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“Agreed. Keep your phone on. I’ll call you… wait… fuck. There’s shouting in the hallway. Hold on.”
Our eyes meet as we wait for Dex to return to the call. The shouting is loud enough we can hear it, although we can’t make out what’s being said.
A door slamming at the other end of the line is preceded by a man I’ve never heard before shouting. “They blew up the warehouse. The motherfuckers blew the entire thing to smithereens. No warning. Don’t they know that most of the shit stored there doesn’t even belong to you and Z?”
It’s Dex who answers, although I can tell he’s still pretty far away from the phone. “They don’t give a shit. They know I own it, and they know this is the best way to get all of my clients to turn against me. They’re hoping everyone who lost their merchandise will blame me and take sides against me and Z.”
“Well then, they are some really stupid mother fuckers because I know damn well it’s them, and not you, who are responsible for me losing my priceless property. Vinny Luciano has made a grave error.”
Dex has moved closer to the phone when I hear him say, “You may know that, but the dozen other clients who lost their merchandise don’t.”
“Not yet, but they will,” the guy says.
“Z,” Dex calls out. “You heard all that?”
“Unfortunately.”
“You know what this means, right?” Dex asks.
Z looks me in the eyes as he answers his boss. “Yes. It means we are at war.”
Chapter Eleven
Z
Music from the radio cuts through the silence as we drive in the Jeep we borrowed from Jasper. I know we needed a different vehicle in case the Lucianos got hold of video camera footage of us, but I still felt uneasy driving another man’s Jeep regardless if Rowan said he’d be fine with it or not. Rowan acts as DJ for our several hour drive to New Hampshire, and I have to admit that the girl has great taste in music. We left late at night to help with our concealment, so the upbeat music is helping me stay awake and alert. We engage in small talk for most of the drive and it feels like the most normal of road trips, so much so that I often forget that we have a bounty on our heads.
It isn’t until Rowan casually asks, “What’s the deal with the warehouse? Why would it get blown up, and why are you and Dex so upset about it?” that I am reminded about our current reality.
Feeling no need to lie to her, or even sugar coat our profession, I answer, “It’s just one of many services we offer to our clients. We will help facilitate storage and transportation of their goods. In this case, one of our largest and most powerful clients, Atlas Giannopoulos, had several priceless art pieces being housed in our warehouse.”
“Stolen art?”
“We don’t ask questions in this business,” I say, my eyes focused on the road, but I can feel Rowan watching me. “How men choose to run their business is up to them and not for Dex nor me to judge.” I quickly glance at Rowan and add, “So Vinny blowing up the warehouse just cost a lot of powerful men a lot of money. It wasn’t a smart move on his part, but he clearly wanted to make his point heard. He’s pissed. He’s coming. And he made a very public declaration of war.”
“We’ve been driving for hours,” she says. “I have to pee.”
“We passed the last gas station about an hour ago. I can pull over if you want, but we’ll be there in the next ten minutes or so.”
“Pee on the side of the road?” she asks with a giggle. “I’ll wait.”
“I have to warn you,” I begin. “Where we’re going is going to be a little rough.” I swallow hard. “Okay, it’s going to be a lot rough.”
“You said it was a house you and your dad stayed at while on hunting trips,” she says as she turns her body to once again stare at me while I drive.
“Yeah, what I didn’t say is that it was rough back in the day when we visited, and it’s been years since I’ve been there. I have no idea what the condition is, but I think it’s a safe bet to say it’s going to be barely standing.”
“But it will be off the grid and safe, right?”
I chuckle and shake my head. “Oh, it’s for sure off the grid.”
Grateful that we have a Jeep that I’m able to put into 4-wheel drive, we make our way down a dirt road that has been washed out by years of rain and no traffic to wear down the grass and mud. It’s not the easiest to drive and is only a small taste of what’s to come.
