Cazzo.If our enemies knew about what went down this afternoon my street cred would be worse than hurt; it’d be dead on arrival. “It’s risky to assume it’s an empty threat,fratello.”
“Oh, we both know it is. Because we both know what Bianca would do if you followed through. And, despite evidence to the contrary, you haven’t completely lost your shit just yet.”
I answer Johnny’s bullshit remark with more cursing. He laughs louder.
“Can you shut the fuck up?” I say when he pauses for breath. “You’re supposed to be invisible when tailing someone. Not laughing like a deranged hyena.”
“Relax, boss.” Johnny’s tone is instantly professional. “She’sjust gone to the bathroom. Since following her in there would be a definite tip off, I’m safely down the corridor, out of ear shot. Besides, the crowds are starting to arrive. With all the dicks in tight tuxes and tits on display, I’m the last thing she’s gonna notice.”
The tension at the top of my spine has been growing for hours and is threatening to explode into full-blown paralysis. I crack my knuckles, count backwards from ten, and indulge in the fantasy of strangling Johnny until my blood pressure gets slightly closer to normal. “Uno, I doubt that’s what Lena notices when she’s at work.Due, if she catches one glimpse of your face, I guarantee she’ll notice.Tre, I don’t trust Lena Haywood one inch. Keep her in your fucking sights.”
“You don’t trust her, so you let her go?”
Head tipped back against my seat’s headrest, I pinch the bridge of my nose and manage to avoid telling my best friend to fuck off for the umpteenth time since I let Lena walk out of his house three hours ago. “I don’t need to explain myself to you, Johnny.”
“No, boss, you don’t. But I’d like to know anyway.”
There it is—the reason Johnny and I are as much brothers as me and Ari. Because loyalty goes both ways and when he asks, he knows I’ll do my best to answer.
From my vantage point across the street from the symphony hall, I watch town car after town car park at the curb and spew out the primped and heavily painted high society of Chicago. I spy some of our allies; some of our enemies, too. Tonight, everyone is smiling at each other and nodding politely and getting ready for a night of classical music. That, and plotting each other’s downfall.
I keep my eyes peeled for any visible threats as I answer Johnny’s question. “Ari has showed me thecapo’sevidence. It proves Haywood is a threat to our interests. He has evidence that she’s colluding with the Paganos. There’s footage fromsecurity cameras here at her work. You know how high tensions are right now with Aldo out of the country. The Paganos will take any shot they can to weaken us. And if that includes riling up the powers that be, framing our family for the heinous shit they do, landing blow after blow until our defenses crack and they can sneak in, lay claim to our territory…”
I trail off. Johnny doesn’t need me to complete the sentence to know what I’m saying.
Mafia families are always holster-deep in some sort of turf war. The beginnings, the ends, the bloody middles. Power begets power but you’re always fighting tooth and nail to keep it, especially when lowlifes like the Paganos decide they’d rather bribe and backstab their way to the top than get it the old fashion way: by decimating their competition to bone dust.
The Cerretis—ourcapoAldo, his late brother Marco, their loyal solders like my late father—conquered Chicago decades ago and have ruled it with a blood-covered fist ever since. Do we profit from crime? Yes. Are our businesses above board? Not all of them. Do we play dirty? Abso-fucking-lutely, especially when necessary. But we still have a code of conduct.Lupo non mangia lupo—honor among thieves. There are things that we will never do that the Paganos are currently using as currency to get what will never be rightfully theirs.
They want our fucking territory, but instead of coming after it like men, they’re framing our soldiers for crimes against women, children, with a healthy dose of human trafficking to make things really juicy for the DA.
For months Ari and I have been trying to figure out how they’ve pulled off incriminating our men. The Family lawyers are the best of the best, but there comes a moment when even the one-grand-an-hour suits can’t get you off trafficking and murder charges when there’s cold, hard evidence against you.
We’ve lost two men to prison. Three more are awaiting arraignment.
No matter how many charges the DA has filed, Ari and I couldn’t get a bead on how the Paganos were pulling it off. Until ourcapofound Lena.
From the evidence he’s uncovered, it looks like she’s our missing link between the Paganos and their human trafficking ring. Women who have been drugged and abducted from this very symphony hall and, who, if they happen to end up found dead somewhere, are falsely being connected to our men.
Ari and I have reviewed Aldo’s evidence together. Security camera footage. Photos. Everythingpointsto Lena being connected to the Paganos and the shit they’re doing to try to take us down.
Ari and I agree on that.
What we can’t agree on is what to do next. Ari concurs with Aldo’s order to handle the situation, just like I told Johnny last night. But while my uncle and brother are certain Lena is connected to the heinous shit the Paganos are pulling, I’m still not completely convinced.
Not enough to execute her.
Evidence is evidence, yes, but my gut’s telling me we don’t have the full picture. Especially since in the months I’ve been tracking Lena Haywood she hasn’t done anything to undeniably, without a doubt tie her to the Pagano trafficking ring. No matter how many times I stalk her around the city or search her apartment.
Aldo returns from Italy in eight days. Ari and I have an agreement: I have until then to convince myself of Lena’s involvement, one way or the other.
I don’t trust her. There’s too much evidence against her for that. But there’s something about this entire situation that doesn’t sit right and I’m running out of time. Here, today, while she’s at work, I have my best shot of figuring this out once and for all. “I need her alive. I need her close. And I need her active, working, making the connections Aldo thinks are at the heartof this epic shit storm. Keeping her locked in your house accomplished one and two, but not three.”
“I see,” Johnny says slowly. “And the forced engagement part?”
Right. That.
I shake my head, trying to evict the memory of her standing half naked next to a very welcoming bed, the sun illuminating her sleep-tousled hair, her cheeks deliciously flushed. Her nipples poking against her sweatshirt as her eyes wandered over every inch of me.