.”

Victor chuckled at Mario’s words. Mario clearly didn’t want his close associates to know that I was working in law enforcement, and he was also not aware that I knew everything about the Castillo’s. I knew they had denied any cartel ties and were supposedly in the liquor business-but all the authorities who were not corrupt knew better. They couldn’t fool me, Mario shot me an apologetic smile and put his phone on speaker-which was probably due to two reasons. He either didn’t want to make me feel left out, or he didn’t want to seem suspicious. “It’s one of my close friends, Hugo!” Mario whispered.

Hugo, that name rang a bell. I had done my research well enough to know that his friend was one of the dirty guys.

“By the way, my wife and I saw Marvin at dinner with a woman,” Hugo mentioned. “Elena-I think?”

He sighed. “Misty was heartbroken when we told her, but it’s something she will have to get over.”

Misty, Marvin’s ex.

“Ah, yes-Alana!” Mario told his friend. “She’s been here for a while. Nice girl, pretty to look at-and Marvin seems to be really into her.”

I was pretty sure her name was Elena.

“And her background-is she clean?”

For a second, Mario’s eyes got big as he covered his phone with his hand. “You’re on speaker, Hugo!” He spoke awkwardly. There was a short moment of silence. “She’s a clean and well-

mannered woman.”

At that moment, I knew that my suspicions were correct. Elena hid her identity from the Castillo’s, not surprising considering their monstrous history. At least she wasn’t foolish and had enough strength to think with her last remaining brain cell.

“O-oh,” Hugo answered. “I was just shocked to find out that Marvin was engaged-and Elena is pregnant-

“P-p-pregnant?” Mario stuttered while Victor almost lost his balance. George and Alex Torres were not going to like this one.

“Yes, I’ve seen it all,” Hugo confirmed. “Marvin proposed to her with a big expensive-looking ring, and Elena told us that the baby is growing well-

“Victor, is this true?” Mario whispered while Victor was just as confused. “How would I know?” Victor mouthed.

For the rest of the conversation, I leaned back and closed my eyes, hoping this would all turn out to be fake news. If Elena were pregnant, George Torres would most likely ruin the plan and expose us by demanding back his daughter.

After Marvin beat up Victor for supposedly disrespecting Elena, I had managed to convince George that his daughter was somewhat in good hands, so this new information did not come to my advantage.

“I’m sorry for the long wait, son.” Mario apologized after ending his phone call. “It’s always something with Marvin, isn’t it?”

“Yes, father.” Victor agreed. “Do you want me to contact Marvin?”

“No.” Mario stated. “I don’t want you to bother your brother during work.”

Mario hummed, pointing his finger to the door. “You should get back to work so I can spend some time with Lucas.

What kind of work? What were the Castillo’s up to?

The only thing leaving Victor’s mouth was a dismayed growl as he left the office. I didn’t have any time for Victor and was determined to ignore him, but Mario wasn’t making it easy for me.

“So, now that he’s out of the way.” Mario smiled, looking at me. “I would like you to tell me some more about Carmela.”

I planted a smile on my lips, but all I could feel was disgust. Being alone with this man who abandoned my mom made me pissed, and the fact that he couldn’t stop asking about her pissed me off even more.He didn’t even bother for all these years, so why bother now?

“I think I already told you everything, sir,” I spoke politely. Talking about my mother was already hard enough, and I didn’t want to discuss that with a stranger.

“Sir?” Mario chuckled. “Lucas, I’m thrilled that you’ve decided to spend your break here–because that will give me the opportunity to get to know you a bit better.

“So am 1.” I lied. It was not my decision, but George’s. Gaining Mario’s trust was the only way for me to get behind all of the family secrets.

“As you can tell, Victor and Marvin are not the closest, Tiago has been through a lot, and Karina is Karina -so it feels nice to have someone who’s on my side.”

On my side? When have I ever told this man that I was on his side? The same man who couldn’t take care of me, even though he took care of Victor, who was not his biological son.

“Yes, I agree. I lied through the pain. Getting information through Tiago and Karina, as I was initially supposed to, turned out not to be an option. Tiago seemed like a manipulative liar, and Karina was clearly very unstable-which would only complicate my mission.

“So, why did you come here?” Mario asked. “Not that I mind, of course.”

If it were up to me, I would’ve started my master plan to take him down a long time ago-but deep down, I knew Mario Castillo wasn’t stupid. He didn’t fully trust me yet, so I didn’t want to risk anything.

“I came here to see my…father.” I nearly gagged. Even worse than that awful name was the smug smile which had appeared on Mario’s lips.

Mario cleared his throat. “I’m happy to see my son.” He spoke. “Now tell me, do you play chess?”

Mario got up from his chair and walked to a cabinet. “I love chess. Do you play?” I asked, surprised.

Mario took a breath and grabbed a bottle from the cabinet.

“I used to, but my other children aren’t really into that game-”

“Would you like to play?” I asked. This was the perfect opportunity for me to get closer to him, and I was not going to let it go to waste.

“We can play.” Mario nodded. “But I have to warn you-I’m very competitive, and I don’t like losing.”

“That’s interesting.” A chuckle escaped from between my lips. “Neither do L.”

I was almost embarrassed to admit it, but some time later, I had finally accepted my loss. It might’ve been a game of chess, but it was enough proof that I shouldn’t underestimate Mario Castillo.

In a way, I felt guilty because I wasn’t supposed to have fun-but I did. It still didn’t change anything, and I had not forgotten everything this man had put me through.

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Mario spoke. “You’re the only one of my children who I can see as competition.”

“I see.” I yawned. “We will have to have a rematch soon.

Our so-called quality time got interrupted by a knock on the door. Mario had an annoyed look on his face. “Enter!”

“It’s me, sir.” Panther walked in with a box in his hand, while his eyes didn’t leave mine. “I didn’t know you had company, I’m sorry-

“No, it’s okay.” I got up from the chair. “I was about to leave anyway.”

Before I could take a step, Mario wrapped his hand around my wrist. “I don’t think the two of you have met.”

“We did meet,” Panther confirmed, but Mario shook his head. “No, you didn’t meet him as my son.”

He turned his head to me. “This is Pedro. He’s also like a son to me!”

I had prepared myself for a rude introduction and was pleasantly surprised when Panther placed the box on the floor to pull me into a friendly hug. “Nice to meet you, Lucas!” He patted my shoulders.

The cold aura which I had felt when we had first met at the hospital had disappeared entirely. So the rumors were indeed true. He was easy to get close to, meaning he could perhaps be the key to George’s mission. Justice for Maddens.

I forced a smile on my lips. “Nice to meet you too, Pedro.”

“Panther.” He corrected me. “I came here to ask you if I have to bring all those boxes to the garage.”

He turned his attention to Mario.

“Yes, all of them,” Mario spoke. “It’s Tiago’s stuff, for when he’s leaving.” He told me as if he owed me an explanation. No matter what, he still saw me as an officer and was desperate to make me believe that nothing was going on.

I couldn’t help but wonder why Panther was here and not with Marvin-when he was supposed to be his guard.

“Lucas, would you mind helping me?” Panther interrupted my thoughts. “Yes, no problem.” I shrugged.

This little game of chess had been fun, but it was time to get my head straight. With Victor and Marvin out of the picture-it meant I could finally get closer to Panther.

After saying my goodbyes to Mario, I followed Panther’s instructions and helped him move the boxes to the garage.

“I know you must probably wonder;hey, don’t they have people for this?” Panther commented. “In case you haven’t noticed, I am people.” He complained.

Afraid of saying something I shouldn’t, I kept my mouth shut and let Panther lead the conversation.

“You remind me of Marvin.” Panther spoke after a while. “I talk, and you pretend to listen.”

“Really?” I played along. “Must be Mario’s genes.”

“Maybe.” Panther concluded. “I heard you’ll be staying here in a few weeks?”

I gave him a simple nod. It was a good thing he led the conversation because it wasn’t exactly something I was very good at. Perhaps if I would spend more time socializing and less time catching criminals-it would’ve made everything much easier.

After a few more walks, Panther and I were finally finished. “So that was the last box.” He spoke, exhausted. “I appreciate your help.”

“No problem.”

“So, what are you doing tomorrow night?”

Panther’s question took me off guard. Was he really that easy to get close to? I barely had to do anything.

“Nothing…are you asking me out on a date?” I frowned as Panther laughed at my joke.

“Yes, it must be those green eyes of yours.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “You should come over..have a drink with me.” He spoke. “It’s not healthy to hang around Mario all day.”

Yes, because hanging around Panther-who was known to torture his enemies was healthy. I could see right through his bubbly act and would like to think that it was all an image to hide his horrendous actions.

“At Marvin’s?” I asked.

“Yes.” Panther gave me a nod. “Marvin told me about what happened between him and Victor, and I know he feels sorry about it-”

“About beating up Victor?”

“No.” Panther laughed. “About you having to pull them apart. I think the two of you got off on the wrong foot, but when you get to know him, he’s a cool guy.”

Yes, a cool guy who murdered agent Stevie Maddens. Unfortunately, I was willing to do anything to take down Mario Castillo, so if I had to play pretend, so be it. Besides, it would be the perfect way to check up on Elena.

“Sure, why not.”