by K. A. Ware
“Oh, you don’t like that do you? What, you think that little cunt whore is something special? She’s just another bitch that needs to be put down.”
“Fuck you!”
“I kind of hoped you would make this at least a little difficult for me. The infamous Carlo DeLuca, you would think it would take more to, how do you say, rattle your cage?”
“Do your worst,” I said stonily.
“I plan to.”
Chapter 50
Mia
I stared at the taillights in front of me as I drove down I-5. We had a caravan of ten vehicles carrying thirty five people and enough guns and ammo to start World War III. I had no idea how many men I would need to pull off this rescue but I felt better knowing I had an army at my disposal if necessary.
Frankie sat in the passenger seat staring out the window. She hadn’t said a word since we got in the car over an hour ago. I knew she was hurting, I just didn’t know why. I wanted to give her the time to process, but after the adrenaline high of everything that happened today I was starting to crash and I needed someone to talk to so I could stay awake.
“So are you going to tell me how you knew Eddie?” I cringed after I realized I referred to him in the past tense.
She took a deep breath and looked up at the roof of the car, “I knew you’d ask, just didn’t think it would be this soon.”
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I said, giving her an out.
“It’s fine, just a long story.”
“We have another two and a half hours, is that enough time?” I asked.
She huffed out a laugh, “Yeah, I think I can squeeze it in. I grew up with Enzo and Eddie. We lived on the same block in this shitty little neighborhood in the shittiest part of Seattle. Enzo and Eddie’s moms are sisters and they grew up with my mom so naturally they’ve forced us all together since birth. Eddie is, was, two years older than me and Enzo is two years older than him,” she stopped to clear her throat and continued, “Enzo and Eddie babysat me a lot when we were kids. All three of our moms were single parents. Enzo’s dad died when he was a baby and Eddie’s took off before he was even born. My dad was still around but let’s just say he was a special brand of dirt bag. Those boys practically raised me and I idolized them.
“I remember this one time when I was in fifth grade, so I was about ten or eleven at the time, my mom had taken my dad back, again. Of course, in true cliché deadbeat dad fashion, my father was a wife-beating alcoholic. It was a Saturday and I was supposed to meet the guys after lunch so we could go watch the skateboarders at the park.
“That day my dad was already out of his mind drunk in the living room, full out screaming at the TV, breaking shit, piss assed drunk. I remember being so scared to leave my room. I don’t even think he realized I was still in the house at that point. Anyway, it was almost an hour past the time I was supposed to meet the boys and I heard a knock at the door. I knew it was going to be bad. See, my dad hated Enzo and Eddie’s moms. He thought they were the reason my mom kept kicking him out, which in hindsight, they probably were.
“I ran out of my room and straight to the front door to try and head off my dad but as soon as I started to open the door he grabbed me by the arm and yanked me back. I’m a small person, and even though I was at least ten at the time, I was about the size of an eight year old. My dad was not a small man. When he jerked me back, he broke my arm in two places, a compound fracture, which is basically your bones getting twisted and snapped at the same time. Well, when he had grabbed me I was already opening the door so the boys got a front row view of the whole thing. I remember being on the floor in so much pain and looking up to see them standing in the door.
“Enzo took one look at me and lost his shit, barreling into my dad so hard that when they fell it shook the entire house. My dad was so blitzed it was barely a fight. Enzo just kept hitting him over and over again until Eddie pulled him off. They took me back to their house and Eddie’s mom took me to the hospital to have my arm set. We told the doctor that I fell while I was skateboarding but I doubt he bought it. That night my mom kicked my dad out for good and those two became my saviors.”
“Wow,” I said, “I had no idea.”
“Yeah, most of the guys don’t know about our history. Really, just Carlo and Angelo. Neither of them know about what I just told you though, so I would rather you kept that under wraps.”
“I won’t say anything, but I do have a question if you don’t mind?”
“Shoot.”
“If you and Enzo work for Carlo, how did Eddie get involved in a street gang?”
She sighed, “Enzo joined the marines’ right after high school, and with him gone Eddie kind of lost his way. He started hanging around with the wrong crowd and the next thing I knew he was getting locked up for robbing a liquor store. Classy right? Anyways, when he got out he was a full-fledged gangster, and not the sophisticated kind like Carlo. I’m talking low rider driving, saggy pants wearing, hold your gun sideways because it looks cool gangster. It was ridiculous. He was a total asshat.
“Prison changed him, made him harder than he’d ever been. At that point, Enzo and I were already working for Carlo and once again Eddie felt like the odd man out. He’d kept his distance for the past few years. We only really ever saw him on holidays and the occasional family birthday. He refused to speak to Enzo for years. I’d kept in contact with him but it was only about a year ago that he started talking to Enzo again.”
“I’m sorry, Frankie.” I said, trying to keep the pity out of my voice and failing miserably.
“What about you?” she asked.
“What about me?” I asked, I didn’t expect the tables to turn on me.
“I may not be used to all this girl power bonding shit but I’m pretty sure that me unloading a pile of dirty laundry on you constitutes you doing some sharing of your own.”
“What do you want to know?” I asked, a little apprehensive. It’d been years since I’d extended my circle of trust to anyone new, but Frankie had worked for Carlo for the past five years. If Enzo and Carlo trusted her, I would too. Besides, after what we’d been through today and the dedication she’d showed me, it felt as if I’d know her for years. I needed a female friend like Frankie in my life, someone to confide in other than Carlo, someone to relate to.
“How did you and Carlo meet? I mean we all know the whole sister thing was a crock of shit otherwise things would get pretty awkward when your kids start coming out with tails.”
Kids?
I shook my head at the thought, I couldn’t even consider wandering down that rabbit hole right now.
“Umm, we met when he… Jesus this is going to sound bad. We met when he tried to kill me. Well, he didn’t really try to kill me. He had just planned to kill me.”
God, I hope she doesn’t think I’m a total fucking nutcase.
“What in the actual fuck? Are you fucking kidding me?” she screeched. I winced as the sound echoed through the car. “Holy fucking shit, you are serious!”
“Ugh, it’s not as bad as it sounds.” I said exasperated, then I thought about it for a minute, “Actually it is. It’s exactly as bad as it sounds.”
“You can’t leave me hanging like that! Explain.”
I heaved a sigh, “My father worked for Carlo and his father before him, and he turned rat, started selling secrets to the Kashnikov’s. You see, Carlo has this policy where if you betray him he kills your whole family. So he brought me and my mother to where he was holding my father because he planned to kill us in front of him as punishment for his betrayal.”
“Jesus, fuck! How old were you?”
“Seventeen, now stop interrupting. I let you tell your story without the fucking commentary.” I wasn’t really angry with her. In fact, her reaction was almost funny.
“Okay, okay, I’ll shut up. But for the record, your story is way more fucked up.”
“Dully noted. As I was saying, Carlo planned to kill u
s in front of my father. The thing was, me and my parents did not have a good relationship. My dad slapped me around quite a bit and my mom just ignored it because she was happy it wasn’t her getting the beating. So when Carlo told me what was happening and I realized that my mom knew what was going on and didn’t do a thing to protect me, I freaked the fuck out. Since Carlo could see that there was no love lost between me and my parents, he let me live and took me under his wing. That was the best day of my life.”
“Huh, that is actually kind of romantic in a totally twisted and fucked up way.”
“Aww, thanks!” I said in an annoyingly peppy voice. We both laughed and continued to trade stories for the rest of the drive to Salem.
Pulling up to the familiar two story home brought reality crashing down on me again. I didn’t know if I was ready to see Gina’s parents again but I didn’t have a choice. I had to get Carlo back and they were the only two people in this city that I trusted. Parking behind one of the SUVs in the driveway, I looked over to Frankie who had fallen silent since we pulled off the highway. I had sent Sal and the other men to a nearby hotel since there wasn’t room for everyone at the house.
“You ready?” I asked.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
We climbed out of the car and headed up the walk to the front door. Before we even hit the first step up to the porch the front door swung open and Pauline, Gina’s mom, stood in the doorway. She immediately burst into tears and rushed towards us.
“Mia, oh Bella. I’m so glad you’re here!” she said as she flung her thin arms around me pulling me into a tight hug.
“Hey, I missed you too,” I said hugging her back. Pulling away I turned to the woman beside me, “Pauline, this is Frankie. Frankie, this is Pauline.”
Frankie extended her hand, “Nice to meet you.”
“Oh please,” Pauline swatted her hand away and pulled her into a hug. Caught off guard, Frankie awkwardly patted her back. “A friend of Mia’s is a friend of ours. Whatever you need while you’re here don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Uh, thanks.”
“Can you show us where the men are? I don’t mean to be rude but time is of the essence here.”
“Of course, sweetheart, I understand. Come on in, they’re in the front room,” she said drying her eyes with the back of her hand and leading us into the house. I felt bad for not calling more often to check on them. She was obviously still having a hard time after Gina’s death. I had been so caught up in my own mission for vengeance that I didn’t even stop to think about them. Once this was over, I promised myself I would make more of an effort to reach out.
Angelo and Antonio were sitting on the couch across from Michael speaking in hushed tones while two other men sat on the opposite couch with Michael. As soon as they heard us come in Angelo and Antonio stood.
I raised my hand to ward off the questions I saw brewing in their eyes, “Sal and the others are setting up at a hotel a few minutes away, and we’ll debrief them in the morning after we have a plan.”
Before anyone else could say anything, Frankie spoke, “Where’s Enzo?” she asked, panic evident in her voice.
“He’s resting. I’ll take you to him,” Pauline said from behind her, “and then, I’ll go put on a pot of coffee. Looks like it’s going to be a long night.” She guided Frankie out of the room and down the hall.
Taking a seat next to Angelo, I focused my attention on Antonio, “Tell me what happened.”
“I was up on the catwalk with Matteo, Leo,” he said gesturing to the two men sitting stoic on the couch next to Michael, “And Nico. I saw them throw the grenades in the door. I tried to warn the men but it all happened so fast,” he took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts. It was the most emotion I had ever seen from him and it made me feel for him. Antonio was clearly carrying some serious guilt over what happened today, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why. I made a mental note to ask Angelo about it later. “The first blast wasn’t that bad, not causing a lot of damage, just enough of a distraction for us to reveal ourselves. The second explosion came so fast we didn’t have time to prepare. One second Mouse was warning us and the next it was chaos. Nico lost his footing. I couldn’t get to him in time and he fell.”
He cleared his throat before continuing, “The place was filling up with smoke, and since we were so far up it got thick fast. I knew where the others had been placed so I made my way down to find them. I came across Enzo first. He was the only one out of his group that made it. He had burns on the right side of his body. The worst of it was a piece of shrapnel stuck in his leg, but he could still walk with some help. We started to make our way over to where Carlo and Angelo had been. It took us a while since half the fucking building was on fire.” He had stared at the floor while he recounted the events but now he turned his dark gaze to me, his eyes so dark they were almost black as he addressed me, “But when we got close enough to see through the smoke, Ivan and his men were already dragging Carlo out.”
“You saw them taking him?” I raged, shooting to my feet to tower over him, “Why didn’t you fucking do anything?” Reaching around my back, I pulled my gun from the back of my pants and aimed it at his head, “Give me one good fucking reason why I shouldn’t blow your fucking brains out right here you disloyal fucking pig.”
“Mia, you have to know, if I thought for one second we stood any chance of taking them out and saving Carlo I would have tried. They were just so far away and we were in no position to attack.”
“Bullshit, you could have tried!”
“Mia, I was there. There was no way any of us would have made it out alive if we’d tried to intervene, and Carlo could have been caught in the crossfire,” Enzo said, making his way into the room with Frankie at his side. Her eyes were rimmed red and her face was blotchy as if she had just finished crying. They made their way over to a large recliner, Enzo settling himself down and Frankie perching herself onto the arm of the chair beside him.
I took a minute to calm myself. I was letting my emotions run wild and I needed to clamp it the fuck down for Carlos sake. “Fine, tell me the rest,” I said through a clenched jaw as I put my gun away and took my seat again.
Relief shown in his eyes before he went back to staring at the floor, “We made our way over to the alcove where Carlo and Angelo had been. When I made it through the debris, I found Angelo on the ground. I thought he was dead,” he paused swallowing down his emotion before continuing, “He was unconscious but breathing and I couldn’t get him to wake up so I pulled him out to where I had left Enzo and together we drug him around to the back entrance. It would have been easier to go out the front but we couldn’t risk walking right into Ivan.”
“What about you two?” I asked the two men Antonio had identified as Matteo and Leo.
Leo, I think, spoke up, “Matty here got pinned down by some fallen equipment, and I stayed behind to help him while Antonio went after the others.”
Accepting his explanation, I turned to Antonio again, “How the fuck did they know you guys were there?” I asked. My blood had started to heat as I listened to Antonio recount the events of the day, and it was positively boiling now. “Do you think we could have another rat?” I asked the question that had been niggling at the back of my mind all day. It was one of the reasons I sent all the other men to the hotel, I only wanted my most trusted men involved in planning Carlo’s rescue.
When did they become my men?
“I doubt it,” Enzo spoke up first, “Our guys are solid. It’s possible they had the place under some sort of surveillance. We swept the warehouse for bugs and there were no cameras so maybe they had eyes in the sky.”
“I agree with Enzo,” Angelo spoke for the first time since I’d arrived.
I nodded, “Okay,” I took a deep breath, “Frankie was able to track Ivan back to a club in Portland. That’s where he’s keeping Carlo. I have an idea how we can get in but you’re not going to like it.”
“What?” Angel
o asked, his whole body tensing at my words.
“The night I killed Boris, I ran into Ivan on my way out of the hotel.” I paused and looked around to see a mixture of shocked and confused faces.
“You did WHAT?” Michael, who had remained silent up to that point roared, getting to his feet and towering over me. I closed my eyes at his outburst. I knew he was upset because of his concern for my safety, but I wasn’t the scared little girl he used to know. I needed to make sure he realized what I was capable of now that I was all grown up.
“Michael,” I started, but I was cut off by Pauline who had just entered the room.
“Michael,” she said in stern tone, “Mia is a grown woman and from the looks of it she is the one running the show here. If you have something to discuss with her, you can do it in private later.” She didn’t as much as flinch when he glared at her for a full minute before taking his seat again. Go Pauline! “Now, who wants coffee?” I had been so distracted by her interruption I hadn’t even realized she was holding a tray when she walked in.
“Thank you,” I said to Pauline as she handed me a coffee, giving me a look that told me we would be having words later but she wasn’t going to say anything in front of my men. I returned her look with a wan smile and an appreciative nod.
“As I was saying, Ivan approached me that night and gave me his card. He told me the club was holding auditions for new dancers this Friday and to come in if I was interested. I was wearing a wig and hid most of my face but I’m sure with the video I sent he’s put two and two together and knows the girl in the elevator was me.”
“Does he know what you look like? Without the wig and all, I mean,” Antonio asked.
“I have no idea. Carlo kept me pretty well hidden but given what happened today I think it’s safe to say he’s probably gotten his hands on my picture.”
“Fuck,” Angelo exclaimed.
“I’ll do it,” Frankie said quickly.
“Like hell you will,” Enzo seethed.
“It’s not up to you,” she glared at him. “I can totally do this,” she said turning to me.
