“Headquarters has been compromised. It was a trap.”
Wolfe slowed the vehicle and pulled over to the shoulder of the road. He took the phone from my hand and held it in front of him. “What are you talking about, Don?”
“Wolfe, glad you’re alright.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Wolfe said quickly. “What’s happened?”
“I just got word that Icarus hit headquarters while we came here. The men are inside. My wife and daughters are upstairs. They know what to do until I get there, but they only have a couplehours at most.” His family was compromised, but he continued to keep speaking calmly and rationally.
These men were made of something else.
Wolfe released a sigh. “This was his plan all along.”
“Yes.”
Wolfe worked his jaw as he stared straight ahead. “Then we hit him now.”
“He’ll expect it.”
“We don’t have a choice. If we don’t take it back now, we never will. And we aren’t going to abandon your family.”
Don Russo didn’t say anything to that.
“We’re going to get them back,” he said gently.
Don Russo continued to hold his silence.
“And we’re going to kill this asshole while we’re at it.”
24
WOLFE
I pulled over at the rendezvous point, a forgotten road in a field with a decrepit house on its last leg.
I left the car and joined Don Russo in the street. All the other men were there, their vehicles damaged from the gunfire we’d just taken. Francesca’s men were there too, and Leo immediately headed over to them.
When I walked up to Don Russo, Francesca came with me and stood at my side. “We should divide our forces. We hit him from the front, right through the gate, while the others sneak in at the back through the garden. Unless they have a snitch inside, they won’t know about the path through the garden.”
“It’s a single-file line through the passage.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said. “We’ll have the element of surprise. Have you spoken to Rosaria?”
He nodded. “They’re in the panic room.”
“How long will that hold up?”
“A couple hours. She can see the cameras and says they’re everywhere. She’s not sure if they’re aware of her.”
“Then that buys her even more time.”
“She says Icarus has killed most of our men who were there…”
I could see the pain on Don Russo’s face. I wasn’t sure how to comfort him. “Then we avenge them.”
He looked away and crossed his arms over his chest. “He got us good, Wolfe.”
I was a difficult man to outsmart, but Icarus had completely stumped me. He’d never intended to let me die. He respected me too much, and I should have seen right through that. It was a distraction on top of a distraction, all to gain access to headquarters. “I’m sorry.”
