Chapter 15 #2
“Vladimir was in the next room when I told you what we’d found. He was the only one there you said when I sent you those photos. Then Tesauro’s boy shows up at my gate talking about you sitting with me and ‘passing pictures’ around like he’d been in the room himself.”
Roman’s silence was heavier this time.
“You can run your audits,” Blackjack said. “Talk to your captains. Check your numbers. But it won’t matter if you let the man with a direct line to Tesauro keep standing next to your throne. You don’t just have a leak, Roman. You’ve got a fucking faucet. You know exactly what I’m saying.”
My hand slowly balled into a fist.
Vladimir. The Russian. The one the ledger kept naming without naming. The one who’d watched us at the casino with snake eyes and a thin little smile.
“If Vladimir is truly working with Tesauro Vincino,” Roman said, words precise, “then I’ll deal with him.”
“You have to cut the head off the snake in your yard before he can pass along anything else,” Blackjack said.
“The ledger’s already in play. The shit they wrote in it is getting kicked off.
They’re acting on it now. You saw it. They’re hitting my businesses.
They hit the Vipers. You don’t hit your own snake, he’s going to keep whispering in Tesauro’s ear while we bleed.
And if we bleed out, you’ll be standing all alone. ”
Roman let out a slow breath that wasn’t quite a sigh.
“You think I don’t know that?” he asked. “You think I haven’t spent the last day staring at that man wondering how long it would take for me to be certain before I put a bullet in his skull?”
“No one’s asking you to be certain,” I said before I could stop myself.
Heads turned. Blackjack shot me a quick look that wasn’t quite a warning.
Roman didn’t sound offended. “Jersey Boy,” he said. “You there?”
“Yes, sir,” I said.
“Speak,” he said.
I shifted my weight, palms on the back of the chair in front of me.
“The ledger isn’t just a theory anymore,” I said.
“Parts of it are happening. Routes listed in there? Versions of them are being hit. Names tied together? They’re showing up in the wrong places at the wrong time.
We knocked their go/no-go stage out of alignment when Miami grabbed the bike with the ledger in it, but they didn’t throw the plan away.
They’re improvising with the pieces they remember.
Tesauro doesn’t need the ledger in his hand anymore to start swinging.
He’s got more than enough of it in his fucking head. ”
Valkyrie’s eyes flicked toward me, sharp and approving.
“The book still matters,” I went on. “It’s got faces and fronts and side deals mapped out that could help you when you start carving people off your tree.
But as a playbook? It’s already opened. We’re past stopping them from starting the war they wanted.
We’re in the middle of it. Hiding behind audits and hoping your rat slips will just give him time to dig deeper and start burning anything that ties back to him. ”
Blackjack nodded once. “He’s right,” he said.
“We fumbled one piece of their opening. They adjusted. Tesauro’s not crying over lost ink.
He’s going after assets he already knows by heart.
Mine. The Shore Vipers. Your bigger assets are next if they’re not already getting tapped.
The Shore Vipers were only hit because Miami went down on their turf and they got dragged into it.
They never planned on them being a part of this. ”
“I’m aware,” Roman said. The edge in his voice sharpened. “You think I haven’t seen men loitering where they don’t belong? Cars idling too long near my restaurants, my hotels, my bars?”
“Then you know there’s no more ‘maybe’ here,” Blackjack said.
Silence again. Then Roman spoke, quieter.
“I don’t trust many people,” he said. “You know this Alice. My circle is small for a reason. But small doesn’t mean empty.
” A pause. “Tesauro thinks he’s clever. Thinks I’ve been asleep at my own table.
He doesn’t know that I have my own fail-safes.
People close to him who are closer to me.
Men who’ve been at his side for years that he thinks are his, but are in my pocket. ”
“You going to use them?” Blackjack asked.
“Yes,” Roman said simply. “Vladimir is not the only one who can pass information quietly. I’ll pull on my own threads. Harder. I have… plans that I didn’t discuss in that casino because I don’t discuss my fail-safes openly.”
“You’re discussing them now,” Blackjack said.
“I’m informing you they exist,” Roman corrected.
“You don’t need the specific details. All you need to know is that I’m not going to sit on my hands and let the Vincinos and Bolivars carve up everything I built.
I will move. And when I do, it will draw Tesauro out.
Him, or his favorites. I’ll make it very tempting for him to step onto a board he thinks he’s in control of. ”
He didn’t say how. He didn’t have to.
A spark lit in the back of my brain. Hotels. Construction sites. Family. The kind of bait a man like Tesauro couldn’t ignore.
Blackjack rubbed his jaw. “Whatever you’re planning,” he said, “just remember we’re already in it. You pull the pin on something big, we’re going to be the ones catching the shrapnel on our blocks while you’re doing root canals on your family.”
“That’s why I called,” Roman said. “To tell you that whatever comes next isn’t me abandoning you to handle my mess.
We’re in this together. I declared my side.
I will act like it. And to tell you this.
Watch your six. Tesauro won’t stop at your clubs or bars.
He’ll come for your home if he thinks it’ll break you faster. ”
“Same to you,” Blackjack said. “You go poking bears in your own house, don’t be surprised when one of them turns around and takes a swing. Don’t turn your back on anyone until you see what they do when you bleed.”
Dead air for a breath.
“Desperate times, Alice,” Roman said. “I’m not stupid enough to think this ends with everyone I love still breathing. I just want to make sure the right people die first. And if that means one of my own, I want it to be whoever thinks they’re bold enough to betray our blood.”
Then the line clicked dead.
The office felt too small all at once.
I realized my grip on the chair had gone so tight my fingers ached. I forced them to uncurl.
Blackjack sat back, exhaled slowly, stared at the dark phone for a second like he wanted to crush it and didn’t see the point.
“Well,” Mirage said. “That sounded healthy.”
“He is right about one thing,” 8-Ball said. “Whatever he’s cooking up is going to drag Tesauro’s eyes to one spot. Question is whether that helps us or just gives them somewhere convenient to stack more bodies.”
“We’re not waiting for the invite,” Blackjack said. “We got our own shit to handle before Roman plays his hand. We can’t keep waiting.”
He looked at me and Valkyrie.
“The ledger?” he asked.
“Still buried,” I said. “Valkyrie and I tucked it back in before the cartel decided to redecorate the Viper’s bar with bullets and broken glass.”
“It’s still valuable,” Valkyrie said. “Just… differently now. Not for stopping the start. But for showing us where their money sleeps. Where their fronts are. Where they feel safe. And where they may hit next.”
Blackjack nodded slowly.
“Roman’s going to be busy cutting his own people,” he said. “We can help make Tesauro’s life harder in other directions. Since the ledger’s got Vincino businesses, shell companies, quiet little side scams mapped, we can pick a few that mean something and put pressure on them.”
“Use it against him the way he’s trying to use it against everyone else,” I said.
“Exactly,” Blackjack said. “But the book doesn’t move. Not yet. I don’t want that thing breathed on unless Liberty’s got her finger on one end and I’ve got mine on the other.”
Valkyrie dipped her chin. “Liberty likes that plan,” she said. “Even if she’s not here to roll her eyes at you.”
Blackjack’s mouth twitched.
“I’ll call her,” he said. “Have her start pulling from her own sources. Photos. Recon. Anything she’s got on Vincino-linked properties that line up with names in those pages. We can cross-reference, pick targets that hurt but don’t tip our whole hand yet.”
He drummed his fingers once on the desk, then stopped.
“In the meantime,” he said, “we can’t just sit here licking our wounds while Tesauro’s boys take selfies in front of our busted windows. We send bodies out to lock down what’s left.”
He glanced at 8-Ball. “You split crews. Sin City, the Lodge, the armory. I want members at every site, not just bouncers and managers. Anybody tries to come back for seconds, they’re going to catch bullets with their names on them.”
8-Ball nodded. “On it,” he said. “I’ll send Priest and Snake Eyes to the armory. Voodoo and Jabs to the Lodge. Ace, Mirage, you two can babysit Sin City and make sure the girls don’t panic themselves into quitting.”
Mirage saluted. “On my list of dream assignments, sitting at a strip club all night wasn’t actually that low,” he said.
“Don’t enjoy it too much,” Blackjack quickly shot back. “You’re there to shoot, if need be, not tip.”
He then looked at me.
“Dante’s club was on one of those pages you had sent me,” Blackjack said. “Warn Dante that a storm might be coming his way.”
“Diamond’s not going to be happy,” I replied.
Dante “Diamond” Giorlando was exactly what his nickname suggested—flash, shine, and more money than sense. Last time I’d seen him he was wearing a red suit that cost more than some people’s cars and shoes that had never seen a sidewalk.
“Good,” Blackjack said. “Maybe a scare’ll make him listen for once. You’re gonna go up there, make sure his security is on high alert. If anyone’s circling, you call it in. You don’t be the one to start a solo war inside his club.”
“Who’s ‘you’?” I asked, even though I already knew.