by B. B. Hamel
I pulled her against me and kissed her.
“How was that?” she asked.
“That was perfect,” I said, kissing her again.
Then the world went insane as a huge boom blasted from the outside and the windows shattered.
Mona screamed as I cursed and covered her with my body.
Glass sparkled everywhere, cut my face and hands.
The boom left my ears ringing and every single car on the block went wild, their car alarms blaring, the windows all blown out. I shoved my cock away, got my pants fastened, as Mona sat back in her seat, her eyes wide and crazed, staring at something over my shoulder.
“Are you okay?” I shouted, my ears still ringing.
“I’m okay,” she said. “But Vince— Look.”
I turned around and my jaw dropped open, my tongue lolling to the side.
My house was on fire.
The door was blown off the hinges, the windows smashed and shattered. The facade cracked down the center, and flames spouted from the roof. It took me a few seconds to realize what had happened.
A bomb went off inside my house.
A fucking bomb inside of my house.
“Jalisco,” I said. “Fucking fuck. That fire…” I trailed off and grabbed my phone, dialing 911.
I got emergency services, told them to send a fire truck, gave the operator my address, and hung up. I got out of the car, looking around wildly. I didn’t see anyone suspicious, just scared, confused neighbors as they spilled from the surrounding houses. Mona came to me, staggered over broken glass, and I pulled her tight against my body.
This was it. This was the move.
If we hadn’t paused in that car… if she hadn’t sucked me off…
We’d both be dead.
“Fuck,” I said.
“We should go,” she said. “Warn the others. You have to call them, warn them.”
“Yeah,” I said as she took my hand. She tugged me away from the house, away from the scene as more people gathered to watch the flames lick from the windows.
Sirens blared in the distance as we staggered away, Mona in the lead.
The war was on now, there was no doubt in my mind. Dante and Steven couldn’t ignore that, even if they still wanted to.
The Jalisco made sure there was no going back.
23
Mona
I stared at a plastic bottle of water as condensation rolled down its side. I reached out, unscrewed the top, screwed it back on. The green felt on the poker table was stained darker, and I placed the bottle back exactly where it had been, adjusting it so the dark ring fit just right beneath the bottom.
“Where the fuck is he?” Vince said, his voice a gravelly growl. “He said he’d be gone for five minutes an hour ago.”
I picked up the water again, took off the top, put it back on. “I don’t know,” I said. “Are your ears still ringing?”
He looked at me and worked his jaw. “Yeah,” he said. “I think they’ll probably ring for a few days.”
“Oh,” I said, knocking my head sideways like I was trying to get water from my ear. But the ringing just kept on going.
Vince strode out from behind his father’s desk. We were sequestered in his father’s study, beneath the high ceilings, with the leather-bound books, the oversized desk, the trappings of wealth and power. Everything about the room screamed aristocracy and money beyond my wildest dreams, but all I could do was take off the bottle cap, screw it back on, and stare at the damp dark ring in the green card table felt.
He knelt down next to me and tilted my chin up. His eyes met mine, and I expected to see rage. He’d been so angry since we got to his father’s house and began making calls. He’d yelled and smashed a chair, the wreckage of it still lying on the floor next to the windows, the wood twisted and snapped like the wood that burst from his house just a couple hours earlier.
Instead of anger in his expression, I saw only concern.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
He opened his mouth and shut it again. He pulled me against him, kissed my head, kissed my cheek. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I never expected them to do something like that.”
“But you did,” I said. “That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
He paused and clenched his jaw. “Not like that.”
“Maybe not exactly like that, but you’ll get what you wanted now,” I said.
He took a deep breath and moved away from me. He stood, paced toward the broken chair, kicked it.
“You’re right,” he said. “I wanted something like this. I wanted them to prove that they can’t be trusted, and they came through for me.”
“What’s going to happen now?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I called everyone, they all know what happened, but I don’t know what we’re going to do about it.”
“They can’t just let this go, can they?” I asked.
“Of course not,” he said. “Even if they all want to, the fucking cowards. They blew up my house, maybe burned down a whole city block. We can’t let this go.”
I nodded slowly, took off the bottle cap, put it back on. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“You don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to,” he said.
“I think I do,” I said. “That man saw me, saw my face. He knows me.”
Vince shook his head. “There are places we can send you outside of the city, outside of the state. I could send you up north to my people in New York, you’d be safe there. The Jalisco have no strength in New York.”
“I want to stay,” I said. “This is my home.”
“It’s dangerous now,” he said. “It’s going to be a war zone.”
“It doesn’t have to be.”
He looked at me for a long moment, standing next to the shattered wooden chair, its green leather back lying in tatters a few feet away.
“Explain how that would work,” he said.
“You need to hit them hard,” I said. “You need to do something that’ll make sure they can’t hit back.”
“This isn’t the movies,” he said. “That’s not such a simple thing.”
“But why not?” I asked, shifted in my seat, took off the top and screwed it back on. “You know where they stay, don’t you?”
“I think so,” he said, nodding slowly, his face hard. “But that doesn’t mean much. After blowing up a house, they’re probably in hiding, or at the very least they’re ready for reprisals.”
“Hit them hard and fast,” I said. “Go in with everyone you have, everyone in your group and everyone with the Russians. Bring whoever else you can find, all the little gangs and stuff. Hit them with overwhelming force.”
He barked a laugh. “Shock and awe.”
“Right, shock and awe. Roll over them before they know what’s happening.”
He grinned at me, a surprised smile that seemed to make the room feel a little bit lighter.
“Since when did you become such a war hawk?” he asked.
“Since I learned that it’s necessary,” I said, working my jaw, unscrewing the top, screwing it back on. “They blew up a house, almost killed us. If I hadn’t been—”
The door to the office flung open before I could finish that sentence. Don Leone strode in, his fake shuffling limp all but forgotten, followed by a man I didn’t recognize. I looked over at Vince, and he stood up straighter, surprise clear in his expression.
“Vince,” Don Leone said. “Thank you for waiting.”
“What’s he doing here?” Vince asked.
The man was older, wrinkled, and very thin. He had a square chin and a trim gray beard. His plaid sweater hung a size too big over baggy denim and old brown work boots with deep grooves worn into the leather.
“Is that how you greet a power man, Vincent?” the man said with a heavy Russian accent.
“That’s how I greet you, Maksim,” Vince said.
Understan
ding hit me. That was Maksim, the head of the Russian mafia. My mouth hung open, but the men didn’t seem to notice me. I took off the bottle cap, screwed it back on.
“I know bad thing just happen to you,” Maksim said, “and so I will let that slide. But careful now, boy.”
“Enough, Vince,” Don Leone said. “We need to talk about what we’re doing next.”
“There’s only one thing we can do,” Vince said. “We have to kill every single Jalisco we can find and send a message to those goddamn bastards.”
Don Leone walked behind his desk and sat with a grunt. He stared at them, frowning a deep grooved glare.
“And what do you think, Maksim?” Don Leone asked.
Maksim gestured toward Vince with his chin. “Boy has a point,” he said.
“Call me boy one more time—” Vince started, but his father held up a hand.
“Enough,” Don Leone said. “Maksim, show my son some respect. Vince, you need to cool down.”
Vince grunted and paced along the window. “We’ve been a step behind the Jalisco this whole time,” he said. “Everything we’ve done has been in reaction. It’s time to do something of our own.”
“Yes, perhaps,” Maksim said. “Make move on them, show Jalisco they cannot push us around.”
“There’s no us yet,” Vince said.
Don Leone rubbed his head with both hands like he was trying to wake himself up. “That’s why we’re here, Vincent,” he said. “I want to change that right now.”
Vince stopped pacing. “You want to do— what?”
“We come to make deal, Vince,” Maksim said. “Your father and me, we come to agreement. Time to make official, yes?”
Vince gaped at them for a moment then seemed to gather himself. “You’re going through with this alliance right now?” he asked. “Right this minute?”
“That’s the plan,” Don Leone said. “Do you object to it?”
Vince opened his mouth then shut it again. He looked over at me, and I leaned back in the chair. I unscrewed the cap and lifted the bottle to my lips. I took a long drink before screwing it back on and putting it down on the table without looking at the felt.
I shook my head, just a little bit. Vince’s face went hard and he closed his eyes before looking at Maksim.
“No, I don’t object,” he said.
“Good, very good,” Maksim said. “That is very good. So we make official now, yes? How do you Italians like to close deal?”
“Simple,” Don Leone said and opened a desk drawer. He gripped something and pulled it out.
I sat forward and stared at the long, sharp-looking knife he placed down on his desk. The handle was ornate, gold with scrolling carvings all along it, and the blade was straight and double-edged.
“What do we do with that?” Maksim asked.
“Blood to blood,” Don Leone said. “It’s very simple. We mingle our blood and sweat to uphold the terms of our agreement. Can you handle that, Maksim?”
“I can handle blood,” he said. “I handle blood all day. Blood never bothers me.”
“Good.” Don Leone stood, gripped the knife, came around the desk.
I thought I saw a moment of indecision in Maksim’s eyes, but it went away as Don Leone gripped the blade of the knife and yanked it down. He cursed as blood welled up in his palm from a long cut down the center.
Don Leone held the knife out to Maksim.
“Dramatic,” Maksim said, but took the blade, gripped it, and yanked. He cursed in Russian as Vince came over and took the knife away.
“We bond ourselves, Maksim,” Don Leone said. “My blood to your blood. If you break this bond, may your blood run cold, maybe it dry up and thicken in your chest and heart.”
“Yes, same to you,” Maksim said.
They gripped each other’s hand and shook.
I stared at them and realized that I was bearing witness to a ritual that few people ever got to see. It was a real blood oath, the sort of thing playground kids pretended to believe in, except these were two dangerous, grown men.
Vince caught my eye and nodded once as he returned the bloody knife to his father’s desk.
Don Leone dropped Maksim’s hand and took a handkerchief from his pocket. He gave it to Maksim, who wrapped it around his hand, then walked to his desk and pulled some tissues from a drawer.
“I’ll have Roberto bring bandages,” Don Leone said. “But first, we have to come to a decision.”
“On what?” Maksim asked.
“On the Jalisco,” Don Leone said.
“I know what we have to do,” Vince said, lingering over near the window again.
“What’s that, young ally?” Maksim asked with a little smirk.
Vince stared at him. “Shock and awe,” he said.
I sat up straight and my eyes went wide with excitement. I felt my pulse pick up in my chest as I realized that Vince was taking my advice.
“Shock and awe,” Maksim repeated. “Is this American thing?” He looked at Don Leone. “Is this make sense to you?”
“I want to kill as many of them as we can in a short period,” Vince said. “Tonight, I think would be best. We take the combined strength of our crews, roll on every known Jalisco hangout, and kill everyone. Slaughter them, make them know they can’t operate in our city anymore, make sure they never recover from it.”
“He means this?” Maksim asked and stared at Don Leone. “He really thinks this is good idea?”
Don Leone stared at his son and nobody spoke. The silence quilted the room and I leaned forward, my hands on my knees, my heart racing.
“He means it,” Don Leone said. “And he’s right.”
“What?” Maksim asked. “This absurd. Jalisco good business partner, bring many drugs into country, good for everyone.”
“The Gulf will step up,” Vince said. “I’ve already contacted them, and Ambrose is back in New York, making sure they’re going to follow through. But first, we have to clear the Jalisco out.”
“There will be some delays in product,” Don Leone said. “We’ll have to weather that.”
“You both mean this,” Maksim said, shaking his head. “We make oath and now you want war. This not what we discussed.”
“You’re in this now,” Vince said. “Whether you want to be or not. You made this deal, and the Jalisco will hear about it. We can squeeze them out, make it slow, but they’ll come at us sooner or later. They won’t sit back and wait.”
“Yes, but that does not mean we have to attack now,” Maksim said.
“My son is right,” Don Leone said. “The Jalisco have proven themselves to be untrustworthy. If we allow this to stand, others might begin to believe we’re weak. We have to hit them and hit them hard, end the war tonight if we can.”
Maksim gestured with his hands like he was pleading for something then dropped them and shook his head.
“Madness,” he said.
“Already refusing to work with us?” Vince asked.
“Nyet, Vincent, nyet,” Maksim said. “I’ll come and I’ll kill Jalisco. Do not concern yourself with my men. We have been blooded, born into killing, and we will come and kill again.”
“Good,” Don Leone said. “Very good. Go call your men together, Maksim, and I’ll call mine. We’ll gather here in the great hall and put together a plan.”
“It has to be tonight,” Vince said. “If we wait, they’ll have too much time to plan.”
“Tonight,” Don Leone agreed.
“Tonight then,” Maksim said. “We go hunting tonight.”
The Russian turned and strode to the door. Don Leone followed him, and the two older men spoke in low tones as they left, not even sparing a glance in my direction.
Once the door shut, I heard Vince let out a grunt.
“Fuck,” he said.
“Are you okay?” I stood and walked across the room. There were blood droplet stains on the rug where Don Leone and Maksim had cut themselves.
“I’m okay,” h
e said. “I just didn’t think that would work. I didn’t think Maksim would agree.”
“But he did,” I said, stopping just in front of him. I reached up and touched his chest with my palms. “This is the right move, isn’t it?”
“I think so,” he said and a deadly little smile came to his lips. “When did you get so goddamn bloodthirsty, little journalist?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I think you’re having a bad influence on me.”
He leaned down and brushed a thumb along my lips, sending chills along my skin. “Good,” he said, and kissed me.
I kissed him back. I put myself into that kiss, his tongue, his lips, his muscular body. I threw myself into it and moaned as he pulled me tight against him. I wanted to forget the explosion, the fear I felt, the horror, the anger.
But most of all, I wanted to feel the thrill of knowing that he listened to me.
We broke off the kiss and I stared into his eyes. I touched his cheek, felt the stubble there, ran my fingers down it. He caught my hand and held it against his face, leaned into my fingers, then kissed my tips.
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go get ready.”
“For what?”
“For whatever comes.” He hesitated, squeezed my hand. “I might not see tomorrow. If I don’t—”
“Stop,” I whispered. “Don’t.”
“If I don’t, I want you to know something,” he said, rushing his words out. “I want you to know that I haven’t felt this way about a woman before. I’ve never wanted someone like I want you.”
“I feel the same way,” I said.
“Good.” He kissed me again, released me. “Now, come on. We’ll have a little privacy until everyone gets here.”
“What should we do with our time?” I asked.
He smirked, slapped my ass, and led me to the door.
24
Vince
I sat behind the wheel of a borrowed black sedan, my Glock in my lap. Dante sat in the passenger seat, staring straight ahead, and Mona was in the back.