1. Tommaso #3
“Dresvanni…” one of them mumbles. “Jake told us about you. But that doesn’t answer why you’re here.”
“Why the hell do you think I’m here?” I ask them. “I need some info. Jake and that fucker Travi owe me.”
The woman on the right laughs quietly. “It’s just Tommy.” She puts her gun down.
I squint through the darkness. “Mel?” I ask her with a smirk.
“I go by Trish here,” she explains.
“Course. Trish,” I take my hand off my gun.
“You sure he’s good to let in?” one of the guys asks. Not the one who was questioning me.
“If Jake and Travi owe him, I don’t think we have a choice,” Trish responds. “Besides, he clearly knows his way around.”
“Fine. You take him inside then, Trish. We’ll keep our posts out here.”
Trish nods and motions me over to a collar door about five yards away from the house it belongs too.
I follow her, she unlocks the hatch and leads me down the damp dark stairs. What would normally lead to a basement, leads to an intricate tunnel system instead. Sure, one of the doors leads to the actual basement of the house, but that’s the least important part of all this.
Trish leads me down a hallway that looks like it might’ve been an old sewage line at one point. It’s been cleaned up, but some cobwebs are still lingering in the corners and the lights are simply stuck onto the concrete likely with batteries keeping them running.
“Been a while since I’ve been down here,” I tell her.
“It has. I was starting to think you’d forgotten about us,” Trish says.
I shake my head as we turn down another corridor. The light sound of music starts to come through the walls. No where near as loud as the club though, and it’s not the EDM Pop that had been playing there. No, it sounds like Nine Inch Nails, actually.
“Never,” I say with a chuckle, but then my face goes serious.
“You better be taking me to Jake and Travi,” I tell her.
She rolls her eyes. “Don’t worry. They’re in the common room. Where they always are tonight. Playing poker.”
We stop at a door that’s clearly been forced into place and she motions. “Well, go on. I don’t want to be the one to interrupt.”
I open the door see a table of five people, two of them Jake and Travi playing poker, a few bags of chips open, some sodas, and guns all piled up in a corner of the room.
“Hey what the hell I thought we told you to—” Jake starts yelling toward the door and then his eyes catch me. “Tommy. You come to play?”
I fold my arms across my chest. “I hate to break this up, but this is serious.”
Jake sighs. “Can’t it wait?” he asks. “Or, you could join and we could talk about it.”
I shake my head. “No. I need to talk to you and Travi, and remember, you owe me.”
Travi looks up this time and there’s an anxious look on his face. “I knew we were going to regret that.”
“I haven’t even told you what I want.” I tilt my head to the side.
Jake and Travi stand up and talk over to me by the door. “What?” Jake asks, looking as though I’ve seriously burdened him.
“Oh, well I’m so sorry to pull you outta something so fucking important, baby,” I croon to him and then grab him by the front of the shirt. “Either act like you give a damn that I’m here or I’ll give you a reason.” I growl.
Jake swallows hard and nods his head. “Fine, okay. What do you need, Mr. Dresvanni.”
“That’s better,” I let him go and Travi stands up taller.
“Anything you need.” Travi agrees.
I look around the room for a moment, not liking that everyone else is around.
“We’re all on the same side,” Jake reminds me. “Whatever you have to say to me, you can say to them. They might be able to help you too.”
“Aw hell nah, I ain’t a part of this,” someone from the table stands up after showing their hand and taking their cut from the table. “I’m outta here. You can deal with this.”
I shift to the side and let them leave. I don’t need someone who can’t commit to this anyway, so I have no problem letting them stay the hell out of it.
“Anyone else have a problem?” I ask the other two at the table. It’s two women. I recognize one as being Lucinda.
“Not one,” Lucinda replies and folds her arms. “This is Bec,” she motions to the other woman.
I nod. “Good.” I look back toward Travi and Jake.
“I need information on the Bianchi family,” I explain. “They’ve got their sites set on us and I need to know everything you got on them.”
Jake blinks at me, then laughs. “Well shit.”
“What?” I ask him, eyes narrowing.
“It ain’t me you want, I mean. I can give you some information, but it’s just what he’s told me,” Jake explains.
“He, who?” I ask.
Jake sighs. “Look, we can get you the information you need, but if you want it direct from the source, you wanna talk to Aleksandr. We’ve got him on an inside job, he knows more than any of us. Probably even more than he’s told us.”
I eye them and then look toward the table for a second.
“Aleksandr?” I ask them curiously. “I didn’t meet any Aleksandr last time.”
“He’s new. Only been here a few months, but he’s a damn good hitman and he’s in the eye of the fire with the Bianchis,” Travi explains.
“Aleksandr Volkov.”