Caesar Gonzalez
Location: La Hacienda
The nonverbal response was enough for him for the meantime. Even if he had to hear about it later on, because quite frankly, she was the
ex-wife. It did very little to his sense of well being if she disapproved of something. He did still trust her judgement, even if he sometimes questioned her motives. It was why he wanted her in charge of the Justice branch of his company. The fact that she was knowledgeable in his field, as well as business and law didn't hurt, either. Nor the fact that she was a fair hand with sharp things. Ok, Maria was a respectably awesome person. She just pissed Caesar off a lot.
Caesar turned his heels and proceeded a short way down the hallway. He stopped at a set of solid double-doors and pushed his way inside. He stopped for a moment, feeling on the wall for the light switch. When illumination both direct and indirect made the room more visible, he winced slightly. This was supposed to be his home office, but it was different. Things were out of place. Some of the furniture was new. His brother...
updated. Even his computer was new. If so much as one file was out of place, he was going to give the man an earful.
Luckily, his files seemed to be where he left them, if using more up-to-date software. And the same basic commands worked, so that was good. Caesar's knowledge of computers was rudimentary as compared to his daughter and niece. His expertise lay with security tech and equipment, not so much computer systems and programming. He logged into his company's intranet and accessed his account, quickly pulling up his contract history on a search for a specific file tagged with specific keywords. A brief glimpse confirmed that he indeed located the file in question. He printed it out and tucked it into a manila file folder, secured it with a black wire clip, and locked his office door on the way out.
Caesar did intend to apologize. He was at fault. At the very least, he came on with too much, too fast, and at the wrong time. Perhaps the contents of the folder would even things up somewhat, but first, he had to locate the woman. The first, most obvious spot would be the main courtyard in out front. He strode quickly in hopes of catching her before a cab would have had time to arrive. It was unlikely that one would have made it out there in this short a time, but still worth the extra spring in his step. As he moved, he thumbed on his satphone and sent a message to his niece:
Ignore last order. We're not working today. Sorry to ask. Be with friends and family.
Knowing her, she'd probably have a drink or five, too.
As it turned out, Natasha wasn't out there. Nor did she appear to be in the inner courtyard, nor the chapel area. (They were on the way). Thinking about it, he could have facepalmed. She would have to grab her stuff first. A determined sigh escaped his lips as he turned back around and located the stairs leading to the guest rooms. Caesar tried as best he could to soften his features, but that was a herculean, pissing-against-a-tide feat to accomplish. He may as well have been asked to win a chainsaw fight using only the power of positive thought. Or having positive thought, period.
He knocked on the door to Cecily and Natasha's room, and waited for response with the file held out in front of him.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in La Hacienda... Thalia had made it a point to stop back in the kitchen before the main meal was properly served. Tamales. Dear sweet Madre de Dios, she could really go for her family's tamales right then hey had two kinds, pork and goat. She loaded up a platter with both kinds plus additional puerco asado, grabbed a thermos of spiced chocolate and a handful of tortillas, and began to book it back up to her room. The Gonzalez-who-was-not-Gonzalez started back out of the kitchen when she realized with muted horror that she had to set down little Liam to load up on her meal. Now it became a question of priority: Supper or Baby. Sighing, she stuffed as much as she could in a basket, hung it in the crook of her arm, and picked up her baby cousin gently. She couldn't get hammered while looking after Liam, and she had to take him with. It wasn't like she could just, you know,
eat him or anything. Before leaving, she looked to another of her extended family and called, "
Tell Maria I've got Liam up in my room, okay?" loudly enough for many people to hear. It would get around. That's how it worked in this family.
Along the way, she got a message on her satphone, prompting an interesting bit of gymnastics to get out her device and view said message. Giving it some contemplation (not a hell of a lot), she decided that it was about damned time he got off of work. She could understand
why, and was willing to help whenever and however she could, but it did seem a little uncomfortable to look into the history of one of his guests, like he didn't do his homework first.
By the time she got to her room, she could see Caesar approach the door near hers, file in hand. He was trying to look less angry. He sucked at that. It was within her best interests not to tell him this, but he did really suck at that.
Meanwhile, even elsewhere... A member of La Familia near the front gate nodded and ran off, into the courtyard near the chapel to locate Benicio. He was a very present figure, handling various aspects of the viewing like a venue director, except he actually gave a rat's ass about the people around him. Upon getting word that a messenger was at the front gate, he went to meet the man. Benicio thanked him quietly but warmly, appropriate as they were dealing with the deceased. He then introduced himself and politely requested the envelope.
