Page 20 of Drowning in the Deep
“It’s really important you stay here, Mikel,” I reminded him, looking him in the eye. “You’ve got to make sure we don’t take a hit while we’re out solving one problem.”
“I get that, but that doesn’t make it suck any less,” Mikel replied, shaking his head.
“Once these bastards go down, things’ll be a lot easier around here.” Dezzy smiled at Mikel, trying to be reassuring, but we all knew that probably wasn’t going to be the case. The Latvians were just an extension of a bigger problem in the La Rosas, and we all knew it.
Changing the subject, I said, “Most of the random dickheads were in the barn with only a few guys in the house, so we’ll concentrate our attack back there to begin with. Under cover of darkness, it shouldn’t be too hard to move in without being detected.”
“Don’t worry, brother. I’ll kill every single one of those bastards—one way or another.” Vin continued to swipe the air with his knife, leaving the rest of us shaking our heads.
The sound of several people entering the warehouse had our heads whipping around. Of course, we had plenty of our guys on the perimeter making sure no one fucked with us, as usual, but I was always on high alert these days.
When I saw Nico’s familiar face, along with several of his best men, I relaxed a bit. I didn’t bother to check my watch because I was certain he was on time. Nico was reliable.
He walked over to us, sending his men to another table to start checking out the weapons we had to offer. Extending his hand to me, he smiled. “Daemon, thanks for inviting us to the party.”
I placed my hand in his and gave a hardy shake. “Thanks for joining us. We’re just about ready to kick off the festivities.”
Nico chuckled and greeted my brothers. Mikel managed to be polite, though he was still obviously irritated. “How is the planning going?” he wanted to know.
“Mostly we’ve just been shooting the shit,” I admitted. “I wanted to wait for you to get here before we got too deep into the planning phase.” That wasn’t exactly true. Vin and I had started discussing how we were going to go about killing off these Latvian assholes and getting someone to sing about La Rosa the moment we’d left with Tilda to drive out to the farmhouse. Seeing everything for ourselves in person had made the discussion even deeper.
Nico nodded. “Tell me about the location.”
When I’d called him earlier to tell him we’d found where the Savages were hiding out, I’d only mentioned it was a farmhouse. I hadn’t gotten into the specifics. While I did trust Nico, I still wasn’t sure whether or not I could trust everyone in our organization. La Rosa had been using Ragno to spy on us, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have a mole.
I didn’t think it was part of Nico’s team, though, so I let him know what we’d found out. “The farmhouse is about thirty minutes outside of the city. There’s the main two-story dwelling, which wasn’t occupied much when we were there before. It’s really the barn that has the most activity,” I explained.
“Meth,” Vin chimed in loudly, chuckling like a maniac. “Lots and lots of meth.”
Nico arched an eyebrow but laughed along with him. “Okay, then. Maybe we can confiscate some of that and sell it at the club.”
“Maybe,” I said with a shrug. “But once I tell you the plan, you may change your mind.” I let him know what I was thinking about the supplies we’d seen in the shed, and when I was done talking, describing how we’d sneak in, he was laughing even louder.
Placing his hand on my shoulder and squeezing, Nico said, “That’s exactly the sort of plan we need, Daemon. I like it. I like it a lot.”
For a moment, I felt like I might know what it was like to have a proud father, someone who actually gave a shit about what I thought and did.
“Very good,” I said, trying to remain humble. “I figure there’s about twenty of us between your guys and mine. We’ll take five black SUVs, which we’ve already gathered and have parked out back. We’ll sneak in, dressed in black, and they’ll never see us coming.”
“Are we gonna park back down by that other dirt road like we did last time?” Vin asked, still messing with that fucking knife. I wished he’d put it down because I didn’t need Nico thinking he was joining in with a psychopath.
“That’s the plan.” I took the hunting knife from my brother, put it in its sheath, and placed it in his belt. I gave him a look that said enough was enough, and he glowered at me for a second before nodding and returning his attention to the other weapons.
“You know, back in our mother country, we have a saying,” Nico said, leaning against the table leisurely.
“What’s that?” I asked, glad he was coming along with us. I’d always had a lot of respect for the man.
“Ignoring fleas just gives you itchy balls.” He grinned at me, and I processed through the saying, but before I could make an interpretation, he continued. “We’ve let these Latvian fuckers mess with us one time too many. After all, they managed to bust up the casino and shoot the place up. We don’t need to let them hang around any longer and disrupt what we have going on with the various businesses within the syndicate.”
“I totally agree,” I told him. “I’ve managed to keep them from causing too much damage.” After all, they hadn’t managed to actually steal the shipment they’d been after, even though Ma insisted on telling everyone otherwise. The building that had been burned down had been a bit of a hit, but that hadn’t set us back too much. The night at the casino had been the worst because there were patrons there, and some of them were too frightened to ever go back to any of our other businesses, let alone that one, once it had reopened.
“You’ve done well, Daemon. I truly believe that,” he said, and once again I felt myself swelling with pride like it was my own father lavishing praise on me, not that I had any idea what that felt like. “Like I said before, I want to support you in taking over the syndicate. I really do. You’re the oldest, the next in line for the title of Don. But I need to make sure that we have the proof we need. Just shooting up the Savages won’t do that. We’ve gotta get a confession out of one of these bastards.”
“We’ll get it,” I promised him. Returning my attention to my brothers and lieutenants, I made eye contact with each of them, starting with Lanny, Terrence, then Dezzy, and finally Vin. “We can’t kill everyone.”
Vin grumbled but nodded along with everyone else. He understood the importance of keeping at least one guy alive, though I preferred more than that because some fuckers squawked more easily than others. I had no problem torturing the truth out of my enemies, but I was under a bit of a time crunch here. I needed to have one of these assholes say in front of Nico that La Rosa had put Ragno up to the hits, which meant La Rosa was moving against us. Until I had that, I wouldn’t have the backing of the other capos that were currently behind Ma.
Whether she knew it or not, I couldn’t say. I needed to give her the benefit of the doubt that she wasn’t aware, but once Nico knew, she’d be forced to accept it. Then, La Rosa would either have to back down or face the consequences.
