by B. B. Hamel
“I’ve spoken with a lot of people in the mafia. I was his daughter, after all.”
“Of course.” He walked to the bar. “Drink?”
“No, thank you.”
He poured himself a whisky and turned back toward me. Just then, there was a knock at the door.
He frozen, frowning. “I’m not expecting anyone,” he said softly, waking over to the door.
He looked out the peep hole then recoiled visibly. “Shit,” he said softly, walking over to me.
“What? Who is it?”
“Your father.”
I stood, anger boiling through me. “You did this.”
He stared at me for a second before shaking his head. “We’ll talk about that comment later. Right now, you need to go into my bedroom.”
“What? You want me to hide?”
“God damn right I do.”
“No.”
“He knows I’m in here. I can’t turn him away, and you can’t be here.”
I stared at him for a second, anger rolling through me, but I knew he was right. I couldn’t just stand there. He had to let my father in, and I had to hide.
Without another word, I turned and walked back into the bedroom. I shut the door and turned the lock, sitting down onto his bed.
I was furious. Part of me thought that he set this whole thing up, but that was absurd. Of course he didn’t set this up. If he did, he wouldn’t make me hide.
Plus, I was in actual danger. I didn’t have any of my people with me, and I was sure that my father did. If he saw me, Arturo would take me and do who knows what with me. He’d probably put a bullet in my head at best. He’d make it fast and clean, since I was his daughter, but he’d dispose of me like any other problem he had in his life.
I hated being locked in a room, hiding like a child from my father, but I saw no other way. I had to trust Wyatt, and hope that he’d handle this well.
17
Wyatt
I knew Louisa was angry, and I couldn’t blame her. It looked pretty fucking bad that her father, our mortal enemy, happened to show up right when she was sitting in my room, but there was nothing I could do about it.
Calling Arturo earlier was probably a mistake. The man liked to drop by without calling first, probably because he enjoyed putting people off balance. It annoyed me to no end, and in this instance it was actually working.
I pulled the door open. “Arturo,” I said.
He smiled at me. “Wyatt. You kept me waiting.”
“I’m sorry about that. I was on a call.”
“Are you sure? Not hiding a woman friend in there?”
I did my best not to show him anything. “I wish my job gave me that kind of luxury.”
“Oh, I’m sure you could get anything you really wanted, Wyatt.”
“Of course. Come in, Arturo.”
I stepped aside and he stepped into my living room. I glanced at his usual muscle before shutting the door and stepping in behind him.
“Drink?”
“Of course.”
I poured two whiskeys, handing him one and sitting in my usual spot on the couch. I was nervous for some insane reason. I knew he wasn’t going to walk into the bedroom and find Louisa, but there was still some irrational part of me that was afraid he’d know she was there, just on the other side of a wall.
That would be a disaster. I didn’t know where Ethan was, and I doubted I could take both of his guys out there. Without weapons, probably, but I was sure they were packing, and my gun was in my room with Louisa.
“What can I do for you?” I asked him.
“You know why I’m here. You met with the chief.”
“I did.”
“And how did that meeting go?”
“It went well. He seemed receptive to my ideas.”
I was keeping it as vague as possible to avoid Arturo checking any facts. I didn’t want him to see the knife I planned on plunging into his chest until it was far too late to get out of the way.
“That’s good to hear,” he said. “Did you ascertain why the chief wasn’t going after them?”
“No, not really.”
“Not really?”
“He alluded to their own incompetence.”
He laughed loudly, tossing his head back. “He didn’t.”
“He did. He said that the Spiders were very difficult to find.”
“That dumb bastard.”
“He was probably trying to praise them. But he just sounded pathetic.”
Arturo shook his head, grinning. “Herbert is pathetic. I remember when he was just some desk sergeant back in the day. He’s a puffed up asshole with no brain, and that whole department is fucked.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I’m always right, Wyatt. You’ll see one day.”
“You don’t get to your position in life by being wrong all the time, that’s for sure.”
“Exactly that, Wyatt. Exactly that.” He knocked back his drink.
“I think Herbert might be a dead end for you.”
“Could be.” He stood and got himself another drink.
“What are you planning, then?”
“We have some ideas.”
I wanted to press, but I knew that I shouldn’t. “If I can help, let me know.”
“Help in exchange for a healthy bribe, you mean.”
I help up my drink in a salute. “Of course.” I knocked it back.
He laughed. “I like you, Wyatt. You’re not like the other politicians. They’re all stuffy rich fucks, but I think I understand you. We come from the same place, you know.”
“I knew you grew up in the city.”
“Grew up poor as dirt, like you. Look at us now, though. Powerful men, born with nothing.”
He wasn’t wrong about that, though we were nothing alike. Arturo was a brute, a stupid hammer. I thought ten moves ahead while Arturo was still understanding the rules.
“I take that as a high compliment,” I said.
“As you should.” He sat back down. “I have big plans for this city. I need men like you on my side.”
“What kind of plans?”
“Oh, big dreams. I want to run all the little gangs out of town and crack down on crime. If my organization is the only game in town, I can keep this city as peaceful as I want it.”
“While controlling the cash flow.”
“Of course.”
“But that means taking out the Spiders.”
“And every other little upstart in my way.”
“Big dreams.”
“I’m not far from it.”
“What do the Russians think?”
“The Russians are nothing. They’re spit under my shoe. I will crush them as I’ve crushed the Spiders.”
I smiled and nodded, not saying anything.
The man was clearly delusional. His organization was the strongest in the city, it was true, but the Spiders were doing serious damage. If he kept this war up the way it was going, he’d win, but the Russians would swoop in and take everything.
Either he saw that as clear as day, or he was a complete idiot.
“Well, Arturo, as I’ve said. Anything I can do.”
“Push to arrest and get those damn Spiders behind bars, that’s what you can do.”
I nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
“Good.” He stood. “Now, I’ll let you get back to whatever gorgeous girl you were sleeping with before I arrived.”
I smiled. “My laptop is hardly gorgeous, but thank you.” I stood and walked him to the door. I opened it and he turned to me.
“Stick with me, Wyatt. I can take you places, give you more power than you’d ever dreamed of. I’m taking over the city and I’m taking you with me.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
We shook hands and then he left. His goons followed him.
I shut the door softly, releasing a breath.
That was fucking close. I knew playing both sides would be difficul
t, but I didn’t fucking think Arturo and Louisa would come to my fucking room at the same damn time. That shit was god damn stressful, and I was so glad that Arturo was gone.
I moved toward the bedroom, but the door flew open. Louisa stepped out.
“You two sound very friendly,” she said.
“Of course we do. I need him to believe that we’re on the same side.”
She scowled at me before walking to the door. “I’m leaving.”
“We didn’t finish talking.”
“We’re done for now. You talked enough with my father.”
“Okay then,” I said, sighing. “If that’s what you want.”
She glared at me. “Don’t be stupid enough to listen to him.” She said. “He’s a snake. A liar. He’ll stab you in the back sooner than help you.”
“Not if we stab him first,” I said softly.
She nodded, expression hard. “Goodbye, Wyatt.”
She left, slamming the door behind her.
I stared at the door, sighing. I had expected to get a taste of Louisa again, and found myself extremely frustrated that I wasn’t getting what I wanted.
These damn fucking Barones. They were causing me a lot of problems and for very different reasons.
18
Louisa
I couldn’t believe that asshole had me hiding in his bedroom like I was some teenager. I understood why I needed to, since we couldn’t be caught together if he wanted to continue watching my father, but still.
I didn’t get involved with men just to make sure I was never pushed aside like that. I hated being shoved into a closet while the men talked their business, and nothing was more frustrating to me than that.
I climbed the stoop of our safe house and opened the front door, my brain still reeling from what had happened. I headed into my room, got changed, and sat down at my computer.
Nothing made me feel better than scrolling through cyberspace, breaking into networks, and dominating everything I saw. I wasn’t a man or a woman online and could be whoever I wanted to be. Nobody questioned my authority or my power, because nobody could question me. The only thing that mattered was how good I was, and nothing more.
Wyatt represented everything that I thought I hated. He was a rich, powerful man moving up through politics and doing things that I could never do just because I was a woman. He was the sort of man I never imagined that I’d get involved with, not in a million years.
I’d met so many men just like him. They all hung around my father, hoping for his favor, practically kissing his ass to try and get a piece of his money.
They were all cocky and privileged and assholes. They were all absolutely alike.
But Wyatt wasn’t that guy, not really. He didn’t come from wealth and power like all of those men did. He didn’t have a trust fund that his daddy earned for him. Wyatt built everything he had from the ground up, just like I did.
That was what attracted me to him so intensely. He wasn’t a phony like all of those other men. Everything he said and did, all the power he wielded, everything was genuinely him.
As the hours slipped past and it became closer to morning than night, I began to calm down and realize that Wyatt hadn’t done anything wrong. I knew that deep down inside of me, but when he made me wait and hide in the bedroom, it made me remember everything that had happened with my father.
I remembered when I told him that I wanted to join the mafia. I was eighteen years old and already I knew I was smarter than the average guy in the mob. One night when I was deciding on which colleges to apply to, I walked down to my father’s study and knocked on the door.
I went inside. “Father,” I said.
“Daughter.”
I sat down in front of his desk.
“I want to ask you something.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s about your job.”
He frowned. “Don’t ask about my job.”
“I want to join. I want to be a part of your business.”
He looked at me then laughed. The bastard laughed at me.
I’d never forget that laughter. He refused to take me seriously back then, and he refused to take me seriously now.
That was his fatal mistake. He thought I was just some woman that he could steamroll and destroy, but he was so, so wrong.
Suddenly, there was a loud racket outside my door. It sounded like people grunting, doors slamming. I heard the elevator slide open.
I quickly got up and opened my bedroom door.
“Lou!”
Kasia was standing in the hall, one of our fighters on her arm. The elevator was open, and a few other girls were in there. All of them were bloodied.
Three girls were missing.
I frowned at Kasia. “What happened?”
“We should talk downstairs. Come on.”
We loaded onto the elevator, and I knew something awful had happened. I began to check the girl closest to me for any serious injuries. She was okay, so I moved onto the next girl.
The doors slid open. Kasia helped her fighter down the hall while the other girls followed. They didn’t seem too bad, though the girl Kasia had was leaving a trail of blood down the hallway.
“What happened?”
Girls were looking out of their rooms. Natasha came over to me.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “Come on. You can help.”
We moved quickly down into the room we used as the emergency room. Natasha and our doctor, Tanya, helped load the fighter onto a gurney, and the girls got to work.
Kasia met me outside of the room.
“It was an ambush,” she said.
“What?”
“They had far more men than we knew about. They were hiding downstairs just fucking waiting for us.”
“How did this happen?”
“It’s my fault. I didn’t know about those guys. My source didn’t tell me.”
“She was a plant.”
Kasia nodded slowly. “I think so.”
“Shit.”
“We’ll pick her up later.”
“Don’t bother. She’s not important.”
“We lost three girls.”
I sighed, leaning up against the wall. “Fuck.”
“I don’t think Leah in there is going to make it.”
“Did they take anyone?”
“Not alive.”
“Good.”
“But they’re getting better at countering us, Lou. We need more girls.”
“I know we do. I’m working on it.”
Kasia sighed and leaned up against the wall beside me. I saw her cringe.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine. Took some shrapnel. It’s nothing.”
I shook my head. Three girls dead, another seriously wounded. These were our best fighters, our most elite soldiers. If Kasia had taken more girls, I was willing to bet far more lives would have been lost.
Worse, the mob could have taken one of them. That was my biggest nightmare. If one of our soldiers gets interrogated and she breaks, which of course she will break, they could find all of our safe houses. Or at least they could find one or two; we kept most of them secret from anyone that doesn’t need to know about them.
This was our biggest loss since everything started. We’d lost a girl here or there, and even had one taken alive and interrogated. For the most part, though, we’d been lucky. Our losses were minimal because we took care to hit hard and move fast. We didn’t stick around to risk lives more than necessary.
We were small and nimble fighting an enormous giant. The chances were stacked against us but we still had to fight. We couldn’t slow down, not for a second. Even a loss like this couldn’t break us.
“Help the girls,” I said. I moved away, got back into the elevator, and headed upstairs.
I got into my bedroom and shut the door. Wyatt’s computer wasn’t on, but I could easily fix that. I broke into his network and sent a power signal to his laptop, booting it up.
When it was ready, I sent him a message.
19
Wyatt
I woke up around four in the morning to my computer beeping like fucking mad. I got out of bed, groggy and annoyed. It had somehow turned on, though I had no clue how.
I took it out into the living room and banged on Ethan’s door. Eventually he opened it.
“What the fuck?” he asked.
I held it up. “Why is my computer on?”
“Because you forgot to turn it off?” he grunted at me.
“No. It just turned on and started making this noise.”
“Throw it out the window.”
“Ethan.”
“Fine.” He took it from me and opened the lid. He looked up at me and grinned. “I think your girlfriend sent you a message.”
I looked at it and smiled. “I guess she’s all in.”
“Looks liked it.” Ethan handed me the computer and shut his door.
In big, bold letters, the screen said, “Arturo Barone must die.”
I carried the laptop into my bedroom and typed her a message. “Meet tomorrow.” I turned it off and shut the lid before going back to sleep, a smile on my face.
She showed up at my hotel door around three in the afternoon that next day.
I didn’t plan on seeing her. I didn’t hear a peep at all, and I figured she was just busy. I had my own shit to deal with: an important case in the south of the state had just opened up that was taking up some of my time.
Chief Herbert called around noon to tell me that they were making some arrests of the Chicago dealers, which was exactly what I wanted. Most of those guys were in competition with the Barones, so I figured I could use this to help better the city while winning some favor with him.
I had no clue who to expect when she knocked. I just answered the door, figuring it was room service or something else Ethan had ordered.
Instead, there was Louisa Barone, looking gorgeous in a simple outfit of white sneakers, shorts, and a white t-shirt.
“Louisa,” I said, surprised.
“Wyatt.” She walked in and I shut the door behind her.
“This is a surprise.”
“I want to show you something.”