Thrill Me, page 16
I am here doing what I have to.
I’m not gonna sit down scratching my ass and doing the numbers when shit hits the fucking fan.
This little meeting here is something Nick would arrange, but it’s not Nick who gathered us together, it was me.
So when Pa and Vincent find out what shit we’ve been up to I’ll get the blow. I don’t really care what they say.
“Boys, what have you got for me?” I ask them. They were checking this out. We each have our own street guys who gather intel for us. Nick has more guys that are able to get the juice on a deeper level. When we get together like this we work from the ground up. People with ears close to the ground who will talk to a bunch of Giordanos out for blood.
“There’s a guy who works that bar who’s linked to the Fontaines.” Nick points ahead to a bar called Nice. “My street guy says it looks like he was hired a couple months ago. ”
“Good work Nick.” I smile.
“What direction are we taking this?” Gabe asks. That’s a good point. “I want Stephanou dead as much as everyone else but are we going to look for him, or are we going with the Fontaines? Or, the rat?”
I nod. “I think we get whatever info we can and work from there. Let’s see what we can get from this guy.”
“Alright bro, let’s do this,” Gabe says.
We move together like shadows in the night heading to the bar.
As I push the door open, everyone goes silent and people look straight at us. It makes me smile.
These fuckers are so obvious. They could at least pretend they haven’t seen us, or act natural or normal. Not just stop.
I like it though. It’s a sign of respect and acknowledgement. They acknowledge who we are and what we can do.
There’s a barmaid behind the counter and the bartender who looks on at us. I glance at Nick who gives a nod that he’s the guy we need to talk to.
As soon as I look at the guy he makes a run for it.
Motherfucker.
I hate when they do that, but then again I love a chase.
Something primal sets me off and adrenaline moves me to follow him.
We chase him right into the back and he runs, he runs past the kitchen and starts turning stacks of boxes over in an attempt to slow us down but we’re too good for that. We leap over them like they’re nothing.
Eventually we get outside and he tries to jump a barbwire fence. He gets half way up, hooks on the barbwire badly and falls over the other side landing with a heavy thud.
Fool, he didn’t see the opening in the side. We just walk through and maroon his ass, guns pointed at his fucked up face. Even in the moonlight I can see the dazed expression of an addict. I’m guessing heroin and some other shit. His pupils are wide and his nose starts running.
“Cole Tannen, well hello there,” Nick teases.
“Going somewhere?” Gabe continues the taunt.
I just crouch down and wrinkle my nose in disgust when I smell piss and see this fucker has pissed his pants and the trickle of urine drains down his legs.
Pathetic motherfucker. I hate weakness and I hate men like this who have no balls.
“You’re working with the Fontaines,” I state. “Got some questions for you.”
“Please, I don’t know anything,” he splutters, his voice rising several octaves.
‘Well, we haven’t asked the question yet, how do you know you don’t know the answer if you don’t know the question?” I sneer.
He starts shaking when I get up in his face and wave my gun around at him.
Whatever the fucking drugs have done to him has him shaking uncontrollably. I just hope he doesn’t actually shit himself. I can’t stand that. Nobody should be that afraid.
“What do you want to know?” he asks.
I nod and tap his cheek with the butt of my gun. “That’s better. Geez man we could have been in the bar having a drink and talking but instead we’re out here. This is okay though, talking like a bunch of gangsters under the moonlight. So my question is this Cole… what have you and the Fontaines been up to?”
His lips tremble. “Nothing. They hired me once. That’s all. I don’t work for them no more.”
What a lying motherfucker. I don’t know whether I should be insulted he’s not scared enough of me to cough up the truth, or the fact that he’s lying out of his ass. I glance at Nick who rolls his eyes and Gabe releases a slow growl.
I decide to play this another way. Play with him. I reach for the knife in my back pocket and rub the back of it against my forehead. If he’s not scared of me, he should be. I guess it’s that pesky little personality trait of mine that appears to be even tempered. It’s also common in psychos. Time to bring out the psycho in me. I’m one psycho who has family and if this shit gets out of control like I think it will, I’ll have a lot to lose.
“You ran when you saw us. Why? Suggests you have something to hide when you run off like that.” I chuckle.
He starts laughing. The laughter is offkey and unbalanced like it just comes from him involuntarily. It’s clear it’s the drugs again.
“Yous are Giordano’s, you looked like you were going to hurt me, you know? That’s all. I swear. I swear it.” Cole starts shaking again, and laughing.
This is how drugs can screw with you and a closer look at him now suggests that the extra shit he’s under is the new drug on the street, Chrysanthemum. This is what it does to you. The state of him is a dead giveaway.
What’s also a dead giveaway of his lie is that the drug is exclusive among the upper class. Costs a pretty penny and more importantly, is a favorite among the Fontaines.
Stupid fucker. I don’t have time for pity. He signed his death certificate when he signed up to work with the Fontaines. I glance at Gabe who nods and I hit Cole with the gun again.
Cole cries out.
“Motherfucking liar,” I hiss. “Talk, talk right the fuck now or I will kill you.”
“Please no, I beg you no.” He holds his hands up when I strike him once more. “Please… don’t kill me.”
“Then talk.”
“I don’t know anything.” Beads of sweat form on his upper lip.
I could almost believe him. Almost. He gives a convincing act, but mostly people like him all do. They all act to save themselves. The fact that he’s trying so hard and dishing more lies is a tell that he’s more scared of the other guys than he is of me. So it’s time to take things up a notch.
Without warning I throw my knife straight into his thigh. He screams and wails when I reach for another. I carry a set with me that come in handy for times like this when I happen upon the stubborn fucktards.
“I got three more for you, apart from this,” I chant as he starts howling from the pain. “One’s reserved for your dick. Or I may just accelerate your death,” I sneer pulling the trigger back on my gun.
“Pleeeeessssse, no.” Now he starts crying. He cries harder when I press the barrel of the gun to his head.
“Cole, I’m serious as fuck,” I growl. This has gone on longer than it should have. I hold the knife closer and press the gun to his head.
“They offered me a million dollars,” he whimpers and I glance from Nick to Gabe.
Jesus Christ. I was fucking right. He was lying. What if we’d been schmucks who accepted the lies and walked away believing him?
I know now to pay attention.
One million. That’s one hell of a lot for a guy who works the bar, which tells me he must have some type of skills that are one million worthy.
“That’s a fuck of a lot of money,” I bark.
“I know right? All that time in college and all the shitty jobs I’ve done. One sick mother I had to sell my arm and leg to take care of just to keep her alive. I was rewarded handsomely I think for my special abilities.”
“Keep fucking talking.” I hit him again and he flinches. He seems to bounce between fear and humor.
“They think yous have too much power.” He looks to me. “The only person they could get to work with them was Stephanou Portaleu. They gave him the intel that it was Vincent who tipped off the feds, they offered him five million to wipe you all out.”
This fucker seems to know a whole lot. I hate the chill that races down my spine. Mostly I hate that I’m right. I figured it out, the main parts.
“How? How did they get such intel, Cole? What sort of special abilities do you have?” That’s the golden question. It’s clearly a rat but I want to know how they’re working. If Vincent didn’t tell us or Pa he was talking with feds, he wouldn’t have told anybody else. Even if the person had seen him, this stuff is specific nitty gritty. It’s details that links right the fuck back to him. To us.
“All your systems are hacked,” Cole answers and starts laughing.
That chill spreads over my body. “What?”
“Everything is bugged. Me and the boys have been following and listening in on you for months. Me and my team of hackers.” He coughs and blood trickles down his nose. That’s not from me hitting him. “We know everything. When you eat, when you sleep, when you fuck, who you work with, the contracts you sign. All so clever. All so very clever.” He nods with excitement and continues his chant. “All that information, wow. Just had to find the right thing you see, and play the cards right, point the finger at the right guy and you bring certain people back home. Vincent really should vet the people he works with a little closer. Never know who can be working for certain people the way Lawrence was for Stephanou.” He starts laughing now like there really is something funny.
Sure there is. It’s because we’re a joke to him.
We’ve become a joke.
“Who’s the rat, Cole?” I ask. “It’s clear we must have one hell of an infestation.”
“Don’t know who he is. Not a damn clue, I just know he’s real good. Smooth too and has the hook up. Everything was done in one afternoon. One hacker, one team of guys willing and able to take you people down and we were rocking and rolling. You might be able to fight off the Fontaines like you did last time, but Salvatore you and I both know you don’t stand a chance against a guy like Stephanou much less his crew. Kill or be killed. In your case it’s killed.” He laughs loud and hard until tears roll down his cheek.
What a tangled mess of shit. I lift my gaze to Gabe and Nick.
Cole laughs harder. “I’ll be the happiest man alive when he kills you all dead. One million and for all my hard work I get to fuck all your dolls. I’m starting with yours Salvatore. I’m going to enjoy making her scream.”
The bullet leaves my gun and lodges in his head long before Nick and Gabe can even pull their triggers back. Blood splatters on me but I’m too numb to move.
Yes, I may have figured out some stuff but it was just pieces of the shit.
It’s bigger than we all thought and the Fontaines weren’t laying low on us at all.
They were just waiting.
Waiting for the right time.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Salvatore
Time waits for no man…
It certainly won’t wait for us, especially when we have none.
We called the cleanup crew for Cole and then call Pa.
An hour later we’re in the meeting room standing before him. The setup is similar to what it was the other day with everyone here, but we’re standing.
I delivered the news to him.
I felt it should be me who talked since it was my idea to disobey his orders and go out on the streets.
Neither of us disagreed that the info Cole dished us was above our remit.
Not only were there hackers looking in on our people, but we also had to assume that if Fontaine scum were keeping such a close eye on us, they would have known that Cole talked to us too. The cleanup guys found what looked like a tracking device on the fucker’s body. So I was inclined to accept the assumption.
Now we’re here, and Pa and Vincent look pissed as fuck at the three of us.
Pa stands before me as I finish up.
“Is that it Salvatore?” he asks.
“Yes Boss,” I answer. I know the fact that we’re standing means he’s not fucking happy with what we did, even if we came back with very important information.
“Vincent,” Pa begins although he’s still looking at me.
“Yes Boss?” Vincent answers.
“Order a lockdown and issue everyone with new phones,” Pa begins. “Tighten security at the company and all our businesses. Call everyone in for questioning, don’t give anyone a chance to flee.”
“Yes sir,” Vincent says. One last look at me and Vincent leaves.
“Angela, put the secret squad on lockdown,” Pa says to Ma and she tenses the same as me. “Relieve them of their duties until further notice.”
We’re the only other family to my knowledge with a secret squad. They’re intel, our eyes and ears. They go by a number, no name. Only my parents know their identity.
Them on lockdown means we really can’t trust anyone, but it also means we’re flying blind.
“Yes, Julian,” Ma answers. She never calls him sir or boss. She’s the only one allowed to call him by name. He stares after her as she leaves the room, worry in his eyes.
She glances back at him once. Throughout the whole time we’ve been here she hasn’t looked me in the eye which means she’s pissed at me too.
Pa returns his focus to us, looks from Nick to Gabe who are on either side of me and shakes his head.
“Gabriel and Nickoli, go home to your families.” Pa always full names them when he’s being clear we’re talking business.
“Pa—” Nick begins but one look from my father silences him.
Just like when we were boys, Gabe is the first to move. He goes to Nick, rests a hand on his shoulder and ushers him away.
It’s just me left.
Me and Pa in the room.
The door clicks shut. And… I take the back of my father’s hand as he hits me across my cheek.
I take it and the next blow to my other cheek.
I stand there and take it respectfully, not retaliating, accepting he’s my boss and my father.
I even fucking stand there when he pulls his gun on me and aims it at my head.
We’re the same height, and since I look a lot like him, I could be staring at a reflection of my older self pointing a gun at me.
I don’t flinch. I don’t breathe. I don’t do anything besides take him seriously.
I know exactly what I did wrong, but I won’t apologize for it.
“What do you think I should kill you for Salvatore Giordano?” he asks. “The fact that you went against my word, the fact that you went out on the streets in a time of shit, unprotected with no back up, or the fact that you took my two sons with you? The three of you out there pissing on my word when the man who killed my eldest child roams the streets laughing at us.”
I move my head in line with the gun, still not flinching.
“Pa… if you’re going to kill me, just do it. Do it. This is all fucked up bullshit if you raised me to be the man I am and expect me to do nothing when trouble comes for us.” That is my answer and all I will say.
He shakes his head at me. “You want to be capo Salvatore? You know what it means to be capo? The first thing it means is following orders and fucking trusting me. You trust that when I say something I have reasoning behind it. You trust me and you come to me and let me handle things the way I always have as boss of the fucking family. Six families rely on me. The Giordanos are like an army and me the general. I’ve had a handle on business and protecting the family successfully for the last thirty five years.”
“Pa, I know all of that. I know it. Are you seriously going to stand there with your fucking gun aimed at me and act like what I told you isn’t worth anything?” I balk, anger races through me, spiking my nerves.
“Cost and benefit. That is what it’s about. Benefit, we know we’ve been hacked and have bugs coming out of our asses. Cost, we don’t know what shit you might have accelerated with your little rendezvous tonight.”
I press down hard on my back teeth. I want to say that’s an assumption and it still puts us in a good spot but I hold off on saying it.
“We don’t know what shit you might have stirred killing one of their hackers. Salvatore…” When pain comes into his eyes I know none of this is really rational, he’s working on emotion. “Never mind the part about Stephanou Portaleu using my shipping company under my fucking nose but there’s no word on this earth that can express how I’ve felt for the last eight years, looking for that man who killed my boy and not finding him. Then hearing he came back for two more of my kids. Gunned down in the street like the dogs he thinks we are.” He lowers his gun and I’m shocked to shit when I see a tear run down his cheek.
“Pa—”
He holds up a hand and stops me. “I can’t lose another son, Salvatore. I can’t fucking lose another son to that motherfucking psycho. That is where you’re heading if you keep on the way you are. Just like Frankie. He didn’t listen to me either. He never fucking listened to me. I will not bury you. Don’t ask me to do it.” He swallows hard and grits his teeth. “No I did not raise you to be the man you are today to do nothing when the shit hits the fan, and no you are not just some fucking accountant. I know who you are, all of you and I’m aware this situation may very well call for you to be who you’re supposed to be. I need you to trust me. Trust me to call you in when I need you. That is the way this will work.”
I stare at him, processing his words and understanding him. This is different to any conversation we’ve ever had. I understand him so I nod.
“Okay… Pa… I trust you,” I tell him and he nods.
“Be safe, keep your woman safe and lie low until I give the orders to do otherwise.”
“Okay...” I agree.
His words are on my mind the whole time as I head back to my apartment.
I play them over and over again in my head. They’re a sign that times have changed indeed. Pa’s never talked like that before. Never.
