Page 154 of Revere: A Legacy Novel

Cross didn’t release Catherine’s hand as he bent down to grab hold of the bay door, and lift it open. He only lifted it just high enough for Catherine to bend down and slip underneath without much issue. He followed behind, and let the door drop closed with a crashing bang.

Catherine turned with Cross to face a large opened space, high ceilings that dripped from the last rain, and a cracked, weathered cement floor.

Plus, men.

A whole bunch of men.

Marcello men.

Her father, uncles, and cousins, Andino and John. There were many faces she recognized standing around the place, too, some gathered in groups and others leaning against the walls. Men that had come and gone from their house over the years. Capos, her father always called them. A few others were simply enforcers that had looked after her, or someone else in their family when needed. That didn’t even include the faces she didn’t recognize.

Catherine did a quick count.

Thirty.

Thirty men.

Also, one single woman besides her.

Catherine’s mother stepped to her husband’s side, but seemed entirely disinterested in the scene happening around her. Catrina toyed with a small silver knife as Dante said something to her that was too low for anyone else to hear. Her mother nodded, but her bored expression never changed.

Cross nodded toward the east wall of the warehouse, and said, “Go stand over there, and let me talk for a bit. Okay?”

Catherine didn’t entirely like that idea, but since she didn’t understand why she was there to begin with, she did as he told her to. It was only once she was off to the side, and not directly in the line of fire, that the conversation started between the men.

“Sit, or stand?” Dante asked.

“I’d prefer to stand,” Cross said.

“This could take a while.”

“I doubt it, but I’m fine either way.”

“Andino, go stand with Cross,” Dante demanded.

Andino sighed, but pushed off the wall where he stood beside John, and did as Catherine’s father told him. He stood side by side with Cross, although the two men didn’t even look at one another.

“I’d like to know what happened, from the very start, to the moment you walked onto the tarmac,” Dante said, “and with the both of you like this, I plan on getting the same story, without blanks that need to be filled in.”

It was interesting to Catherine how every man in the warehouse didn’t seem all that bothered that she, or her mother, were watching a meeting between made men take place. That, and how they all stayed quiet when her father spoke.

She couldn’t remember a single time when thirty Italian men all stayed quiet at the same time, and let a single man speak.

“Andino, start talking,” Dante said.

“The run was already in place,” Andino said, “the guns were almost to port. Our guy got picked up two weeks prior on a trafficking charge, and wasn’t getting out. I had to make that run on time, or we were going to be out the other quarter million on the deal with Rhys.”

Dante sucked air in through his teeth, looking entirely displeased. “So you went to Cross Donati.”

“He is a gunrunner.”

“Sure, but I am quite sure I explicitly forbade you and the rest of my men from working with Cross, did I not?”

Catherine saw Cross stiffen, but he kept quiet.

“Our gunrunner was out,” Andino replied tiredly, “and he is going to keep being out, considering he’s still not out of jail. Thirty percent of our business is arms trafficking. The longer guns sit between shipments, the more money we are losing. Hemorrhaging, actually. This deal was massive, and if we lost it, we would lose Rhys as a client anyway. So no, I didn’t really care that you had an opinion about who I decided to run those guns. All that mattered to me was that the guns got moving after they got into port, and hit the drop on time.”

“Andino.”