If the paperwork wasn’t fake.
Several conversations with the local businesses proved that this area was rife with political turmoil. It was a miracle some group of alphabet boys hadn’t been here to shut the project down already. That was still a risk, and if the building sprang up, if Don Grimaldi sank our funds into this dump, we would lose a huge portion of our capital when this project eventually was called into question.
The don thought it was as simple as greasing the palms of a few politicians, encouraging them to look the other way. We’d argued about it for the last few days.Nonno was stuck in the past. That wasn’t the world we lived in. Legal ventures such as this had to be squeaky clean, not riddled with potholes.
“Nico?” Joey tapped my shoulder. “Tell me you’re not having second thoughts.”
I bent…and touched the lighter to the fuse.
Fire crackled along the length. It raced to its goal, and with a mighty crash, the cannisters of fuel ignited.
Luigi whooped.
There was no undoing this. While we’d covered our tracks, this was the first outward sign of treason. Such actions should be punished by death. That was what we were risking. But the alternative—sitting by and letting the plump old men ruin everything—was not an option.
“I think we went overboard on the gasoline,” Emanuele muttered.
Luigi clapped him on the back. “No such thing, fratello.”
“Get out of here, you three,” I barked. “The law will be crawling over this area in the next thirty minutes.” If not sooner.
“Come back with us,” Joey offered. “Papa will have breakfast.”
I shook my head. “I’m going to hang around here for a bit.”
A twisted desire to see my actions unfold steeled my resolve.
“We’ll wait with you.” Emanuele looked between his siblings, and all three nodded.
It warmed my heart. It did. They were already risking too much with this act of defiance. I would have acted alone, but I wasn’t a pyrotechnical genius, neither could I have carried all the material and placed it myself.
“Go now, that’s an order,” I snapped.
They didn’t buy my surely tone for a moment. But they did leave, disappearing into the night without a trace.
As the flames climbed higher, eating every fragment of consumable material, I sauntered down the road. The first boom echoed through the district. That would be the backhoe. The dump truck was next.
And later today, the lead investigator—whoever was assigned to this crime scene—would have a delivery of papers sent to his office. They would lead him to question Tucker, and the Samuelson Venture Capital would soon have its scant resources tied up in legal turmoil.
Even if my grandfather was delusional enough to want to, there was no way he could financially support another one of Tucker’s hairbrained schemes.
How many more terrible decisions was I going to have to find a way to reverse? I scraped a hand over my hair, tugging at the longer strands on the top.
“How did you do it, Dad?” I muttered, going up to a lookout point on the Charles River. “How did you make him see reason?”
The brackish water slapped the shore, a mocking response to a question I would never find the answer to.
As the eastern sky grew purple, sirens wailed in the distance. I should have left already, but something about the water was calming. Hell, maybe I should head over to the point. A briny swim would do me good. The ice baths were all the rage, but there was something damn near primal about swimming in the cold ocean that transcended fitness and health fads.
A faint huff, followed by a scuffle, had my head snapping up. That sound could only have one meaning. A dangerous smile tipped my lips, and I took off jogging toward the noise. In an alley that ran behind one of the numerous marinas was a group of four men, squaring off with a lone wolf.
I hung back for a moment, assessing the fight.
The group was woefully outnumbered. The lone fighter was skilled. The way he struck and twisted out of their clutches said as much. Dancing under the glow of the neon light, my suspicion was confirmed. I knew that man.
“Ma guarda un po.’” I laughed under my breath.
Il Lupo was far from home tonight.
