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“Good to know you’re still breathing, Mr. Borelli. I take it you want to keep it that way.”
“I do.”
“Okay, then. I have an idea. My crew hated it, but I was able to convince them in the end. I doubt you’re going to like it, either, but please, pay attention. We need to meet. In person. All seven of us.”
I raised both hands up right and left to silence Cesare and Leonardo, knowing that this would get them all riled up. I wasn’t so thrilled, but I wanted her to explain why she thought this was the correct course of action.
“Let’s say we do meet. What happens next? We share some wine and sing ‘we are the world’?”
“Funny,” she chuckled. “My sources over at the NYPD gave me some very important and unsettling information about the incident at Amanda’s bar yesterday. It would be wise of you and your friends to know. I know that selling this to you is quite difficult, so, let me try and convince you. I’m sending you a picture.”
“Of what?”
“You’ll see. Just give it a minute.”
The notification bell of my cell rang, and a picture popped up on the screen. Cesare and Leonardo leaned in from either side as I zoomed in since it was a bit dark. There was a large hole in the middle of that photo, chunks of plaster bent inward. Shattered bricks were inside that hole, their jagged edges clear. Before anybody could verbalize, the notification bell on my cell rang again. This time, the picture we were looking had been taken from a distance. It contained the same hole, but with the flashing red-and-green “Amanda’s” sign in the top left corner.
“What do you make of this, Mr. Borelli?”
I heaved a long sigh and ran my hand through my hair, having come to an important conclusion.
“There was no bomb in the bar. Someone took a shot at us from outside. Probably with a rocket launcher of some sort.”
“Precisely. That’s what my crew told me as well. I hope this is enough to help you reach a decision about that meeting.”
“We’re doing it,” Cesare interjected. “I’m texting you the location. We meet tonight. Nine pm. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes, it is. Thank you, gentlemen.”
“Are you nuts!?” Leonardo exclaimed, furrowing his brow. “Those motherfuckers tried to kill us, and you want to sit down with them?”
“Look at that, man,” Cesare commanded, pointing down at the picture on the screen. “The mob probably fed them some bullshit story about taking us out in that bar, so that they could take care of themandus.”
“Kill two birds with one stone,” I said, agreeing with my cousin. “Six men with one rocket or whatever thehellthat was. We need to know more.”
“Agreed,” Cesare nodded.
Leonardo huffed in frustration and kept on repeating his reservations about the meeting. Truth be told, I stopped listening after the first time he’d done that. I knew he hated it—he’d made that clear. I didn’t like this meeting so much, but I could understand its necessity. I got why we had to spend some time with the same people who had been shadowing us for weeks.
The meeting point was the same warehouse I had met with Cesare and Leonardo some time ago. I didn’t know what would occur in there. There would be some tension in the air; I was sure of that. However, I would try to maintain my composure. This wasn’t some stupid contest. We weren’t going to see who could take whom. This would lead us nowhere. What we needed was a proper discussion, where we could lay everything on the table and decide how to proceed from here on out.
After the three of us arrived at the warehouse, I left Cesare’s Torino as the rain pelted down around me. I kept my head down and sidestepped a large paddle of water, Leonardo running past me. I eyed him with suspicion, my drenched fingers diving through the gaps of the wire gate in front of me. Pushing it to the side, I waited for him and Cesare to go through before following them in the front yard.
“If we don’t make it out of here alive, just know I’m coming back to haunt both your asses.”
Leonardo’s words interrupted the sound of the hard rain but failed to amuse me and my cousin.
“Relax,” Cesare said as we approached that heavy, steel door. I reached for its latch, but, before I could touch it, the noise of metal surfaces grinding prevented me from doing so. That door was pulled open from the inside, a familiar face standing behind it. Rocco DeLuca.
“An abandoned fucking warehouse?” He scoffed, bringing his gaze to Cesare. “It’s the last place you’d want to meet wise guys in. Your stupidity’s going to get you whacked.”
“Come on!” Leonardo snapped, lunging forward, his arm jerked back. I caught it whooshing past my shoulder, out of the corner of my eye. I thrust my own arm forward, Cesare grabbing him by the waist. Rocco swayed back, my friend’s fist just missing him.
“Hey!” Cesare shouted, rocking him to the side. “We ought to be smart here, and you’re trying to start a fucking fight? Get a goddamn grip!”
“I’d listen to him if I were you.”
A feminine, delicate voice shifted my attention away from Leonardo. Ten yards away, under the strong, fluorescent light, Maggie was standing between a couple of strangers.
