30. Massimo
30
MASSIMO
Her confession made me weak.
It also made me feel like I could take on anything, no matter what.
But fuck, did it make me weak.
I already had my siblings as my weakness.
But Luna?
This was completely different.
I wouldn’t survive losing her.
I knew it. I had wanted her love, but how had I not known just how weak it was going to make me? How terrified?
I needed to act to protect my family.
Peace wouldn’t be possible, not as long as the Bratva still ruled the East. I knew that.
So how was I going to make sure this war didn’t take away all that I held dear?
I was sitting in the office of one of my clubs, thinking this over, when Romeo called.
“Yeah?”
“Our friends in the East are getting brave,” he said in greeting. We were always careful about what we said on the phone in case someone was listening in.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I found a rat loitering about in one of our places.”
“You don’t say.”
“Should I call in the exterminator?”
“No. I’m coming over to see for myself.”
“Great. We’ll wait for you.”
It didn’t take me long to reach the abandoned factory we had purchased a decade earlier using a shell corporation.
On the outside, it looked as abandoned as it had the day we bought it. The land stretched out for miles, and the surrounding area was free of any other buildings or people.
But the inside hid a lot of our merchandise—things many people were willing to die for, things they had died for.
I pulled my car to a stop and got out, letting my gaze move over the expansive stretch of land and making note of my men standing at their posts. They weren’t quite hidden from view, but they weren’t out in the open either.
Inside, the factory was bustling, with more men getting ready for our next shipment. The De Luca control the drug and gun trade spanning out into the West. One of the reasons why the Devil’s Wings MC was so easily enticed to work with the Bratva and Andre.
In their mind, we were encroaching on their territory. But my business had been there before they even formed their first chapter. Just because we weren’t there in California didn’t mean it didn’t belong to us. And the Devil’s Wings MC didn’t have the manpower to take us on.
I found Romeo in one of the rooms located at the far back with the man he found loitering about in my place of business, his hands tied behind his back and kneeling on the ground. His lip was fat and bloody, and a large bruise was already forming on the side of his face. The man’s face paled when he saw me walk in. I patted him on the shoulder, and he flinched.
“Now, don’t be like that,” I said. “The fun hasn’t even started yet. Why don’t you tell me your name?”
He spat on the ground by my feet. “Fuck you.”
I let out a small sigh and looked at my brother. “They always feign bravery.” I pulled out the same blade I had used to kill my father. It was my most prized possession, and every time I used it to end another man’s life, it brought me satisfaction that even sex— before Luna—couldn’t compete with.
Now if I wanted that thrill, that feeling of being alive, I looked for it in my wife.
I brought the cold blade up to the Russian’s face, watching his pale-blue eyes darken in fear.
“How brave do you think you’ll be?” I asked, bringing the knife down to the man’s shirt. He shook where he was as I slipped the sharp edge through the buttons of his shirt, from one to the next to the next, revealing a tattooed torso.
I didn’t stop until I found what I was looking for.
A small script with the words Novikov Bratva was located just beneath his pec, on his right rib.
I pierced the blade over it, slashing my knife over the tattoo, ruining it until the words were no longer recognizable.
“You want to tell me now?” I asked as the man cried out in pain.
I shook my head. I’d seen Matteo take a worse beating and hadn’t made as much noise as this fucker.
“Denis Agapov.”
I patted his cheek with the hand that had his blood on it. “Good boy.”
I didn’t much care what his name was. But if I asked a question, I expected an answer.
“And what are you doing here, Denis ?”
He opened his mouth, but when no words came out, he shook his head. I pierced the top of my blade onto the wound I had just caused. His back bowed, and he would have fallen to the ground had I not had one hand over his shoulder.
“I don’t like to repeat myself. Isn’t that right, Romeo?”
Beside me, Romeo nodded with a grin. “That’s right. My brother’s not known for his patience.”
The man stuttered. I raised one eyebrow. “Speak clearly.”
“I was sent here,” he said.
“By whom?” Though it wasn’t hard to guess.
“My pakhan.”
“And how, dear old Denny, did you find out about this place?”
I looked around. It was pretty well-hidden, and only the men working here and my brothers knew of it.
Denis looked at me, hesitating. I raised my blade, and he jolted back.
“Enzo De Luca provided us the location of this place and three others.”
I smiled. “Hold on, why don’t you repeat this on camera for me?”
I nodded to Romeo, who was already pulling out his phone.
“Tell me,” I said.
“Enzo sh-showed us where you were keeping the merchandise. He said… he said this was a way to weaken you and distract you while Anatoly sent in more men. We weren’t going to attack directly until we knew for sure you weren’t prepared for it.”
“So I’m guessing there’s more of Anatoly’s men here in my territory?” I asked.
Denis nodded.
“And where are these men hiding?”
Las Vegas was a hub for tourists, but I was sure I would have known if a few Russians had come into my territory without permission.
“Enzo has-has a house in the desert. We were mostly staying there and waiting for instructions.”
“And if there are men here, there’re men in Chicago, am I right? Going to Emilio’s goods with Andre’s help?”
The man hesitated.
With a flash of my hand, I cut the small piece of flesh that had been the fucker’s tattoo, reveling in the warmth of his blood as it dripped down onto my hand and his shirt, pooling crimson on the fabric.
He screeched, trying to get away from me. If he thought this was torture, he was in for a surprise later on when I no longer needed him.
“Please, I’m sorry! I’ll tell you.”
I pulled away and waited.
“I— fuck. Yes, we have men there in Chicago.”
“Where?”
“The coordinates are on my phone. Please, just take it. Take it all, and just kill me. Don’t send me back to Boris after I told you everything.”
I laughed, patting him down until I found the phone inside his suit jacket and handing it over to Romeo. “You’re scared of Boris? That’s because you haven’t personally dealt with me. Believe me, I’m much worse.”
Tears, along with blood, rolled down the man’s cheek.
“And I will kill you,” I said. “But first, you’re going to tell me where this house belonging to Enzo is located.”
My brothers and I took a group of our men to the house little Denny had said. Right now, he was still alive, though he was barely hanging on. I needed to make sure he gave us the correct location.
As for the coordinates on his phone, I sent them to Emilio as a little present for this tenuous alliance between us.
The video confession Romeo took of the fucker, ratting out Enzo, would be sent to the top-ranking men, including the old traditionalists who would have followed Enzo to the ends of the earth if they thought it would help him overthrow me. I wasn’t convinced those fuckers weren’t involved in this. But they were smart, letting Enzo do all their dirty work, so for now, they got to live.
The sun was just setting over the horizon, and even then, the air felt stilted and dry. The sand around us made it tricky to navigate undetected.
Still, we found the house.
Outside stood two men, whom I assumed belonged to the Bratva. We hid behind a cluster of boulders nearby.
“It looks like we found the right place,” Elio said quietly beside me.
“What’s the plan?” Matteo asked.
I shook my head. “We wait for Enzo to show up.”
Matteo came into my line of sight then. “Will he show up tonight?”
“Yes, I have men watching his house. He’s not home, and he is not anywhere in his usual places.” He hadn’t gone anywhere since I killed Marco. I was almost positive he would show up.
And sure enough, a rumbling of an engine sounded out to our left just moments later. The Russians stood on high alert until the black car came into view. They recognized my uncle’s car, and they didn’t feel the least bit threatened by it.
Everything Denis said had proven to be correct so far.
Enzo got out, and the men opened the door for him to get in the house. He said something to one of them before he disappeared inside.
They moved to the trunk of his car, carrying a few loads of grocery bags. So, not only was he hiding them, but he was also feeding them.
How nice of him.
I signaled for my brothers and my men to move.
We spread out over the property.
I had men move to the back of the house, standing guard in case anyone tried to escape. Romeo and I snuck up behind the two guards. They spoke to each other casually in Russian. My understanding of the language was a little rusty, but I was sure one of them just called Enzo an Italian dog.
I nodded at Romeo, and we grabbed the man from behind. Their throats were slit before they could think to call out for help.
Elio was by the window, and Matteo was by the door.
“Do it,” I said.
Matteo opened the front door and threw in a smoke bomb.
Screams erupted from inside, and the first cockroach came crawling out. Matteo punched him in the side of his head and threw him over to Romeo before turning back to the entrance and waiting for more to emerge.
The first few were stupid enough not to have their weapons in hand when they got out. Those were easy to deal with.
The next batch was smarter, but we still had the element of surprise on our side.
I watched as my brothers took on the men. I was waiting for Enzo.
The fucker was mine. I had been waiting for the day I could kill him. And once the video circulated, there would be no questions among my men that Enzo deserved it.
Movement from the second-floor window caught my attention.
Enzo wasn’t going to come out. He was going to try to hide this out like the little coward that he was.
I pulled Elio along to the side of the house. “Give me a lift.”
He hooked his hands together and hoisted me up high enough for me to grab onto the edge of the roof and pull myself onto it. I came to the window where I saw the movement. I didn’t try to open it. I pulled my gun, aimed, and pulled the trigger. The glass shattered, and I heard a familiar cry as I jumped inside.
Enzo was hiding in the corner of the room, desperation seeping from every pore of his frail body.
“Massimo, please,” he begged. “I’m your uncle. We’re family.”
I laughed. “Do you really think that matters?”
He began to shake, his mouth opening, but nothing coherent came out.
“You can save your excuses, Uncle. It won’t save you.”
“Dear God, have mercy.”
I shook my head. “You’re asking the wrong deity. Tell the devil I said hi when you see him. And here’s a little present for you. I did kill my father. And I would do it all over again if I could.”
Didn’t he want that confession out of me for so long? He got it now.
I aimed my gun at his head and pulled the trigger.
Blood spattered out from his head and onto the wall behind him. I stood there, motionless. I had expected to feel a thrill of some sort, having just killed the one person I had been wanting to for so long, but all I felt was emptiness.
Something I usually felt after killing another man in the name of the De Luca empire.
I had spent so long hating him, but in the end, killing him was the same as killing a man I didn’t know.
I put the gun in my holster and moved out of the room, away from Enzo’s prone body.
I was going back home to my wife.
And that was all there was to it.