Chapter 9
MARCO
“What’s the big deal? It’s a laundromat.”
“One that never seems to be open,” Dante says pointedly.
Armani sets the iPad down on his desk and slides it toward me. On the screen is a freeze-frame taken from some grainy surveillance footage. It’s a black-and-white image of a small brick building with a sign that says “Walter’s Wash House” perched above the door.
“As soon as this storefront became a place of interest,” he goes on, “I put surveillance on it. Interestingly, Bruno’s men frequent the establishment a few times a week, but they don’t bring any laundry with them.
The place had no customers in the last month, despite receiving weekly deliveries of some kind. ”
I nod. “So it’s a front.”
“One of our contacts in law enforcement made good on a favor he owed us and did a stakeout of his own. He confirmed that the delivery trucks have been steadily supplying the business with chemicals commonly used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.”
“Mm. So not just any front. A meth lab,” I say.
I take a closer look at the picture.
“Honestly, it isn’t that much of a surprise,” Armani says, leaning back in his chair.
“This stretch of Salvador Ave. is known for money laundering, drugs, storage of illegal arms. Law enforcement has to play by the rules before they can infiltrate one of these dens and bring an operation down. But we don’t. ”
Dante and Armani look at me, sharing an expression that suggests they’ve already formulated a plan, one that’s going to be executed with or without my agreement. I’m just the guy coming in unsuspectingly from the wings. I clench my jaw. These assholes.
“Why did you wait so long before filling me in?” I ask.
Armani turns off the iPad and pours himself a finger of scotch from the sideboard. He gestures to see if either of us want a drink, but Dante and I both shake our heads.
“I figured you wouldn’t take me seriously if I told you I wanted to retaliate in the name of your wife’s honor. It’s not enough that we got her back. The Brunos need to pay for what they did.”
I side-eye Armani. “You’re right. I don’t take you seriously. You want revenge for the Bellanti name and nothing else. Don’t try to pretend this has fuck-all to do with Karina’s honor.”
He takes a drink and doesn’t deny it. “We need to make a statement: This family is not weak. We’re not gonna keep playing these games of back and forth, tit for tat, eye for an eye.
It’s time for us to make a direct assault on a Bruno-fronted business and remind these assholes that there’s money at stake here, not just pride.
We take out their meth lab—which, good riddance—and we send a message that everyone needs to stand the fuck down. ”
Glancing at Dante for his reaction, I suddenly put together why he’s dressed all in black. He’s ready to roll. Fuck.
I gesture at his outfit. “So, what, you two were just going to head over there without me?”
“We were concerned you might be a bit too close to this to keep a cool head,” Dante says reasonably.
I huff a sarcastic laugh. “What, and you’re not? They kidnapped your sister-in-law, too.”
He just shrugs. He has no argument for that.
“Ideally, this operation will give us some leverage so that we can renegotiate the truce. Maintain mutual respect and cooperation going forward,” Dante says.
“If not, we at least need the Brunos to agree to stay neutral, even if our families despise each other and we’ll never see eye to eye.
Either way, it’s time we end this war for good. ”
I can’t argue with Dante’s line of thinking. Of course I want this war with the Brunos to end. And I want their guarantee that they’ll leave Karina alone once and for all.
I think about the conversation I had with her last night.
It kills me that she’d already given up on her future because of her controlling family and her arranged marriage.
What would her life be like right now if she’d actually gone through with the wedding to Pietro?
I like to think that she has it a million times better with me.
After all, I can offer her freedom, endless possibilities, opportunities that she never imagined—and as much support and encouragement as she needs to take advantage of those things.
So it’s on both of us now. I won’t let her dreams fall to the wayside.
Nor will I allow her family to continue tormenting her, or any of us Bellantis.
“Look, obviously I want them to pay for what they did to Karina and Livvie,” I admit.
“And no, I don’t want to keep this back and forth going.
But I don’t know that busting into one of the Brunos’ businesses with guns a-blazin’ is the right move.
After dad died we agreed we were getting out of the life, but how long did that last?
I feel like we keep getting pulled right back in at every turn. ”
“This is exactly my point!” Armani says, rising from his desk.
“Think about it, bro. The Brunos are the last chain holding us to a life we don’t want.
So let’s blow their shit up, and let’s keep blowing their shit up until they get the message—we’re done playing, we’re done warring with them, and when we walk away this time, nobody’s gonna fuck with us or try to pull us back in.
That’s why we gotta go hard with this. So we can walk away in strength, not weakness. ”
With that proclamation, he swigs back the remnants of his scotch.
“Our guys have pinned down three other fronts operated by Bruno’s men, by the way,” Armani tells me. “I am more than willing to take out every single one of them, but—”
“But I vetoed it,” Dante interrupts, shooting me a look.
“You know I don’t like to pull the seniority card, but I’m the final word on Bellanti ops and my foot is down.
We’re going at this with a lighter touch, and as few casualties as possible.
The end result will be the same. We make a show of strength, we put an end to this conflict, and we walk away clean. ”
Armani just shrugs, like he thinks Dante’s making a mistake, but he’ll go along with it.
“Fine,” I say. “So what’s the plan? I’m going with, like it or not.”
“I won’t order you to stay here,” Dante tells me, exchanging a look with Armani.
The unspoken part of that sentence is that my brothers would prefer that I did stay home, but ultimately the choice is mine.
Truthfully, I have a bad feeling about this. But I’ve never been one to seek out violence. Come to think of it, neither has Dante—at least, not unless absolutely necessary. Which means my brothers have talked this out at length already and decided that this operation is crucial.
For his part, I’m sure Dante wants this over and done with before his daughter is born.
If he can finally put this rivalry to bed, it won’t have a chance to interfere with the new life he’s about to have.
I can’t blame him. What if Karina were the pregnant one?
I already want the Brunos out of the picture so the threats to my wife stop.
I can only imagine how amplified my stress would be if she were carrying our baby.
“The plan is,” Armani says, “you’ll tell your wives that we three have a business dinner to attend tonight with a potential new retailer for our wines.
Marco, you can tell Karina that you’re trying to be more involved with the winery or whatever.
Meanwhile, we’ll have maximum security posted at every entry point to both the main house and the grounds at large. ”
“What about the Abbott property line adjacent to ours?” I ask.
“Already covered,” Armani says. “We’ll take my SUV, pull around back of the place, plant the explosives, and bail. If any of Bruno’s guys are there, we take ‘em out. Once we’re a few blocks away, we park at a gas station and wait until that bitch blows. Then we come home.”
“This should be a clean job,” Dante adds. “Easy in, easy out. And since meth labs are so full of chemicals that they explode on their own half the time anyway, our law enforcement contact is more than happy to write it off as an accident in the official report.”
“Hm,” I grunt. “Speaking of chemicals, we better wear masks. That shit’s dangerous.”
Armani just nods, reaches into his bag, and throws a heavy black respirator mask at me. It has goggles and thick straps and two air-filtering cartridges on either side of the mouthpiece.
“Wow. Looks like I could go scuba diving in this thing,” I joke.
“You don’t wanna do that,” Armani says, dead serious.
Then he calls two of his men inside and briefs them on the job, keeping the details to a minimum.
Being in our employ and most likely having plenty of past experience with shady doings, they don’t ask any questions beyond a few points of clarification on building layout and logistics and what to do if things go south.
Since I don’t feel comfortable lying to Karina—and since I worry she’d see right through me anyway—I have Dante tell her that I’m joining him and Armani for their “business dinner.”
By the time we’re in the car on the way to the Wash House, I’ve come to peace with what we’re about to do. It’s not my first time taking part in the family business, and I should be more used to this by now, but it’s always unnerving to strap so many guns to my body.
Our backup team, including Charlie’s husband Clayton, follow in separate vehicles.
We wait at a prearranged location while they complete their covert surveillance of the laundromat.
Once it’s determined that there are no signs of life from inside, we drive the few blocks over and pull into the alley at the back of the building.
There’s a driver waiting inside each of the surplus vehicles at either end of the alley to ensure that we don’t get ambushed.
Our vehicles are bulletproof. Everyone is armed to the teeth.
Armani gets out first and goes to the trunk, where he pulls out a metal case.
Lowering it to the ground, he uses a keypad to unlock it.
The explosive device rests inside, nestled between layers of foam padding.
I’ve never seen a bomb up close. It’s not really like the ones you see in movies.
It’s nondescript but lethal looking, and strong enough to take down the entire building without damaging anything else on the block.
We don’t have a lot of time. We need to toss and run. Armani removes the bomb gingerly and presses a couple of buttons. A click sounds.
“Is it armed?” I can’t keep the trepidation from my voice.
“Not yet. One more step.”
Jesus. I never imagined my brother holding a live fucking bomb.
Just then, something pings off the back of the vehicle.
“The fuck was that?” I say.
We’re standing under the raised rear hatch, and whatever just hit the SUV made the whole car rock.
The sound comes again, and again. We’re being shot at.
Our men begin to shout and hurry back to their cars for cover.
My heart lurches into my throat. Looking up through the glass on the raised hatch, I catch sight of a figure standing on the roof of the building.
“Everybody get down!” Dante yells, his voice echoing in the alley.
With that, the space around us erupts in a flurry of gunfire.
Somehow, Armani manages to slip the bomb back into the case and lock it.
I don’t think I breathe until I see that it’s safely put away inside the SUV, snug against one of the bulletproof panels.
My mind had already conjured an image of us getting blown to death after the bomb got riddled with gunfire.
Armani and I draw our weapons at the same time and peer around the side of the vehicle. Bruno’s men line the rooftops all the way down the alley. They have a clear advantage as they rain bullets down on us.
“We have to retreat.” Armani’s voice is cool, but I can see his fists trembling with rage. He presses the mic on his shoulder. “Time to roll out, boys. It’s getting spicy in here.”
The calm he projects seems to keep our team perfectly in line.
They don’t hesitate to do as Armani orders and quickly disperse to their vehicles, assisting at least two wounded men of ours.
I climb into the SUV through the hatch back and scurry up to the front seat, but although I expect Armani to slide in next to me, he’s nowhere to be found. Neither is Dante.
“Armani! Dante! Fuck!”
I risk peeking out the side window. Armani is firing up at the men while offering an arm to someone. It’s like he’s trying to wave somebody in, to get them to safety. Dante is crouched low as he hurries toward our brother, one arm raised as he returns fire.
They’re almost to the vehicle when Dante’s body spins violently to the right and he crashes against my door.
Leaving a streak of blood on the window as he slides to the ground.