Speak Easy to Me

Chapter 15

There had been a finality in Lottie’s words. I willed her to turn around. To come running into my arms. Instead, I had stood there as she walked away. This time was different. This time I would let her go. I needed to let her go not only for her sake but mine as well.

Nathaniel gave me a sympathetic look as he turned to follow her. I hadn’t needed her to come here. It was a whim that I called Nathaniel to tell him I needed Lottie’s specific set of nursing skills. None of us were hurt nearly bad enough to warrant more than a band aide.

My two associates and I had to go take care of a problem for Petrillo. There was a guy in his inner circle who was selling out his secret bootlegging routes. Four of his shipments had already gone missing and he had a big one scheduled to come in the next few days. We were to get as much information out of him as we could before giving him a Chicago burial. He was a slippery snake and had managed to escape the ties we had him in.

When Louis looked away, slippery Mike struck. He grabbed a knife from a table nearby and began wildly swinging it around. It took all three of us to wrangle him to the ground, wrestle the knife out of his hands and restrain him once again. All three of us had gotten sliced with the knife, barely breaking the skin.

We eventually broke him, in more than one way, and the details came pouring out of him faster than his blood was gushing out. The blood Lottie had seen was the result of the final slice across his neck with the knife he tried to slice us with. I figured that was only fitting.

We left Le Mier to clean up and change before reporting to Petrillo. He was more than happy with our findings. His regular enforcers were sent out to discuss the new discoveries with the perpetrators.

I crawled into bed at 8 o’clock in the morning. I was used to late nights. I wasn’t used to coming home feeling absolutely defeated. I couldn’t fall asleep despite the feeling of extreme exhaustion coursing through my bones. I tossed and turned until it was time for me to start getting ready for another night at Le Mier.

This was the first time I had dreaded going into my hideaway. Louis was there getting the bar ready for the patrons to enter. We were all ready by the time the first knock sounded on the entrance door. As the night dragged on, I found myself drinking more and more. Slipping into the sweet oblivion the alcohol promised. This was the start to how I spent the last three weeks.

I was preparing to start imbibing when Nathaniel showed up. He slid up to the bar with a blank face. He had no snarky remark or joking. “She’s going through with the wedding. We looked at the final flowers today.” He took a swig of the beer I had just placed in front of him.

“I don’t know why you’re telling me this.” I took a shot of whiskey. After this conversation I was going to move to the moonshine we had gotten from Tennessee, that stuff makes you forget you’re even on planet earth.

“There’s still time to stop this.” He was pleading with me. He was fond of Lottie and knew Cameron was completely wrong for her. He would stifle her in ways that would damage her forever.

“Lottie made up her mind. She chose him.” I took another shot. “This is what she wants.” I was pouring myself another shot waiting for the numbness to come. I don’t know why I bothered with the small glass when it would be easier to just drink directly from the bottle that I’d empty by the time daybreak was making an appearance.

“You are going to lose her forever if you don’t do something soon, you moron.” Nathaniel pushed off the bar swinging off his stool. I watched as he was engulfed by the crowd. He could stay lost in the crowd for all I cared.

Time was starting to blur together. It could have been five minutes or three hours since my conversation with Nathaniel had taken place. The alcohol seemed to hit me all at once. The room started spinning. Suddenly everything was too much.

I told Louis to tend bar as I headed into my office. I had to get away from the noise of the music and the people. I entered my office taking a direct path to my couch. I laid down and placed my forearm over my eyes. I took a few cleansing breaths hoping that would help the room stop from spinning.

The office door creaked open. I heard heals on the floor clicking closer to me. “Emmett,” I heard a voice say low and needy. I moved my arm from my eyes. The bright lights of the office made it hard for me to focus on the blurry figure standing at the foot of the couch.

The figure kneeled beside me. I breathed in the sweet scent of floral notes of the perfume as the figure started to come into focus. She wasn’t fully in focus yet as she bent down, her lips meeting mine. I was thrown off which took me a moment to comprehend what was happening. When her hand moved down to my pants, working on the button and zipper, I snapped out of my drunken stupor.

I rolled off the couch, landing on my back with a thud. Before I was able to move, the figure, who was now fully in focus, was Brooke. She took my position on the floor as an invitation to straddle me. My pants were still unbuttoned with my zipper partially down.

“What do you think you are doing?” I put my hands on her hips to move her off. She grabbed my wrists and pushed my arms down to my sides.

“I know this is what you need.” I used my body weight to spin us, putting me on top of Brooke and her with her back to the floor.

“I never want anything to do with you, ever again. Every minute I have spent with you was a mistake I wish I could take back.” She wrapped her legs around my hips pulling me closer to her. I let go of her wrists to unfurl her legs from me.

The door of the office swung open at that moment drawing both mine and Brooke’s attention to Lottie as she stood there. She was gawking at the position we were in. I stood up with Brooke still trying to keep her legs wrapped around me. I turned towards Lottie. I followed her eyes down to my undone pants.

“This is not what it looks like.” I said quickly. I had wanted to see Lottie for so long and this was what she walked in to.

“Brooke’s legs weren’t wrapped around you with your pants halfway off? You are all fucking assholes. You all deserve each other. I’m so done here.” Tears were running down her face as she turned and ran away.

“Fuck!” I stormed after her buttoning up my pants as I followed behind. Brooke blocked my path.

“You are still going to go after her?” Brooke had been trying to get back into my bed as soon as she heard Lottie was done with me. Word travels fast in the speakeasy. If I was going to get under a new woman to forget Lottie it definitely wouldn’t be Brooke.

“What part of this are you not understanding? I do not want anything to do with you whether or not Lottie is in my life. I want you out of my life forever. I do not care if you went outside right now and got hit by a train. I would not shed a tear. I would not mourn your loss. You were a wet hole for me to get off to a few times, nothing more.” I shoved her out of my way as I pursued Lottie.

I quickly scoured the room stupidly thinking she didn’t leave. As soon as I didn’t see her, I headed right for the door, exiting the Le Mier. The snow was heavy as it was making its way down. I looked to my left and saw nothing. I spun my head to the right and saw footprints in the snow. I began following them. They lead to a car, but there was something off about it. The snow made it hard to see until I was right next to the automobile. The driver’s side door was open with a body in the front seat, slumped over in a pool of blood.

Panic started filling my veins as I made my way around the car. There was a flurry of footprints in the snow mixed with blood. There was also blood spray on the side of the car, covering the windows in a fine mist. There was no sign of Lottie anywhere.

I went back around to the driver’s side to confirm my suspicion. I moved the body, so it was sitting up. I was looking at a very recently dead Russel. I leaned him back against the seat as a car pulled into the alleyway.

The car stopped and Cameron jumped out of the driver’s side. It took him a short while to take in the scene before he had me pinned against the car with Russel’s dead body in it.

“What have you done?” He accused. I pushed him off me. Both of us almost slipped in the snow as we separated.

“I have no idea. Lottie came in, saw me in a compromising position with Brooke and then she came out here. I followed her, but this is what I came across.” I was talking so fast I wasn’t sure if what I was saying was making any sense. It must have because Cameron punched the side of the car.

“This is all my fault. Lottie caught me and Maggie going at it on the desk in her Uncle’s study. She threw her ring in the fireplace and demanded Russel bring her here.” Cameron tipped his head back and let out a loud, long sigh.

She was coming to me after severing ties with Cameron. After walking in on Cameron and Maggie, she walked in on Brooke and me. It didn’t matter that we hadn’t done anything despite Brooke’s advances, what she saw looked like we were about to have sex.

There was a cough that came from the passenger seat of the car. Turned out Russel wasn’t as dead as I thought. I hadn’t even thought to double check to see if he was still breathing. My mind was on Lottie and her whereabouts.

Cameron and I both rushed over to Russel. He was coughing as he was trying to take deep breaths. We grabbed him and dragged him from the car, placing him in the freshly fallen snow next to the car.

“I am so sorry, boss. They took her.” He was coughing up blood now. “I didn’t even see them coming.” He knew he was going to die. All three of us had seen enough men die to know the gurgling cough of a dying man. “She fought back. Broke one of the bastard’s noses.” That’s where all the blood on the other side of the car came from. They took her alive.

The white snow was now saturated with the warm blood leaving Russel’s body. His dying words barely audible, “Find her.” Russel’s eyes rolled back in his head. Cameron and I just sat there hunched over in the snow.

My adrenaline started racing. I got up and sprinted down the alley to the main road. At this time of the night there wasn’t much traffic downtown. The road was covered in tracks. No way to discern which tracks were newer or older. All of them getting filled in by the steadily falling snow.

Cameron pulled up next to me in his car. I hopped in the car with him. He turned right onto the main road. “There is no way to tell which way they went.” I said, defeated.

Following an endless group of tracks in the snow wasn’t going to help us find Lottie. Time was crucial. They had her alive, but we didn’t know for how long. Or why they wanted her alive. There were a million thoughts going through my head on the possibilities.

Cameron pulled the car over indicating he also knew aimlessly following an endless number of tracks was counterproductive. “I don’t know what to do.” Cameron said hopelessly, resting his head against the steering wheel. We were both powerful men who got what we wanted. Finding Lottie should be easy for us. Why are we already feeling defeated before we even try?

“Go back to Le Mier.” Cameron lifted his head to look at me. “We can use it as a headquarters. Neutral ground for now.” Cameron wasn’t someone you wanted in your speakeasy. His type was bad for business. He answered by driving back to the speakeasy.

We walked through the door together, both covered in Russel’s blood. By the look on everyone’s faces when we entered it wasn’t going to take much to clear them out. “The bar is closed until further notice.” I bellowed into the room. The lack of movement from the people who were supposed to be leaving was pissing me off. “Get out! Don’t make me say it again.” The sound of shuffling feet was the only sound through the whole place.

Prior to coming inside Cameron and I had moved Russel into the car then moved it to the side more. The blanket of fresh snow helped to cover the blood that had been visible 20 minutes ago. When the last person was out the door, I immediately locked it. Briefly explaining what was going on the Louis had him on the horn putting a call out to our men to gather here.

Cameron made use of the phone once Louis was done. Now it was a waiting game for everyone else to arrive. In the meantime we would try to come up with some sort of game plan. We went over what we knew. Cameron had a lot of enemies from his line of work as the middleman between corrupt cops and bootleggers so we didn’t even discuss why she was taken, it was a given.

“Whoever did this must have known she was going to be here. But how?” I was just throwing out ideas.

“They were probably following her. She had scheduled appointments today that she cut short. Maybe they wanted to take her after one of them, but she changed her plans, so they had to improvise.”

“Russel said she broke one of their noses. If that is true, he’ll be sporting two black eyes shortly, if not already.” It was somewhat comforting knowing that she fought back. I was proud of her. I couldn’t wait to tell her that as soon as I seen her. “Write down anyone you think might be involved.” I placed a pencil and piece of paper in front of Cameron. He began scribbling names down.

An hour after both of our phone calls had gone out we had over 20 men sitting in the Le Mier awaiting orders. I stepped to the front of the crowd. “Along with Cameron’s fiancé Charlotte being taken tonight, Russel was killed in the process.” The men in this room were not easily phased over anything, but hearing that Russel, the indestructible man he was, had been killed so easily sent a stunned silence through the room. The feds had been listening in to phone calls so the message over the phone had been extremely vague; the men were to get here as soon as possible.

Cameron cut in, “Charlotte is my ex-fiance, but she needs to be found regardless of her relationship status to me.” Cameron was rocking from leg to leg, it was a nervous movement. “There are a few things you need to know about Charlotte.” Cameron dipped his head to Little Nicky sitting in the back of the group of men, I hadn’t even seen he was there. I didn’t even know Little Nicky had been back in the city. He had been MIA for months since the feds had been looking for him.

Little Nicky worked for Morelli. Morelli was a bootlegger who got his supply from Canada. Morelli was also the biggest supplier of alcohol in the Chicago area. He was the only man in town who had a free pass to sell to all the families in the city.

Little Nicky made his way up to the front by Cameron and me. He took a minute before addressing the men. “First, there are a few things you all should be made aware of. Charlotte, or Lottie, is someone none of you have probably heard of, which is what we wanted. You would know her as Charlie.” There was now a murmur going through the group.

Little Nicky didn’t have to elaborate on Charlie, we all knew who he was talking about. Charlie was the talk of the town for the last year. Morelli had found a secret route to the Canadian border where none of his men had been pinched for almost a year. The only clue to his secret route was it was headed by a man named, Charlie, who turned out to be Lottie. Only Little Nicky and three other men knew the identity of the mysterious Charlie.

My jaw was on the floor. Who the fuck was this woman? Everything I learned about her was astounding. Just when I thought I had her figured out, another layer was peeled back.

I had this strong urge to punch Little Nicky after putting the new information together. Little Nicky was Lottie’s Nick. He was the one who had sat under the starts with her every night for months. He was the one who had taken her virginity. She was permanently marked with his tattoo.

I was looking down at the ground trying to recover my composure as Little Nicky continued, “Second, we will not be meeting any ransom demands.” My head snapped up in his direction. The murmuring grew louder amongst the men. Cameron also looked shocked as he stared at Little Nicky. I don’t think Cameron was expecting him to say that.

“What?” I said astounded. There had been string of kidnappings around the city. Men were being taken all over the city, from every family. Once they were abducted, a ransom demand would be made and then met. There were no negotiations, no questions. It had become such a normal routine it wasn’t shocking anymore. “Why wouldn’t the ransom be paid?” I felt myself getting worked up.

“She is collateral damage at this point. Whatever happens to her, Morelli washes his hands. No one is to pay the ransom.” I couldn’t contain my anger any longer. I socked him. I swung my right fist into his face knocking him backward into Cameron, who managed to catch him.

“You son of a bitch! After everything she’s done for Morelli and you, you have the nerve to stand up here and say she’s nothing more than collateral damage?” I took a step in his direction, but Cameron stepped in the middle separating us.

“Look man, I tried to change Morelli’s mind. He won’t budge. He has what he wants. I don’t think he likes the fact he had to have a woman’s help to move his supply.” As much as I wanted to take another swing at him, he was only doing what he was told. That is the life we take on in this business. What your boss says is law. Morelli wasn’t my boss though.

I stared daggers at Little Nicky as I spewed, “You can tell your boss that I don’t accept his orders. I will tear this city down brick by brick to find Lottie. If anyone gets in my way, they will wish for death before I am through with them. If Morelli tries to stop me in any way, he will find out what a waking nightmare feels like.”

I could not look at Little Nicky for another second knowing he was betraying Lottie the way he was. I turned to walk to my office, not even addressing any of the other men in the room. I heard Louis dismissing the other men.

I had slammed the door to my office shut the second I entered the room. Just a few hours before I had been caught in a very compromising position with Brooke in this room. If I hadn’t gotten so loaded, I would have had more control of my actions. I never would have allowed Brooke to get so close. If only I had stayed out at the bar for a few more minutes Lottie would have found me as a drunkard on a bar stool, not looking as if I were about to be balls deep in Brooke.

The what ifs and shoulda-coulda-wouldas would haunt me for the rest of my life. I am not proud to admit that I have done a lot of bad things in my life, things that would make a normal man’s skin crawl, but hurting Lottie, that is the one thing that I cannot get over. The look on her face when she saw Brooke and me, that will haunt my dreams until the day I die.

I stalked over to my safe, the dial clicking as I opened it to retrieve the two guns inside. I would need to be packing more heat than usual if I am going to get Lottie back. Whoever has her, his days are numbered.

My office door flung open with Cameron, Louis, and Little Nicky entering. Good thing my guns weren’t loaded or I would have ended Little Nicky right then and there. Anyone who would betray Lottie, betrays me as well.

I was about to let my tongue lead the assault on Little Nicky, but Cameron cut me off. “He’s not our enemy Emmett.” My eyes were locked on Little Nicky’s. His blue eyes were full of worry.

“Give us a minute.” I dismissed the other two men. Neither of them argued before exiting the office, closing the door behind them, leaving Nicky and me alone in the room.

The door had barely shut when Little Nicky began speaking. “Emmett, I know how bad this is. And I know it looks like I don’t want to help Lottie, but I do.”

I didn’t even want her name on his lips. “You do not get the privilege to call her Lottie.”

He got a smirk on his face, “I called her even more intimate names. More than you have.” His words hit me worse than a punch to the gut. “If you want to turn this into a pissing contest, I will win every time.” We were now standing nose to nose. “You can either stop with the tough guy act, or we can have it out right now. Beat each other bloody while who knows who has Lottie. The choice is yours, Emmett.”

He was right. This was getting us nowhere. My rage was pulsing so loudly through my veins it was blinding my logic. My priority should be who took Lottie, not beating up the guy who took her virginity. “You’re right.” I shook my head to rid it of every thought of Lottie with Little Nicky.

I nodded at Nicky, indicating he could let Louis and Cameron back in. Once all of us were gathered around my desk, Nicky laid out his plans. As mad as I was at him, the fact he was here talking to us about getting Lottie back, going against Morelli, I couldn’t fault him any longer. He did love her, and I knew she loved him from the fondness in her voice when she had recalled their time together.

“I have eyes and ears all over this city. I have given the word to watch out for anyone that may have a grudge against Cameron, Emmett, or Lon.” He had already had this plan in play before he even arrived at Le Mier. “I let one of my guys know to look for anyone with two black eyes.” Little Nicky turned his attention to me. “She broke one of the guy’s noses?” There was unmistakable pride in voice.

“Based on the blood everywhere and Russel’s account, very much so.” I said, reciprocating his prideful tone. The smile that was painted across his face was that of satisfaction.

“Let’s go find our woman.” Little Nicky slapped my shoulder as he exited the office, Cameron and Louis closely behind him. I was hit with the fact that she was our woman, with the exception of Louis. Little Nicky was her past. Cameron is her present. With any luck, I will be her future.

We decided the best course of action was to split up. We’d each talk to our guys since we each could cover different ground. Cameron had his cop buddies and political partners that he put on notice. I had my guys that were spread out within the city. Little Nicky couldn’t be quite as obvious as Cameron and I could, but he had his close associates spreading the word.

After 24 hours we reconvened at Le Mier. None of us had any new news to share. We were all met with dead ends. That was, until I decided I needed to get some fresh air to clear my head. Maybe with some time to think on my own, I could come up with a better plan than torturing men for information they didn’t have.

I had rounded the corner to the biggest department stores in Chicago. The massive building took up multiple city blocks and was six stories high. Imagine my surprise when I spotted a man with two black eyes and a very bright red, crooked nose. That freshly broken nose was attached to a very familiar face to me; Arnold Prescott.

Prescott was one of the slipperiest weasels I had ever had the displeasure of meeting. He was the lowest of the low. Nobody seemed to pay him any mind due to the fact he was pathetically a follower. He never posed a threat to anyone which let him get away with being a spineless weasel. He didn’t spot me until it was too late.

I had him by his collar a second before he registered my presence. His feet slipping and sliding along the sidewalk as I dragged him behind me heading to his demise. Prescott’s pleading words fell on deaf ears. He was babbling about not knowing what was going on, but by the time I made it to my car he was singing a different tune.

In a shaky voice he pleaded, “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.” His eyes were darting back and forth in pure terror.

“I know you will.” I said as I shoved him in my car. “If you attempt to escape, I will cut off your legs right here, right now, in the middle of this damn street.” His silent obedience was a testament to my reputation following me. He knows I have no qualms about following through with my threat.

Prescott was shaking so bad the car vibrated the whole drive to Le Mier. I got out of the car and went around to let him out when he made a break for it. His feet fighting through the snow the only sound in the empty alley. It didn’t take me long to catch up to him. I had gotten close enough to push him to the ground. I had to skid to a stop as I passed him.

The poor pathetic weasel was face down on the ground. If he thought I was playing around he was going to be sorely mistaken in a few minutes. I grabbed him by the hair and slammed his face as hard as I could into the snow-covered cement. There was a crunching sound accompanied by his cries. Bright red blood was flowing down his face. “Did you think I was fucking joking when I told you there would be consequences to your actions? Good thing for you we’re going into Le Mier. I won’t cut your legs off out here.”

I had him by the collar of his shirt so tightly, it was choking him. I didn’t let up. He could pass out for all I cared, I’d wake him up by ripping his finger nails out one by one. I was not a pleasant guy when I was mad and right now, I was piping hot angry.

As I pushed Prescott into the speakeasy, the three men already inside ran to see what the commotion was. Prescott’s cries hadn’t rescinded an ounce since I rebroke his nose.

“I found this piece of shit outside a department store. He has a freshly broken nose.” All three men looked at his newly bleeding nose and then back to me. I threw my hands up, “He had a broken nose already before I had to remind him who he was dealing with.” Prescott was sniveling like the coward he was.

Little Nicky came up from behind him and shoved him down into a chair by his shoulders. As soon as his ass hit the chair, he saturated his pants with urine. He knew what was in store for him. The longer he held out on the information the more he was going to suffer.

Little Nicky was waiting for my go ahead to begin his meticulous work to get the answers we so desperately needed. It was Little Nicky’s personal best time at getting someone to talk.

Cameron, Little Nicky and I emerged from the speakeasy with the knowledge we needed to find Lottie. Louis stayed behind to clean up the mess Little Nicky left, which wasn’t as bad as I had hoped it would be. Prescott spilled the beans almost immediately.

Lottie was being held in an old farmhouse about a half hour outside of the city. We all piled in the car as Little Nicky revved the engine, taking off like Lottie’s life depended on it, because it did.

We made it to the farmhouse, right where Prescott had said it would be. The door was left wide open. With guns drawn we cautiously made entrance into the house. The open basement door across the room caught my attention, and I immediately made my way there. Descending the stairs as quickly and quietly as I could I was astonished by what I found.

My eyes drank in the large man on the floor covered in blood. A perfect puncture wound to the heart. I had no clue who he was, I had never seen this greasy man in my life. There were bloody footprints that went halfway up the stairs. The feet were small, wearing high heeled shoes. She made it out of this basement on her own accord.

I took the stairs two at a time converging at the basement door with Cameron and Nicky. “No one up here.” Nicky confirmed.

“One dead guy down there.” I thumbed back to the basement. “It looks like Lottie killed him and fled up the stairs. Her bloody footprints go about halfway up the stairs.” The house engulfed us in its silence. The three of us trying to figure out what our next move was.

I felt like there was more that Prescott could have told us, but he died before he got the chance. It was Nicky’s personal best time at a confession because he got so mad when Prescott told us they had sent a man, the dead man, downstairs to rape and then kill Lottie.

The snow had seemed like a hinderance, but it could work to our advantage. “We need to look for footprints in the snow. If she made it out of the house, she would have left a trail.” We all realized that if she had left a trail, the third man in this kidnapping scheme would have been able to track her as well. All three of us went in separate directions. I went around to the left side of the house, Cameron to the right and Nicky went down the driveway.

Shortly after going our separate ways Cameron’s voice rang through the open air, “Over here!” Nicky and I both sprinted to where he was standing. “She climbed out the window.” There was an open window with tracks underneath it leading to the woods. We started running along with the tracks. Once we got to the woods there was an odd finding. The one set of tracks we had been following turned into multiple, going every which way. Like we had done back at the house, we each followed a separate set of tracks.

I ran forward and came where the tracks kept going, all the other tracks went down to one set of footprints. “She went this way!” I did not wait for either of the other men to join me before I continued running in the direction Lottie had gone.

I saw a clearing coming up with a barn in the middle. That’s when I heard a sound that made my heart stop. A scream so loud and painful, I knew I didn’t have much time to make it to Lottie. My feet propelled me forward without thought.

I made it to what had been the barn door, now just a bunch of wood splinters hanging on by a few screws. I saw him towering over Lottie. She was on the ground and he had her pinned, his hands around her throat.

“Lottie!” I screamed in absolute panic. The disgusting man in front of me turned to me and gave the most chilling smile I had ever seen. He returned to his work killing Lottie. I heard the slicing sound of a knife, followed by blood spurting all over.

“Lottie!” I screamed again, this time, my heart completely shattered at the amount of blood loss pooling around Lottie.