Chapter 15 Vincenzo
VINCENZO
Nicolo looks up from his seat in my office as I pace the floor. “Tell me again. How many of these fuckers are we talking about?”
“Bastian, two cousins, and three security men. Who fucking knows how many more they’re meeting in Jersey City tonight or what the hell they’re planning.
But you know if they just landed that it has to be for Anna or the client that Addie Dunlap is defending.
Why come back for anything else? They have her family’s land, the territory, everything her father signed over. The only thing they don’t have is her.”
My blood heats thinking about the prick who left her for dead.
“I know the rumors about the Cassone estate, but the Gallinis don’t have hold of it as far as I know.
Pretty sure Massimo Roselli has something to do with that.
No one knows she’s alive. You sat right here last week and said that very same thing yourself. ”
My younger brother rakes a hand through his hair. “That was then and this is now. Before they stepped foot back in the states.”
I want to believe it’s a coincidence, but I don’t fucking believe in those.
Nicolo’s dark eyes meet mine. “Maybe someone saw her, Vincenzo? I mean how many men in this club would sell out their mothers to turn a billion dollars tax free?”
He’s not wrong. It’s a lot of fucking money. “It’s a lot of incentive.”
His brow furrows but still he tries to make me feel better. “Barcelo’s dead. It’s done. Finite!”
I shake my head. It’s all too convenient not to be fact.
“You know it’s not. Bastian wants revenge.
Bad enough to put a billion dollars on her head before he thought Anna was dead.
He blames her for losing his brother. He’s going to come for anyone and everyone involved in saving her and putting his brother in the cold hard ground.
If he knows she was at our club, we need to prepare. ”
Nicolo nods. He knows without me saying more what this means.
My mind clicks through the past week. “If what you told me is solid, Anna doesn’t go anywhere except to the Dunlaps’ and is always well-guarded. Someone here, the night of the masquerade saw and recognized her. We all know those masks aren’t good for shit, if you already know someone.”
Nicolo shrugs. “They kept Anna from recognizing you.”
I shake my head. “She was so far gone the night I found her, so out of it, there’s no way she would recognize me, Nicolo.
It was easy to believe she died because she felt like looming death in my arms. I recognized her, not the other way around.
” Maybe she felt a connection, at least that’s what it feels like on so many levels, but she doesn’t know who I am, I’m convinced of that.
“We could still be jumping to conclusions. They could be here for something or someone else. “What about the case Addie Dunlap’s working on? You think they don’t want to shut that guy up, keep him from saying something in court?
That would be a reason to show up unannounced, and they don’t have long before that guy starts running at the mouth. ”
My eyebrow arches. “You really think that, Nicolo?”
His dark eyes meet mine. “I don’t honestly know.”
I nod, because none of us do but I’m not taking chances. “I want every extra fucking soldier we have around this facility tonight. And get some men over to the line, don’t cross into Roselli territory, but I want men there to keep Bastian and his men from crossing into ours. Capiche?”
He grabs his cell. “I’m on it. And you should know that our guys just called in. Addie and Anna, they’re about an hour away. No sign of anything troublesome yet.”
I do some quick math in my head. “No matter what the Gallinis are back in town for, they’re going to Jersey first to either shut this guy up, or to find Anna.
“You have your guys keep her and Addie fucking safe.” My head spins with the reality of it all.
If Barcelo’s brother Bastian and his sadistic cousins are stateside, they have to be on every radar of every crime family in the state.
Massimo has to know, but if he doesn’t, I need to tell him.
It’s what I would expect from him after what we’ve been through.
“Get a secure connection and then get Massimo on the phone.”
Nicolo’s eyes go wide but he doesn’t balk, instead starts tapping into that phone of his to pull up a number that will send a secure message and have the don of the Roselli crime family call back within the hour. At least that’s the protocol. If he’s going to talk to me at all.
We trust no one but crime families. We always have a back door to the families that are neutral, not an all and out rival, but on the fence, a rival in terms of commodities but an ally when both interests are in danger and right now that’s Roselli.
Ten minutes later still no call. My jaw tightens.
“Someone on Massimo Roselli’s crew just needs to fucking call us back. ”
Nicolo pats me on the shoulder as he walks past and toward the door. “I’m going to take a walk around the floor, mingle with the customers, and then I’ll be back. Call me when you know something.”
“He’s got until those ladies walk through our door, and if he hasn’t called by then, I’m going to take matters into my own fucking hands whether the Rosellis like it or not.”
I sit at my desk after Nicolo leaves, looking out into the distance over the water, at nothing but lights shining in the dusk below and after only a few minutes, I know exactly what I’m going to do with or without Massimo Roselli.
My phone rings.
“Vincenzo, this better fucking be important. You pulled me away from something important.”
“You know it is, or I wouldn’t have sent the message to call. It’s about the Cassone estate.”
The pause on the other end is long, far longer than I would expect from Massimo, who is known for quick moves and decisiveness.
I clear my throat. Massimo must not be sure if the line is really secure with that long of a pause.
Roselli is going to know exactly where Anna is, with a plan to keep her safe, even if it means he learns that she was planning to be with me.
“Word on the street is that Bastian Gallini, his cousins, and a few of their soldiers from Italy just landed at LaGuardia about an hour ago.”
“Yeah, I got the message and that’s what I’ve been busy dealing with. Seems we have a fucking problem. They’re coming for what they think is owed.”
Fuckwad doesn’t trust me enough to tell me even though I carried Anna out of that shithole the Gallinis had her trapped in and brought her to the safety of his house.
Fucking asshole. My jaw locks tight, ready to hang up and forget the information I can share, take matters into my own hands, but one thing I know about Massimo is that he loves the fuck out of Anna’s sister.
He’s just protecting them both, and I can’t blame him for that.
And who the fuck knows if someone is listening in. Secure line or not, we all know the best of the best can get onto a line, seemingly easier and easier these days. Especially when our waters are infested with rats.
“I know everything, Massimo. Remember that problem I told you we were having a while back?” I know he’s going to recall me talking about the rats in our organization, the ones we were trying to flush out and are still dealing with today.
“I remember.”
“We still got ‘em. And maybe some of them, or patrons of our club saw something they shouldn’t have seen, Massimo, which means trouble for you. You did me a solid and now I’m returning the favor. That number you once gave me, that one night when I owed you a favor?”
The line is silent for a moment, but Massimo is not dumb. He’s one of the smartest men of all the families that I know. “Yeah.”
“Is it still secure?”
“Yes, the securest we have.”
“I’m going to use it.” I disconnect. That long pause of Massimo’s told me everything he wanted me to know and all that I needed to keep Anna’s name off that line.
Even mentioning the Cassone estate probably just pulled my family into the shitstorm of the Gallini’s revenge in the off chance someone was listening but better that than leading them right to her.
Nicolo bursts through the door. “The guys I have underground in Jersey City? They say the Rosellis just sent a shit ton of soldiers to the Dunlap house. All hell is breaking loose right now. They were told they were supposed to pick up Addie’s friend, the one that’s been staying with them, but she wasn’t there. ”
My jaw tightens. “Get our soldiers around a two-block perimeter, every street and highway leading from here back to Jersey City, I want covered, I want more men at the door, and I want more troops at the fucking Atlantic City entrance. Capisce?”
Nicolo growls. “This fucking shit went south in an hour.” He doesn’t waste one second getting on his phone though, issuing orders to make it all happen, while I hit the contact number that Massimo gave me in the heat of trying to save both his mother and sister-in-law just six months ago.
Massimo picks up in one ring. “Tell me something Vincenzo. We just hit the Dunlap house. Things aren’t as they should be.”
“The package you’re looking for isn’t there, it’s on the way to me.”
“The fuck!” he growls. “You had a debt, we showed you mercy, let you pay us back after your brother fucked up, and now you want to wage war on my family?”
“Calm the fuck down, Massimo. Of course not. If I wanted war, you’d damn well know it.
And don’t you ever fucking disrespect me like that again.
We have bigger issues to deal with right now.
That package? It’s arriving here any minute.
I will keep it safe. You get your men here as quick as you fucking can.
Our soldiers will let you through without question.