I sit down between Tessa and Rebecca, their men taking the seats on the other side. Everyone is here, and the room is practically heaving with bodies. Let’s hope everyone remembered their deodorant this morning.
Ryan stands as a man I haven't met before enters the room. The chatter dies down and Ryan introduces him as Zach, the leader of the spy team—for lack of a better word.
Zach explains that his team of ten men and women will be working on infiltrating some lower levels of Vincenzo’s operation. The laundromat he uses, the produce market his staff purchases from, car valets … they may all be lower-level positions, but staff often have loose tongues, and even finding out where Vincenzo is currently located would be a boon.
“Doesn’t he own a block on the Upper East Side?” Trey asks, and I nod.
“He does. He has a similar setup as here. The first three floors are legitimate businesses, while the upper floors house family, members of the organization, meeting rooms, and his more illegal enterprises. A couple he keeps vacant, using them to hide in if needed. He has escape routes out of each building and has built underground passages that connect them. If the building he’s in is attacked, he can escape through the tunnels to another of the buildings, and leave from there, with his attackers none the wiser.”
“Does he own any other property in the city?” Zach asks.
“Yes. He has an apartment in Little Italy, another in Brooklyn, and owns several businesses spread out in various neighborhoods, many with rooms or apartments above that he can hole up in. Then there’s the house in upstate New York, the apartment in Chicago, the entire building he owns in San Francisco, the hotel in Las Vegas—I could go on.
“He’s been making a push west for as long as I can remember, and in recent years has started buying businesses in the western states, or at least, sending some of his members out west to begin takeovers of local gangs. An informant I had a couple of years ago told me he’s ready to go up against the Russians and cartels; I’m not sure how reliable that intel is though.”
Nate sits back, his brow furrowed. “What about the Martinelli crime family in Chicago? We heard rumors they have a treaty of sorts with Vincenzo?”
“Again, I only have shaky intel on this. From what I’ve gathered, they’ve brokered a peace deal between them. But I don’t see that lasting. My father isn’t interested in making friends. He’s greedy, hungry for more money and power. Allowing another powerful crime family to continue to gain power, which one day may be used against him, won’t be tolerated. If there is such a treaty, you can be sure it will only be temporary, and in the long run, will solely benefit Vincenzo. Once he gets what he wants from them, he’ll have every male, including children, slaughtered. Older women will be killed, while female children and any women under the age of twenty-one will be sold.”
Angry noises erupt around the table. No one likes the idea of children being killed and sold.
“There is one thing you must never do when it comes to Vincenzo and Cesare Gianelli. Do not underestimate them. They are smart. Driven. And extremely lethal. They haven’t gotten where they are without those qualities. They will kill first and ask questions later,” I inform the group, meeting each pair of eyes as I drill it into them just how dangerous they are. Not that we’re not just as dangerous. But at least we care about innocent lives.
“What about your cousins? Should we be worried about them as well?” The Duke asks.
“Good question. And who are they?” Eric asks. He’s been taking notes the old-fashioned way, on a notepad.
“Vincenzo once had four younger brothers. When their father died, and Vincenzo took over, the youngest two tried to stage a coup. Vincenzo captured them and their wives. Strung his brothers up, made them watch as he first raped, then killed the wives.” My jaw clenches at the memory of my father telling me this story when I was eleven. His laughter, the way his eyes twinkled when he recounted his brothers’ pleas for mercy. “He then poured gasoline over them, lighting them on fire. Their children were very young, so he allowed them to live, as they’d have no memory of their parents.
“I have eleven cousins. Seven boys—Dino, Francesco, Stefano, Andrea, Alvise, Benito, and Carmine. There are four girls—Elena, Carlotta, Eleonora, and Alessia.” I pause, a smirk pulling at my lips. “Oh, yes, sorry, my mistake. Make that ten cousins. Andrea’s dead.”
The Duke and Nate chuckle at that, while Ryan tries to hide a smile.
“Who do we need to look out for when it comes to your cousins?” Rebecca asks.
“Not any of the women. They are all pampered morons, not interested in anything beyond fashion and taking selfies. They are bitchy, spoiled, and mean-spirited, but harmless otherwise. Just beware their razor-sharp tongues. They can flay you alive with those.
“Dino and Francesco are both kids under the age of ten, so we can discount them. Stefano, Alvise, Benito, and Carmine range from sixteen to thirty years old, and all are trained killers. Each of them poses a threat.”
Ryan steeples his fingers under his chin and eyes me. “Do you have pictures of everyone?”
“Yes. I have secure cloud accounts with everything.”
“Good.” He waves his hand toward the bulletin boards. “Feel free to use these as you see fit. Let’s fill them with everything we discover—photos, locations, and any new information we find. Every time we get new intel, we can add it to the boards, and everyone can stay up-to-date with everything. Zach, when can you start getting your people in place?”
Zach looks up from the notes he’s been taking. “I’ll gather my team now and start the process. It should take about a week or so. I’m down a couple of members as they’re in California right now. Ms. Duke, ma’am,” The Duke gives him the side-eye at this, “I was wondering if you and your team would like to join us?”
The Duke narrows her eyes, glancing over her men as she considers. Finally looking at Nate and Ryan, she asks, “We have similar skills, and my men are all highly trained. You already know that my area of expertise is in strategy. We might work very well together, and I can help with any planning while we gather information. Does this work with you both?”
They both agree, and Ryan gives them the address of a safe house they can use if they’re concerned about being followed. Rather than lead them back to the Waverley Building, they can disappear into the safe house, which sits above the subway and has direct access to it through a hidden manhole cover in the basement.
It’s been used successfully several times to get members of the Charon Group to safety.
Once all the decisions have been made, the room breaks up. I stay behind, using the printers to start copying everything I have on the cloud. The amount of information I’ve gathered over the years is terrifying, and it takes me the rest of the day to sort through everything and begin to organize the boards to make everything easy to find.
Hopefully, we’ll soon have much more information on the boards—just one step closer to my father sleeping with the fishes.
Chapter 20
