Missy Makes Mayhem (Missy the Werecat Book 5)

by P. G. Allison

  Alessandra was not stupid. She realized this crew was only keeping her alive so they could keep sending their demands to her father. She hoped they might eventually return her back home but she knew that was only if they believed she was completely ignorant about just who they were. If they thought she could identify any of them, then everything would change. They’d never risk having her tell her father. No, they’d kill her and make certain her body was never found. There’d be no trace. Nothing that would provide any clue whatsoever. She’d grown up as the daughter of one of the most powerful mob leaders in the country and had managed to learn a thing or two about how things were and how things would be.

  So, as she heard on the news how there was this big war going on, with all the mob families attacking one another … she knew. Her captors were blackmailing her father and making him cause this war. She didn’t understand why or how that benefitted them, but she didn’t need to. She simply knew it was because of her. That was the only explanation for why she was still there and hadn’t yet been killed or released. And, for why the war was still going on. Her father was obviously doing whatever they demanded but, until this war went the way they wanted, she was not going to be sent back home.

  Her frustration had gradually turned into despair and, as each day had passed and the news had only gotten worse, she’d become more and more depressed and fearful. She tried to not think about knowing who Buck was but that had only made her think about him all the more. Each time he came into her room, she avoided looking at him; she was afraid he’d sense that she now knew who he was. It was easy to act frightened because she was. While that helped her avoid any of the traumatic bonding with her captors which she’d read about, something known as Stockholm syndrome for victims like herself being imprisoned, she was completely miserable.

  And, her memory kept feeding her with little bits and pieces until she managed to finally realize just which of her father’s capos had always brought Buck along: it had been Vinnie Cappiello and his sidekick Stan somebody-or-other. Yeah, she knew who Vinnie and Stan were. She’d overheard her father and Ben Marchitto talking about them, whenever they’d thought she wasn’t listening or paying attention. They didn’t like Vinnie much but considered him necessary for their organization. At the time, she couldn’t have cared less.

  Now, however, she was overly sensitized. She was living in constant fear of being discovered and, ultimately, that was her undoing. They noticed. And, when three of them suddenly confronted her, it didn’t take them long. She was not skilled at interrogation techniques but they were. She didn’t tell them about recognizing who Buck was but instead, while being super careful to not say anything about him, she’d slipped up and mentioned Vinnie. She’d been flustered and scared and, before she even knew it, his name had just come out. She’d been horrified, of course, but it had then been too late.

  -----

  Stan voiced his concern to Vinnie after hearing their guy Buck report in over the phone. “Our golden goose knows who we are now. Nobody did anything to give it away but even so, she knows.” With the cameras they had arranged and having one of their guys constantly watching Alessandra on the monitors, her behavior had been obvious. “The kid has been jumpy all the time lately and it’s been looking very suspicious. Since it sure looked as though she’d figured out something, the guys talked to her.”

  Vinnie said, “Well, I know we agreed they should do that, if it appeared necessary. She guessed, huh? That was always the risk, of course.”

  “Yeah, she named you, Vinnie. That was all the guys needed to hear … it doesn’t really matter now how she figured things out. She’s a smart kid, of course. And, now she knows.”

  Vinnie nodded and said, “Okay. Too bad but at least we know she knows. We can still send that last video we made of her earlier, right? There’s nothing on that which Sal can use is there?” He’d been having Stan carefully screen every video, making certain none of them contained any possible messages which might be incriminating, prior to their sending them on to D’Amato with their demands.

  “We can send it. But, that’ll have to be the last one. Like I said, she’s smart and now that she knows we’re on to her, she’s desperate and might find a way to signal something. We’d better not chance that. And, like you were saying earlier, we’ve pretty much accomplished everything you wanted.” Stan was very happy with the added money Vinnie had shared with him and especially pleased with his own status, as Vinnie’s number two, now that Vinnie had been advanced so much higher in the D’Amato organization.

  Vinnie grimaced, saying, “Too bad about Alessandra but we probably wouldn’t have been able to do this again, anyway. Go ahead and have Buck get rid of her … he’s been really hoping he could get his hands on her and now he can. Spoils of war, right?”

  -----

  When Missy entered the house, she knew right away it was the right location. There were several guys watching TV in the living room and more guys were playing cards and drinking in the large dining room. They weren’t hanging out there as any group of friends but were merely passing the time, waiting for their next assignment. The fact they all had weapons was the real clue. They were obviously part of some mob organization and, since there indeed was a mob war going on, that explained why all the weapons. In addition to what the men were carrying on them, she noticed several revolvers, rifles, and shotguns which had been strategically placed at a few locations near both exits.

  She assumed there were early warning sensors placed outside but, in her spirit form, she hadn’t needed to worry about those. She went on up to the second floor, where she found one man watching a couple monitors and reading a magazine. Sure enough, the girl being spied on was Alessandra and Missy went right into the bedroom where Sandy was being confined to check on her.

  Sandy was distraught, clearly upset and very worried about something. The TV was on but Sandy wasn’t paying any attention to that. Instead, her eyes kept glancing at the door, looking to see if anyone might be entering and then she would look away, staring off into nowhere … she was terrified.

  Although Missy was in her spirit form, she was able to sense things with even greater ability than when able to see, smell, hear, touch and taste. And, her senses were telling her Sandy had recently experienced something bad, something traumatic, which was now causing her great anguish and dread. Unfortunately, Missy wasn’t able to determine what might be the problem but, thankfully, she was there now and would watch over Sandy.

  Mike, I’m here with Sandy and I think we found her not a moment too soon. She’s very troubled about something. Other than being really scared about whatever it is that’s bothering her, she’s physically okay. Let Sal know and have him send his crew out here right away. I counted at least eleven men downstairs and one upstairs but I’m going to double check all that … there may be more. This is definitely some sort of safe house. I’ll keep giving you updates you can pass along so there won’t be any surprises when Sal’s men get here.

  Mike acknowledged all this to Missy, using his emotional signal for yes which he knew she would feel, and then he smiled and looked at Troy. “You did it! Sandy is there, just like you thought. Good job! Missy tells me Sandy’s okay but really scared about something. I’ll send Sal a text now.” He took out the special burner phone and began entering a detailed message, explaining they’d confirmed Sandy was alive and providing the address.

  After sending that, Mike got a quick text message right back, asking if he was certain. He sent a reply, saying yes, and then he began entering a more detailed description of the house, the surroundings, and what Missy had told him so far.

  Troy waited until Mike finished sending his message and then said, “I really can’t believe we’re doing this. You never actually told me how it was you and Missy were able to meet with this Salvatore D’Amato and then … why would he tell you about his daughter being missing? I’ve heard a lot about him, of course … they say he runs one of the mob families here in New Yor
k.” During their conversations while searching, he’d been too focused on following Sandy’s energy signal and hadn’t bothered trying to understand what relationship his new friends might possibly have with such a notorious gangster.

  Mike laughed and said, “Missy was grabbed by two of Sal’s guys three years ago. He’d sent them up to Salem as a favor to his buddy Frank McCarthy, who was running the organization in East Boston. Maybe you’ve heard of him? He’s in prison now, thanks to info Missy gave the FBI. At any rate, Frank had this friend Tony who laundered all his money for him and Tony wanted Missy. It’s a long story. Tony’s dead now and Missy was actually monitoring Sal’s guys, using some FBI surveillance equipment which Robert Ulrey provided. She needed to protect herself after allowing those guys to return home. She had evidence they had not only grabbed her but had killed Tony’s wife and daughter.”

  Troy was trying to follow all this but was getting overwhelmed by all the details. “Wait, Robert Ulrey was helping? Couldn’t the FBI protect Missy?”

  “Oh, back then, she wasn’t trusting the government and Robert didn’t know she was a supernatural. That all came later. I’m trying to give you the Reader’s Digest version here, Troy.” He laughed and then continued. “Missy learned from the surveillance equipment how Sal’s organization was planning to ship a bunch of young girls over to Brunei … he was selling them as sex slaves. Long story short, she paid him a visit after revealing she was a witch. This was about a year ago. She had Tracy send down lightning bolts, hitting his estate again and again …”

  Troy said, “Oh, wait … that I heard about! The media made a big deal about lightning striking not just twice but more than a dozen times out there; so did all the comedians on late night, saying it was retributive justice which the heavens had decided to reign down on the mob.”

  “Yep, that was my girlfriend. Sal still thinks Missy did all that by herself and never learned about Tracy. But, he then did everything she asked, sending all the girls back home and creating this Roseanne Fund which pays for their education and social services and whatever else Missy wants for them. Sal isn’t about to let anyone know he believes in witches, of course. He wouldn’t survive letting word of that get out.”

  Troy nodded his head. “I guess I can see why he wouldn’t risk admitting to that. What we witches can do is pretty incredible and can’t be proved, so he’d never get anyone to believe him. Most people won’t even believe in our cover story about being psychics; they usually just insist we’re all fakes. His mob buddies would never let him stay in power and would get rid of him pretty fast. He’d be sleeping with the fishes, right?”

  “Exactly!” Mike laughed. “Missy insisted he see us today and demanded to know why this mob war was going on. She’s worried about the folks she has helping with the Roseanne Fund becoming collateral damage. If anyone got hurt, she’d feel responsible.”

  “And Sal admitted his daughter was being held and he was being forced to attack the other families? He must trust Missy which actually sounds wrong but …” Troy paused and thought a moment. “He didn’t realize she might actually help, did he?”

  “No, not at all. And, he wasn’t going to mention anything at first. But, he saw how she was getting ready to really explode with power and he didn’t want any repeat of the last time. She’s been leaving him alone since then, without revealing anything to the Feds or causing him any problems so, in a way, I think he does trust her. They’ve sort of established this strange relationship and he definitely respects her.”

  Just then, Missy was asking how much longer until Sal’s crew would show up. Mike sent a text to Sal and learned they were still ten minutes away, which he managed to communicate to Missy by having her ask him a few yes and no questions, for which she then could sense his answers. They’d gotten really good at doing this ever since she’d done all that recon over in Afghanistan, in her cat form, with him then relaying all her messages back to “P” Branch.

  Missy had been working her way through all the rooms and listening to the various conversations. From what she could tell, only a few of the men were actually aware they were holding a hostage. The second floor was completely off limits to almost everyone with only two or three of the men downstairs allowed access. When one of those men, a guy named Buck, went up to chat with the man watching the monitors, the conversation made it pretty clear this upstairs operation was a big secret.

  And then, she heard them talking about getting rid of Sandy. Apparently, they’d just received word from their boss and later that night, after the men downstairs went off on yet another mission, Buck was supposed to take care of things. She heard him actually bragging about it, promising there’d be nothing left of the girl for anyone to find.

  The man who’d been watching Sandy said, “It’s about time. Watching this kid has gotten real boring, you know? She knows we’re watching so she doesn’t give us much to look at. Are you really going to have some fun with her before you kill her? I mean … she’s not even sixteen yet, right?”

  “Hey, every time I see those big tits of hers, my dick gets hard.” Buck reached down and grabbed himself appreciatively. “Those sweats she’s been wearing aren’t really able to hide the kinda curves she’s got. Those curves are telling me that sexy body in there wants to get fucked really good and it doesn’t matter what her age is, okay? I’m gonna give her a real nice send off, now that we’ve finally been given the okay. No more hiding behind any stupid masks or using those damn voice machines.”

  “Will you do her right in there, so I can watch? Or, are you gonna wait until after you’ve taken her for the long ride out to wherever you plan to bury her?”

  Buck actually considered that for a moment and then smiled. “It’ll be a while yet before I can take her outta here … I may as well enjoy myself while I’m waiting, right? If you wanna watch, I don’t have any problem with that. Just don’t interrupt me while I’m getting my rocks off, understand? And make sure nobody else does either. Maybe I’ll give you sloppy seconds.” With that, he began really chuckling to himself and walked away, headed for Sandy’s room.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Oct 27, 2019

  Sal D’Amato studied the email he’d received which once again was insisting he attack a number of locations and, as before, contained a video clip showing Sandy. The video had obviously been taken earlier that day and showed a copy of the latest issue of the New York Times. He could see how scared and miserable Sandy looked and, when he’d first received it about a half hour earlier, his continuing frustration at being unable to protect her from such a horrible ordeal had been agonizing.

  But, shortly after that, he’d gotten Missy’s text message. Now, his guys were closing in on where his daughter was supposedly being held and the suspense was even more unbearable. “Tell me again why I don’t have to worry about Sandy. When Billy and Donny hit this place, what’s to prevent the bastards in there from hurting her?”

  Ben Marchitto said, “What you have is the word of a witch, Sal. But, Missy has always been very clear about what she can do. Her latest instructions say nothing will happen to Sandy and your guys are free to blast away downstairs all they want but only Billy and Donny are to go upstairs to get Sandy. I think she must somehow be either using a protective spell or, hell, maybe she’s actually up there. Those messages saying Sandy is okay are very definite, so that wouldn’t surprise me at all. You remember how she just popped in here on us last year, right?”

  “Yeah, I remember everything she’s done only I don’t understand any of it. Fuck! This is my daughter we’re talking about … if anything happens to her …”

  “It won’t, Sal. Missy told us this afternoon that if she found Sandy, our guys would need to come to the rescue. She explained how she didn’t want to leave any evidence behind. You know … nothing supernatural which you’d have trouble explaining. I think that’s why she’s saying we can only have Billy and Donny go upstairs. She knows they can be trusted to clean things up, if nece
ssary, and make sure there’s nothing left that needs to be explained.”

  Sal nodded and said, “Yeah, yeah … I know, I get that. I suppose I should be grateful. What about this house? Do we know who owns it yet? When I find out who the hell has been fucking with us all this time …”

  “Actually, we own it. It’s one of our safe houses. You know how we have this dummy real estate corporation which is being held under another dummy corporation. If it hadn’t been our dummy corporation, we’d still be trying to track down ownership.” Ben looked again at his laptop’s computer screen. “At any rate, there’s not supposed to be anyone there right now. But, whoever it is that’s using the place, it has to be someone in your organization, Sal. One of your capos. No one else could be doing this.”

  -----

  Sandy saw the door open and when Buck walked in, with no mask, she immediately began crying. “No! Please, no! I promise! You can let me go. I promise I’ll never tell on you guys, okay?” She had been lying on her bed and now she jumped up, frantically looking towards the bathroom but she could see she’d never get there in time. Buck was closer than she was and would easily grab her.

  “Well, now, princess! Y’all know we can’t risk lettin’ you go an’ tell your daddy any stories ‘bout us. That’s not the way this is gonna work. Besides … you and I are finally gonna have us a little bit of fun. Y’all ready to be nice to me, princess? ‘Cuz, I’m the one standing here, deciding just how things will be and, who knows? If y’all can be nice to me, maybe I’ll be nice to you.” Now that he didn’t need to disguise his voice, he was really enjoying being able to lay it on thick, dragging out his pronunciation and swaggering in what he considered to be his very best Texas drawl.