by Naomi West
I nod, but Fabi cuts in. “What the hell, Dante? You want us to leave Chicago? Leave everything behind? What about the restaurants? Our businesses? Our life here? You want us to run away like we’re scared?”
“It’s not running, Fabi. It’s leaving it. It’s starting over. If we don’t, we’re going to be fighting Dad’s war for the rest of our lives.”
Fabi opens his mouth to fight more but I’ve heard what I needed to hear. If they were going to Greco for any reason besides ending this, I wouldn’t let them come with me. I wasn’t trying to start another war. I was trying to ensure that Alessia was safe. Forever.
“He’s right, Fabi. Trust me. I’ve seen the way the game is played. I’ve been by your father’s side in almost every deal he made for the last ten years. I’ve seen the way it sucked him back in every time. If you stay here, you’re going to have to live in your father’s world.”
“But it wouldn’t have to be the way it was for Dad,” Fabi says, yanking a hand through his hair. “We don’t have to mobsters to run our businesses and live in our home.”
“Fabi,” I say and he turns to me, frustration lining his face. “There is no living on the edge of this life. It sucks you in every time. No matter how hard you try to get stay above it. It happened to Patrizzio over and over. Do you think your father never tried to get out?”
“What?” he asks, his face blanching. “Dad never tried to get out. He loved this life. He loved being a mobster.”
“Maybe at the beginning,” I admit, “but once everything happened with Dante he changed.”
Both Fabi and Dante go perfectly still and I know my words are painful for them to hear, but they have to hear them.
“Yeah, well, shooting your son in the leg will change your life view, I suppose,” Dante says coldly. “Even if you’re a monster.”
“He regrets that,” I say.
“You don’t know how he feels,” Dante snaps and turns away from me. “Nobody does.”
“You’re right. I can’t know how he feels exactly, but I know the things he did.”
“What things?” Fabi asks and for a second he looks so young. I realize that even after everything that’s happened, he still loves his father, somewhere deep inside. I don’t envy him or Dante or Alessia. It would be a curse to love Fabrici Patrizzio. It would be a heavy love that would always be laced with the guilty knowledge of the pain he’s caused the world.
“He was preparing to get out. He was figuring out how to hand over the docks to Greco.”
Dante freezes and glares at me. “I don’t believe you.”
I shrug. “No skin off my back if you don’t. All I know is what I saw. He was piecing off his connections little by little. He wanted to pass off his position as an importer without losing his status as a dangerous man. He wanted to be out of the game but still have the position to protect you three.”
“And then we got him sent to jail,” Fabi says hollowly.
“Well, as someone who doesn’t love him and has seen him do terrible things, I can tell you that he deserves jail,” I say and watch Dante’s eyes flicker to mine. He appreciates the sentiment. “I can also say that the three of you deserve a fresh start away from Chicago. Someplace you won’t have to be looking over your shoulders for the rest of your lives.”
“You’re gonna help us,” Dante says, a bit of surprise coloring his tone. “You’re not acting on my father’s orders, then?”
I shake my head. “I have no loyalty to your father anymore.”
Dante raises an eyebrow as something flickers across his face. “A true mercenary, then.”
Fabi shakes his head and a mischievous smile plays at the corners of his mouth. “It’s not because Dad is in jail and can’t pay him anymore, Dante. It’s because Dare’s loyalty lies with Alessia now.”
Dante freezes as instant comprehension washes over him and I have only a second’s warning before I’m at the business end of a nine millimeter.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!” Fabi yells, throwing his hands in the air and instantly moving in between Dante’s gun and my chest.
“You were supposed to be protecting her, Guinne,” Dante snarls at me.
“He was!” Fabi insists, moving to block me when Dante starts to prowl around, trying to get a better shot at me. “He was just also, you know, fucking her at the same time.”
“You’re not helping, Fabi,” I growl and push him aside. “Dante, I’m not fucking Alessia. She’s the love of my life. The most important thing to me. And I’m here right now, strapping firearms to myself to go destroy a man who is threatening her. I’m not going to live in a world where Alessia is in danger.”
Dante’s eyes search mine, he’s trying to figure out if I’m telling the truth.
“And from what I know about you, you don’t want to live in a world like that either, do you? So, put aside how you feel about this for a day, let’s fucking skin Greco alive, and then you can ask Alessia if I treat her right. After she’s not in danger of being kidnapped and tortured by one of the most despicable men alive, alright? If she says I wasn’t good to her, you can shoot me then.”
Dante considers me for another second before he lowers the gun and flicks the safety back on. “Fine.”
I can see that he’s still very agitated but he’s not going to shoot me. “Look,” I say, needing to clear the air a little bit if we’re going to be going into battle alongside one another. “I don’t enjoy having a gun pointed at me, but it’s nice to know Alessia’s got people who will go to bat for her.”
Dante gives a curt nod. “I’d probably feel the same way about Clara.”
“Alright, girls,” Fabi says. “Are we done dancing? Because we have a mobster to kill and we aren’t getting any younger.”
He’s right. It’s time.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Dare
Artuz drives and Dante, Fabi, and I sit in the back of the van. There’s energy rolling around between us. It’s soldier energy. It’s the brink of battle. It’s what your body makes you do to get ready.
I watch Dante and Fabi from the corner of my eye. Dante sits completely still and Fabi bounces one foot on the ground but neither look nervous. These men don’t have the same amount of wartime experience as I have, but this won’t be their first firefight.
For a second, a memory flashes across my mind. It’s of my dad shaking me awake one night to go for a walk with him on the beach. I was maybe ten years old. He’d shown me the Northern Lights that night.
I look at the way Dante and Fabi hold their guns across their chest. Neither of them were trained soldiers. I compare Patrizzio to my father, what it must have been like to grow up under the tutelage of a mobster. In that second I think I hate Patrizzio as much as his sons do.
The feeling passes and I feel the van slow and pull to the side of the road. We’re here, in Greco’s neighborhood. This is where the games begin and I can’t afford to be distracted.
“Alright, Fabi,” I say as Artuz comes around and slides open the van door for us. “Remember. I’m leading us through the grounds. I think I’ll be able to disable a fair amount of the security features he has, considering he tried to imitate my own system. But once we’re in the house, you have to lead us. We’ll be blind in there. And we’ll have to move fast, because I have no idea what kind of alarms or locks he has in the house.”
Fabi nods and a look of complete concentration comes over his face. He looks strikingly like Dante for a moment.
We’ve parked the van about a mile out from Greco’s property. We take a moment to completely wipe down every surface. It’s unmarked, unregistered, untraceable. We’ll be coming back to it once all this is finished but if anything goes wrong we don’t want it getting back to any of us.
Unlike Patrizzio’s style of doing business, we will not be leaving a calling card. The whole thing is moot if Greco’s people can prove that we did it and want us to pay. I lead the men through the woods and I notice with approval that both Dante a
nd Fabi move with quiet grace through the shadows, just like Artuz and I do. It doesn’t take long before we’re up against the fence that lines Greco’s property.
I open my phone and log into the app I created to run the security features at Patrizzio’s mansion. I’m praying that the algorithm that Greco had tried to poach me for is the same one he used to protect his own property. I’m instantly rewarded when my phone picks up the presence of six motion detectors, three cameras, and a series of alarms along the way. I look closer. Plus, one motion activated tear gas bomb? Loud, unconventional, but something to consider when I’m putting in my next security system.
I turn to the men behind me. “I should be able to deactivate and reactivate as we go. But anyone who is paying close attention will be able to figure out that there are intruders taking a direct path toward the house. We have to move fast and pray that Greco’s security is taking a coffee break.”
“More like a porn break,” Fabi says and the rest of us turn to him.
“I’m serious, have you ever met the head of Greco’s security? That guy’s a perv.’
I have to agree with Fabi but I don’t say anything. Dante on the other cuffs his brother on the back of the head. “Concentrate, dumb ass.”
“I’m focused, D,” Fabi says. If it were me, I’d be irritated at Dante’s condescending tone, but Fabi doesn’t seem bothered by it. “It’s gonna be alright.”
“Alright boys,” I say and disable the first round of motion sensors. I motion to Artuz and he’s swinging himself up and over the fence like a cat. He lands silently. Fabi next, then Dante, then me.
I reactivate the alarm behind us to allay suspicion on Greco’s end and follow the group. We slink across Greco’s property like a band of burglars, Artuz leading at certain points and me leading at others. We only get one chance to get this right and all of us are performing at top caliber. We know that if we mess this up, Greco is going to go into serious hiding. We’ll never find him them.
We skirt the house without incident but at this point my blood pressure goes up. We’ve reached the end of the elements that I can control. At this point, we have to trust Fabi. He leans back and shades his eyes from the bright wash of the security lights.
He mutters to himself for a minute before whispering in my ear. “That window up there? That’s the window she used to sneak me out of. It’s on the second floor and it’s a hallway that pretty much never gets used. We used to get busy in one of the far guest bedrooms away from Greco’s chambers.”
“Spare me the details, Fabi,” I mutter.
“If we go in there, we’re not likely to run in to anybody. But we’re also far from where he probably is. He’s got a little mini apartment in the belly of the house. It’s his personal chambers and he rarely comes out of there. He’ll have a guard posted at each entrance.”
I run through the configuration in my mind, picturing the sketch that Fabi made from memory a few hours ago.
I motion to Artuz. It’s better if we go around the house to a closer entrance. Even though it’ll take longer and there might be a guard we have to disable, we’ll be closer to Greco as soon as we enter the house. Artuz nods at me and falls into a crouch. Slinking to the edge of the house, he peers around the corner, motioning for us to go on ahead. The second Dante clears the corner, I hear a low hissing sound, followed by a cry from Dante and a beeping in my pocket.
“Fuck,” I growl and grab Dante by the back of his shirt, hauling him back. “Hold your breath everyone, that’s a tear gas bomb.’
We just set off the fucking system. I race back to the window that Fabi pointed out and hoist myself up, easily breaking the window and sliding myself through. There’s no going back at this point. We set off the system, they know we’re here. If we stay outside we’re going to go blind with the tear gas. I can already feel it stinging my eyes. I reach down and tug Dante through the window as Artuz pushes him up from below.
Dante’s eyes are streaming and his nose is running. He’s holding one hand over his mouth, trying not to cough into the silent hall. I don’t envy his position. I’ve gotten a face full of tear gas before.
As soon as Fabi is in the window behind us he’s tugging Dante to his side. I’m not sure what he’s doing at first, but then I realized Fabi is tilting his brother’s head back. He’s reaching into Dante’s eyes and pulling out his contacts. Good move. That could have caused his eyes serious damage otherwise.
“Gonna have to fly blind, bro,” Fabi whispers to his brother and Dante nods, looking extremely grateful for Fabi’s quick thinking. I wonder how blind Dante is without his contacts but we don’t have time to figure all that out.
I stand and wipe away my remaining tears, we need to get out of this hall and away from the open window as fast as we can. Motioning for them all to follow me, I pad lightly down the hallway.
Most of the bedroom doors are closed, but Artuz and I clear the ones that are open, confirming there isn’t anyone waiting to ambush us. Fabi was right. This wing of Greco’s mansion is completely devoid of people. It takes us ten tense minutes to make our way to the bowels of the building, where Greco is holed up. The only sound is Dante’s labored breath, although the longer we go, the quieter he becomes. He must not have gotten a straight shot to the face and for that I’m grateful.
The long hallway ends and I realize there’s a balcony at the end. This must lead to the large staircase that Fabi mentioned. At the bottom of that staircase is the door to Greco’s rooms. That’s where he’ll be. I crouch to creep toward the end of the hallway, shrinking from the light that is seeping in from the balcony area.
The other three stay back as I quickly scope out what we’re dealing with and crawl back.
“Four guards positioned around the lip of the balcony, two on the stairs and two on the door of Greco’s rooms,” I whisper. Artuz and Dante nod, looking determined, Fabi gulps and tightens his hands around the gun he holds in front of him. For a second he looks so young.
“Alessia,” he whispers to himself and a look of sheer ferocity crosses his face. It’s a good reminder for all of us.
I push thoughts of her out of my mind. I can’t think about her right now. I can’t get distracted. The four of us make eye contact, stand, and stalk to the entrance of the balcony. Our goal is to move fast and to keep going no matter what. We have to reach the guards at the bottom of the stairs in thirty seconds or less or else Greco is going to lock himself in the safe room he keeps in his chambers.
We don’t pause, we don’t move in unison, we just fucking go. Artuz steps into the light and takes out two of the guards in less than two seconds. I take out one and Dante the other. Even with no contacts and an eye full of tear gas, he’s still got good aim.
Fabi is flying around the curve of the balcony and in a ridiculously smooth move he’s sliding down the banister, boots first and lands a direct kick to the chest of one of the guards. He pistol whips the other across the chin and the man crumples like a tissue against the floor. Before we can stop him, Fabi is ripping open the door to Greco’s chambers.
Gunshots echo and bullets fly out the door, directly into Fabi and he crumbles to the ground next to the guards. Dante screams and jumps ten stairs at a time. I can only hope the bullets caught Fabi in his vest. Artuz grabs Dante by the shoulder and pulls him up short before he jumps into the line of fire in an effort to get to his brother.
I’m there a second later. Bullets are still flying out the open door, shooting at anything and everything. A thought hits me. Greco is desperate. This isn’t the gunfire of a man who knows how to pick off opponents. Crawling forward, I reach my hand out just far enough to grab Fabi’s boot. A bullet pierces the ground inches away from my fingertips but I lunge forward and grab Fabi’s leg, yanking his dead weight back into the safe zone.
He groans and blink his eyes as Dante shakes him by the shoulders. A dot of red is spreading on his shoulder but he speaks. “I’m okay, I’m okay. Just my shoulder. Thanks for pulling me back,
Dare.”
Dante leans back on his heels and lets out a breath. He quickly cuffs me on the back of the neck. “I always wanted Alessia to end up with an accountant or a pharmacist or something,” he says, “but I guess you’ll do.”
We grin at each other for just a second before the gunfire starts up in the room again. This time the bullets puncture the door and the wall. They’re systematically coming for us.
Enough of this. I pull the pin on a smoke bomb and toss it into the room.
“Scatter!” a man yells. They think it’s a grenade, but it’ll obscure their vision just long enough for us to get into the room.
Dante and Artuz follow me in, the three of us spreading out along the walls. We hear scrambling and a few yells, and then a quiet reedy voice trying to command the chaos. Greco. I’d know that voice anywhere.
