by Harley Stone
It wasn't the first time I'd had a gun pointed at me--not by a long shot, thanks to Father's drills--but this time was different. It made me desperate and angry at the distraction keeping me from Markie and the twins. I spun and threw a punch at my attacker, hearing the satisfying crunch of impact before his gun went off. Fire burned through my side as I hit the ground, drawing my pistol. Father's guards fell in, swinging at each other. Dark-suited men jumped, kicked, and swung to the thunder of bullets bouncing off the cement walls. The fray looked like an out-of-control mosh pit. Ears ringing, I searched for Bones. His fist slammed into the face of my attacker. The dirty guard flew backwards and slapped against the cement floor. Bones followed and kicked him in the ribs.
I raised my weapon, but couldn't get a clean shot.
"You're surrounded Mariani. Give up and step down, and we'll let the kid live. All your kids."
The familiar voice came from the shadows in front of us. I peeked around a car and squinted into the dark. Several dark shadows walked toward us.
"Bruno Pelino," Father said, his tone dripping with condescension. "You want me to trust a bunch of cowardly bastards who attacked a house full of women and children?"
"We thought you were home."
"Is that what you plan to tell the other families? That you blew up my son's car and expected me to hide in my house?"
Bruno laughed. "You think the other families will step in? Ha! The borgatas are sick of being tied down to your rules, old man. The wolves want to be unleashed. They would have pulled your ass down years ago, but they're just a bunch of bitches... not enough balls between them to attack. Well, my father's just crazy enough to do whatever needs to be done."
Father twitched. A little red beam raced across the shadows, ending in the center of Bruno's forehead. Before I could register what I was seeing, a shot rang out. The Pelino heir apparent crumpled to the ground. His stunned guards took a few seconds too long to react, and the little red light traveled down the line.
Bam. Bam. Bam
Bodies fell in its wake. I aimed and fired off a shot. A bullet whizzed past my head and I ducked back behind the car.
"You cocky son of a bitch; this is my city!" Father roared. He ducked down, slammed another magazine into his Glock, and the little red beam resumed its deadly dance. I thought the old man was crazy when he'd tasked me with adding a laser sight to his Glock, but in that darkened garage he was a genius. In fact, if we made it out of this alive, I fully intended to get myself a gun just like it.
For now, my Desert Eagle would have to do. I peeked back around the car and took a few blind shots. The fighting behind us began to die down, and more of my father's guards joined us in the frontal attack, Mamma and Dante were with them. The Pelino men started retreating. One guard slung Bruno's body over his shoulder before the entire group turned and ran, weaving through cars and dodging our bullets as they disappeared deeper into the darkness.
My father had lost several guards. The remainder of the force piled into one SUV, leaving the second in the garage. Bones, Mamma, Dante, and I followed in my Hummer. I drove while Bones fumbled with the first aid kit.
"You're gonna need to take off your jacket so I can get a look at your side," he said, tugging bandages out of the kit.
I stopped at a light and struggled out of the ruined coat, stinging the hell out of my side with every twist of my stomach. The bottom right quarter of my T-shirt was soaked with blood. Bones tugged it upward and swore.
"How bad is it?" I asked. The light turned green, so I focused back on the road.
"You got a chunk of meat missing; needs stitches."
I chuckled. "Yeah, we should probably call the Pelinos and ask them to chill the fuck out so I can get back to the hospital. That gash on your cheek could probably use a stitch or two as well."
Bones pulled down his mirror and snorted. "I've cut myself worse shaving."
"Yeah? They probably have classes to teach you how to do that..."
"All right, wiseass, let me get that bleeding stopped."
***
The street in front of my father's house was lined with cop cars and ambulances. Father's SUV parked behind a police cruiser and I pulled up behind them. What was left of the old man's guards surrounded us as we made our way past the cruisers and into the mayhem.
The mansion looked like a battlefield. Bodies were strewn from the broken security gate to the front door, currently hanging from its top hinges. Authorities clearly hadn't been there long, because they were still checking for pulses and bagging and tagging the dead. A fallen man moaned and writhed on the ground. The guards around us tensed, but an EMT hurried over to deal with him. I scanned the faces of the fallen as we passed, searching for faces I recognized.
Where are Markie and the twins?
My father saw my blood-soaked shirt and hurried over to check out my wound.
"I'm fine," I said, waving him off. "It grazed me. We'll deal with it later."
"You should let me have a look at that," one of the EMTs said.
"Yes," Mamma agreed. "You should."
"Not now," I replied, walking past them.
Renzo and his team met us in the driveway. He let out a relieved sigh and hugged my Father. "Uncle, I'm glad to see you're okay."
"Where's my family?" Father asked.
Renzo's gray T-shirt was darkened with sweat and he held a semi-automatic in his hands. "Nonna's inside. She went to Dr. Monte's house. Said she had Markie get the twins out of here. We're still lookin' for them."
Nonna chose that very moment to come waltzing out of the house, raising a fist at any of the EMTs who tried to stop her.
"I was slowin' Markie and the kids down, Dom. I had her take them on as I went to the doc's house. She had a good lead and I took down two of those bastards to make sure she stayed ahead of them."
Mamma took care of Nonna, leading her back into the house, while Father pulled me aside.
"Get to Tech's office," he told me. "I want you both staring at that goddamn wall of screen of his until you find the twins. I'll get teams all over the city so we can move the instant you two have a visual."
I nodded.
"Good. I don't know who to trust right now, Angel, but I know I can trust you. You do whatever you need to do, you hear me?"
"Yes sir."
With that, Bones and I headed out to infiltrate Tech's mysterious lair.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Angel
I FIRST MET Tech over Skype when I was eight years old and trying to network my father's computer to the new security system. Tech walked me through a compatibility issue, and then showed me how to program the outside lights so we could turn them on remotely. He was the smartest person I'd ever known. Over the years, we worked on several more projects together, and I gained an awestruck respect for him. Although I'd never met him in person, Tech was my idol.
His office was well-hidden beneath a self-storage building toward the north end of Las Vegas. I'd used a key and a finger print scanner to get down to his level and there was one last step. Excited to finally meet the man behind the screens, I leaned against the retinal scanner and waited.
"You sure about this?" Bones asked.
The scanner beeped, and the door unlocked with a click.
I nodded, turning the handle. "Yeah. I need you on the street. If I find them, I want you to be the first one there. I can't trust anyone else. Text me when you get to Ari's. Maybe the two of you can figure out where Markie would take the kids. Drive around. You search your way, I'll search mine, and maybe one of us will get lucky."
My friend was still hesitant to leave me, but I didn't have time for his shit. I pulled open the heavy iron door and walked into every geek's wet dream. Over one hundred square security camera feeds were projected onto the white wall to my left. I froze and took it all in, hearing the door close and lock behind me. Tech's messy blond mop peeked over the top of a high-backed desk chair, positioned in front of the wall. Keyboard keys
clicked, and then the images on the wall rotated.
Wondering if he realized I was there, I cleared my throat and stepped forward.
"Take a seat." He directed me to the empty chair beside him. "I'm dividing the screen in half, and you have a keyboard and a mouse to control the feeds on your side. If you have any... wait a second. What do we have here?"
My gaze shifted to the feed he was studying. Blonde woman, two small children. Thinking he'd found them, I ignored the chair and rushed to his side. He zoomed in until we got a clear view of the faces. Not Markie, and not the twins. His only reaction was to switch to a different feed.
"You shouldn't have any questions. DOS commands, it's self-explanatory." Then Tech seemed to realize I was standing right beside him. He leaned away and looked up at me over dark-framed glasses. "Angel."
"Tech." I nodded.
His gaze shifted back to the chair he obviously wanted me to sit in. I eased into it and looked around. Tech's workspace was immaculate. He had a yellow smiley-faced stress ball in front of his keyboard, but that was the only decorative element. Everything else was functional. Coffeepot, phones, computers, screens.
As for Tech, I'd put him somewhere in his mid-forties, but wearing a black-and-white checkered button-up shirt, and black joggers tucked into classic red Chuck Taylors he looked more like some twenty-something wannabe hipster.
"I'm sending you a feed. It should populate in the center," he said, forcing my attention onto the screen in front of me.
A second later, the video feed of the back of my father's house appeared. Markie, Nonna, and the kids slipped from one of the hidden doors and into the bushes. I tracked their movement to the fence and then lost them. Moments later, armed goons filled the backyard.
"This one's from the end of the block," Tech said.
The four of them were still running. Markie linked arms with Nonna and coaxed her on.
"Those are the only two confirmed sightings we have of the twins. The Pelino family is still scouring the city for them."
He clicked a few more keys and several of my feeds were highlighted. I watched as grown-ass motherfuckers hunted down my siblings, making note of every single one and swearing to make them pay for what they were doing.
"I also have the facial recognition software scanning, so it may highlight a feed from time to time. Let me know if you see something," Tech said, resetting the feeds.
I watched the wall for a while. My phone buzzed. Hoping for correspondence from Markie, I checked it to find a text from Bones. He'd picked Ariana up from work and the two went to her apartment. There was no sign of, or word from, Markie. He and Ariana were going to go look for her, but they planned to circle back by the apartment periodically just in case she showed up there. I thanked him, and then turned my attention back to the screens.
I'd always known Tech had access to most of the city, but didn't grasp the extent of his reach until I shuffled through the feeds, populating my half of the wall. It was like watching all of Vegas at once. I saw the fountain Markie and Ariana had sat on, and the High Roller we'd rode on. Someone jumped from the tower of the Ozone.
Markie, where are you? I wondered while scanning faces of strangers. Maybe they checked into a hotel? Only they couldn't have, because her purse was in the Hummer. We'd found her phone in pieces in the hidden passageway leading away from the twins' bedroom. They had no credit cards, no phone, no car, no resources. It was getting dark. I rotated the feeds again. Hours passed in a blur of energy drinks, snacks, and staggered bathroom breaks. Still no sign of them. It was as if they'd vanished from the street.
The sun was beginning to rise by the time my phone rang again.
"Hello?" I couldn't answer it fast enough.
"Any word on the twins?" Father asked.
"We're still looking. The good news is so are the Pelinos."
He took a deep breath. "Those bastards still haven't given up, huh? Sounds like they need something to do. I've got just the thing."
He disconnected, and I returned my attention to the screens, wondering what the old man was up to. Tech's phone rang. He answered it and changed feeds as he listened. The right side of his screen populated with what looked like GPS readouts. He pulled addresses from the screens and sent them to the GPS readouts. I watched in awe as he worked, amazed by the speed in which he had six of my father's SUVs en route.
I continued to watch for Markie and the twins until activity on one of my feeds drew my attention. An SUV pulled into an alley behind the strip. The doors opened, spilling out men with semi-automatics. They gunned down a group of Pelino's men who'd been searching the area.
"Team one was successful," Tech confirmed into his phone.
Only seconds later, another SUV pulled up in front of a hotel. But this time, the Pelino soldiers seemed to expect the attack. They pulled their guns and opened fire before the SUV full of my father's soldiers had even rolled to a stop. The feed disappeared.
"Team two, successful," Tech said.
Successful? I searched for the feed, but it was gone.
"Team three, successful," Tech said.
Team three? Where the hell is team three?
Tech's police scanner pealed in the background, reporting the shootings. All of my feeds were rotated, removing the Pelino goons from my view. I tried to bring them back, but those feeds disappeared, too. He had to be blocking my access.
"Team four, five, and six--all successful."
I glanced at his screens, searching for the battles, but saw nothing.
He looked at me and asked, "Have you found them?"
I startled. "No. Still looking." I went back to my feeds, wondering what the hell was going on. Tech had been loyal to my family for as long as I could remember. He was the best at what he did, yet someone had hacked into his system to break into my father's house. Had someone hacked him again to get the jump on the attacks?
No, not that fast. Impossible. And he told Father the attacks were successful. Why?
Tension crept up my shoulders, stiffening my back. I kept one eye on Tech and the other on the feeds.
"Angel, I know you saw that," Tech said, watching me.
"Saw what?" I feigned. "Did you find them?"
His forehead scrunched up in response. "You know what I'm talking about."
He was on to me. "You tipped them off, didn't you?" I asked.
Tech pulled out a pistol and trained it on me.
Hell of a confirmation. He was a traitor. It explained so much and made me feel like a goddamn idiot. How had I not seen it before? How had Father missed it? I raised my hands in the air. My gun was in the pocket of my jacket, hanging in the closet. The only weapon on me was a knife strapped around my ankle, and there was no way I could get to it before he got a shot off.
"I want out, Angel."
"Out?" I asked.
He nodded. "Yeah. Out of everything."
"Okay. I can understand that."
"I knew you'd get it. This is our chance. Me and you... we're not like the others. This isn't our war. My ass shouldn't be trapped down in this fuckin' dungeon."
I couldn't get out. I had to find Markie and the twins. And he was wrong. I was like every other man in my family, because I was scanning the room for a weapon, intent on killing this bastard.
"You want me to turn on my father?"
"Some father," Tech spat. "Manipulative bastard. He doesn't care about you. He doesn't care about any of us. He deserves whatever he gets."
Tech didn't know a damn thing about my old man. "What about the rest of my family? The people you're helping are hunting down the twins, Tech. They're just little kids."
"I've kept their location hidden."
Red spots dotted my vision. Tech--my friend and mentor--had known where Markie and the twins were and he'd also kept it from me, knowing I was going out of my mind with worry. "Where are they? I swear to God, if you've hurt them ..."
He raised his hands. "Calm down, Angel, I haven't done a damn thing
with them. That girl of yours has led them to safety. She's smart."
She led them to safety.
I wanted to feel relieved, but was having a hard time trusting him. "You expect me to believe you? After you turned on my family?"
"I didn't turn on your family, they turned on me." Gun still in his hand, Tech stood. "Fifteen years, and do you know how many vacations I've gotten?"
I stared at him, shocked. This is about vacations?
"Zero! You know why? Because I'm not a person to him, Angel. I'm an asset. You're an asset. We're all assets... pieces of this game he plays. I thought you, of all people, would understand that."
"I do understand. I just... he's my father." And I knew his motives. For the first time in my life I fully understood my old man.
Tech shook his head. "Why are you loyal to him? Because of blood?"
He was pointing a gun at me, so I didn't answer.
"Disappointing, Angel." He steadied the gun. "You should have come with me."
There was a finality to his tone that left me no time to think. I lunged forward, ducking low. A shot rang out. My shoulders connected with Tech's stomach, knocking him back. He fell over his chair, taking me with him. We bounced, and then slid to the cement floor. I grappled for the gun on the way down. Impact relaxed his grasp and the gun slid away. Rather than go for it, I pressed my arm against his neck.
"Tell me where the fuck they are!" I shouted.
His eyes bugged out.
"I can make this really painful."
"The orphanage," he croaked out.
I strangled him until he blacked out. Bastard still had a pulse, but that wasn't my call. I stood, retrieved his gun, and called my father.
"Tech's dirty," I said, glaring at my former friend and mentor. "You want him for questioning?"
"Yes."
"Call someone to get him. I'm going after Markie and the twins."
"Did he tell you where they are?" Father asked. "Wait. Don't say anything over the phone. Take Bones, and anyone else you trust. Call me the second their safe."