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I do my best to train all of the soldiers coming in under me, refusing to leave it up to anyone else, especially since they will be classified as my men. If they fuck up, it’s on me.
“This is going to be part of your job description eventually,” Leo says to him. “You ready for this?” Leo looks from Van over to me and grins. “The key is to know when you need to be intimidating, know when you need to get down on a man’s level, and know when to act like their friend, even if neither of you believes it.”
Van nods, and true to my word, Benny rushes through a door and walks over to us, wiping sweat as it rolls down his cheek.
“Benny,” I say as I shake his sweaty palm, the white-gold chain on my wrist jingling as the two of us go head-to-head over who has the firmer handshake. “Thanks for meeting me, Chief.”
The fat bastard is on the Amato payroll, so we’ve taken our meeting to one of my blacked-out, military grade SUVs, and I’ve decided to come to him—something I don’t typically do.
The alley behind the station is fairly covert, leading to what I can only hope is a quiet operation. Benjamin Rosco, the police chief, eyes me up with his baby-blues, no doubt uncertain why the fuck I called this special little meeting with him.
“Cut the shit, DeSantis. If Mr. Amato finds out I’m talking witcha’, he’ll have my fucking head. What’s this intel ya’ got?” The pig removes his hat and swipes at more little beads of sweat as they form.
He really is terrified of Amato.
He should be.
“Listen, I got word of some real fucked-up shit going on at the Amato strip joint. The one on Center and Ninety-Fifth. Don’t act like you don’t have eyes over there all the time, Benny boy.” Does the fuck realize me calling him Benny is an insult? If he does, he doesn’t act like it.
This is the fucker who got my dad penned up for ten years when I was a kid. I’ve got nothing but bad blood with Benjamin Rosco and his whole dirty, crooked crew.
“Cut to the chase, would ya’? I’ve gotta get back in there, and I’m startin’ to think—”
I raise my palm in a signal that I’m getting there. “I heard from a very reliable source that Gabriel Amato has the mayor’s missing daughter there. He’s got her chained up in one of the back rooms, a private whore for his top paying customers.”
The mayor’s teenage daughter went missing last year, and I have no idea where she is. It’s sad because I’m sure she’s just another casualty of the system here. And a really big part of me feels like a fucking jackass for using her probable death to get these fucking pigs to raid Amato’s strip club, but I need something that’ll get these asshats to move.
“Listen, DeSantis, I ain’t got no business dabbling in Mr. Amato’s business transactions. You know as well as I do that we got a system in place. Don’t act like you’re above the bullshit, because I know your crew’s got plenty of lowlife fucks you pay off, too.”
Rage boils in my gut.
I’m going to see Giana tonight even if I have to gut this fucker.
Instead of threatening with violence like I want to, I decide to put on a happy face and try another route.
“Think of it now, big boy.Benjamin Rosco, Chicago’s hero!I can already see the headlines.” I pause for dramatic effect, to really let it sink in for Benny. “You may piss some of the Amatos off, but there’s ways around that shit, yeah? You tell him they got it wrong. Tell him you had nothing to do with the raid you’re gonna pull off tonight. Say you were home with a sick kid when your boys at the station got a tip. But to the news headlines? It’s another story. You picking up what I’m putting down?”
The thirst for hometown fame starts to gnaw at this dumb slob. He’s buying it. He’s eating every bit of this up. No way Amato’s gonna buy that he didn’t orchestrate this, but that’s what he gets for dealing with the snakes that make up that family. That’s what the coward gets for pinning shit on my dad that wasn’t his fall to take.
“What’s in it for me? You gonna start signing checks?”
I shake my head and can’t help the low chuckle that escapes me. “Maledetta merda.Nah, Benny. I’m gonna let you live. I’m gonna let that sweet-as-a-fucking-peach daughter of yours live. What’s Jenny now? Fifteen years old, right? Goes to that private school in River North? Has the bedroom on the first floor. Big bay windows—”
Benny slams his fist against my shatterproof window. “Fuck. All right, DeSantis, all right. Shut the fuck up so I can think.”
I’d never touch his daughter. But I know any man’s weakness is his child.
Does it make me fucked up? Maybe. But it’s gonna get the job done in three, two, one…
“We’ll bust in just after sundown.”
I smile and adjust the cuff link on my sleeve.
“Good boy, Benny,” I tell him. “Now get the fuck out of my sight.”
There’sno way in hell I would have delivered on the promise to meet Dante tonight had my father and brothers not been called to one of their clubs that was being raided.
Normally, I’m never let in on my father’s business, but he and my brothers were frantic as they left the house. Their normally cool, calm, and overly collected demeanors shattered from the news. Especially because the police in that particular neighborhood are on my dad’s payroll; another bit of information I found out tonight.
