From Manhattan With Revenge Boxed Set

by Christopher Smith

  “You’re in my way,” he said.

  “I’m not—”

  “You should be supporting me.”

  “I do support you.”

  “I should be in there. They sent two men to kill me. Katzev sent them. One probably would have killed me if he wasn’t run over by a truck. Why should I be denied the right to see him die? Why shouldn’t I have a hand in his death? Why am I considered so inferior that I can’t be part of this? That wasn’t the deal. I came in to be part of this. I never expected to be some fucking bystander.”

  “You’re taking this too personally.”

  “No, I’m not.”

  Regardless of her quickening heart, she managed to keep her voice steady. “Here’s what’s personal,” she said. “You have a gun held to my face. A laser shining on my forehead. That’s as personal as it gets. Would you please put that away? I’m not against you, Jake. I told you. I support you.”

  “How do I know that? You know what I look like, Babe. On a whim, if you wanted to, you could identify me and turn me in.”

  At that moment, she realized how little she knew about him since she brought him in to surprise Carmen and assist her. During their time together, he’d given away practically nothing about himself, with the exception that Katzev had used his men to try and kill him. She’d been so caught up in trying to help Carmen that she hadn’t paid much attention to him or to his behavior.

  “I know what many of you look like,” she said. “I opened my home to you and offered you safe haven from Katzev and the syndicate. I agreed with you that Spocatti shut you out of this, which is why we’re here now. We’re doing something. We’re waiting for Chloe. We’re going to save her. I’ve only ever helped all of you.”

  “You sound desperate, Babe.”

  “You haven’t lowered the gun. I have good reason.”

  “I think I’ll take care of this myself. Starting with Spocatti. I never liked him. It’s time he knows that he’s not King Shit around here.”

  Her eyes filled with sorrow. She knew what was coming and she knew well enough that she was powerless to stop it.

  “Jake,” she said.

  “Shut up, Babe.”

  “I would never betray you.”

  “I don’t know you. I don’t believe you.”

  “I’m here for you,” she said. “Please rethink this. I’ve devoted twenty years of my life to helping your people.”

  “My people. What does that mean? That I’m not a McAdoo? That I’m not one of your people?”

  “That’s not what I meant at all.”

  “I think it is what you meant.”

  “Why are you doing this?”

  “Survival.”

  Before she could lift her hands to protect herself, he fired two shots into her face, her head slammed against the passenger-side window in a bloody yellow smear, and Babe McAdoo of the famed McAdoo family, which was long known and celebrated for its variety of seasonings, particularly during the holiday season, when everyone seemed to use them, mostly for turkey or roasted chicken, which were improved by them, was dead.

  CHAPTER THI

  RTY

  Carmen and Vincent had their guns drawn and poised in front of them the moment they saw that the warehouse was in darkness.

  The door was opened manually. Whoever opened and closed it hurried away. The room smelled of smoke and something else Carmen couldn’t define. A fire extinguisher? Made sense, only the reason it was used made no sense to her at all. She scanned the darkness for Chloe—for anyone—but she couldn’t see anything.

  “We’ve been set-up,” she said to Spocatti. “They could be wearing goggles. Infrared.”

  “Let me deal with this.” He took a step forward. “Turn on the lights, Katzev. Don’t fuck with me. You’ll lose. Turn them on now.”

  At the rear of the room came a flicking sound followed by a tiny flame igniting in the gloom. Carmen squinted and could see the faint outline of Katzev’s face. He held the lighter out in front of him, which cast unflattering shadows upon his face. She’d never seen him before, but this is how she’d come to view him in her mind. With the shadows curling around his jaw and beneath his eyes, he looked demonic to her. Evil.

  “Settle down,” he said. “We don’t have lights because Carmen’s girl shot the breaker box after killing one of my men. Nothing I can do about it. You’re lucky there’s a manual override on that garage door so we could let you inside.”

  “You’re telling me you have no emergency lighting in this joint? Bullshit,” Spocatti said. “I don’t believe it.”

  “Believe it. The building is old, Vincent. When she set fire to one of my cars, even the sprinkler system didn’t work. Otherwise, we’d be doused and the fire and police departments would be here.”

  Carmen processed the information quickly. Somehow, Chloe got hold of a gun. She killed one of Katzev’s men. Probably shot several cars, which would explain the sirens she heard earlier. One of the bullets created a fire. For a period of time, she had them all scrambling while she likely found a place to hide. Smart girl, she thought. Reckless, but smart. Now, where are you?

  “Where is Chloe?” Spocatti asked.

  “No idea,” Katzev said. He stepped forward and as he did, Carmen saw in the aura of light around him that a man with a rifle was leaning over the hood of one of the cars. The rifle was braced against his shoulder and pointed at them. “The murdering little bitch disappeared. She’s in here, somewhere. And don’t worry about the lack of light. I’ve got that covered. It’s coming.”

  “With more of your men?” Carmen asked.

  “That’s how the light is getting here, Carmen.”

  “Why do I feel that’s awfully convenient, Iver?”

  He paused at the mention of his real name. She could almost sense him bristling at the sound of it. That she’d even dare to use it in his presence and in front of his men. “Think what you want,” he said. “But it’s your girl who created this. Now, it’s up to me to fix it. Otherwise, we’re all in the dark.”

  “Which is how I feel right now,” she said to Spocatti in a low voice.

  “Not that the lighting situation is difficult to fix,” Katzev said, flicking off the cigarette lighter. “Turn on the lights.”

  In rapid succession, headlights from every car that hadn’t been damaged by Chloe started to turn on in such a way that they raced from where Spocatti and Carmen stood down to the very end of the warehouse, where Katzev stood.

  For a moment, Carmen couldn’t see anything—the headlights were on high, which in the wake of the absolute darkness she was just in, blinded her. She held up her hand to shield her eyes, and noticed that Spocatti simply stood there, squinting into the light as he stared forward.

  “What happened to just him and another guard?” she said to him. “We’re surrounded.”

  Car doors opened and slammed shut. Footsteps sounded on concrete. Armed men walked around to the front of each car in which they were sitting, guns and rifles now trained on her and Spocatti.

  They were being ambushed. Why wasn’t Spocatti saying anything? And where was Chloe? Beneath one of the cars? Probably. Hopefully somewhere more discrete. But regardless of where she was, in this light, Carmen feared it wouldn’t be long before they found her and possibly killed her given that she killed one of their men.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Katzev said. “So many men. But when your Chloe broke our deal, I had no choice but to bring in all of my men to get things back on track.”

  “She knew nothing about our deal. How could she? If she killed one of your men, it was only because she was trying to save herself.”

  “Murdering one of my men will only end with her own death.”

  “No, it won’t, for reasons you and I have already discussed. With the exception of you and your guard, which we agreed upon, I recommend that each of your men put down their guns, shove them under the car they’re standing in front of and leave immediately. That was our agreem
ent. Stick to it or there will be consequences.”

  But Katzev ignored him. He started to walk forward, galvanized by the fact that he had at least twenty of his own men guarding his back. “Do you know why you’re here, Carmen?”

  Due to the way the lights were shining, she could only see a shadowy figure walking toward her. She couldn’t see Katzev’s face. He still was an enigma to her.

  “I assume it has to do with Alex?” she said. “Whom you murdered.”

  “And for good reason,” Katzev said. “Alex was a rogue agent. He learned things about the syndicate that we’re certain he shared with you, which is why you also were targeted for elimination.”

  “What things?”

  “You tell me,” he said.

  “Alex shared nothing with me, Iver. I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I can tell you is what I’ve learned about you and the syndicate on my own. And it’s a lot. If you don’t stand down and let Chloe go free, the world will know everything about all of you.”

  “You don’t intimidate me, Carmen.”

  “Then let me be more clear. I wonder if my knowledge of Hera Hallas would intimidate Ms. Hallas enough to suffocate your ties to the syndicate? Or Conrad Bates, who hates you? Or Marius Albert, who lives in Paris and feels the same way about you? Or any other member of the syndicate? I’ve done my homework, Iver, and I know who all of you are. This has nothing to do with Alex, who kept your secrets, even though he wrongfully died because you thought he was a ‘rogue agent.’ I’m here to tell you that he took your secrets to his death. He died for nothing. You stole him away from me. So here I am, cashing in on my revenge, which I’ll have—one way or another.”

  “You better back off, girl,” Katzev said. But as tough as he made his fake Russian accent sound, a slight note of concern was wedded to it. Carmen heard it and seized upon it.

  “What I’ve learned about you and the others have everything to do with me and my contacts. Or, should I say, one very special contact who died this evening, but whose employee reached out to me moments ago because he decided his employer would want me to have the information he worked so hard to compile for me. You’ll never know who he is. But because of him, I have intelligence on you and every other member of the syndicate. Detailed intelligence, such as where you live, what you own, where you’re invested, in which buildings you keep your corporate offices. Also, who you’ve targeted for death throughout the years. I’ve already set things into motion with my contact at the NYPD that if anything should happen to me tonight, such as my death, the information I sent him earlier about the syndicate and who comprises the syndicate will be fully investigated, exposed and made world news for all the wrongs you’ve done, which I think we’d both agree are plenty. Would you like me to run through the rest of the names, Iver? Yes? No? Because I can, just as I can stop your own family’s deaths, which is about to happen in minutes, starting with your mother.”

  Spocatti turned to her in surprise. She could feel him looking at her. Reassessing her. Now he knew why she used her cell phone earlier. Now he knew, just as Katzev knew, that her information was true. Better yet, if he didn’t know it before, there could be no question now that she was a force to be taken seriously.

  “I need your guards to leave, Iver. And I mean to get the hell out of here and not to wait for us outside. I need for them to get in their cars and leave. When I’m certain they’re gone, then we release Chloe, as agreed upon. Someone is outside to pick her up. Then Spocatti and I walk out of here. You will never contact me again. I will forget everything I know about you and the syndicate. That’s my promise to you. As for Vincent, if you want to stay together, that’s between you two. I really could give a shit. But if you ever come after me again, my contact is sitting on one million dollars, the key to which he’ll only receive from an unknown source should the syndicate act upon me at any point going forward.”

  “And how will he know that it was us, Carmen? So many would like to see you dead. It could be us. It could be someone else who kills you. How will he know?”

  She hadn’t anticipated this question and thought quickly. “Iver, I know your hand. You show it so well. I always will know when I’m being followed by you. At that point, I’ll alert my contact. Should anything happen to me, he’ll know it’s you, the keys and the money will be his—as will all the information on the syndicate, which should net him that fat promotion and publicity that have eluded him for years.”

  She lifted her arm to check her watch, the mere action of which caused several of the men surrounding her to lean into position with their guns and rifles. “Oh, please,” she said to them. “Stand down. Did you not hear what I just said?”

  Katzev lowered his hand and they relaxed.

  “Your mother dies in twenty minutes unless my man hears from me. You’ve seen the video. You know he’s there. None of this is bullshit, Iver. We’re going to have a clean break from one another.”

  “But you’ve already said you’re seeking revenge,” Katzev said. “So, where is your revenge?”

  “Are you blind? Have you not heard me? If you come after me at any point, the syndicate will be revealed and investigated at the highest levels. Including you. That’s my revenge. It will continue when they bring all of you publicly to trial and then to prison. It will be a media circus. Your reputation will be destroyed. That’s my revenge. But it doesn’t end there. My revenge also is cheating you out of killing me. Should you be stupid enough to do so, face the law. Now, get your men out of here. Tell them to drive far and away. You need to move fast and take this seriously. We find Chloe and let her go. Then Vincent and I walk out. I don’t know about him, but I’ll be out of your life forever.”

  “About Spocatti,” Katzev said. “He probably has that same contact at the NYPD. Or I’m sure he can find out who it is and offer him more money to just walk away from this and leave it alone when you die. When it comes to the man who you’ve hired to kill my family, I’m also fairly sure that Spocatti knows who it is and can make a phone call that will stop him. We’ll pay him handsomely to do so.”

  He started to walk toward her. “You’re so ignorant, Carmen. So assuming. Because what you don’t know is this. Spocatti here? Your good friend, Spocatti. He has no conscience. It’s what I love about him. It’s why I will continue to work with him for as long as I’m alive. Without you or the love of your life, Alex, here to hire, it appears that he’ll be terribly busy for many years.”

  He paused as Spocatti turned and drew his gun on her. She looked at him in bewilderment. She took a step back as the laser attached to his Glock 19 flashed out and wavered just beneath her right eye.

  “What are you doing?” she said to him. Her voiced was laced with confusion. Was this a joke?

  “What does it look like, Carmen?” Spocatti said. “I’ve been hired to kill you tonight. Nothing personal, so stop looking as if it is. It’s what people like us do. Well, at least it’s what people like I do. I take the job, I take the money, I follow through. I don’t have your conscience. I kill children. I’m not interested in doing good. I’m only interested in me. Now turn around. Drop your gun. It’s not ending the way you wanted it to.”

  CHAPTER THI

  RTY-ONE

  “Clear your men out,” Spocatti said to Katzev when Carmen’s gun hit the cement floor. “Nothing happens in front of this many people. It’s not how I work, especially when all of your men are armed. If you plan on saving your mother, we’re running out of time, Katzev. So, get them out.”

  “Why? They work for me. They’re not going to say anything about this.”

  “You thought the same thing about Alex and Carmen before you murdered him and targeted her. Somebody in this room will be the next Alex and Carmen. Do you all hear that? I hope so. I hope you take it to heart, because it will happen. I also know that you know that, Katzev. If you want this done, get them out.”

  Facing death and deceit, Carmen tried to keep herself calm, but she couldn’t. S
he felt betrayed by Spocatti. Used by him. She was angry and afraid, especially for Chloe, who had yet to reveal herself. “Why are you doing this, Vincent?” she said.

  “Shut up, Carmen.”

  “Tell me why you’re doing this.”

  “For the same reason you’d do it if you were offered twenty million dollars. You’re nothing but a mark to me. If you thought differently about our relationship, you should have known better. There are no friends in this business. You of all people should know better. There’s only the mark and the money.”

  “Bullshit. I’d never sell you out.”

  “Then you’re an idiot.” He pressed the barrel of his gun so hard against the back of her head that he scraped her scalp to the point that he drew blood. “I can make this quick and painless for you, or I can make it so you bleed out on the floor. Your choice. Run your mouth again and you’ll get the latter.” Then, to Katzev, he said, “I won’t ask again. Get them out.”

  “One guard stays,” Katzev said. “That’s what we agreed upon. Myself and another guard.”

  “Fine. The rest move. Thanks for your confidence in me, Katzev.” Spocatti’s voice reeked with sarcasm.

  Katzev knew he had no choice and Carmen saw him wave his hand in the air. “Put your guns and rifles beneath your cars. When you leave, I expect you to get out of here. We’ll finish this alone tonight.”

  All around her, she could hear the sounds of his men doing as they were told. Did she know any of them? Of course, she did. She’d probably worked with several of them, which deepened the betrayal.

  What could she do to stall this? The answer was obvious, even though she knew Spocatti had the resources to crush it. Still, she had to try. “I told you that if anything happened to me, my contact will investigate the syndicate, Iver. Chloe and I walk out of here now. If we don’t, the consequences will be swift. You’ll regret it.”