Chapter 17 Massimo
Massimo
The minute I walk through the door of the club, all eyes are on me, even as the crowd gyrates to the music and continues making out in the carefully designed and secluded shadows of the club.
The men who really matter, the ones I’m here to see, watch me walk towards them.
Broad fucking daylight and they’re brazen enough to walk unannounced into my club.
I reach the bar, and Stix looks up. “Delmar, boss?”
“Please. I see my friends have already begun,” I say, waiting for him to pour and hand me a drink. “Let’s go to the back,” I tell my uninvited friends who all stand at once.
If they think their fucking intimidation tactics work with me, they don’t.
“Let Leandro and the men know that things are fine,” I tell Stix, knowing that Enrico and Mario are watching carefully from the shadows and are already in communication with Jimmy, my brothers, and my men.
When Vincenzo DeLuca and his brothers fucking show up at your club unannounced you damn well better believe we’ve got our eyes on the fuckers.
Vincenzo and his brothers follow me to the back and down to the lower level. We haven’t even taken our seats at the long rectangular table that we met with my father at months ago before Lyndsey makes her way around the table, bouncing her pretty little tits and balancing on her strappy heels.
She gives me a shrug like I had my chance, and she’s not wrong.
I give her a shake of my head. “We’re good on drinks, Lyndsey.
” I gesture to the ladies at the other side of the bar that’s empty except for us.
Dad just likes to see them down here when he and his friends meet.
“Give the ladies an on-the-clock break. They can go home…”
Lyndsey gives me a wide smile and turns, adding an exaggerated wiggle for all the men at the table as she walks away. Agosto DeLuca, the youngest of the DeLuca brothers, tracks her as she walks away. “Fuck she’s nice.”
“Gentlemen. To what do I owe the pleasure?” I ask.
Vincenzo glances at his watch. “Anyone else joining us, Massimo?”
I shake my head and take a sip of the Delmar, placing my crystal tumbler on the table. “My brothers are aware we may need them to join us. You could have called, yet you show up unannounced? I’m hardly going to ruin my brother’s plans over something like this.”
His dark eyes meet mine. “Some things can’t go through the normal channels.
Especially not now. I find myself and my brothers in unfamiliar territory.
It would seem that we’ve been pulled into the middle of a hostile siege without meaning to at all.
I thought it was time for a face to face, Massimo. ”
I give him a nod. “I can respect that, DeLuca. What’s on your mind?”
His hand spreads over his drink, his fingers splayed, showcasing an impressive amount of ink.
“Before I start, let me first tell you that our family has not had any dealings with the Gallinis in relationship to your feud with them. We’ve heard the rumors, and I’m sure you’ve got your eyes and ears to the ground too, and know they were intending to creep into more and more of the Roselli territory through a number of means. ”
I slide the tumbler around in a circle, slowly letting the crystal cuts catch the lights, focusing on that for a moment while contemplating one scenario after another, quickly putting the pieces together before he even has a chance to speak.
I cut him off before he has a chance to explain.
“So the bastards hijacked our shit and sold it to you? You didn’t know it was ours, and want to make sure we know it before we find out it was you who purchased our liquor and blow? ”
The smug son of a bitch raises a glass and takes a sip of my very expensive Delmar.
“I knew it wouldn’t take you long, Massimo.
Be assured, we didn’t know the product was yours and we don’t want any part of this war.
We’d like to stay as far away from it as possible.
As you may have heard we’ve got our own troubles in Atlantic City, troubles that we need to focus on and not on the Gallinis’ desire to encroach on Roselli territory.
My brother was simply trying to supply our casinos and clubs at a better price. ”
Yeah, the casinos are their main bread and butter, so they’re going to cover that shit before they want to extend themselves to anything else. I’d do the same damn thing and don’t blame them a bit. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to roll over and get shafted at the same time.
“How much of our product do you have?”
Vincenzo looks to the brother sitting to his right. Nicolo is his right hand, takes care of things for him, just like Leandro does for me. He leans in towards Vincenzo. “Eight.”
“Sounds about right, but Leandro will know the exact numbers.”
Vincenzo continues. “We have about eight million at our best guess without getting a mover, but like I said, we don’t want it.
We could sell it, make a nice profit, and give you the eight million back but like I said, we didn’t take it with an intent to get in your business.
We’ll gladly give it back to you, but we’d rather not be out eight million. ”
My brows arch. I’m sure they don’t want to be out the money, but neither do we. “Yeah, that’s a hard pill to fucking swallow.”
The oldest DeLuca folds his hands on the table and lowers his voice.
“A few million may not break any of us, but it’s more than the money, it’s the fucking audacity of the bastards thinking they could drag us into their shit, lying right to our fucking face.
Here’s what we’re proposing. We give you what we have back. ”
My eyes don’t move. “That would be a good fucking start.”
Vincenzo’s eyes meet mine. “We’re men of honor, not like those assholes who like to pretend their families are more than they are.
Let’s keep this real. You and your family are going to force the Gallinis to pay you back for your losses.
I’m proposing we give you back the product we have.
We take the loss, but since you get your product back right away, that you force them to pay us back instead of yourselves.
You have buyers and can move it quickly once it’s back in your possession, leaving you whole with a ton of profit to gain.
Your original plan. Force them to pay us back and allow us to stay out of the war. ”
He’s not dumb; that’s for sure. He knows either way, whether they go after the Gallinis for putting them in this situation or not, we’re going after the fuckers who stole from us.
It’s not about the money but about the respect, the honor, and putting them in their fucking place. “You know we’ll settle the wrong.”
Vincenzo nods. “I had no doubt. The family would consider it a favor and apologize for the misunderstanding. Of course, if we can do something for you in the future, we’ll be happy to help.”
I raise my glass, and Vincenzo does likewise. “It’s settled then. Let me confirm numbers with Leandro and we’ll be in touch. We’ll take care of the Gallinis, and strongly suggest they get even with you, in say three months?”
The newest don of Atlantic City has his plate full over there and I respect and appreciate how he’s handled the situation, even if he needs to give his little brother a kick in the ass and a little less responsibility until he can handle it.
But it happens. I tap glasses with Vincenzo and then his other brothers one at a time. “Salute.”
Vincenzo clears his throat. “That settles it. Then we’re completely out of your business, take the hit for a while, which is perhaps just for allowing ourselves to get duped.
” I don’t miss the look he gives the younger brother who’s learning the ropes and probably got a little caught up in the hype of a big deal without checking all the details like he should.
I stand. “Gentlemen, feel free to hang around for a while, enjoy the entertainment, private rooms downstairs if you like, but I have business to tend.” I look directly at Vincenzo.
“Thanks for bringing this to my attention in this manner. You have rats in your waters?” I ask, referencing his need to come in person and not just send a message.
Vincenzo nods. “It would appear that way. We’re working to flush them out right now. I thought this would be safest. They may know we met, but not why. Let the fuckers squirm,” he says.
I laugh. “Good doing business with you, Vincenzo,” I say, tugging at the sleeve of my suit jacket as I make my way away from the table, and take the stairs up to the main level of the club where the vibrating music has everyone moving with activity on the dance floor and at the bar.
That fucking beat is good for business. I glance around the club, running the dirty math in my head, calculating the covers, the average price of drinks, food and all the other amenities estimating the average take for today alone.
The club is doing well. Especially knowing we’re going to get our eight million worth of product back in a couple of days.
Not a bad fucking day at work at all. I’ve more than earned a peaceful night at home with Sophia.
But something about what DeLuca said rings in my ears. He thinks people may know we met but not why. How the fuck would they know unless they were being followed, in which case he and his brothers would have handled that shit before they got to the club. He was telling me I have a fucking rat.
I decide to have Jimmy walk with me to the security room that houses all the monitors from each of our clubs, the ones we protect, and this one too. It’s time I make a personal appearance because if what he didn’t say but inferred is true, I’m going to find out right fucking now.
Jimmy has our men stand by the door, positioning some of the soldiers by the bar and some by the bathrooms and all the exits while we go into the security room.
All hands were on deck the minute Leandro sent a message that the DeLucas crossed the city lines and were headed towards our club, so now is the time if we’re going to call someone out in our club.
We settle in knowing it could take a while but that it’s fucking priority.
One of our trusted men rewinds the cameras, searching every single one of them, watching every single frame, looking for anything out of line.
Eyes and ears on everything, that’s how we stay ahead in this business these days.
Hours later I point to the screen as one of the newer pukes starts texting on his phone.
“That’s our fucking rat.” It’s not so much that he’s texting, it’s that his eyes are shifting this way and that, making sure he doesn’t get caught, not realizing he’s on the mainstream live.
Now that’s how you run the fucking city and flush out the trash at the same time.
Eyes and ears on everything. Dumb fuck. Dirty fucking rats.
“Time to take out the trash boys. Take him to the warehouse. Find out who he was texting, what they were paying him, or what they had on him, and get whatever information about their plans you can from him,” Jimmy tells our soldiers.
“Let’s get out of here,” I tell Jimmy. It’s been a hell of a day and by the end of it, I’m more than ready to go home.
We’re that much closer to getting answers now that we have one of the Gallini rats.
I can feel it. It’s got to be them who this fuck is working for.
I’ll let the men get the information we need and hopefully have something concrete to tell Sophia in the near future that will alleviate her concern for Anna.
In the meantime, I’m going to have to keep my little kitten entertained in the dirtiest of ways and keep her mind from her troubles.
Jimmy pulls into the first lane, then into the center. “Home boss?”