“His partner was Salvatore Maggio. Maggio turned out to be skimming from more than one distributor and was taken care of. Colin took over the business and has been a good partner in moving our product. I still have my dealers, but I don’t have to worry about how my stuff gets to where it needs to be once it’s in the US.”

“I’ve heard about Maggio, but I never did business with him. My business handles my product from field to the corner dealer.” It was interesting that Cain had more than Vinny and Jasper under her protection. How far did her grip reach?

“I’m not telling you anything that Cain wouldn’t tell you herself, and I hope you don’t mind, but I told her I was meeting with you.”

Fantastic. If he hadn’t come off as a weak asshole before, that would do it. “That’s no problem.”

“She called me because she felt Colin had made a misstep, but it was an interesting mistake. One that might benefit us both by knowing.” Carlos smiled at Paloma as she placed a plate in front of him, and Tracy did the same for him. “Colin was approached for his services by Cesar Kalina.”

Kalina was a smaller dealer than Hector but still had a sizeable crew. There was no way he had the balls to move against him, but maybe Kalina had lost his mind. “What business did Kalina want to do?” It was interesting that Cain hadn’t mentioned any of this.

“He wanted to take advantage of what happened to you by moving more into the US, and he needed help doing that. Colin’s only business is moving product, and he’s not involved in selling anything. That’s a deal he made with Cain, and with me. She’d rather her family, her whole family, stay out of this business, but she didn’t want to cut Colin off.” Carlos was talented at putting things so they didn’t sound patronizing. “If you want my opinion, Kalina wasn’t the one who did this to you. He just knows about it and is making use of it.”

“Cain didn’t mention any of that to me.” He didn’t want to act like a petulant child, but stumbling around in the darkness was starting to get on his nerves.

“She only found out a day ago, but she hasn’t talked to Colin about it. Her call to me was out of respect, and when she has the whole story, she’ll let us both know. The meeting with Kalina hadn’t happened yet when she was told about it.” Carlos picked up his glass of wine and took a sip. “This information is useful going forward, but it doesn’t answer the question of who’s moving against you.”