61. Obi
OBI
I was just hanging up from a call with Ryuji’s realtor—I’d put an offer in on the property I’d been eyeing—when Caspian notified us that Max Volpe needed to speak with us.
I did not like that he felt comfortable coming to our home so easily.
I did not like that he remained in this uneasy middle ground—neither an enemy nor an ally.
What would happen when our truce concluded? What would happen when we challenged the Camorra, the owner of his true allegiance?
I wouldn’t let anything or anyone stand in my way of destroying them.
Thoughts of our inevitable confrontation created the knots in the back of my neck. I watched Leona carefully while we all gathered in the kitchen. She seemed much more at ease than she had before. That, at least, gave me a modicum of peace.
Max Volpe stood at our island, hands braced on the countertop.
Leona sat in one of the island chairs, bracketed inside Ryu’s arms. Ciel and Wynn stood next to each other on the opposite side, their shoulders pressed together.
Caspian and I stood closest to Max—in between him and Leona—both watching him with cautious, narrowed eyes.
The tension in the room was a palpable thing.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“The Camorra are on their way.”
Immediately, Leona and I locked eyes. Alarm bells rang in my head. We were not ready .
Her face drained of color. “To the US? Why?”
“I got word last night that they launched a full scale attack on the Albanian compound and killed Armir Vokshi. The Head of the Albanians is dead.”
“Good fucking riddance,” Ryuji grumbled.
Leona reached across the counter to grab Wynn’s hand. He brought her knuckles to his lips to kiss them. That bastard and his men had harmed our family enough. Though his death did not come at my hand, it was still objectively good news.
However, the Camorra on their way to the States was not. But if they had left their impenetrable fortresses with state-of-the-art security…they may be vulnerable. Could I pass this chance up?
“So, why are they coming here?” Wynn asked. He let go of Leona, and she tucked back underneath Ryu’s arms.
“His last remaining son, Arion, is on the run,” Max answered. “They tracked him here, to the East Coast, and they’re coming after him.”
Everyone started speaking at once, all with their own variations of how we should be the ones to kill him if he came to our turf.
I raised a palm, and everyone quieted. “Why would they tell you this?”
“They want me to find him and have him ready upon their arrival.”
“Ready for what?” Leona asked.
“Death,” he said simply. “They want the final kill. They want to claim they’ve squashed the entire family line of their enemies. The Vokshi Clan, and therefore the Albanian mafia, will be eliminated.”
Tense silence blanketed us.
“That’s…good, isn’t it?” Ryuji asked. “Why are our panties in a bunch about this?”
“Because the Camorra haven’t set foot inside the United States in over forty years,” I replied. “They’re not simply coming here for Arion Vokshi’s head.”
The Camorra played a constant chess game. They expanded their territory through ruthless takeovers and backhanded business deals. They never moved unless they had a purpose.
Max met my questioning stare head on. The truth was written in his eyes.
“They’re coming to take over New York.”
Leona leaned back against Ryuji’s chest. He slung a possessive arm over her shoulder, his face darkening while his palm splayed across her stomach. “And what exactly will the Camorra do when they arrive?”
“I don’t know,” Max answered.
They would first attempt to absorb us. It would be easier for them if we were minions, giving them allegiance and tithe. If that didn’t work, they would destroy us. I’d seen it happen countless times, especially in my country.
I looked around at each of us. Leona, my brothers, Max.
The air sucked out of the room. This was too fast. Too soon.
I’d planned to build a force strong enough to resist them, but we weren’t there yet.
We needed more officials on our side, more manpower, more control over the streets.
To face such an opponent as we were, bruised from conflict with the Albanians…
We had to be ready to face them. We couldn’t roll over and let them take control.
“Sounds like we’ve been paving the way for a takeover,” Leona said, drumming her fingers on the counter. “We clear the enemies, they come in and clean up. ”
Max’s jaw clenched.
“That is exactly what they do,” I said. “They have their fingers in every culture, every country across the world. They fund conflict; they wait until the conflict destabilizes their interests, and then they move in and take over. This is what they did with their influence in my hometown in Nigeria.”
When I studied under them, hoping to gain power, I learned their tactics.
I learned how their money created and grew the group that murdered my parents and terrorized our town.
They did the same thing to multiple cartels across South America.
They controlled the money, so they controlled everything.
“We won’t let them do it to us, Obi,” Leona assured. “Whatever it takes, we’ll stand our ground.”
Ryuji, Wynn, and Ciel agreed—while Max watched on emotionless.
“This feels like you’re warning us, Max,” Caspian said from my other side. “Why are you here? You didn’t have to tell us. You could have found Arion Vokshi on your own.”
Max rubbed the back of his neck. “I—” He breathed in and out of his nose. “I don’t know. Maybe I am warning you. Maybe I just need help in finding Arion Vokshi and taking him out.”
“You want help?” Ciel asked.
Max gave a reluctant nod. “I’m certain Arion fled to the States because the Albanian organization here could support him, but I’m not sure where.
They had their fingers across New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
He has to be looking for allies, big ones that could create a barrier between him and the Camorra.
If we find him, if we can turn him over as a gift, I think I can get the Camorra to leave. ”
Ciel cleared his throat, exchanging a look with both Wynn and Leona, who seemed like they knew exactly what he was about to say. “I know—I know where he is.”
Ryu gave a little laugh with a grin. “Little brother, coming to the rescue again. ”
“Where?” Max asked.
Ciel looked at Leona.
She leaned back in her chair, giving Ciel and Wynn a crooked smile and a shrug. “Well, now seems as good a time as any, I guess.”
“What, ifunanya’m ?” I asked. If she had been creating plans, she had not yet shared them with me. From the looks of it, only Wynn and Ciel were in on her little scheme. I shouldn’t be surprised.
“I have a plan,” she said proudly. “A plan for how we can capture Arion Vokshi, and destroy their footing once and for all.”
Caspian raised an eyebrow. “Why do I get the feeling you’re about to tell us something we’re going to hate?”
She grinned. “Oh, I definitely am.”
“Fuck me,” Ryu said with a groan.
She sat straighter. “There’s a sex club in Philadelphia called The Obsidian.
Arion was seen there last night. I know what they’re doing there.
I know how to get in. I was planning to infiltrate it and free the victims forced to work there, but sounds like I’m adding ‘capture Arion’ to the list, too. ”
“What, alone ?”
“That’s insane.”
“There’s no way?—”
“Absolutely. Fucking. Not,” Max said, voice hard as steel.
The two of them stared each other down.
“Well, I wasn’t on board with this, but seeing how badly Maxy doesn’t want it makes me reconsider.” Ryu kissed Leona on the head. “Go get them, baby.”
Cas scoffed. “Ryuji. What the fuck?”
Ryu shrugged.
“Listen up, boys,” Leona said, eyebrows furrowing while she stared at her hands.
“I understand this is…hard for everyone. I’m not exactly excited about going inside a sex club where I know they’re drugging and abusing those women.
” She took a deep br eath, and her hands clenched on the counter.
“We’ll plan it all out. I’ve already spoken with the girls who are coming with me.
We’re all on board. The women are going to be the ones who take them down from the inside out. ”
Cas and Max both started interjecting while Ryuji taunted them back. It only took another moment or two for Ciel and Wynn to chime in before everyone was arguing over one another.
“I’m asking for your trust,” Leona said, voice louder than everyone.
I scrubbed a hand down my face, then caught her looking at me. My arms opened, and she slipped out from underneath Ryuji’s, coming to stand before me. I picked her up and deposited her on the counter before nudging her legs wide and fitting myself between them.
I tucked a curl behind her ear. “Who are the girls you’ve spoken to?”
She grinned. “Fallon. Willow. Zoya. Ximena, Ludmila, Penny, and Claire—those are the girls we met at Willow’s haven. With me, that equals eight of us.”
A chorus of eye rolls and grumbles erupted across the kitchen, especially at the name of Fallon Byrne, but Leona’s eyes didn’t leave mine. Instead, she cupped my cheek.
“I can do this,” she whispered.
“I do not doubt that you can,” I returned, “but I do doubt my ability to keep my composure if anything threatened you in there. The risk is enormous. It is dangerous. We can’t lose you again.”
“This time, we can be the ones setting the trap,” she said softly.
Her palm pressed on my shirt over my heart.
“We’ll work through all the details, but I need you and the men to keep the exits safe.
There will be plenty of important people there, people that we can blackmail and control if we find them in compromising positions. ”
She filled us in on how Willow’s girls witnessed multiple prominent people frequenting the sex club, likely to exchange bribes or other business information.
It made sense that Arion would immediately try to pick those relationships up again, relying on those connections to keep him safe against the Camorra.
He needed allies, and fast. So, he would invite those powerful visitors to the club as soon as possible.
Ciel was working on tracking down the buyer website, but if we had real blackmail, it could be a powerful tool against the Camorra when the time came.
“Leona can do this, and so can I,” Wynn said.
My eyes tracked over the way he stood confidently at the island, much more like himself than he had been since Leona’s kidnapping.
No, actually, he looked better. Like he’d finally found peace.
“We’ve already made a plan. I’m going to take charge of escorting the workers out of the club and to Willow’s waiting crew.
I trust Leona can do her part, with our other allies, inside the club while we focus on containing and controlling the outside. ”
“The director of New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority was previously sighted there,” Ciel said. “I’ve already tapped his communications to find an invitation from Vokshi to visit again. He’s planning to this weekend.”
“That’s when we should go,” Wynn said. “We can stop the buyers, throttle the Albanian leadership, and gain power through blackmail. Win-win-win.”
“That only gives us a few days,” Caspian said. “Can we organize everything before then? How long will it take the Camorra to get here?”
“They gave me until the end of the week,” Max said, the first thing he’d said since his earlier outburst.
“Perfect timing,” Leona said with a grin, turning to him. “If we give the Camorra Arion Vokshi without issue, do you think they’ll go home? Leave us alone? ”
Max’s brow furrowed while he inhaled and exhaled heavily. He stared at the countertop. “I think I can convince them to, yes.”
“Then it’s a plan,” she responded. She got each of my brothers, and then finally Max, to agree to their participation. Her eyes flared bright while she hopped off the countertop, dragging her hand down my arm. “Let’s get to work.”
The idea of Leona in harm’s way made my heart thunder inside my chest.
Yet if what she said was true, there were people at this club whom we could maneuver to our means. We could earn back some favors I’d already spent and build more power against the Camorra.
It was a necessary risk.
My brain immediately began moving chess pieces on the board inside my head, working through scenario after scenario.
If this plan didn’t work, if they turned on us…would I have what I needed to finally play my hand against them?