AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Parisi moves in front of me, crossing the threshold of the pub first. As we enter, I keep my eyes peeled for the mark of the Irish mob, as do my men. We take our time moving through the relatively small space, though we find no tattoos matching the ones of our suspects. Clearing the front, we make our way past the bar area and through a narrow walkway lined with bathroom and kitchen entrances to the back of the building. The closer we get to the back the less crowded it becomes, letting me know we’ve found them. I stop and give my men the nod so they can ready themselves. Though, truly, I’m hoping to give Gio a few more moments to execute his part of the plan. I glance at my watch. I should’ve heard from him by now. Maybe I should’ve gone with him. Maybe it was too big of a job for one person.
The vein in my forehead throbs as I imagine Gio lying at the feet of our enemies in a pool of his own blood. But, like so many times before, I push past my worst fears and continue moving toward the back. Parisi moves beside me while Gagliano and Vitale follow behind us. I tighten my grip on the handle of my pistol, readying myself for a quick draw. Though, as we exit the dark corridor that smells of stew and piss and enter the poorly lit back room, it’s not Gio’s dead body I find or even an armed gang waiting to slaughter us. Instead, I find a pool table, surrounded by half-naked women and a small group of men watching them as they bend over and drive long sticks into tiny balls. Gio’s among them, sipping a scotch to blend in.
I exhale in relief at the sight of him. Though the moment of reprieve lasts only a second as Gio spots me and nods toward the door to my right. Of course. I guess they’re not complete idiots. There’s a camera above the door and no doubt an armed guard or two on the other side. If we approach, we’ll be like fish in a barrel.
“Get comfortable,” I tell my men. Immediately, they disperse, grabbing drinks and placing bets on the women’s pool match. I do the same, joining Gio after grabbing a drink from the bar.
“How do you want to do this, Boss?” he asks.
I sip my drink, mentally running through my options. I have a device from Cassio that could do the trick, but there’s no guarantee it’ll work in our favor. There’s only a handful of things that’ll draw a man out of hiding—money, pride, and pussy.
My eyes shift from the pool table to the women surrounding it. What are the odds some of them belong to the very men I’m looking to draw out? That’s when I see it. Among the ink sprawled over the blonde woman’s shoulder is the mark I’ve been looking for. Gio follows my line of vision, spotting the woman.
“Go put your Southern charm to good use,” I tell him.
Gio laughs. “I’m from Miami, which hardly counts as the South. And, besides, I don’t think charm will do much for a woman like her.” Gio downs the rest of his drink. He’s right. From the looks of her ink and pixie haircut, she’ll be harder to wrangle than a bull. But, tonight, that’ll work in our favor. I need him, or rather her, to cause a scene. It’ll draw out her boyfriend and his backup. “You sure you don’t want to give it a go? You and I both know you could use the practice,” Gio jokes.
“Nice try,” I mumble, taking his empty glass from him. Gio rolls his eyes and does as he’s told. I should really give him a raise. As he approaches the woman, I back away toward the bar, setting our empty glasses down. Parisi and the rest of the gang take note and take up positions on either side of me with their hands ready for the draw.
The woman curses and takes a swing at Gio as he comes up behind her, making his presence known. She throws her drink at him but misses, sending the glass spiraling into the wall that separates us from the Irish soldiers. “This is it, boys. One, two—”
Like clockwork, the door concealing our suspects swings open. Out comes three men holding machine guns, the kind that will rip this place and everyone in it apart in a matter of seconds. Among them is one of the men who came after Sophia. I recognize him by his buzz cut and square-shaped head. Yet, there’s no sign of the other one. Which means there’s likely more men waiting in the room from which these came. There’s no telling how many there are or how many guns they have.Shit.This is a suicide mission.
Vitale looks at me as his fingers twitch. I blink once, telling him to hold his position. When I return my eyes to the men approaching Gio, I find I’m the one who’s garnered their attention. All three of them stop and stare as Gio holds firm.
“Good. You know who I am,” I say, motioning for the bartender to pour me another bourbon. He does with shaky hands. I tip him a hundred and tell him to take the rest of the night off. As he leaves, so do the bar’s patrons and women surrounding the pool table, leaving only my army and my enemies. I sip my drink. The longer the silence prevails, the more they are thrown off guard. I look them up and down, watching their hands turn red from their tight grips on their guns. Their faces shine with sweat. The muscles in their arms throb. All the while I remain calm, numb, so numb I appear to welcome death. Little do they know—I am death.
When I finish my drink, I set my empty glass on the bar and take a step forward. The rest of my men move with me, including Gio. We’ve got the Irish soldiers surrounded, but they’ve still got the upper hand and they know it.
“Now, now, gentlemen. If you were going to fire those weapons, you would’ve done so already. So, go on, put ’em down.” They make no moves to lower their weapons. Yet, still, they do not fire. “Just as I thought,” I say, taking another step forward. “Your boss doesn’t know you’re here, does he? Your very presence in my city is against the Rules of Civility, an act of war. And, if we were at war, you wouldn’t hesitate to take me out. Yet, you don’t pull the trigger. Which means you either just couldn’t resist my city’s charms or you’ve betrayed your boss and given your allegiance to someone new.” That, or their boss isn’t ready to wage a full-scale war against me, hence the abduction rather than assassination attempt. If they shoot me or my men, they’ll create a conflict they’re not sure they’ll win without leverage. Sophia was meant to be their leverage.
“You screwed up, gentlemen. Now that you’ve been caught, this can only end one of two ways. Tell me who you work for and allow my men to escort you out of my territory or—”
Before I can finish my sentence, gunfire erupts. My ears ring as Gio lunges toward me, shoving me out of the line of fire. Bullets spray all around us, bursting bottles behind the bar and chipping away at the wood walls. Though, the chaos lasts for only a moment. When I look up, I find all three of the Irish soldiers dead on the ground as my ears fill with the sounds of civilians’ screams coming from the front of the pub.
“No,” I whisper. Gio stands, pulling me up with him. “No,” I say again.
“What the Hell happened?” Gio asks, drawing my men’s attention away from me.
“He aimed at me. I had no choice,” Vitale says. He shrugs his shoulders as if he just dropped his hot dog on the sidewalk. I charge him, pinning him up against the wall.
“What the Hell?”
“Do you realize what you’ve done?” I ask him. He only looks at me with wide eyes.“Do you realize what you’ve done!?”
“What?Would you rather it was me dead on the floor?” Yes. Yes, old man, I would. But I can’t say that. I can’t give my own men a reason to turn against me, especially now that I’ll have the full force of the Irish mob coming after me.
I shake my head and shove away from him. As sirens blare and screams echo from the front of the building, I pull my weapon and enter the room from which the men came. There’s still a fourth man unaccounted for. And not only is he the key to finding out who ordered Sophia’s abduction, he’s now the only way I can stop this war before it starts. Assuming he is in fact a traitor whom his boss will be happy to have hand delivered.
Gio follows behind me as I enter the dark, smoke-filled room. There’s a poker table in the middle with a spotlight hanging above it and a video monitor on the wall watching the room we just came from. The room is quiet, save for the sounds of police sirens and street traffic coming in from the outside.
“Still one room left,” I say, motioning toward the slender door to Gio’s right. He moves toward the door, and I follow behind him. “One, two.” I kick down the door and Gio moves in, though we instantly regret it as the smell of shit and urine floods our nostrils. “He’s not here,” I say, lifting my suit jacket to cover my nose. I move rapidly around the small space as if it will somehow change our reality. “He’s not here!” I yell. I lower my coat from my nose, holster my gun, and punch the tiny mirror hanging over the sink.
“Hey, hey, calm down,” Gio says as shards of glass fall around us. “We can’t let the others know why we’re really here. We’ve got enough problems now that Vitale decided to be trigger-happy.”
“I swear to God, I could fucking kill him. He just shot up our only lead. And now, we’ve got more heat on us than before.” I shake my head and run my bloody hand through my hair. In the few shards remaining attached to the mirror’s frame, I catch a glimpse of myself. I look tired, desperate, and deadly—everything I shouldn’t be if I expect to maintain my men’s respect. As if I even have it. Us looking weak has nothing to do with them and everything to do with me. Vitale may have pulled the trigger, but those men are dead because of me, because they wouldn’t be in New Orleans if not to destroy me.
“Hey, I know you hate Vitale. We all do. But those men leaving New Orleans alive wouldn’t have stopped the mob from coming for us. They came after Sophia, Alister. They’re not going to stop. You know that. That’s why we came here tonight. And even though tonight didn’t go according to plan, at least you can rest knowing that there are three less men coming after your sister.”
