“Yeah, but I don’t give a damn. I’ve got a lead, and I’m going after her. You may not hear from me again, Fonz, depending on how this all goes.”
“Whoa, whoa, hold up. I’m not gonna let your big ass walk with a knife into a gunfight. Count me in, I’ll help your ass out.”
Cal paused to consider Fonzie’s offer. Part of him wanted nothing more than to have Fonzie’s help. He didn’t know how many people Alfredo had at the warehouse guarding Maria. Another part of him wanted to do this alone, to ensure that no one else got hurt because of him.
“I think they’ve got her at the old warehouse where my father used to work. That’s what the paper on Alfredo’s desk said anyway.”
“Paper on Alfredo’s desk? You went home?”
“It was the only way I could find out where Maria is.” Cal’s chest tightened, and he pushed the pedal even farther to the floor on the last stretch of road he could before hitting city traffic. “Now are you going to help me or not?”
“Fuck yeah, I’ll help. Where you want to meet?”
“We need a game plan. As much as I want to go in there and rip their heads off, I’ve got to think this through. Come over to my place. We’ll talk it over.”
“Alright. You think we need anybody else? Knowin’ Alfredo, he’s gonna have a lot of guys in there.”
“Not any more than we can take down. See you soon.”
Cal hung up. He couldn’t help but feel that they were walking into a death trap that they would never walk out of.
48
Cal waited a half hour for Fonzie to arrive at his place. In addition to the Beretta and the jackknife, Cal had prepared a duffel bag filled with larger firepower to blast his way to Maria. He had no idea how many men he’d be up against.
The largest weapon he had wouldn’t be easy to carry or conceal while weighed down with other equipment. Cal unearthed a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun buried under a loose floorboard in the bedroom closet. It wasn’t a weapon he turned to often, but he kept it just in case.
He’d left the door open for Fonzie and wasn’t startled when he heard his friend’s soft footsteps greet him in the bedroom. Cal was busy tucking the shotgun into a duffel bag, which was just long enough to encase the entirety of the weapon.
“What you got that big fuckin’ shotgun for? Ain’t no way you’ll be able to shoot anybody that quick with that slow thing.”
“It may be slow,” Cal said after a long silence, “but what it lacks in speed, it makes up for in power. Those bastards who took Maria will regret the day they were born when they feel the wrath of this gun.”
Fonzie let out a nervous laugh and squatted beside Cal.
“Alright, what else you got?”
Fonzie bit onto his index finger as Cal showed him a few more weapons he had for the occasion, though Cal doubted he would use most of them. One of the weapons was a small spring-action knife that he planned to strap to the inside of a long pair of socks, in case his other weapons were confiscated or he was otherwise compromised. He was heading into what Fonzie had perfectly described as a death trap, and the more weapons he had at his disposal, the better.
The other weapon he planned to feature was a seldom-used pistol that he’d obtained from Alfredo when he was first starting out in the mafia, a Glock 22. While the gun was fine, Cal preferred the Beretta and thus hadn’t used the Glock in many years. If Fonzie was going to help him, he could at least use the gun, which would give him two at his disposal.
Fonzie looked at the Glock, compared it with his own, and nodded in approval.
“This should do. But if these guys are wantin’ to talk to you so you can give them what they want, what makes you think they won’t just take their chances and shoot Maria once they see you have weapons?”
“I figured we’d load up on weapons, find our way in, and take out as many guys as we can. Hopefully I’ll get to her before they do. It’s not like Alfredo or Vinnie will actually be there to give orders. It sounded like Meransky was running the show anyway. He won’t be giving the orders anymore.”
“Why is that?”
Cal hadn’t told Fonzie that Meransky had perished when Cal had stormed the Petrocelli compound earlier that evening. Upon mention of Meransky’s demise, he saw his friend’s jaw drop.
“Damn. If you weren’t a marked man before, you sure are now.”
Cal nodded. “You think a stealth operation will be better?”
Fonzie shrugged his good shoulder. “Let’s say you go in alone. You blast a few guys, and I sneak in the back door somehow. Maybe I can get a read over how many guys they have around Maria and can tip you off if things are getting dangerous, or I can try to take them out if you can’t get to her.”
Cal considered this. He maintained a good mental image of the interior of the warehouse based on all the time he’d spent there as a kid, but he wasn’t sure if anything had been updated over the years. He doubted it. He’d overheard both Alfredo and Vinnie mention that it was more of a dilapidated property and that not many drugs were being stored there or funneled out anymore. The police had caught on, and the mafia had moved the operation elsewhere.
If his intimate knowledge of the warehouse was correct, he anticipated Maria would be kept somewhere on the first floor, probably in the back of the warehouse, where many of the machines were. It would give anyone guarding her many more places to hide. Most importantly, it would force Cal out into the open middle of the shop floor, where he would be a sitting duck. If he could somehow get to the second-floor catwalk, he could fire on them from above, but he would be helpless to save Maria if someone attacked from below and his bullets were trained elsewhere.
Cal could only hope that Fonzie’s suggestion of sneaking in through the back would work in keeping the mafia soldiers at bay. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best Cal could think of. It would have to do.
“Head for the back. Once you hear the bullets are done spraying and I get into some negotiating, you barge in and blow the rest of them away. They shouldn’t see you coming from behind. Let’s hope that, if there are guards outside, you can take them out too.”
“I like that,” Fonzie said, his toothy grin growing wider. “If we can all make it out of there alive.”
“I’m sure we will,” Cal said with no hesitation in his voice. “We’ll just have to find a way.”
49
Alfredo watched from the warehouse catwalk as Maria struggled against her restraints, trying everything to free herself from the rope that bound her wrists and ankles against the metal pole that extended from floor to ceiling in the dusty warehouse. He felt like laughing, seeing her struggle the way she was. It took a great deal of effort, but he was able to hold off.
In the faint sliver of moonlight that crept through the foggy upstairs windows of the warehouse, a sheen of sweat was visible on her forehead. Her hair had been ruffled and lay messily atop her shoulders thanks to her captors shoving her in the back of a van and likely having their way with her before tying her up.
He couldn’t believe his luck. Thanks to the savvy work of one of Frankie Ramone’s junior mob associates, they’d been able to identify and follow Maria throughout the preceding weeks. Rather than being furious when the young man came clean about the knowledge of her identify and whereabouts, Alfredo had celebrated the fact that one of the men lower in his operation had been resourceful enough to find her. It made the moment he was witnessing all the more special.
The more Alfredo thought about it, the more he realized how necessary her harsh treatment had been. He felt like getting in on the action by slapping her around a bit. Maybe that would turn her into less of a loudmouth.
She’d been the bad apple that had poisoned his prized hit man. She’d slowly peeled away Cal’s primal instinct to kill, to hunt down the Chicago mafia’s gravest enemies. Her love for Cal made him want to leave the mafia and walk away from everything Alfredo had ever given him.
Fuck the bitch. Now they’ll both die.
>
Alfredo watched as Captain Joe Blutarski stalked toward Maria from the rear of the warehouse. Alfredo felt giddy with delight, wondering if the cop would frighten the already-scared young woman.
Maria attempted to turn to face Blutarski but whimpered in pain. The ropes around her wrists had been tied extremely tight. Alfredo hoped they burned into her flesh further with each move she made. Blutarski finally made his way to Maria’s side, and Alfredo could see the look of horror on her face.
He took that as his cue to descend the stairs from the catwalk, the same stairs he’d rushed Cal down seventeen years ago after Cal had pushed that young boy to the floor. Alfredo’s eyes remained trained on Blutarski. The officer was holding something in his hands and looking at it. Perhaps it was a photo from the crime scene. Regardless of whether Blutarski could match Maria to the photo of the girl, she was as good as dead. Everything Cal loved had to die.
“Miss Maria, it’s nice of you to join us,” Alfredo said. “I see you’ve met a good friend of mine. A man so loyal and dear to me, and very smart to boot, Captain Joe Blutarski. Mr. Blutarski, does Maria resemble the woman at the scene of the crime?”
Blutarski nodded. “It’s clearly her, Mr. Petrocelli. I don’t know how your inside man realized it was her so quickly. This kind of work would’ve taken us weeks.”
“Don’t concern yourself too much over that, Blutarski. You’ve done very well here. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to stick around. Now that we know Maria is our witness, we can butter her up really quick. Prepare her for what she’s going to say to the jury.”
Maria’s face was beet red. Alfredo could feel anger radiating off of her body. He couldn’t help but loosen his collar in response.
“Is that what you want with me? You want to make sure I don’t tell the police about your son blowing away those two innocent civilians walking out of the bar? Is that it?”
Alfredo laughed, holding his stomach with his large hands and bending over in a raucous roar of hilarity.
“That’s a good one, Maria. Those men weren’t innocent civilians. They were criminals working for the mayor, going undercover to protect his sadistic interests. Thanks to my son, the young boy you saw kill Mayor Caruso, and your disloyal lover, we’ve been able to vanquish our most heinous enemies, and the family I’ve worked my whole life building up will remain strong. Isn’t it great?”
Maria shook her head and stared at the ground. She looked defeated. Alfredo smiled and nodded at Blutarski, pleased that his tactics were working.
A minute later, Maria finally lifted her head. Her eyes were wide and her arms tensed as she tried to pull herself farther from the pole she was tied to. Even though the ropes were tight and had to be digging into her skin, she kept trying to move forward, her gaze sharp on Alfredo.
“Fuck you, Alfredo. Your family is nothing but a power-hungry sham that gets off on ruining the lives of other people. I’m not gonna say a word to anybody. I’ve learned from the best. He’s done such a great job of keeping your secrets.”
Alfredo’s heart pounded like a bass drum. How dare she criticize him and his family. He walked toward her slowly until his face was only inches from hers.
“I never would’ve imagined Cal dating someone so mouthy. What would you know about family greatness? Your family’s probably never built anything worth a damn. Maybe a tunnel to cross the border?”
Maria clenched her jaw and the veins in her forehead were bulging in hate. Alfredo smiled once again; he was back in the driver’s seat. He lifted his hand and brought it behind his head before slowly moving it toward Maria. He wanted her to think that he would smack her across the face. Maria closed her eyes before the tips of his fingers grazed her cheek.
“Ahhhh!”
Her screams filled the warehouse like the call of a rooster signaling the rising sun. A pair of hands tugged at her hair from behind, pulling it toward the pole that held her.
Alfredo’s face lit up in laughter upon seeing the pain the man was causing her. He backed away from Maria, still laughing, joining the policeman and a third man, the man who had yanked her hair like it was an unsightly weed in a bed of flowers.
“Hello, Maria.”
It was Vinnie.
“I hope my father has treated you with the utmost hospitality.”
Vinnie ran his hands through his hair, letting it fly messily behind his head before pacing the room. Alfredo wondered what he was going to do next. He didn’t mind if his son wanted to get in on the action. Nothing would piss Cal off more if he found out.
“Your stay with us will be rather brief, I’m afraid. We’ve called Cal to come get you, so you have a chance of getting out of here alive. If he does exactly what we tell him and you promise to keep your mouth shut, we just might let you live. After all, it would be a shame to lose a pretty face like yours.”
Vinnie’s laughter carried through the room. He continued to pace in front of Maria, as if moving slower would strike more fear into her heart.
“What are you going to have Cal do? I know he won’t listen to you. He’ll kill you and save me before he gives in to anything. He’s a changed man; you all mean nothing to him anymore.”
“Is that so?” Alfredo asked. “Cal’s a very loyal man. I took him in when the kid had no right to live. He owes everything he’s achieved in life to me. He’ll do what is right.”
“What if he doesn’t?”
“Then I’ll kill him. No questions asked. Some secrets, Miss Maria, can only remain so in death.”
50
Fonzie parked the borrowed car a block away from the warehouse. In Cal’s estimation, the warehouse hadn’t been operational in years. He remembered a large employee parking lot as the first point of contact from the road into the facility. Parking there would make them visible to anyone Alfredo stationed outside. For this reason, they decided to make their approach on foot.
Cal draped the duffel bag over his shoulder as they exited the vehicle. Inside the bag was the shotgun and a few boxes of ammunition, along with some basic first-aid supplies, in case Maria had been injured by her captors. That he or Fonzie may not make it out of the building alive wasn’t a consideration.
He knew in his bones he would find a way to get Maria out of there. That there would be no going back. The lure of the Petrocellis, the only family he’d had since he was twelve years old, no longer controlled him. Not after Maria’s kidnapping.
It was beyond personal; the kidnapping was a repulsive act. Even if they had no intention of killing him, kidnapping an innocent woman to get whatever they wanted from him removed Cal’s blinders, revealing just how cruel Alfredo was.
Almost as bad was how Vinnie had followed his father’s destructive path by desiring the Caruso kill for himself and running away from the murder scene, leaving Tony to face two of the mayor’s thugs alone. Cal had no doubt Vinnie was also responsible for Frankie Ramone’s death. Cal’s blood boiled at the thought.
“We gonna get the fuck out of here? I’m ready to kill some motherfuckers.”
Fonzie’s remark focused Cal on the immediate task. He blinked away any thoughts of anger toward the mob and set his eyes on the warehouse, preparing his plan of attack. His hit man instincts were kicking in.
“You realize you’re probably going up against some of your buddies on the street, right?” Cal asked. “This isn’t a normal ‘let’s kill the bad guys’ thing. In Alfredo’s eyes, we are the bad guys now. I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to realize I’ve always been one of the bad guys.”
“Don’t sweat it, man. I know what I’m getting into. I’ve got my own reasons for being here. I’m trying to get away from all this too.”
Cal was surprised by Fonzie’s admission. He remembered Fonzie suggesting doing something else on occasion, but they hadn’t seriously discussed it. At the same time, it didn’t surprise him.
“What are you going to do?”
Cal was curious about Fonzie’s plan. He had no idea what his nex
t step was after he rescued Maria and they were allowed to live the life they wanted together.
“I’ve been getting some singing gigs. Guess you were right that day back at the house. I got talent after all.”
Cal turned to him in surprise, a genuine smile forming on his face, forcing his thoughts away from Maria for a brief period.
“Wow, that’s great. How’d you get them?”
“Forget about that shit. Let’s save your girl.”
They walked down to the end of the street they’d parked on, which intersected the main road leading to the warehouse. The warehouse was set deep at the end of the street, beyond a rusty fence and spacious parking lot, with a row of office buildings dotting the sides of the street ending in front of the gate. The metallic siding of the warehouse looked downright dingy in comparison to the maroon brick buildings.
Cal and Fonzie huddled behind a thick evergreen bush, pausing to glance at the front entrance of the building, which was barely visible through the cluster of parked cars near the doors. The chill of the midnight air tickled Cal’s skin like a bad dream dancing in his brain.
Cal couldn’t discern the details of any of the cars, nor could he tell if anyone was out front.
“Jesus H. Fuck,” Fonzie whispered.
“What?”
“Take a look for yourself. I’ve got some binoculars here.”
“You brought binoculars?”
“Yessir. You never know when there’ll be a cute girl in some window that you want to take a peek at.”
Fonzie laughed and handed the binoculars off to Cal. Cal put them on and saw why Fonzie was surprised. Alfredo’s car was parked among the cluster of cars huddled near the entrance.
“I wonder what Fredo is doing here.”
One Last Kill Page 24
