Hot & Spicy: De La Cruz Saga (30 page)

“Primo, that’s a lot of money that we’re losing. We need to go and keep track of todo the jobs. If this job site manager is not doing his job, we need to can his ass,” said Ricky with frustration y anger in hearing about this situation.

“I will go out and monitor the job sites like I used to. Paty can do the building contracts,” said Ricky, pacing back and forth. “When this job site manager shows, I want to hear his report. I will can his ass if he messed up,” he said, looking at his watch.

“We have everything scheduled to the day. We have been doing this for years. We have great suppliers. There is no reason for this to be happening. I will start mañana, primo, taking care of the job sites. I know that Chris will take the job that you offered him on Friday,” said Ricky. “Chris told Tony that he is taking the job. I will do it until he is here working.”

Si, this makes me muy feliz to hear that Chris will be doing the job as the job site manager. It is a good thing that we all worked each position as we went through college. We all have the knowledge y skills to work each position. Our padres believed that is the only way to know how to construct a building.

I’m just contento that I’m not alone in this mess
, he thought, looking at his amigo. “Carlos, I’m sorry that you witness this disaster,” he said, looking at his amigo y knowing in his corazon that he will be marrying his hermana Paty.

“Amigo, no worries, I just wish I could provide some help,” he said, feeling helpless y frustrated in the role he has to play. “Maybe I should leave. You need to have a familia meeting,” he suggests, hoping to give them a direction.

“I’ll take you to the elevator,” said Paty, knowing that he didn’t know his way out.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
 

I
NEED
TO
GET
BACK
TO
see what the construction manager has to say. Paty almost runs to Jose Enrique’s office, not wanting to miss anything.

Paty enters the office and notices that Ricky y Jose Enrique are still pacing y frustrated. She looks at her watch.
Hmmm, it’s a few after three. That’s why they are so frustrated.

“Hermano, you need to call Tony, Bella, y Jessy, so we can think of a plan to take control. I don’t know if you want Monique y Jacki here. They might get a little scared,” said Paty, looking at her hermano y primo.

“Si, hermana call Tony, Bella, y Jessy,” said Jose Enrique, looking at his primo to see if he wants Jacki there.

“No, primo, I don’t want mi reina to get scared, y I think that Monique will be the same case. I don’t think that Chris will want her to know,” said Ricky, running his manos through his pelo, pacing back y forth, and attempting to think of a plan.

“Primo, Jose Enrique needs to talk to you. Can you please come to the office?” asks Paty.

“Si, prima, I’m on mi way,” said Tony, surprised with the request.

“Bella, we need you to come to Jose Enrique’s office. It’s important,” said Paty, looking out the window, praying that this is only a nightmare.

“Si, prima, I’ll be there in a few,” said Bella, leaving her office in a hurry.

“Jessy, we need you to come to Jose Enrique’s office,” said Paty, looking at Jose Enrique, pacing like crazy.

“Si Paty, I’m leaving now,” said Jessy, leaving her office.

Paty went to stand at the window, thinking.
What can we do? What should we do? This is so surreal.

Jessy and Bella arrive at the office at the same time. Immediately they perceive that something huge is occurring. They notice the state of frustration, fear, y rage that Ricky, Jose Enrique, y Paty are experiencing.

Tony walks into the office right after his primas y assesses the situation.
It looks like something huge has happened. Mis primos look like they are about to croak,
he thought contemplating them.

“What’s happening?” asks Bella, getting truly concern, approaching her primos.
They look like they are about to have a heart attack
, she thought.

“Do you want me to call the paramedics?” asks Jessy, getting anxious for Jose Enrique y Ricky’s condition.

“This guey is not showing,” said Ricky with frustration y anger.

“What’s going on?” asks Bella, getting real scared.

“Mi amor, please close the door,” asks Jose Enrique, turning to look at Jessy. “Please lock it.” He walks to get the phone calling his secretary.

“Ms. Jones, I need you to call all the numbers that we have to contact the site manager Jefferson, and tell him I need him here now,” said Jose Enrique, controlling his anger.

“Yes, Mr. De La Cruz,” said Ms. Jones, wondering what’s up.

“Mi amor, prima, have a seat,” said Jose Enrique, looking at Tony. He then returns to his desk to take a seat. He looks at them, and doesn’t know where to begin.

“We have a crisis that will jeopardize our entire vidas if we don’t take control now,” he said, looking at them.

“Si, we have a situation that we need to have some brainstorming to arrive at a reasonable path for la familia,” said Ricky, walking back and forth, thinking.

“Primas, primo, la familia is being pressured by the Mexican cartel to associate with them and don’t want to take no for an answer,” said Paty, pacing back y forth, along with Ricky.

“The cartel has called us twice, and we thought, or should I say prayed, that it was a prank,” said Jose Enrique, standing up y pacing.

“Tony, Jessy, Bella, they called about a half hour ago and threatened la familia y the constructions that we have in progress,” said Paty, looking at her primas. “We need to come up with a plan to discourage their interest in la familia’s company.”

“We believe that they have started with our constructions. One of our job sites didn’t receive the concrete this morning to start pouring. This has cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Jose Enrique, stopping at the window to look out, trying to see if he can see the site manager Jefferson.

“That’s impossible. How did that happen? We have been working with our suppliers for years and have constructed thousands of buildings. We don’t make these huge mistakes,” said Bella, standing up y pacing.

“Why didn’t you mention this to me before? Why did you wait until now? We could have thought of the best recourses for la familia. I think that you should have allowed us to help you. Where is that job site manager?” asks Tony with frustration on learning about the risks that la familia is in with these events. Tony undid his tie and runs his manos through his pelo.

“Jefferson is supposed to arrive at three to give us an update. The report on what caused the delivery not to arrive, the other material orders, and the status,” said Ricky with frustration. “He has not arrived, and now look what time it is.”

Jessy tries to think of a plan and some options. “How can we stop the cartel?” she asks, wondering
we don’t know them, or what they are doing next, how can we stop them?

“We need to make sure that they don’t have any opportunity to mess with the orders. I’m starting today to monitor all the orders, supplies, contractors, our employees, todo,” said Ricky, looking at Jose Enrique. “We need to split this up.”

“I will monitor the inside employees closer and the orders if you want me to make calls,” said Bella, starting to pace with los primos, thinking.

“Why don’t we have employees that we can trust? I mean a security department to monitor the job sites in the day, and maybe it will be a good idea to have patrols at night to make sure nobody is messing with the sites,” said Jessy with a smile, hoping it is a good idea.

Jose Enrique looks at his amor with felicidad.
Si, she’s also smart. I love her idea
. “That is a great idea,” he said, looking at his primos to get their feedback.

“Si that is great idea, we should have thought of this years ago,” said Ricky smiling at his new prima, nodding.

“I’m on it,” said Bella, going to the phone to get some security in place on the job sites.

“How many job sites do we have in progress and starting this month?” asks Paty, trying to assist Bella get enough security in place for the entire month until this situation is over.

“Si, this sounds like a great idea. We need to have the work sites secured for at least four weeks to make sure that nothing happens,” said Jose Enrique, pacing back y forth.

“We still need to continue doing our jobs, monitor the ones that we have started, and are scheduled to start,” he said, thinking out loud.

“I don’t want our padres to find out and get stressed out,” said Paty, looking at the job site schedule for the month and giving dates to Bella for the security.

“I can also help Ricky on the job sites when I’m not drawing up a design,” said Tony, looking at his primos.

“I agree, we need to have someone monitoring the job sites when I’m off on mi luna de miel,” said Ricky, thinking how this is going to happen.

“Don’t worry about that. Tony and I can do the monitoring. You will be out for only ten work days,” said Jose Enrique. “We will just have to schedule new clients, for after you come back or later in the day, we will work it out.”

“Mañana, we will need to split up our suppliers and instruct them not to take any orders, change orders, or cancel orders if it is not one of us,” said Ricky.

“We need to make sure that all the orders in place now are correct,” said Jose Enrique. “We can split that up and call.”

“At the very least, it will make it a little harder for the Mexican Cartel to interfere with the jobs,” said Ricky, breathing a little easier.

“Okay, we have the security set up starting tonight. We only have a few job sites that are in progress. The other job sites are scheduled for next week,” said Bella, standing up y pacing.

“What else are we missing?” said Tony, walking to the window and thinking.

“I feel that we need to discuss this with Claudia y Chris this weekend. I know that they can provide additional ideas and measures that we need to take,” said Ricky, running his manos through his pelo.

“We also need to keep this quiet. We don’t need la familia scared and stressing out,” said Tony, pacing back and forth.

“We need to put in place security badges. I know that we had decided against it in our last meeting. I feel that this warrants the extra security,” said Bella, looking at her primos.

“The parking garage should also have security. It is our parking garage and for the employees’ safety,” said Paty, thinking of other issues to address.

“I’ll call now for this additional security in the garage. Until we get the badges going, we need to station security guards at the entrance and have everybody sign in and out,” said Bella, calling the security company.

“We can offer security designs as a separate package,” said Jessy, thinking about a good package.

“I like that,” said Tony, looking at Jessy with a smile. “The packages are working out real well, and the security one will be a benefit for our clients.”

“It’s four, y Jefferson has not showed,” said Jose Enrique with frustration.

“Primo, we should not worry about Jefferson. We have everything under control. This is a great lesson to learn. We need to keep track of our jobs with la familia monitoring. Nobody will care more than we do,” said Ricky, pacing and thinking of the guey that didn’t show.

“I agree. We need to terminate Jefferson,” said Bella, getting up from the computer, making a note.

“I think that is it for now. That guey from the Mexican Cartel said he will call on Monday,” said Ricky, getting ready to leave.

“I will start at the job sites mañana and call if I need any backup,” said Ricky, looking at Tony y Jose Enrique before walking out.

“Hermano, wait up,” said Tony, thinking,
I need to know more, get some more information on what happen.

“Si, primo, we will make the calls on the supplies,” said Jose Enrique, watching Ricky walk out.

“I need to get going,” said Paty, turning from the window to go to the door.

“I do too,” said Bella, walking out.

Jessy stands up from her chair to go to Jose Enrique y embraces him. “Mi vida, Dios will help us through this,” she said with a prayer.

Jose Enrique hugs her close, thanking Dios for having sent her into his vida.
We can all work together to try to prevent the Mexican cartel from ruining our vidas.