Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MARCO
A fter dropping Audry back home, I needed some time to myself. That trip to the cemetery was unexpectedly affecting me. So many memories rearing their ugly heads, plaguing me with just how much I’d lost. So, I drove to my apartment in Hollywood because I did not want anybody to see me breakdown. I retrieved the good Scotch from my bar, didn't bother with a glass. I simply sat in my living room, in front of my giant 50-inch TV, put on some cop procedural and proceeded to get drunk.
Soon I was shouting at the TV, telling them all the things they were getting wrong about how criminals operate and crying my eyes out. It was Amy who got me into procedural cop shows. She put on Criminal Minds one day and asked me to watch with her and tell her all the things they were getting wrong.
It had been a fun pastime for us. I wasn't above exaggerating to make us seem a little more exciting. But the truth was there was very little difference between organized crime and any Wall Street firm. It's all keeping an eye on the money and relying on Joe from accounting to keep track of the figures. Wall Street might be a little more cutthroat than we are, it's all a matter of reputation.
I don't know when I passed out, with the TV on and Hollywood traffic providing a background Symphony to the loud silence that was my apartment these days. I startled awake at 4:00am when my phone went off. I squinted painfully in the dim lighting, as the first throbbing of a hangover took hold of me.
“You should get back here,” Valerio said to me in lieu of hello.
“What's happened?” I asked suddenly more awake than I had been two seconds ago.
“The triad. Hurry.” Valerio said and then hung up on me.
I huffed with annoyance before getting in the shower, turning it all the way cold. I chewed two aspirin as I waited for the cold water to shock me out of the fugue that too much alcohol had put me in. Then, dressing as fast as possible, I got in the Charger and headed back to Pasadena, grateful that at five am, traffic was minimal.
I arrived in time for breakfast and found Valerio waiting for me as I stepped into the dining hall. He handed me a slip of paper. “Patrol found it at the gate. I called you right away.”
“What is it?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Can’t read it.”
My brow furrowed as I unfolded the note and stared down at it. I could see why Valerio couldn’t read the note.
“Why the fuck would they send us a note written in Mandarin?” I asked.
My brother shrugged again. He looked remarkably calm all things considered. “Maybe because they assume we have a translator? You did tell them the girl knew Chinese.”
“Fuck, yes I did.”
We exchanged loaded glances.
“Do you want to ask her to read it?”
Valerio quirked an eyebrow. “Can we trust her to tell us the truth?”
Slowly I shook my head. “No. We need to find someone who can tell us the guaranteed truth. Meanwhile tell me everything. Where’d you find the note?”
“It was apparently left atop the camera on the gate. We went for the footage of course but it’s been erased. Should we assume that the Triad are on to us?”
“Of course we should. Caution first. Double the patrol, arm everyone, get ready for lockdown protocols. All non-essential personnel should leave. The family should head for the bunker.”
“And you?”
I sat down at the head of the table, pulling the coffee kettle closer to me. “I’m staying here until we know what’s what.”
Valerio nodded. “I’ll get to work on getting us a translator.”
I nodded in dismissal and he took off. I stared down at my coffee, lost in memories of the last time my family was threatened. I wouldn’t let the Triad hurt us. I didn’t care what I had to do or whether the council approved. I was the capo of my clan. That meant it was my job to keep my people safe.
I finished my coffee, hardly tasting it, but grateful for the extra layer of alertness it gave me. Then I stood up and went in search of George. I needed to know how it was possible for our cameras to be erased by outsiders and what the activity was like with the virus Audry had fashioned for us. If the Triad had found and blocked it, at least we’d have confirmation that the note was hostile. In the meantime, I decided to use back channels to get in touch with Mr. Zhang to see if I could find out more about what this was about.
Ignorance was dangerous. The faster I got some information on what we were dealing with, the better.
“This is weird for the Chinese though, isn’t it?” George said to me as he traced the activity on all security cameras for the previous evening. “This isn’t their style.”
I had to agree. I hadn’t ever heard of the Triad sending a note written in Mandarin before. At this juncture though, I had to take it at face value and react accordingly. I wasn’t going to be caught slipping once again.
“Where’s Audry?” I asked.
“I assume she evacuated with your fam. I saw her with Lucia earlier.”
“Mmm.” I nodded, making a note to go and check on them as soon as I had some time. I fished my phone out, wondering what was taking Valerio so long. How hard could it be to find a translator? I went down to the security office, wanting to double check that the patrols had been doubled as requested and that everyone was taking this as seriously as it deserved to be.
Time passed slowly, the adrenaline of anxiety slowly fading to exhaustion and still we didn’t know what the note said or what, if anything, was about to happen. I finally got in touch with Zhang through back channels and he had nothing for me.
“I have no knowledge of such a note,” he said.
The problem with that was, I couldn’t know if he was being honest or facetious. Just past noon, Valerio finally came back with an answer. “I located a Chinese interpreter, ex Triad, operates a secondhand goods store in Chinatown. He’s agreed to do a translation. I’ve sent a soldier to pick him up.”
I raised my fist in victory. “Now, we wait.”
“Harder daddy?” I asked in disbelief. “That’s what this note says?”
The trader nodded nervously; his shoulders hunched as if he expected me to beat him. I sighed inwardly, rolling my eyes in irritation as I thrust the note in his face, “That’s all this note says?”
He nodded slowly again, looking at me with scared eyes. I exchanged glances with George who, looked just as mystified as I did.
“Why would the Triad send such a note?” he asked.
I turned to the trader and nodded in dismissal, handing him a wad of cash. “My men will take you back to your store,” I said.
He gave me a farewell bow and left as I turned back to George with a sigh. “I don’t think it was the Triad that sent it,” I said.
“Who then?”
My mind went back to the first time I met Audry. When I put my arms around her neck she had leaned into it, reveling in her defiance. “Harder daddy.” she’d said.
I turned away from George and began to head to the bunker.
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“To find Audry.”
I marched away, an ember of anger glowing in my belly and growing with each step I took. If this was some kind of prank she was pulling, I was gonna throw her naked back into the dungeon. See how she liked it.
The bunker was located on the other side of the property and camouflaged behind foliage. There was a very specific set of actions I had to take in order to move the bushes out of the way and expose the doorway. Only members of the family knew the code. I knocked three times, and Lucia opened the door from the inside.
“Where's Audry?” I asked, my arms folded.
Her eyebrows flew up, “She's not with you?” She asked.
“No. George told me she came down here with you.”
Lucia shook her head, “It's only me and mom in here.”
I turned around, my brow furrowed, wondering where she could be. I returned to the house and went to her room. Her clothes – which I bought her – were neatly folded in the wardrobe but other than that, the room was pristine. No sign that it was occupied at all. Not so much as a chewing gum wrapper in the bin. She hadn’t arrived with much but it was obvious she’d cleared out.
It was then that I understood that the note was a diversionary tactic. She'd somehow managed to write it, stick it on the gate, and get away while we were all distracted.
“That's fine,” I said aloud to myself nodding as I looked around the empty room. “You want to play hide and seek? I'll play.”
I went back down to the computer lab armed with this new knowledge. “George, I need you to find out how Audry managed to fuck with the cameras.”
“Audry? She did this?” he asked in a tone that was half admiring.
I narrowed my eyes at him even as I nodded. “Find out what else she did. Check all your pockets.” I looked from George to the other people in the room, my brother Valerio, and my head of security. If Audry had needed to skip out it was because she'd stolen something.
Everybody scattered to their stations, as I stood behind one of the chairs in the computer lab clutching it tightly. I breathed in and out slowly. I pushed away the thought of Audry having betrayed me, knowing that it was foolishness.
She had never declared any loyalty to me and she was living in my house under duress. It was my own fault if I had lost sight of that - if I had thought we were on the same side just because of a superficial resemblance, and a conversation next to a gravestone.
Well played Martin jr.
Valerio came back just as George gave a loud exclamation. I turned to Valerio, eyebrow raised. “I went over the accounts.” He said, “There's been a breach, and it's not confined just to our systems.”
I stopped breathing, turning to George.
He didn't wait for me to say a word, “She introduced the virus into our system. She got into the mainframe. That means she's got us all. Every single member of the council.”