Omerta (The DeLuca Family Series Book 1)
Page 6
“It’s a scrambler, just in case I missed something.”
“What’s this all about Angelo?” I didn’t need to tell him I was disconcerted with this added security, he could tell by my tone.
“I’m just taking some extra precautions. I’ve come across some new information that points to two of the men that we brought here.”
“Start from the beginning, I want to know everything you know.”
Angelo nodded and began, “Last night I was doing a perimeter check and just before I circled around to the south side of the house I heard voices. I stopped around the corner before they saw me and listened. It was Lonzo and Frank. Frank was telling Lonzo that he was supposed to hear from the boss this evening with instructions on what their next move was. Now, I know you don’t tell me everything but I think I would have known if you had orders for either of them, am I right?”
“Of course. I’m disappointed, Lonzo is one of our best new recruits. What else?” If that was all the information Angelo had he would have come to me sooner.
“I stayed hidden for a while but they didn’t say anything else. I’ve had eyes on both of them since this morning so when Frank was suddenly MIA after lunch I went looking for him. I found him a little ways away from his post on the west perimeter, behind the pool house.” Angelo sighed heavily, “Sir, he was checking a cell phone for messages.”
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. All cell phones had been confiscated when the men were brought here, they all communicated by radio while at the estate. “Bring them both in. I want Enzo, Sal, Antonio, and Al on alert and nearby.”
“Yes, Sir.” He turned to leave but stopped and faced me again. “What about Mia? If this gets ugly…” he trailed off.
I knew exactly what he was getting at. If things turned sideways I didn’t want Mia anywhere near the action, but I didn’t have complete trust in any of my men except him to take her out of here and I needed him.
But I need Mia safe more.
“We’ll bring the men into the city. Tell them we have a lead on Kashnikov.”
“And Mia?” he asked.
“You will stay here with her. I don’t like it but I’ll have to make this work without you. My circle of trustworthy people is shrinking and you’re the only one I trust with her right now.”
“Okay, do you want me to tell Mia?”
“No, I’ll handle Mia, just get the men ready to go.”
Chapter 14
Mia
When I got down to the pool, I tossed my book and towel onto one of the lounge chairs and dove into the deep end. About an hour later I was laying on my stomach on one of the loungers reading when I heard the French doors to the house open.
I craned my neck to see who it was, careful not to lift my upper body off the lounger too much since I had untied my top to avoid tan lines. Carlo approached me with a stony look on his face, his eyes swept over my body, careful not to rest too long on any one part of me.
“I have some business to take care of and I’ll be gone for a few days. Angelo will stay here with you, and Elena will be back tomorrow morning.” He was more abrupt than he had ever been with me before.
Must be having a bad day.
“Okay, is everything all right?” I asked, genuinely concerned. I knew his definition of business was not the norm and more than likely dangerous.
Carlo let out a breath and sat down next to my hip, when he spoke his voice was softer, “Everything will be fine, don’t worry.” He brushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear, and leaned down to kiss the top of my head. “I’ll see you in a few days,” he said getting up and leaving me without another glance.
That was weird.
I chalked it up to being another part of my new life I would have to get used to. I had known what my father did in the broad sense, but with Carlo it was different. I actually cared whether he came home or not, and while Carlo didn’t divulge many details he wasn’t as secretive as my father.
Maybe it was the fact that I had killed two men since meeting Carlo, but he seemed to think I could handle some of the more seedy aspects of his life. When I had asked him about Jackson after that night in the club he had explained that he had his cleaner come in and take care of it. Apparently a cleaner is a guy they call in to dispose of a body, get rid of the evidence and tie up any loose ends.
While I didn’t care much about what exactly they had to do to Jackson’s body to make sure his death never came back on me, I was uncomfortable with the thought of what ‘loose ends’ meant, because from what I could deduct there was only one glaring loose end, Derrick. I didn’t really want to know what happened to him. I could compartmentalize a lot but having to take care of a witness was not something I think I could handle yet so I didn’t ask.
Chapter 15
Carlo
Was she trying to give me a fucking coronary?
Mia had been topless, laying out by the pool as if she didn’t have a care in the world. There had been a dozen of my men here for the last two weeks, any number of them could have been wandering around gawking at her. Fuck! I didn’t have time to worry about her right then, I had bigger problems.
That was the reason I had brought my closest men to my home, I needed them here so I could watch them. Gino was apparently not the only one feeding information to the Russians. We had another mole. Vitaly Kashnikov and his sons Ivan and Boris had been trying to undercut my business dealings in Portland for years but they had never succeeded, I had always been one step ahead of them. Now they had an insider spilling secrets.
I was always careful. No one man knew everything, but whoever was feeding them information knew enough to cripple part of my organization. Up to this point, I had considered the Russians a nuisance. They were based in Portland, and while I controlled most of the illegal dealings in that area they were still far enough away from my home base of Seattle for me to consider them mostly inconsequential.
That was until two weeks ago when they had robbed one of my warehouses that had held a large shipment of weapons. The initial shipment had come in a few days before the robbery and half of the weapons had already been dispersed but they still got away with half a million worth of guns and ammo. Not only did they steal from me, but they blew up my fucking warehouse causing unwanted attention from the police in the area and a huge headache for me. The warehouse was owned by one of my shell companies so no one could track it back to me, but having the police sniffing around was not something I was excited about. Kashnikov needed to be put down.
First things first, I had to make sure a breach like this never happened again.
…
“Gino wasn’t the only rat among us,” I spoke clearly, my voice raised. I looked around the board room in the hotel, staring into the faces of each of my highest ranked men sitting around the table. Antonio was standing by the door, I nodded to him. He left the room and reappeared with Enzo and Al dragging Frank and Lonzo into the room. Both men beaten bloody but still recognizable. Neither of the traitors had families so I didn’t need to bother with the messy business of cleaning up that mess. “Bring them here.”
Both men were thrown at my feet. Frank’s breaths coming in gurgled puffs, my guess is a broken rib had punctured a lung. Probably pretty painful, but that was the least of his worries now. I circled the pair, clucking my tongue at them.
Coming to a stop next to Frank I gave him a swift and vicious kick to ribs on the side he seemed to be favoring. He let out a tortured moan and fell flat on his face wheezing, blood dripping out of his mouth. The older man had been loyal to my father to the absolute end, never truly accepting my role as Boss. I was actually thankful for the excuse to be rid of him.
I paced back to Lonzo’s side, he was younger, and one of the newest men I brought into the ranks. Maybe that’s why he had turned. This new generation was a selfish one, never really loyal to anyone more than themselves. Hopefully this little show would scare some sense into the rest of the
men.
Lonzo was resting on his knees, one hand holding himself up, the other had obviously been injured and was cradled to his chest. I brought my right foot up and slammed it down square in the middle of his back causing his good arm to give out and his body to fall onto the broken appendage. His startled cry was cut off when I kicked him onto his back and brought my foot down again, this time on the elbow of his broken arm effectively dislocating the joint there. The room was filled with screams of pain from Lonzo and wheezing interrupted by a wet choking sound coming from Frank.
I took a deep breath, the scent of blood filling my nostrils, and turned back around to face the men still seated at the table. Not a single one of them had moved an inch, all stoic and unflinching. If any of them was disturbed by the scene in front of them they didn’t show it.
“In case any of you think for one fucking minute you are smart enough to betray me and get away with it, I want you to remember this,” My voice was low and demanding, all eyes in the room glued to where I stood at the head of the table.
“Antonio, Enzo,” I snapped, nodding to the men at my feet.
They came forward and lifted Frank onto the table, sliding him to the middle. I took off my suit jacket and laid it over the back of a chair. I proceeded to remove my cufflinks and rolled the sleeves of my white oxford up my forearms. I did this slowly and methodically, maintaining eye contact with at least one of my men at all times.
When I was finished, I nodded to Antonio who rolled over a catering cart with a countless number of weapons. I picked up the large hunting knife and climbed onto the table and stood over Frank’s broken body. Looking up once more I spoke to the men still seated at the table, my voice harsh and loud, “I am smarter, I am stronger, and if you betray me, I will make you wish you were in Hell before I end you.”
They may have feared me before but by the end of the day they would be irrevocably terrified of the horror I could unleash. For the next three hours I tortured the treacherous, loose-lipped men before letting them bleed out on the board room table in front of everyone.
…
Unfortunately, the lack of communication from their informants must have tipped off the Russians because by the time I had made it down to Portland to deal with them personally the Kashnikov clan had closed up shop and left town. Of course since they had no sense of loyalty they had fled in the night leaving their men as sitting ducks for the taking, and take I did.
…
The bell above the door chimed as I walked into the Deli that acted as a hub for the Kashnikov’s business, with Antonio, Enzo, Sal and Jimmy trailing behind me. The smell of onions and vinegar permeated the air. The man behind the counter stood up straight from where he’d been leaning over the counter reading the newspaper.
“Where are they?” I demanded, raising my gun to his face. His hands immediately shot up in a placating gesture, the universal sign for ‘don’t shoot, I’m unarmed’ as if that would stop me. He pointed to a door at the back of the store. “Jimmy, stay with the clerk,” I called as I made my way to the door that would lead me to answers.
Pushing through the door, we continued down a narrow hallway. It was dimly lit and the forest green walls made it feel even smaller. Silently we came to another door at the end of the hall. Enzo intercepted me when I reached to open the door, shaking his head once. He positioned himself in front of me and pushed it open, Antonio following him in immediately before I was even able to cross the threshold. There were two men at a small card table playing poker in the center of what appeared to be a storage room. Both the men jumped up when we entered, reaching for their guns.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” My tone ice cold.
The men looked at each other as if the other had the answer of what to do next. This gave Enzo and Antonio time to position themselves in front of the men, guns drawn, eliminating their decision.
“Tell me where Vitaly is,” I commanded. When neither of the men spoke I continued, “Why are you looking at each other? I’m the one with the gun, I’m the one asking questions, you should be looking at me. Fucking idiots. Now tell me where he is!” My patience was growing thin, I wanted this done with.
“We don’t know who you’re talking about,” the shorter and rounder of the two said. He was wearing a zip up track jacket and running pants that made a swishing sound every time he moved, it was annoying as shit.
Way to keep the stereotype alive, asshole.
“So you’re the idiot of the two, good to know. I only need one of you to tell me where he is anyways.” I said, aiming my gun and letting two bullets fly into him, one between the eyes and one in the chest. “Back to my original question,” I turned to the other man in the room, his face was blank but I could see the fear in his eyes. “Where?” I demanded.
When he still didn’t respond I moved closer, “Are you fucking deaf? I asked you a fucking question.”
“I tell you nothing,” he said, spitting at my feet.
“Wrong answer,” I said, shooting him in the left knee. He fell and a tortured cry ripped from his throat. Impatient to get this over with I holstered my weapon and stood in front of him, gripping the back of his neck and pushing his face into the concrete floor. With my free hand I reached into his back pocket and retrieved his wallet. Straightening, I gave him a vicious kick in the side, causing him to collapse completely to the ground.
“What do we have here?” I asked pulling his ID out of his wallet, “Kirill Sokolov,” I read aloud, “8213 SE 86th Ave. Portland, OR 97266. And look there’s even a family portrait.” Flipping the picture over, I read the inscription, “Alina age nine, Dimitri age seven, and Natalya age four. Now Kirill, it would be a shame if anything were to happen to them. If you tell me what I want to know, no harm with come to your family. However, if you continue to fuck with me I will make sure they each die a painful death, am I understood?”
“Russia,” he spit out immediately. “They left this morning, that’s all I know. I swear it. Please do not hurt my family.”
“See, that wasn’t so hard. You have my word that no harm will come to your family at the hands of myself or my men. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for yourself.” I said before disposing of him.
…
With Vitaly and his sons in the wind we slaughtered each and every one of the men left behind. Destroyed or turned every one of their business partners and allies. If I couldn’t find them then I was going to make sure they had nothing to come back to if they were ever so inclined.
Chapter 16
Mia
Three years later…
I settled into my seat in first class, finally on my way home. I hadn’t seen Carlo in nearly six months. He had been away on business when I had come home for spring break earlier that year. I had been away for most of the past three years, coming home for Thanksgiving and Christmas but I had opted to stay at school and take summer courses instead of coming home so I could graduate a year early. It’s not that I didn’t love my home, I did, but it was hard to be around Carlo.
My crush on Angelo had been short lived. I chalked it up to teenage hormones. My infatuation with Carlo, however, had not fizzled over the years. In fact it had gotten worse and that made me uncomfortable. It wasn’t fair to Carlo. He had taken me in and thought he was gaining a sister, but instead he gained a lustful teenager who became an even more lustful woman. I wouldn’t let that stop me anymore though; I was a college graduate and a grown woman damn it. I could put a lid on my libido and enjoy my summer at the only place that had ever felt like home.
Sal and Enzo would be there to pick up Angelo, Gina, and I up from the airport. At Carlo’s request, Angelo had followed Gina and me to college, coming home only when he absolutely needed to handle something for Carlo. Even then, Enzo would fly out and stay with us in his absence. We all shared a house in Chicago for the added security and privacy that the dorms couldn’t afford.
It was comforting knowing we were protected, but having a con
stant shadow consisting of a large, exceptionally scary man was a bit of a buzzkill for a college student. It didn’t stop Gina though. She was as vivacious and wild as ever, not letting the muscle interfere with living up to her party girl persona. While she was able to drag me to the occasional frat party, I was decidedly less willing to ignore Angelo’s looming figure. Dating had been nearly impossible. In an attempt to get over my stupid crush on Carlo I had gone out with a handful of guys over the past three years, most of which never saw a second date.
…
I started dating Zane, my one and only college boyfriend, towards the end of second semester freshman year. I met him at the first party Gina had managed to drag me to. Angelo came too but was kind enough to hang back in the shadows giving us some semblance of normalcy. After an hour of avoiding spilled drinks and drunken frat boys trying to stare down my shirt, I had escaped to the back porch for some fresh air. Surprisingly, the back deck was vacant, or so I thought.
When I shut the sliding glass door movement to the right caught my eye, a tall guy straightened from his hunched position over the railing and turned toward me. He was hot, that much was obvious. He looked like James Dean on steroids; black t-shirt stretched across wide shoulders, perfectly fitted jeans, black boots, strong jawline, and piercing eyes. Check, check, check, check, and double check!
“Oh sorry, I didn’t know anyone else was out here,” I said looking wearily at him. He was intimidating for sure, but thanks to my training sessions with Angelo I was confident I could take him down if he tried anything. Still, I turned to leave, he seemed like he wanted to be left alone.