Chapter 54
DANTE
I ’m in my office. It’s late or early, depending on your perspective. The last time I checked my watch, it was three a.m., and I’ve inhaled a strong black coffee since then.
Leon: Chris is in the club, on his way to my office. Mateo messaged me. Said he needed to talk. He’s incoming now.
I shoot off a reply and head over.
Christian is already there, sitting opposite Leon on the couch. Mateo has yet to arrive. Beyond the windowed wall the club is in full swing with strobing lights and thumping bass that no soundproofing can wholly obliterate.
“No one has recognized me from the footage,” Christian says, without preamble, as I take the couch beside Leon.
I haven’t seen my brother since he brought the replacement birth control over, and for someone with seemingly boundless energy he looks worryingly tired.
“Ettore has had run-ins with his brothers—he threatened to shoot Rocco a few days ago. He’s pissed off with everyone.
I’m just keeping my head low. Russian soldiers are out in large numbers throughout the city.
We even followed a couple into Carmela’s usual coffee shop. They were in there for an hour.”
“What do you think they were doing there?”
He scrubs a hand through his hair. “I don’t have a fucking clue. They had coffee and read the paper. They definitely know something is going on. Jero said they’re responding to our increased numbers on the streets. Maybe they’re worried it signifies an imminent attack from us. Who knows?”
“It makes sense,” Leon says, “But I don’t like it. What was Ettore’s response?”
“Nothing other than we’ve been ordered to keep following them, which they’re not stupid and will know. However you cut it, Russian soldiers hanging out in a coffee shop Carmela is known to frequent is pretty much them pissing in Ettore’s favorite fountain.”
“I don’t like it either,” I say. “We wanted Ettore to do something stupid. But his nonreaction to blatant disrespect is confusing. Technically, they can go wherever so long as they’re not working without Ettore’s express permission.
Maybe they know she’s missing. I can’t believe he would tell them, but now I’m second-guessing myself.
He’s called in favors with them before, as we all know…
and has a business connection to them now.
” I turn to Leon. “The sugar pill lab I mentioned to you.”
“When my father was underboss, Cedro always avoided drugs of any kind,” Leon says.
“Not anymore,” Christian says. “Roman was still in the dark and full of theories today on what’s going down.
It’s been over a week. She can’t fall off the face of the earth for much longer.
She’s a creature of habit and routine. It’s possible Ettore told his Russian contacts, hoping to get more eyes on the problem. ”
“Wouldn’t Jero know if that were the case?” Leon asks. “The two of you are close. He stopped the attack on Dante. He still have your back?”
“Maybe.” Christian looks unusually shifty. “He knows about Carmela and me. He saw Dante meet her in the coffee shop.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.” I get up and start pacing.
“How long have you known this?” Leon demands.
“A while,” Christian says. “She was upset after seeing Dante. Went to her mother’s grave.
Got more upset. It started pissing down and she wouldn’t get in the car.
We got into… a tussle when I tried to put her in the damn car.
She slapped me. Told me to get lost. Told me to fuck her.
Then she cried and begged me to take her away.
” He swallows hard. “I wish I’d fucking taken her away.
Instead, I took her home. Ettore was waiting, face like fucking thunder.
We were both soaked and covered in mud where I’d chased her crazy ass across the cemetery.
I thought he was going to kill me, but she flung herself at him and made up some bullshit that distracted him.
He ordered me out of his home, and I went to the club.
Jero was there. He told me Ettore had ordered him to follow me and take pictures. ”
I stopped my pacing a while ago “You need to pull the fuck out,” I say.
“I agree,” Leon says. “Also, you don’t sit on shit like this, Christian. Am I making myself clear? You know something, you fucking tell us.”
“No fucking offence, Leon,” Christian says. “But if you think this was my first close call, you’re not as intelligent as I thought.”
“I didn’t know he fucking suspected you,” Leon growls. “He had Jero follow you and take fucking pictures. Ettore suspects you.”
“Did,” Christian says. “He suspects a lot of people, and now he no longer suspects me.”
“Assuming Jero didn’t tell him,” I say. “Maybe Ettore is watching you even closer now.”
“Jero was my father’s man before he was Ettore’s,” Leon says.
I drop down onto the couch beside him. My gut is churning. I’ve always thought I understood the risks Christian was taking in playing the role my father set up, but I really didn’t. “You think he has cross loyalties too?”
“Maybe,” Leon says. “Christian?”
“He said something once that suggested he might. If he’d told Ettore, I’d be in the ground.
And yeah, I recognize that the stakes and risks have escalated.
But you know I can’t pull out. Not now Carmela has been taken.
Not after he already had Jero follow me.
We’ve come this far. He’s close to doing something stupid.
We’ve no choice now but to let this run its course. ”
“I don’t fucking like it,” Leon says. “But I agree with you.”
“What are your current orders from Ettore?” I ask.
“To keep doing what I’m doing, which is fuck all.”
“The Russian presence in her regular coffee shop feels like a power play,” Leon says.
“Yeah, I’m thinking that too,” I agree. “They’re trying to bag her.
The important reason is why? To buy points with Ettore?
Leverage for something else they want? The Russians are renowned for their surveillance and cyber espionage.
We covered our tracks when we brought her here, but if we missed something… ”
The door opens before I can finish that thought, and Mateo enters. “I’ve got news you should know about.”
“Likewise,” Leon says. “It’s possible Ettore has again called in favors with the Russians. Given their skills with system infiltration, should we be worried that Carmela’s location could be uncovered? Do we need to move her?”
Mateo’s jaw tightens. “Potentially, yes, although any time you move her, you add a fresh risk… The news I have is relevant to Carmela.”
“Go ahead,” Leon says.
“You’ve asked Cherry to take stuff up to her in Dante’s apartment, right?”
Leon’s face empties. “If you’re going to suggest she’s working with the Russians or Ettore, don’t.”
“Do you trust her?”
I don’t think I blink.
“I fucking trust her,” Leon grits out. “You have something on her? Spit it out.”
“She’s got a history with Ettore. Not the good kind.”
“The fuck she has?” Leon growls, rising from his seat.
“Shut up, Leon, and let him fucking speak,” I interrupt. “Sit down.”
He sits… slowly, glowering between Mateo and me. Not that I could give a fuck that he has a soft spot for Cherry when Carmela’s safety is on the fucking line.
“You told me to investigate all of them,” Mateo says. “You didn’t say not to investigate Cherry… You know she’s a doctor. Used to work in the emergency department and Kennedy Memorial Hospital.”
“She did allude to it once,” Leon says. “I figured she’s had some first aid training and was fucking with me. You’re telling me she’s an actual doctor?”
“No offense,” I say. “But what the fuck is a doctor doing working in a club?”
“Yeah,” Christian deadpans. “That would be about as stupid as someone with a Harvard MBA spending three years partying on a yacht.”
Leon gives him the shut-up look.
“Malpractice,” Mateo says. “She was struck off the register eighteen months ago and only a year after she qualified.”
“That doesn’t sound right,” Leon says. “Not the doctor part, which makes a lot of fucking sense with hindsight, but the being struck off. It doesn’t fit… Where the hell does Ettore fit in this?”
“I didn’t believe the malpractice part either,” Mateo says.
“So I did some digging, and deeper digging, and finally uncovered the assault charge she filed against the hospital administrator. The charges were abruptly dropped, and besides one summary report that someone must have missed, all the statements and other evidence the summary alluded to mysteriously disappeared… This was right before the malpractice charges were brought against her.”
“Motherfucker,” Leon says slowly.
“Guess who the hospital administrator is buddies with?”
“Ettore,” Leon says.
“The very same,” Mateo says. “Do you still trust her?”
“Yes, I fucking trust her,” Leon says. “She has no reason to take her hatred of Ettore out on Carmela. If anything, she would be empathetic. She took some things up earlier today, then came in and chewed my ear out about Carmela’s wellbeing. She wanted me to add her as a contact on Carmela’s cell…”
He trails off.
“I don’t like where this is going,” I say. “My gut is telling me this is coincidental, but Carmela’s safety transcends gut feelings.”
“Agree,” Christian says.
“Fuck it!” Leon swipes a hand down his face. “Where is Cherry now?”
“On her shift. I put a discreet tail on her as soon as I got the report.”
“Good. Watch her for now. If we question her, supposing she is a threat, which I still don’t fucking believe, we will have lost the lead.”
“Back to my earlier point. Do we need to move Carmela?” I ask.
“I have an option for you,” Mateo says. “There’s an empty apartment in your building. It’s available for short- or long-term rental. We can set up a fake name to rent it under so there is nothing to connect it to you. If you’re good with that, I suggest we move her there promptly.”
“Let’s make it happen,” Leon says.
CHRISTIAN