by K. A. Ware
What if nobody made it out alive?
A crackled voice came over the radio, snapping me out of my wallowing. I couldn’t make out what it said since it was so garbled but the fact that it was coming in at all meant that at least one of our men was alive. Hopefully there were more with him. I shook my head, mentally scolding myself for almost breaking down, again.
I didn’t have time for that shit. With Carlo unable to call the shots the responsibility landed on my shoulders. I couldn’t let my thoughts drift to the ‘what ifs’, I needed to focus on what I could control, what I could change. Taking a deep breath I stood up taller and pulled myself together. I had men out there and I needed to get them home.
“Are you able to identify who was trying to make contact?” I asked, turning my focus on Mouse.
He sighed, “No, the audio is rough. I’m trying to buff it now to get at least something from it but they’re all on the same circuit so there’s no way to trace it back to any one person.”
“Hey, we have movement,” Frankie announced, bringing my attention back to the satellite feed once again. The two groups of men had come to stand together, or face off, I couldn’t tell with the quality of the picture.
“This isn’t good. Eddie is a total hot head and his friends are even worse,” Frankie said shakily, it was the only time I had heard her sound less than confident. I made a mental note to ask her how she knew Enzo’s cousin after this was over.
“Shit!” I hissed. You couldn’t mistake the body language of Eddie’s crew. The four men had drawn their weapons on Kashnikov’s men.
“No, no, no!” Frankie yelled at the monitor, “Don’t fucking do it, Eddie. You can get out of this, just fucking use your head!” As if he could hear her one of the men lowered his weapon and turned to speak to the other men who were still pointing their guns. Someone from Kashnikov’s crew stepped forward and it looked like he was talking to them. One by one they each slowly lowered their weapons, one of the men from Eddie’s group stepping forward.
“They’re shaking hands?” Sal asked.
“It looks like it, maybe they are still making the deal,” Mouse piped up.
Eddie and his men turned back to their cars but before they could make it the Kashnikov crew opened fire. All four of the men dropped to the ground and didn’t move again.
“NO!” Frankie let out a blood curdling scream. The look of devastation on her face was soul crushing. I knew what that felt like. It was the same feeling I had when we found Gina, as if you’re whole world just stopped.
She folded in half in her chair and alternated between dry heaving and hyperventilating. I snatched up the trash can from the corner and hurried over to her. Dropping to my knees I placed the can at her feet and softly stroked her hair down her back.
“Mouse, no matter what, DO NOT lose your visual on them, understood?” I called out orders from my position on the floor. “Sal, I need you to get on the radio and keep trying to contact someone, anyone.”
“On it,” Mouse replied, taking over the satellite feed.
“Of course,” Sal said, making his way over to the radio equipment.
“Hey,” I whispered, continuing to rub Frankie’s back, “I need you to try to take deep breaths for me okay? You have to try to calm yourself down.” She nodded her head but her breathing was even more erratic than it had been a moment ago. At least the dry heaving had stopped. “Come on, try to match my breaths, okay?”
I took deep exaggerated breaths in and out, having done this with Gina once when she was tripping hard from something she took at a party. Just thinking about Gina made my heart hurt. There was literally a pain in my chest every time a memory of her would creep into my thoughts. I hoped one day I would be able to remember her without feeling like this. Frankie struggled to match my breathing and after a few minutes she was able to take normal breaths again.
“I’m not going to ask if you’re okay because that’s a stupid question. I am going to ask what you need from me. Can you tell me what you need, Frankie?”
“Water?”
“Of course,” I said sweetly. Getting up, I walked over to the mini-fridge in the corner of the room. When I opened it I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. It was full of Redbull. There was one bottle of water in the door and every other inch of space was occupied by Frankie’s habit. As I made my way back over to her, I called out to Mouse and Sal.
“Any changes?” I asked.
“Kashnikov’s men went into the building,” Mouse whispered gravely and hesitated as if he wanted to say more but wasn’t sure if he should.
“What?” I questioned impatiently.
“They started to drag the other guys into the building with them,” Mouse chanced a glance at Frankie and I followed his gaze. She was sitting up in the chair but her head was down and her eyes were squeezed shut.
“How long has it been since the second explosion?” I asked, changing the subject. We all knew that if they were dragging Eddie’s men into the burning building then they were definitely gone. If not from the gunshot wounds then from the fire.
“Eight minutes,” Mouse replied.
“How is this place not crawling with cops yet? I know we pay well but we sure as hell don’t pay well enough to keep them off of something like this.” I said, resuming my position at Frankie’s feet and handing her the water. “How’s your breathing?”
“Better,” She said between drinks of water.
I took the bottle of water out of her hands and set it on the desk. Reaching out to grab either side of her face, I tilted her head up so she was looking at me. “Look, I know this situation is completely fucked, but you have a decision to make right now. You can walk out of here and go home, or go lay down in one of the guest rooms and grieve, sleep, whatever you want. Or, you can stay and help us get the rest of our men back and take this bastard down. It is completely up to you and no one is going to judge you or think any less of you no matter what choice you make, understood?”
She nodded, took a deep breath and cleared her throat, “Let’s make this fucker pay.” Her voice was a little shaky but the intention wasn’t, she was on board.
“Good, I need you to get onto the scanners and hack whatever system you need to find out why there hasn’t been any police activity yet. I want to know how you blow up a building without the police getting called.”
“Okay,” she nodded again and turned back to her computer, put on her headset and started frantically typing as she searched for an answer to my question.
“Sal, anything yet?”
“No, just some garbled chatter. Whoever it is, their transmitter must have gotten damaged in the blast.”
“Okay, I need you to get the rest of the men up to speed. I’ll stay here with Mouse and Frankie.”
“Sure thing,” he said and hurried out of the room.
“I’ve got something,” Frankie called out, “Looks like there was a bank robbery twenty minutes ago and a five-alarm fire thirty minutes ago. Police and Fire have been contacted about the blast and they’ve been dispatched but they’re still fifteen minutes out.”
“Pull up the satellite and track their progress. Mouse, what do you have for me?”
“Nothing yet. Kashnikov’s men haven’t come back out of the building.”
That got my attention. Why the fuck would they willingly spend any amount of time in a fucking burning building? “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I said as understanding hit me, “They’re going after whoever is inside. Keep an eye on the back entrance of the building where our guys came in. There is at least one of them alive in there and I want to know immediately if he makes it out.”
“Okay.”
“And pull up a second feed over where the SUVs are on the service road. Someone might have made it out and we didn’t catch it.”
I paced behind both of them, my eyes bouncing between all three satellite feeds. I played with the ring on my left hand. It had been mine for less than a day and already I couldn’t imagine wh
at it would feel like to lose it, and I didn’t want to find out.
Come on, baby, show me you’re still alive.
“They’re coming out the front!” Mouse announced.
I moved quickly to stand behind him, watching as three of Kashnikov’s men dragged a motionless body to the back of one of their SUVs. The man was wearing bulky tactical gear which meant he was one of ours. Even though I couldn’t make out a face from the image I knew in my gut who it was.
“Carlo,” I breathed.
“Shit,” Mouse muttered. “I’m sorry, Mia.”
The look of pity on his face pissed me off, “He’s not dead.” I said harshly, probably a little too harshly since even Frankie flinched at my tone.
“I guess we don’t know for sure. You’re right, we should hope for the best.”
“Jesus, Mouse. He’s not dead because Ivan doesn’t want him dead. He needs him alive.”
“Why?” This time it was Frankie who spoke up.
“Because he’s going to use Carlo to get to me,” I gritted out, my jaw was clenched so tight the muscle was starting to spasm. I watched as they loaded him into the back of the vehicle and took off. “Follow them. I want to see where they’re taking him.”
“Shit, okay. You know, Boss-Lady this is a lot more difficult than I make it look. I can’t control the satellite like that. I’m going to have to hack into the traffic cameras and fucking bunny hop to keep up with them.”
“I don’t care what you have to do, just get it done and don’t lose them.”
“Someone’s coming out of the building. There are two, no wait they’re carrying someone. There’s three of them. Looks like they’re headed to the service road,” Mouse called out.
“Thank God,” Sal said from the doorway.
“Two more just walked out, looks like one of them is limping.”
“As soon as they get to the service road you start blowing up everyone’s phone. I want to know who made it out,” I said. “Frankie, where are we on Kashnikov?”
“I’m still following them. They’re flying down I-5 right now.” She said breathlessly, her eyes ping ponging from one screen to the next.
“Good. Stay on them and tell me if anything changes.”
“What did I miss?” Sal asked.
“Ivan has Carlo, he’s alive but we don’t know for how long. Frankie is following his convoy now so we can figure out where they are taking him. From what we can tell five of our men made it out and it looks like they’re headed to the service road. That’s all we know right now.”
“Police and Fire just arrived,” Mouse said, “The first group of three made it to the SUVs. I’m calling their phones now.”
“Let me know when you have someone on the line,” Turning back to Sal, I asked, “Did you brief the rest of the men?”
“I did. They’re ready to go when you are.”
I nodded, “Go give them an update. Once we find out where Ivan is going and assess the injuries of the men that were in the fire, I’ll come down and brief everyone.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said heading for the door. “And Mia,” he called out, causing me to turn and look at him, “You’re good at this. We’re going to get him back.”
I gave him a nod and went back over to Mouse, “Do you have anyone on the line?”
“Yeah, I’ve got Antonio,” he said handing the headset over to me.
“Antonio?”
“Yeah,” he rasped and he stopped to cough, “I’ve got Angelo and Enzo with me. Enzo’s pretty messed up,” he wheezed, followed up by more coughing.
“Okay, there are two more headed your way. Ivan got Carlo, he’s alive and we’re tracking them. I don’t know about the other five.”
“They’re gone,”
“Wait for the other two then you guys need to get out of there. I want you to head south towards Salem. I’ll have Mouse send the address to your navigation systems.”
“Got it.”
“Be careful. The cops just got to the warehouse so you’re going to have to go around them. Do you need me to get you the alternate route off of the service road?”
“No, we have it.”
“I’ll have a doctor waiting for you at the safe house when you get there. We’re going to pack up and head out as soon as we have confirmation on where they’re keeping Carlo.”
“See you then,” he said and disconnected the call.
I grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled down an address, “Send this address to their GPS systems then shut everything down and pack it up.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Frankie, what’s going on?”
“They split up, but lucky for you I was always really good at that hide the ball in the cup game when I was a kid—“
“Frankie!” I cut her off.
“Jesus, yeah, I’m still on the right car. They headed east on I-84 then circled back towards downtown.”
“Okay, st—“
“Stay on them. Yeah, I got it the first six times you said it.”
“Right,” I sighed, and pinched the bridge of my nose. I was starting to get a massive headache and it was only going to get worse. Pulling out my phone I dialed the number I’d memorized when I was twelve. He picked up on the first ring, “Hello?” his voice sounding tired.
“Michael? It’s Mia. I need your help.”
…
I headed down to brief the men with Mouse and Frankie in tow. The address Frankie had tracked Ivan to burning in my hand.
251 NW Broadway St, Portland, OR 97209
It was the address of the club Ivan owned, the same one on the card he had given me the night I killed his brother. I had a feeling that’s where they were headed when Frankie had mentioned they looped back around towards downtown but I wanted to be certain. Carlo’s life depended on this game of cat and mouse Ivan and I were playing and there was no margin for error.
When we walked into the great room all conversation stopped. I looked around at the room full of men, most of whom I had only just met a few days ago, all of them looking to me for guidance.
Jesus Christ! What the fuck am I going to do?
I had zero experience here, but I couldn’t risk letting someone else take over and Carlo not making it out of this thing alive. I had watched Carlo for years, living in this world with him. I may not have the experience but I knew what Carlo would do. Evaluate and execute with any means necessary.
‘Fake it ‘til you make it.’ Gina’s voice echoed in my head and I took a deep breath. With both of them in my head I might just be able to pull this off, I thought.
“We have the address where Ivan took Carlo, the club he owns in downtown Portland. From what I can tell this is his home base, but we don’t have any more information at this point. Angelo, Antonio and Enzo are alive. There are two more unidentified men that made it out of the fire but their condition and names are still unknown. I’ve sent them to a safe house south of Portland where a doctor will be waiting to treat them for their injuries. The other four men have been confirmed dead. I want you all to grab whatever you think we might need while we’re in Portland, guns, and ammo, whatever. We’ll leave in thirty. Any questions?” Holy shit, I did it. Please don’t have any questions, I thought as I looked around the room.
“I’ve got one. Why does Ivan have such a hard-on for you?” Frankie asked, her face awash with confusion.
“Because I sent him a video of me slitting his brother’s throat.”
Chapter 49
Carlo
My head is pounding. I groan and try to reach up to grab the back of my head where the pain is only to realize my hands are numb and I can’t move my arms. Blinking rapidly I try to focus on my surroundings, the lighting is low but I can tell the room is fairly large. There’s an industrial sink in the corner and bare shelving along two walls. One door is directly in front of me, and from what I can tell, there aren’t any windows. My best guess is that I’m in some sort of basement. I can hear music, not the actual
song but the base is coming from above me. The air is heavy with the smell of mildew and garbage. Where the fuck am I? The last thing I remember is Ivan Kashnikov holding his gun up to my face and I have absolutely no way to tell how long ago that was. There’s a screeching noise as the door opens and Ivan walks in flanked by two large men dressed in black suits.
“Ah, you’re awake, good,” he says in his slight accent.
Ivan is wearing a suit as well, and he makes a show of taking off his jacket and handing it to one of the men. Ivan isn’t as tall or as broad as his brother was. His hair is slicked back with so much product is shines against the glow from the single lightbulb dangling from the ceiling. The dim light casts shadows across his pock marked face and highlights a silver scar stretching from his left temple to his jaw. Those ice blue eyes stare daggers at me as he removes his cufflinks and rolls his sleeves up to his elbows. The image gives me a weird sense of déjà vu. I’ve been in this situation before, except I was Ivan and Gino was me. Thinking of Gino reminds me of Mia and my heart constricts. I wonder if she knows I’m alive or if she’s grieving the loss of me. I have to hope she knows I’m alive and sends someone to find me.
“So, Carlo, is it okay that I call you Carlo?” he asks, “Ah, of course it is, right? We’re old friends after all aren’t we?”
When I don’t say anything he continues.
“So, Carlo, I’m going to explain to you what is to happen. You are going to tell me how to get your little girlfriend alone and I will make your death slightly less painful, yes?”
I spit at him, “You’re not getting shit from me,” I seethed.
“Now, where are your manners? Didn’t your mother teach you not to spit? Oh wait, she’s dead.”
“Just like your brother,” I said smirking at him. That got him to break the playful act.
“You son of a bitch! I’m going to make that little whore of yours pay for what she did to my brother! First, I make her pay on her knees, then on her back, and finally I make her pay with her blood.”
Motherfucker! I was going to kill him.
