Payback: A sniper seeking revenge terrorizes the mob (Assassin Series Book 1)

by David Nees

  “Christ!” Carmine exclaimed. “Don’t leave the area. When the cars leave, follow them. I want to know where they go. Got it? Don’t lose them!”

  “Got it, boss. How far should I follow? I mean, if they go a long way—”

  “Follow them till they stop somewhere, idiot. Check in with me, but don’t lose them.” Carmine shut his phone off. It was probably tapped, but at this point he didn’t care. Vincent was going to turn. Now he was sure. They probably had Tony in custody…or worse. His only hope was to find out where they were taking Vincent and get to him. He took a deep breath and opened a drawer in his desk. He pulled out a new cell phone to call Silvio. Then he would call the other capos. He was sure Silvio would put out a hit on Vincent. Carmine should have done it earlier, as he should have taken Joey out earlier. Hell, Vincent should have whacked Joey instead of just frightening him. Yeah, he had become a good soldier, but he was the magnet that drew this guy Dan, and he was the shit storm that fouled up everything.

  Chapter 59

  Later that day, all the Capos from the Palma family met in Carmine’s warehouse. Silvio let Carmine speak.

  “Vincent has gone over to the feds. We’ve tracked him to a hotel in Manhattan, the Ambassador. I don’t have to tell you that he can bring all of us down. I’m putting a hit out on him. I’ll arrange to test the security, to find out where he is in the hotel. They probably got a whole floor rented and secured. Silvio and me want him taken down. We’ll blow up the fucking building if we have to. Once we know where he is in the building, we meet again and figure out how we do this.”

  Everyone nodded. They all knew that Vincent could put them all behind bars.

  Silvio now spoke in his hoarse voice. “This is important. This is for the survival of the family. Vincent broke his oath. Now he needs to be eliminated.” His thin frame bristled with authority and anger.

  The meeting broke up. Silvio turned to Carmine. “Where’s Joey? He started this mess? Somebody take care of him?”

  Carmine hoped that question wouldn’t come up. “Joey’s back in town. The plan to get him out of town and set up an ambush for Dan didn’t work.”

  “What the hell happened? Can’t anyone do anything right?” Silvio asked.

  “Apparently Frank, you know, Frank Varsa…we sent him with Joey. He was to make sure neither came back, and—”

  “And Frank is the only one who didn’t come back. Am I right?” Silvio’s voice was filled with disgust.

  “Yeah,” Carmine said.

  “Carmine,” Silvio said. Carmine looked at the old man, frail but still commanding power of life and death over the family. “We are in a dangerous position. You got to get Vincent, even if it’s after he puts his story on tape. He can’t be allowed to produce that testimony in a court room or we’re all done. Don’t let this get fucked up. Don’t be clever, be brutal, be effective. Got it?”

  Carmine nodded.

  “And find Joey. I want him and this Dan guy dead. They should have been done months ago. This has gone on too long and now we need to finish it. We can lay low and weather the heat and the headlines. Our problems will be gone and when things settle down we can go back to business as usual. If you don’t get this done, there’s no business as usual. Understand?”

  Carmine nodded.

  “Good. Now get the fuck out of here and get this done.” Silvio turned and walked out of the room, no handshake, no embrace. Carmine understood. His position in the family, his life was on the line. That’s the way it was. The price for failure was severe.

  Joey left the men to watch Doreen and headed back to the Gardens to find Vincent. He had to play both sides of the game, and he figured setting up an ambush for Dan would show Vincent that he could be relied on. Joey didn’t know how that would play out but it was better to be seen helping than to isolate himself on the outside. When he reached the restaurant Vincent wasn’t there.

  “You know where he is?” Joey asked the manager.

  “No, he was supposed to come in today but he didn’t show and hasn’t called.”

  “You call him?”

  “What am I, his boss? I don’t call Vincent to check up on him. I do what he tells me to do. If he don’t come in, that’s his business, not mine.”

  Joey called Vincent’s cell number. No answer. Next he called the home number. Someone he didn’t recognize answered.

  “Let me talk to Vincent,” Joey said.

  “He can’t come to the phone right now.”

  “Who’s this?” Joey asked.

  “Who are you?” came the reply.

  “I fucking work for Vincent and I need to talk to him about business, now who the fuck are you?” Joey yelled.

  “And I’m telling you he can’t come to the phone right now, so leave me your name and I’ll let him know you called.” The reply came through firm and officious.

  Joey hung up. Something was wrong, something bigger than his situation, which was bad enough. Just then two of Vincent’s crew came into the restaurant.

  “Joey, what’re you doing back in town? I thought you were hiding out,” one said.

  “Yeah, well, that didn’t work out so well, so I came back. I’m going to take care of Dan myself and put an end to this bullshit.” His mood was getting darker as the situation got more confused.

  “Vincent know about that?”

  “I told him yesterday. Now no one can get in touch with him. You talked to him today?”

  “No.”

  “I’ll bet no one has. Who else was out at the house?” Joey asked.

  “Tony Tattaglia.”

  “He out there consoling Sheila again?”

  “Hell if I know.”

  “You talk to him lately?” Joey asked.

  “No.”

  “You got his number? Try to call him. Something’s going on. I called the house and a stranger answered and wouldn’t let me talk to Vincent.”

  The man called Tony’s number. There was no answer.

  “So Vincent doesn’t answer his cell, Tony doesn’t answer his cell, there’s a stranger in Vincent’s house taking his calls and won’t let me talk to him, something’s fucked up for sure.” Joey looked around everyone in the bar. The other soldiers agreed.

  Joey took the men into the back room. “Look, I went out to the woods to hide out so Dan wouldn’t have a target. Frank came with me. But Dan found us out there. There was a shootout, I’m guessing Frank got killed, and I barely escaped with my life. Someone let Dan know where we were. Now Dan’s going to come back here, if he isn’t already here. You know this shit’s gotta stop and I’m the one to stop it. I’ve got the bait to draw Dan into a trap but I need your help. Something’s up with Vincent and it don’t look good.”

  “Whaddaya think’s going on?” one of them asked.

  “I got no idea, but if the feds have Vincent, what’s going to happen to us? If Silvio or Carmine think we’re part of the problem, we’ll get whacked. Help me nail Dan and we’ll settle things down. You know Vincent would want us to take care of this.”

  The soldiers looked doubtful. One said, “I don’t know…without Vincent’s go ahead, you could be getting into some real shit. What about going up the ladder…to Carmine?”

  “I’m already in some shit. Dan’s targeted me and I’ve got to take care of him or he’ll take me out. And what does Carmine know about all of this? Christ, by the time we get him up to speed Dan may have whacked me and half of you guys. You think I’m the only one he’s after?”

  Some of the crew still looked doubtful. Finally two of them offered to help. Joey took what he could get and then went out to round up his own associates. He headed back to the warehouse with six more men to add to the two already there. Now he had to set up the trap. When he got back to the warehouse, he sent one of the men to get the word out where Doreen was being held and that Joey wanted to talk to Dan and make a trade. Then he began to arrange his men.

  Chapter 60

  While they were at the repair s
hop, Tommy got a call from one of Joey’s associates. Joey had Doreen at one of the abandoned warehouses, near where Dan had been ambushed. Joey wanted to talk to Dan about a trade.

  Tommy told Dan about the call. “You’re going to make a trade, right?”

  “It’s a set up. Do you think Joey will really make a trade with me? Do you think he’ll be satisfied if I just promise to go away in exchange for Doreen? Of if I gave myself up for Doreen, do you think he’d let her go?”

  “You’re playing with Doreen’s life. You can’t do that,” Tommy said in a low voice.

  “Look, the only way to get Doreen back is to kill Joey and his gang. I don’t know who’s giving him permission to act, but I’ll take him out…with your help.”

  “And they’ll kill Doreen in the meantime. Just how do you plan to keep that from happening?”

  “Giving myself up won’t get her free, I know that.” Maybe he was being too cold, but emotion wouldn’t get the job done. Cold, calculated killing would. Dan needed to be precise, thorough and quick if he was to save Doreen. Tommy had to understand that.

  “We’re going to strike quick and hard. The key is to kill them and get to Doreen before they understand we have the upper hand. If Joey hears shooting he’s not going to shoot Doreen right away. He’ll figure his guys are taking us out. What we have to do is get through them to Doreen and Joey, and finish it.”

  “Sounds like a pretty loose plan with a lot to go wrong. We don’t even know where in the warehouse she’s being kept.”

  “There’s always a lot to go wrong. You have to start and then improvise along the way. But speed is critical to keep them off balance.”

  Finally Tommy asked, “All right, what’s the first step?”

  “Call him back and ask him where to make the swap. Tell him you’re trying to get in touch with me. That will make them wait while we work up our plan.”

  After the call they took out a map of the city and reviewed the warehouse and its surroundings.

  “They’re going to have guards at the front, under some cover. They’ll probably have shooters on the roof. That’s where Joey will expect to be able to knock me off. You’re going to spot for me. We’ll set up a couple of blocks away. The rifle I’m using has a suppressor and I’m using sub-sonic rounds—”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  “That means if I can locate the rooftop shooters, I can take them out without anyone on the ground knowing about it. How many guys do you think Joey has, six, eight, ten? I doubt it’s more than that. So we start off by reducing his numbers by two or three. Next, I take out the street level guards. They may be harder to get a clear shot at, but it’s got to be done. After that, we have to get into the warehouse.”

  Tommy grimaced. “And that’s where things break down.”

  “Look, Tommy. You can hate me and shut me out of your life, but do it later. Right now your best chance, our best chance, at getting Doreen out of there alive is to work my plan, however imperfect it is.”

  Tommy glared at him. His life had made a sudden turn to the good with Doreen showing up and deciding she wanted to be with him. And now his best friend was the reason her life was in danger and he was the one who could save her. Tommy stood a chance to lose all the good that had happened over the past months. But was there any other way? Joey wouldn’t surrender to the cops. That wouldn’t make him safe from Dan. He’d seen Dan kill from a distance. No one would know where the shot came from and Joey’s head would explode. Besides, the police weren’t looking to arrest him and they certainly weren’t going to protect him. No, Joey was on his own. And if he was going down, he would go down fighting, taking anyone he could with him, including Doreen.

  Joey sent two men with rifles up to the roof of the warehouse to watch for Dan. Dan had to get through the gates, whether in the front or back and that’s where he’d be vulnerable. In addition, Joey positioned two men at ground level in front and three at the back. The remaining man was stationed in the room where Doreen was held. Joey placed himself in a room on the mezzanine with a clear sight line down the corridor leading to the room. If he got past his guards, Dan had to come down this corridor to get to Doreen. Joey would have a clear shot at him.

  Dan took the Remington 700 with its suppressor from his bag and assembled it. It was early afternoon. “Here’s what we do,” Dan said. “There’ll probably be lookouts on the roof. I’ll take them out. Those shots have to count. We can’t have Joey know we’ve started our assault that soon. So the rooftop shooters have to be taken out before anyone knows we’re here.

  “They won’t hear the shots?” Dan asked.

  “Not with the suppressor and sub-sonic rounds…and I’m going to shoot from two blocks away. They won’t be the easiest shots I’ve taken, but they won’t be the hardest. This is what I did in Iraq.”

  “But that was a just a job and Doreen wasn’t involved.” Tommy’s voice was compressed with the anger he was holding in.

  Dan looked at him. “No, but soldier’s lives were at stake. There’s always a life at stake and not just the target’s.”

  “So how do we get into the building?”

  “These warehouses are connected with a steam and utility tunnel. We break into the warehouse next to where they’re holding Doreen and go through the tunnel.”

  “And just step out at the right place?”

  “For God’s sake, Tommy, help me out.” Dan held his hands out, palms up. “I don’t have a fool proof plan, but I do have a plan. Yes, we measure the distance and pace it off in the tunnel. Can we get out of the tunnel undetected? I sure as hell don’t know. But it’s the best option. For one thing they won’t be looking for us to come from the inside, which is an advantage for us. If we move fast we can take them by surprise.”

  “All right, but what about just going around back and busting a window? Seems less complicated to me.”

  “That’s what they’ll be looking for. It might work, but I don’t like doing the expected. We don’t know how many they have inside watching the windows and doors, but I’m betting they aren’t watching the floors.”

  “And if the opening is locked?”

  “It wasn’t in the last building. I’m thinking these aren’t meant to lock. There’s a latch to open from the inside. Look, if we find we can’t open the cover, we go back and try your way. We lose fifteen minutes, but we don’t lose the surprise factor.”

  Dan turned back to the weapons. “You take the 9mm and the 12 gauge automatic. After we’ve taken out the guys on the roof, I’ll use the carbine and the .45. You shot a pistol before?”

  Tommy nodded.

  “Shotgun?”

  Tommy shook his head.

  “If you have to use it, hold it tight to your shoulder, it kicks hard. It holds eight shells. If you have to fire multiple times, load shells in between shots so the gun doesn’t run dry. Got it?”

  Tommy nodded again and looked closely as Dan showed him how to load, set the safety, and fire both weapons.

  “No time for practice. Think of the pistol as an extension of your finger. If you point your finger at something, you’ll probably point pretty accurately. Just do that with the pistol if there’s no time to aim. Here, fill your pockets with shells and take two extra magazines for the 9mm.”

  They grabbed their gear and headed out for the warehouse.

  Doreen sat, still tied to the chair. The man left in the room just stared at her. He was young and had a street punk look, like he had a chip on his shoulder. He was not bad looking in a greaser sort of way, kind of like a caricature of the New York street hood.

  “So…you going to untie me?” she asked.

  The guy looked at her without moving.

  “Joey said I could be untied. I won’t cause any trouble. I just want to get this over.”

  “You stay in the chair, I’ll untie you.”

  “Thanks. My hands are going numb.” He walked over and, taking out a knife, cut the tape around her wrists and ankl
es. “Wow that helps a lot.” Doreen rubbed her wrists. “What’s your name?”

  “Ray,” came the reply.

  “Well, Ray, I’m Doreen.”

  Ray nodded as he stepped back to the table and sat on it. He had a .45 tucked in his belt. He wore dress slacks, a silk shirt and dress shoes. Not dressed for combat, but for the street, to look cool and command attention.

  “Look, I don’t know you or what you know about me, but I’m not on Dan’s side,” Doreen said. “Dan’s got some vendetta with Joey and I just got caught up in it. I know Joey from high school. I came back to town and now look…I’m a fucking hostage. How the hell does that happen? Shit, I don’t know what Joey’s been up to since high school, and I don’t want to know. You know what I mean?”

  Ray looked at her.

  “You know I’m not part of this deal…this fight between Joey and Dan?”

  “You are, or Joey wouldn’t a brought you here.”

  “Ray, I’m the bait, that’s all. I got no love for Dan. He’s the reason I’m the bait…because I happen to know him and Joey thinks Dan’ll try to rescue me. I’d rather he just went away, which is what Joey probably wants.”

  “Why doesn’t he?”

  “Damned if I know. But you got to know, I’m not going to help Dan one bit. I just want this finished and to go about my life. Joey and you guys can go back to what you do.”

  “It may not be that easy,” Ray replied.

  “There’s going to be shooting, right?” Doreen asked.

  Ray nodded.

  “You going to shoot me when it starts?”

  “Not unless you make me.”

  “I won’t be any trouble. Like I said, Dan got me involved. He can go fuck himself for all I care.”

  Ray smiled.

  Doreen now tried a new tact. “Ray, you got a girlfriend?”

  “No one steady.”

  “I would bet you got a couple of girls trying to get their hooks into you.”

  Ray smiled. “A few, but I ain’t interested. First thing is you get a steady girl, then she wants you to settle down, gets jealous if you’re out with the boys, you know, havin’ fun. Then she gets pregnant and everyone says you gotta marry her. Then the fun is over. I seen it happen more than once.”