Chapter 24
TONY
Levente and his brother Dominik grunt and crack their knuckles. They’re twins, absolute monsters of men. Huge and ready to do some serious damage to my lost cousin and anyone close to him.
They speak in Hungarian, so I only catch snippets. I don’t speak Hungarian, only a few words, but I don’t need to.
“Don’t be rude, boys.”
I’m sitting in the passenger seat, and Lev, the driver, is looking at his brother in the rearview more than he’s looking at me. Like Lev thinks Dom is in charge or something.
“You two need to remember who has the connections back home,” I snap. “You two could take out Rafe, sure, then what’ve you got? The other Hungarians on your ass, and no outside support. Good-fucking-luck.”
Lev sighs. “We mean no disrespect.”
“Act like it, then.”
He bows his head slightly. I’ve been building my reputation here for a year and a half, using good old bendable Nico to talk up my reputation to the Hungarians. Getting him to lie about the fake death, keeping Rafe away. But with Nico gone, there’s no one to lie about my connections back home.
If I don’t end Rafe and take over soon, they’ll start to doubt me. I’ve worked too hard for too long to just give up now.
I stare down the street as the sun rises, shining brightly on the five-star hotel, red carpet out front, valet, and doorman. Rafe thinks I’m weak. And worse… he thinks I’m kind. That’s why I was able to make so many connections right under his nose. No one questions a cockroach.
“Maybe I’ll see if you big lumps can tear out my cousin’s spine.”
They grin menacingly. The brothers love macabre talk.
“I think we could,” Dom says.
As the minutes drag on, the brothers grow more restless. I clench my hand into a fist, fighting the urge to snap at them. Ever since Nico died – that was his fucking fault – I’ve had to be more patient. Nico was so scared of me leaking those photos, he sang me praise like I was a damn king.
You should see how they look at Tony in the city, man…
Thankfully, soon, my cousin appears. He strides out of the hotel with two men flanking him.
One of them is Dante, I think. They wait for the valet to pull up in their sleek SUV with tinted windows.
Rafael is holding his son in a carrier. He lets one man climb in first, then hands him the carrier and climbs in after.
When the car pulls away, another car pulls out, trailing him.
“He’s moving his son,” I whisper in awe. “We can’t be this lucky. Lev, follow them.”
“I know how to follow a man,” Lev says slowly, “so that he doesn’t know he’s being tailed. Trust me, Italian.”
I open and close my hands. “Just don’t lose them. I’m calling the others. We can end this.”
“And then we will all be rich, yes?”
I swallow. “Yes.”
Assuming I can get rid of Rafael, take his place, win over his men, win over our people back home, then yeah, I can make everybody rich. One problem at a time. As Lev drives, I call my two other lieutenants, meaning we’ll have twelve men total. More than they can possibly have in those cars.
“Finally,” I say, drumming my fingers along the dashboard.
“You don’t know what it’s like, fellas. All those years hearing the legend of Rafael Bellini.
He survived the war, went away, made himself a…
a fucking knight, you’d think, the way people talk about him.
So scared, they’ll stop selling drugs. Stop selling everything. ”
I shake my head. “I’m going to be the legend when I bring real money back into this game. Rafael is content with scraps. Not us, fellas. Not us.”
Lev says something in Hungarian, and Dom laughs.
I don’t catch a single word.
Rafe is leading us out of the city. I wonder if he’s going to take his spawn home. That wouldn’t be good for me. I don’t want to have to deal with all his men, his endless goddamn army. Not until they’re mine anyway.
“He’s going into the country,” Lev mutters, as we take a turn.
I let out a sigh of relief. We’re going in the opposite direction of home. That’s something, at least. Lev slows down, pulling back.
“What are you doing?” I snap.
“No cars out here,” he says. “I know how to keep a tail.”
“Where’s everybody else?”
Lev tapes the car. “GPS. They’re near us. Waiting. We are the lead.”
I should know all this, but they’re always doing things, making plays without asking me. Like the fact I’m the boss is just an afterthought. Soon, everyone is going to learn to tremble in fear at the sight of me. Tony Bellini, they’ll whisper. The man who owns two cities.
I’ll stand over Rafael’s grave with a rose in my hand and say something profound, like, this is a tale of two cities, cousin, and I am king of them both.
“Just don’t lose them. And we’ll need all our men when we hit. There could be seven of them.”
Lev says nothing. In the back seat, Dom is cleaning and checking his weapon.
My heartbeat picks up speed when I realize what I’m going to have to do.
Tell these men that we need Rafael and his son alive, preferably.
My loyal prisoner, docile and thankful that I’m keeping him as a hostage, even.
Rafael will hand off the family to me, leaving me as the king, then I can get rid of him and the kid.
“We need my cousin and the brat alive,” I say.
Lev laughs.
I glare at him. “I’m not joking, motherfucker. I need them for leverage. Rafael is the key, and his brat is… is the key making him do what he’s told!”
He glances at me like I’ve gone insane.
“It’s a gun fight,” Dom grunts from the back seat. “If a bullet hits, what can you do? We’re fighting for our lives too.”
I take out my cellphone, calling my lieutenants, putting the word out that we need the kid and my cousin alive.
“That goes for us too,” I snap. “Watch your shots.”
“I’m sure you will be at the front, Tony Montana, showing us what to do.”
I spin in my seat. I can feel my face going red, my body vibrating in anger. These aren’t my men. These are just killers who wanted to get away from the Hungarian mob and wanted an excuse.
“What did you just call me?”
“Tony Bellini,” Dom says innocently, shrugging his massive, tattooed shoulders. “What else?”
These insubordinate bastards…
I turn back to the road, fists clenched, nails digging into my skin. All my life, people have looked down on me, making fun of me, thinking I’m just some coward. Some nothing. But not anymore.
When I’m king, the first thing I’ll do is shoot Dom right between the eyes.
Lev drives us to a farmhouse on the edge of a forest. Both of Rafael’s cars are parked out front.
We stop in the shade of the trees, and Lev kills the engine, far enough that they shouldn’t notice us.
Rafael carries the baby inside, flanked by two men.
From the second car, only two other men climb out, not even carrying rifles, just regular handguns.
“This is easy,” I grunt. “We just approach the house—”
“We shoot,” Lev cuts in. “With heavy guns. Tear the house to pieces. Win the war.”
“We need to watch and see what they’re doing. Rafe could leave early without his kid. Or they could leave together. We need to get them alive so we can use them as leverage.”
“With him dead, you are king. Yes?” Lev tilts his head at me, looking genuinely like he’s trying to figure something out. Like he doesn’t believe all the crap I’ve spouted.
“Yes,” I say through gritted teeth. “But a smart ruler still knows how to use leverage.”
Lev takes a walkie-talkie from the glove compartment and barks something into it. A voice responds, one of my lieutenants, speaking in Hungarian. Lev nods, then turns to me, switching to English. “We think we can wait here for ten minutes, set up, but then… we go in.”
And that’s your decision, is it? I almost say, but that would just give the game away too. I can’t let them know I’m not on board with any of this. I still need them for my plans.
“Hmm,” I say, waving a hand. “Let them know.”
He looks at me strangely, and I think about killing him, but not yet.
Ten minutes to make something happen. I lean forward and look at the farmhouse, the parked cars, the faint movement in the window. From this angle, a glimpse of the yard, the cars, and a barn on the far side of the house. There doesn’t seem to be anybody at the barn.
Lev drums his fingers against the steering wheel, whistling softly.
I try not to fidget as I think about how I’m going to play it when Rafe is dead. They expect me to skip on home and tell everybody the good news. Tell them I’m king. I need Rafe and his little shit at my side.
At the five-minute mark, I believe in God again for the first time since I was a kid. A smile spreads over my face as Dante walks out, the bundle in his arms. He turns with his back to us, cigarette between his lips.
“The big boss told him to give the kid some fresh air, and he’s smoking in his face,” I grunt, making the brothers laugh. Then I almost bellow when the idea hits me. “You two, right now. We’ll go and grab the kid. Just the three of us. Ten thousand each. But we have to go now.”
“Now,” Lev grunts, reaching for the door.
“Ten?”
“Ten,” I yell at Dom.
He nods. “Now.”
We slide out of the car, my heart hammering. I know there’s a manic glint in my eye without even having to look. I can feel it. The burst of electric excitement. This is really going to work.
We stalk through the trees, then across the open landscape.
The brothers have already got their weapons out.
I take mine out as we reach the farmhouse.
Nobody is at the windows facing us. Dom and Lev peek around the corner, then nod to me and step out, their guns raised.
I quickly follow, staying at their shoulders.
Dante is humming as he smokes. We move quietly, but I’m shocked he doesn’t turn. We’re all ready for it, tensed, set to shoot if we have to. But the ideal situation is for me to get my hands on the little shit and get him away from Rafe. Then I’ll really be king.
Dom and Lev leap on Dante. Dom clamps his hand over his mouth, and Lev drags his arms behind his back. The kid falls to the ground. I duck, meaning to rush and catch it, but then a bullet explodes through the glass from the nearest window of the house.
I gasp as hot fire licks the tip of my right ear. But the bullet only grazes me.
Lev collapses face down on the grass, blood oozing from the back of his head. I cover my mouth and let out a sound I know the men will hear about if we survive this.
Dom roars and spins toward the window, raising his gun, letting Dante go. Before the shooter can drop him, Dante knocks his legs out from under him and whales on him. He rains down blow after blow, scar puckering around his mouth, blood splattering his face.
Instinct makes me duck to the ground. Just in time. A bullet whizzes at the ground behind me. I scramble across the floor, wrap my arm around the bundle, and stumble to a crouch. I crouch-run across the clearing as bullets wiz by me, as Rafe proves he’s not the man he claims to be.
He’s shooting at me when I’ve got his son.
I end up in the farmhouse, my right ear pulsing in agony, but no other injuries. Outside, I can hear Dante grunting and Dom crying out. Then, a beat of nothing before Rafe bellows, “Surround the barn.”
I pace, clutching his kid to my chest, unable to believe…
“The rat will have to come out…”
Unable to believe he cares so little about his son’s life. My heart drops into my stomach. My whole fucking world has just changed.
I lower the bundle so I can look at the kid’s face. The precious child that he left out in the open, defenseless. I unwrap the blanket only to see it’s a fake baby, plastic, actually fucking plastic, swaddled up to look real. It only hits me now that I didn’t hear it crying.
Its lifeless face stares at me. The lips twitch slightly, as if to smile.
“Go fuck yourself,” I scream.
I take out my cellphone and call Sergei. “Attack,” I snap when he answers. “Dom and Lev are dead. Kill them all!”
I creep into the middle of the barn, aiming at the door, preparing myself for when the bullets start flying. He hasn’t won this. Not yet.
I should’ve known he wouldn’t risk his kid. Not if it came from her. The woman who made him… different. The woman who bewitched so hard I was forced to lie, tell him she’d died, so she couldn’t tempt him back here. All of that work, that grind… it won’t be for nothing.
I will get out of here, and I will kill my cousin.