42. Wynn
WYNN
“ A re you ready?” Ciel asked the next night. He’d changed into his contacts and combat clothes to go out with me exactly as he promised.
I nodded. “I asked Leona to stay with Cas, Obi, and Ryu tonight. Ryu will probably go to work at the clubs, and Obi will probably work in his office, but I know Cas won’t leave her by herself.”
“So just you and me then?”
“Yes.”
Leona wasn’t thrilled about staying behind, but she’d been working on VCI transport routes for our gun-smuggling operations.
Felix again requested a face-to-face meeting, but Obi shut it down quickly while Leona laughed, and the rest of us fumed in defensiveness.
The man was clearly obsessed with her, and it spiked all of our possessiveness, but he wasn’t a threat.
After she’d handled that, she and Cas had coordinated with Giulio’s men and Max’s men on teaming up against the Albanians.
With Max’s information about the Albanian’s daily habits and hotspots, they formed a joint plan to patrol the streets.
Our combined forces would bleed and distract them, and it would open the doors for us to track the rest of them down and finish them.
When I’d caught Leona yawning during dinner—it was Ryu’s turn to cook—I’d asked her to stay behind to rest while Ciel and I went out.
All I’d done all day was physical therapy and lurk. The coiled spring in my body was back. I needed to be useful, to do something . I could do this while she rested.
“You good?” Ciel asked as he wrapped his garrote around his wrist.
I nodded.
He gestured to the bags at his feet. “I have the cameras ready. The locations Max gave us are communication dead spots, just like the street corner with Orik Vokshi. If we can set up some surveillance, maybe we can track some of their movements. The tunnels might connect somewhere.”
“Thanks, Ciel.” I shifted from foot to foot. “I know you’d rather be here at home.”
He smiled. “That’s where—that’s where you’re wrong. I’d rather be with you.”
He didn’t wait for me to respond before grabbing the bags and slinging them over his shoulder.
We decided to just take our motorcycles rather than his entire van. I packed as many weapons as I could carry on my person and as my bike could hold, same with him, but neither of us wanted to be out for long.
I just had a feeling .
An itch I had to scratch.
I wasn’t happy about the temporary truce with Max Volpe, but the information he’d had on the Albanians had been extensive. Luciano’s files had outlined transportation routes, and while Max said that the Vokshi changed how they moved often, I still wanted to get eyes on the locations.
I’d also had Ciel print a picture of Arion Vokshi and Ervin Vokshi. I wanted to spread their faces around, just in case they made their way to the States. My contacts on the street could keep an eye out.
Once again, I drove to the corner where the Luccheses dropped Orik Vokshi. I still felt unsurprised that this was where they’d dropped him. Drug deals, sex work, everything was common here.
Ciel looked down at his tablet while I slung a leg off my bike. “We’re in the dead zone now.”
I glanced up and down the street, my eyes landing on two women on one side—clearly looking for customers—and a man down the street shifting from side to side, most likely looking for a fix. “Whatever we put up here will not last long.”
This territory was right on the edge between Sandrini and Lucchese’s territories. Clearly, neither of them had put much effort into keeping it under control. But now that we knew the other mafia bosses had been working with Luciano Vero, it was becoming clear.
They didn’t overlook this area because of neglect. They both allowed it to happen so that the Albanians could operate under the radar. On the edge of both Family territories, if anyone ever got caught, they could simply point the blame at the other.
I huffed a breath through my nose while I frowned. The Albanians were smart and slippery, but they had help this entire time, and I had missed it.
How many people had I let get hurt while completely unaware it was happening?
Ciel hmm’ d while he pulled off his helmet. “I’ll install the cameras while you talk to people?”
“Sounds good.”
Together, we scoped out three locations for cameras where we had a good visual of what we thought was the tunnel entrance.
There was a standard subway entrance at the bottom of a staircase, except it was boarded up and closed off.
Graffiti covered the wood, and trash piled in the corners of the alcove.
It didn’t have any obvious entry or exit points, but they had to be using it somehow.
It was too close to where Lucchese dropped off Vokshi for it to be useless.
I made sure our bikes were secured and lo-jacked, just in case, but if anyone took them, there would be hell to pay. Then, I walked over to the two women still waiting on the corner for customers. Someone had to have seen something.
“Hey, baby,” one of them said when I got close.
I nodded my head to both of them. “Ladies. Not looking to buy, but I have a picture I’d love for you to look at.” I pulled out the pictures of Arion and Ervin Vokshi. “Seen them around recently?”
They exchanged a look, then looked back at me with mistrust. “Why?”
I tucked the picture away. There was no point in lying. These women could smell lies and danger from a mile away. “I want to kill them, and any of their friends I can find.”
They didn’t even flinch—a testament to the shadiness of this area—but one of them smirked. “What’s your name?”
“Wynn.”
Some women around here knew me or knew of me and the work Willow and I did.
“Hmm.” One cocked her head back and took a drag of her cigarette, seemingly making a decision. “I seen that one before.” She pointed at Ervin Vokshi’s picture. “A few of his guys, too.”
“When?”
She jerked her head toward the stairs that led down toward the sealed off tunnel. “Awhile ago. Hovering over there.”
“Did he go inside?”
“Nope. Just stood out front. ”
I huffed a breath. “What about the other guys you saw? Ever seen them go into the tunnel?”
She shook her head. “No, but yesterday, I thought I seen one of them walking down the street. I got a customer, and when I came back to the corner, he was walking two girls down the road with two other guys.”
So, they were using the tunnel. We just didn’t know how yet. “What happened then?”
“A car picked them up, and they drove off.”
They were moving them in smaller groups, using the cars from the auto-repair shops. Nondescript and inconspicuous travel means. They probably used multiple tunnel exits, too, so not every transport came through the same location.
“How often does that happen? Could you describe the car for me?”
The other woman shook her head. “Never seen it again. But I have seen the guys a few times. Sometimes they get into cars. Sometimes vans. Sometimes the guys just walk away.”
I ground my teeth. If they were using all kinds of cars, it would be almost impossible to track them down.
“You know what they’re doing?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Nope. Don’t care to ask, especially if you gonna kill them.”
I was certainly going to kill them. I’d kill them all.
I looked back at the tunnel. “What time do they usually come around?”
“Around 1:00 a.m. Like clockwork.”
I glanced at my phone. It was only just past midnight. We’d have to wait. I pulled a wad of cash from my jacket and held it out. “Thank you for the information.”
The older girl took it and stuffed it into her pockets. I waved goodbye while I hunched my shoulders and headed back toward Ciel.
Time for a good old-fashioned stakeout.