Page 9 of Drowning in the Deep
My brothers all exchanged glances as if they were trying to determine who should question me. Vin had made himself clear that he thought it was better to go after the capos first, but I needed to solidify myself to them, to show them that I was capable of handling these minor threats. Not to mention the Latvians could corroborate my story.
“So you want to go after the Latvians to convince the capos?” Dezzy asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Precisely. If we can make a couple of those asshole Savages squeal in front of one or more of the capos currently backing Ma, then we’ll have all of the proof we need to persuade the others,” I explained.
“Who do you have in mind?” Vin asked, still sounding skeptical but willing to hear me out.
“I’m not sure yet,” I admitted. “I’ll need to consider who our choices are. Some of these old pricks have pissed me off more than others.” I thought back to all of the men sitting on Ma’s side of the table the last time we’d met in the conference room at home, how I’d been so preoccupied with thoughts of Elisa I could barely keep my eyes on the ball. Now, she was always there, a dull throbbing memory in the back of my mind. Even getting out of bed today with her sleeping next to me had stirred emotions I didn’t know I had. But I couldn’t think about her right now, not if I was going to be able to pull this off.
“Grigory and Otto are a couple of douchebags,” Mikel offered, shaking his head. “I don’t think either one of them will ever come around.”
“John or Gordon might be persuaded.” Dezzy rubbed his chin in thought.
Vin dismissed all of them. “None of those pricks are ever going to take our side. If you’re going to find anyone willing to listen, it’s gonna be Nico or Charles.”
“Well, I suppose the good news is that we have several people to choose from,” I mumbled, dragging a hand down my face. “Right now, we need to concentrate on finding the Latvian leaders and planning how to take them out. We can think about which of the capos to bring along with us for the ride once we’ve got that shit squared away.”
“Seems like most of the neighborhood is doing everything they can to protect the gang members,” Vin said, still not liking this plan. “Every time we go sniffing around, we run into closed doors and people who don’t want to talk. And you won’t let me shake up grandmas and little kids.”
Smirking at him, I ignored his last comment. “Tilda said something to me after that casino raid. She said she had a way to track down some of the Savages that had held her captive in the sex ring. Maybe she can help us.”
“Tilda is proving to be a pretty useful little soldier,” Mikel noted.
I nodded. “That she is. If it hadn’t been for her, we wouldn’t have been able to take Ragno out so easily.” She had been the one to plant the tracker on his medallion, and without that, I never would’ve known he was around at the law office, nor would I have known that he had gone to Elisa’s apartment. A chill went down my spine as I thought about what might’ve happened that night if I hadn’t arrived in time to help her before her father got home. He may have killed her or at least seriously injured her, and Elisa was not a big tough dude like the men who worked for me and could withstand torture. No, she would crumble at the first blow like the delicate flower she was.
“So you’re gonna speak to Tilda and see if she can help us track down some of the Latvian ringleaders,” Vin clarified. “And what do you want the three of us to do in the meantime?”
“Keep an eye on the operations at the warehouse.” I looked from Vin to Dezzy and then to Mikel, making eye contact with each of them. “This is the lifeblood of our business. Everything that matters to the family goes through one of these warehouses. We can’t allow anyone to infiltrate even a single one of them, got it? If we give up even a square inch of our holdings, we’ll have hell to pay.”
Every single type of good we distributed ran through one warehouse or another. Guns, drugs, items we’d hijacked from other syndicates or even legitimate businesses, all of that went through one of our many warehouses. At the moment, almost every single one of the buildings belonged to me personally with just a few still in the family name. That was how it needed to stay. As long as I had control over that part of the business, Ma and her new husband could fuck around however they wanted to, but they wouldn’t be able to touch me financially or make a dent in how I was perceived by the rest of the crime world.
Protecting the warehouses was at the forefront of my mind as I double-checked that my brothers each understood their assignments. They all nodded in agreement. At least I knew I didn’t have to question anyone’s loyalty here.
CHAPTER7
ELISA
It seemed a bit odd to be back at work after spending the night with Daemon and after everything that had transpired between the two of us since the last time I’d been at my desk. The situation with Ragno, Daemon finding out about the file, all of that had taken an emotional toll on me, as had letting him fuck me so hard I was still sore sitting at my desk the next morning. Now, I was supposed to sit here and do my work like nothing unusual had happened, and it was fucking difficult to even pay attention to the boring files I’d been asked to go through earlier that morning.
Jason Williams, my boss, had come to my cubicle and explained that he needed me to go through about thirty boxes of evidence and flag anything that had a specific date on it. When he’d done so, he’d spoken to me like I was a kindergartner and wasn’t sure what a date was. I understood he was probably a little irritated that I had missed so much work, but he was the one who continued to remind me that my father was one of his biggest clients, and all of this was my father’s fault, not mine. I’d nodded and told him I’d get it done. Now, I was in the middle of the first box when Sarah crept through the doorway, a big grin on her face.
At first, I wasn’t sure if she was happy to see me or if the smile was for Jerry Jacks, my neighbor in the next cubicle over. The two of them had gotten a little chummy recently. I hadn’t had much time to spend with Sarah, what with getting kidnapped by my cousin and fucking my father’s archenemy and all, but it was nice to see her now.
“Look who’s at work today!” she exclaimed with a little giggle. “It’s nice to see you.”
“Thanks,” I said a bit sheepishly. “It’s nice to be back.”
“Aren’t you guys still roommates?” Jerry asked, wheeling his chair a little closer to us so he could be heard without raising his voice. “Didn’t you see each other this morning?”
“Nope,” Sarah said, still grinning mischievously. “Someone didn’t come home last night.”
I cleared my throat and ran a hand through my hair. I had gone back to the apartment this morning to shower and change clothes, but she’d been gone already. “Anything important happen here while I was out?” I hoped that no one would get hung up on the fact that I’d obviously changed the subject.
“Yeah, well, there’s that whole situation with Dinah,” Sarah said, looking at Jerry. They both laughed, shaking their heads. “I still can’t believe she actually got arrested. Fired is one thing, but seeing them take her out of here in handcuffs was something else.”
“It was shocking,” Jerry agreed. “I always thought she was a little hard to relate to—”
“You mean a stuck-up bitch?” Sarah supplied.