Chapter 18
Luciano was married, with a wife and kids in a big house in another expensive neighborhood called Posillipo… but our spies figured out he’d stashed one of his three mistresses in Vomero.
And every Tuesday night, just like clockwork, he’d stop by to get his dick wet.
Normally Luciano went everywhere with a three-car escort and at least six armed men. Couldn’t be too careful when you were a Cosa Nostra fuckhead in Camorra territory.
But when he slipped out to see his mistresses, he only took one car and two bodyguards.
Guess he thought it made him less conspicuous.
Idiot.
We could’ve taken Luciano when he was with any of his side pieces, but the other two bitches lived in buildings in crowded areas with a lot more street traffic. It would’ve been a bigger pain in the ass to get in and get out.
The place in Vomero was much smaller, the building was a hundred feet away from the next closest building, and the neighborhood was quieter. At this time of night, it was mostly just people walking their dogs.
Not as many witnesses.
A guy named Toro was one of my men. He had a girlfriend named Carmela.
A month ago, Lucrezia gave Carmela the money to rent an apartment in the same apartment building as Luciano Amato’s mistress.
Carmela looked like she belonged in Vomero – mostly because she didn’t have gang tats all over her. And she didn’t have a rap sheet, so she passed the credit check.
She got an apartment one floor down from the mistress.
Ever since then, Toro and four of my other guys stayed at Carmela’s place every Tuesday night. All they did was sit around and wait to hear from me.
It was probably overkill, but we had to make sure everything went according to plan. We would only get one shot, and we had to make it count.
Now the time had finally come.
I sat in the backseat of a black Cadillac SUV. Normally I drove a Maserati when I was out and about – but for official business, we went with Cadillacs.
My boy Ciro was at the wheel. Romeo was in the front passenger seat with his cell phone glued to his ear.
“They got ‘em?” Romeo asked the guy on the other end of the line. “Alright, good. Don’t do shit until we tell you.”
Romeo hung up and looked at me in the rearview mirror. “They’re in place.”
“Good,” I said as I peered out the window at the apartment building.
One of Luciano Amato’s men was standing on the stairs by the front door.
Carmela had told us a second bodyguard was inside the building, right outside the mistress’s place.
The guy inside would be tricky.
The one outside was gonna be a piece of cake.
“Tell Toro to take care of the asshole out front,” I said to Romeo. “Tell him to make sure Carmela walks out in front of him so the guard watches her ass, just like we practiced.”
We’d run through the scene a dozen times over the last two weeks. Carmela, Toro, and all the guys in the apartment knew exactly what to do.
Romeo called Toro and gave him my instructions. Then he said, “Stay on the phone so we can tell you when there aren’t any witnesses.”
We sat in silence and waited.
Two minutes later Romeo told me, “Okay, they’re in the lobby.”
“Hold on,” I said.
An old man and his dog passed by our cars and continued down the street.
Once he disappeared around the corner, I said, “Go.”
“Go,” Romeo repeated into the phone.
Ten seconds later, the front door of the apartment building opened.
The bodyguard immediately looked around. He reached inside his jacket for his gun –
But it was just a young couple going out to party.
At least, that’s what he thought.
Toro was holding his phone in his left hand. His right hand was covered by a jacket draped over his arm.
Carmela walked out a few feet ahead of Toro, yammering about something. She was wearing tight leather pants – and the girl had a fantastic ass.
The bodyguard ogled her as she walked down the steps.
Toro stepped up behind him and pointed his jacket-draped arm at the back of the guy’s head.
There was a bright yellow muzzle flash as the gun fired through the jacket.
Pop!
I’d bought a bunch of silencers especially for tonight. They were hard to get on the black market – 5000 euros apiece.
But they were worth it.
With the silencer, the sound wasn’t a quiet thwip like you hear in the movies. It sounded more like somebody dropping a big-ass book on the floor, but it wasn’t that loud. Definitely didn’t sound like a gunshot.
And there was nobody on the street to hear it.
The bodyguard’s forehead exploded. A cloud of blood blew into the air, lit bright red by the lights on either side of the front door.
His legs folded underneath him as he dropped to the ground like a sack of cement.
Carmela clapped both her hands over her mouth. She’d known exactly what was gonna happen – but she was a chick and a civilian, so she freaked the fuck out.
The front door of the building opened, and four of my other guys rushed out.
Each one grabbed one of the bodyguard’s arms or legs and hauled him inside the lobby.
They didn’t worry about the blood on the front steps. It wasn’t like we’d be able to hide the body for long. We just needed a few minutes to get to the top floor –
And to make absolutely sure nobody on the street saw the dead guy and called the cops.
“Go,” I barked as I opened up the back door of the Cadillac.
All my guys in the other cars spilled out onto the sidewalk and fell in behind me.
Romeo and Ciro flanked me on either side. Romeo put his phone away and pulled out his silenced pistol.
All of us were dressed normally. I had on jeans, a wifebeater, and a black leather jacket. Every other guy wore a sports jersey or an outfit like mine.
As we got closer to Carmela, I saw why she’d freaked out:
Her arms were sprayed with bits of blood and brains from the dead guy.
Too fuckin’ bad.
She still had a job to do.
“Come on,” I snapped at her as I grabbed her arm and turned her around.
She looked at me with terrified eyes. “Do I hafta?”
“YES. NOW GO.”
She trembled all over, but she was more afraid of me than what I was making her do.
One of the guys in the lobby held the door open. Me, Carmela, Toro, and my men marched right in.
The lobby was deserted this time of the night, thank fuck – because blood was smeared all across the black and white tile floors.
The trail led right to the dead body, which my guys had stashed in a corner beside a potted tree.
One of my guys was waiting at the elevator and holding the door open.
I stepped inside with Carmela, Toro, Romeo, and Ciro.
All my other guys went up the stairwell.
Romeo hit the button for the top floor.
Carmela was whimpering next to me.
“Toro, tell your bitch to shut the fuck up,” I snarled. “She’s getting on my goddamn nerves.”
Toro was a big motherfucker – a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier than me – but even he was terrified of me.
“Just keep it together a little bit longer, babe,” he whispered. “You’re doin’ great.”
“And fix your tits,” I snapped at her. “I need him lookin’ at you, not me.”
Carmela sniffled and made sure her push-up bra made her tits look huge.
The door dinged.
As soon as it opened, I pushed Carmela out into the hallway.
Everybody else stayed in the elevator like we’d planned.
Carmela stumbled along in front of me as I pushed her forward. My left hand was on her left shoulder, but her body hid my right hand, which held a silenced Beretta at her back.
Not to shoot her –
But so I could poke the gun out between her body and arm.
That way, I could shoot the bodyguard and use her as a human shield at the same time.
Toro would be upset if she got iced…
But he could always get another girlfriend.
The mistress’s apartment was at the end of the hall.
The second bodyguard was out front – a middle-aged shithead in a black suit.
I swear, the Cosa Nostra were such prissy little bitches about their fancy clothes. Even the low-level dipshits wore them. They all thought they looked so cool when they really looked like fuckin’ finocchios.
The bodyguard saw us coming – but we were walking slow and steady at a normal pace, so he wasn’t alarmed.
Mostly he just stared at Carmela’s tits.
That is, until we got closer.
Then he realized something was off.
Maybe he saw how terrified she looked.
Or maybe he saw the smudges of blood on her bare arms.
Who the fuck knows.
But his eyes went wide, and he reached for his gun.
I shoved the silencer on my Beretta between Carmela’s arm and her tit and opened fire.
Pop pop pop pop!
The bodyguard slammed backwards, a shocked look on his face.
Never even got his gun out. He just slid down to the ground and collapsed on his ass, leaving red streaks on the wall behind him.
“Done,” I called out.
Toro, Romeo, and Ciro came running out of the elevator.
At the same time, my other guys came pouring out of the stairwell.
Now there were twelve of us.
Plus Carmela, who was pretty much fuckin’ useless at this point.
I didn’t want to kick in the door. No need to warn Luciano and give him time to grab a gun –
So Romeo had spent the last three weeks learning how to pick locks.
Lots of fuckin’ YouTube videos.
Still, just on the off-chance –
“Check the asshole’s pants first,” I ordered.
Romeo rifled through the dead guy’s pockets until he found a key ring and tried them one by one.
The fifth one worked.
“Guess Luciano doesn’t want his wife finding a strange key in his pockets,” Romeo whispered.
Fuckin’ idiot.
If I were Luciano Amato, there wouldn’t have been any sneaking around. My wife would know about my sidepieces, and she wouldn’t say shit – because if she did, I’d give her a black eye every time she opened her fuckin’ mouth.
But instead, Luciano had given the key to one of his bodyguards…
And now it was game over.
Last mistake he would ever make.