by B. B. Hamel
But then again, that was what I admired about her. She wasn’t afraid to make choices and to try something. She wasn’t afraid of screwing up so badly that she was paralyzed with fear.
She was strong and she was brave.
Maybe she was too strong and too brave for her own good.
29
Cassidy
I knew Rafa wasn’t going to want me to help, but I couldn’t say no.
I was tired of Rafa and Vince scheming to save me. I didn’t want to be a burden. I knew that going out on my own and doing things against Rafa’s advice was probably a bad idea, and what got him shot in the first place, but I also knew that I had to keep trying. There was no real reason not to try to contact the Spiders for the mob.
They were just playing their political game, which I understood. Or at least I understood that they were playing it; I didn’t get how to actually play.
But if contacting the Spiders could help, I would try. I didn’t know if I even could get through to them without them knowing about the mafia, but I’d give it a shot. It just couldn’t hurt at this point.
With Rafa gone to talk to Vince, I decided to get out of the room. I hadn’t explored the compound much, so I found myself heading downstairs and out the back door, past the pool, and down a path between the stables.
It was beautiful outside. There was a slight breeze, and the trees were waving in the near distance. I headed past the stables, where I got hit with a powerful whiff of horse and hay. I went through an open field and slipped in along the tree line.
I just walked. I didn’t have a goal in mind; I was just walking along and looking at nature. It had been a while since I’d last gone for a walk like that with no real destination or anything in mind. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing else but me and the birds.
And the memory of Rafa’s body against mine. Despite everything that had happened, I still found myself wanting him so badly. It seemed almost stupid, but I felt incredibly close to him.
Maybe all that had happened had just worked to bring us closer together. We did get to know each other very well over those three days in the hospital room. We’d had nothing to do but play card games and talk about our lives.
Rafa hadn’t had the easiest life so far. He’d come from nothing and built something for himself, and he was intensely proud of that. I had to admit, I was drawn to that in him, that powerful and dominant approach to the world.
He wasn’t afraid to take what he wanted. I’d lived so much of my life afraid of what would happen if I acted, and it hadn’t been until I began researching human trafficking that I really felt alive. Of course, that hadn’t worked out so well for me, but still. I’d been on the verge of doing something good.
Now, though, my story was dead. I knew deep down that I’d never write it, even if I still wanted to. I was just too entangled with the mob at this point. There would be other stories to write, other important topics to illuminate.
But I was done writing about human trafficking. The thought almost made me sad, but I took a deep breath and wouldn’t allow myself to feel down. I’d done so much, and I had a child growing inside me. I wasn’t going to regret anything. I wouldn’t allow it.
I headed down a path and heard the sound of a slow-moving stream up ahead. Curious, I stepped through a break in the trees and the underbrush and stepped out onto the bank.
I stopped short at what I saw.
Standing in the water was Louisa Barone. She wore a loose, white button-down shirt and khaki pants that were rolled up her calves. She waved as soon as I stepped out.
I nearly jumped out of my shoes. I had never expected to see someone so deep in the forest, much less Louisa Barone standing calf-deep in the middle of a stream.
“Cassidy,” she called. “Come join me.”
“Uh,” I said, “no thanks.”
“Get out here. It’s lovely.”
I paused. “I don’t want to get wet.”
“Take off your shoes. You’re wearing shorts.”
I frowned. She had a good point.
Reluctantly, I took off my shoes, intensely aware of how weird the situation was. I waded out to her, being careful of where I stepped.
The water was cold, but it felt surprisingly good. The rocks were smooth and river-worn under my feet. I walked out toward her and stopped a few feet away.
Louisa smiled at me. I was struck all over again by how beautiful she was.
“How are you?” she asked.
“I’m okay.”
“I heard about Rafa. I’m glad he survived.”
“I am too.”
“He’s a good man.”
“He is.”
“How’s your stay here so far?”
“Good. I mean, great. This place is beautiful.”
“It is. Arturo works very hard to maintain it.”
“You must be proud.” I felt stupid for saying that.
“Not really.” She looked downstream.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked her.
“Waiting for you.”
I gaped at her, surprised. I finally smiled. “Good one. I was out here looking for you.”
“I’m not joking.” She crossed her arms, still staring downstream. “I was standing here in this cold water waiting for you, Cassidy.”
I cocked my head at her, still assuming she was kidding. “Why would you be waiting for me?”
“Because we need to talk.”
“About what?”
“The Spiders.”
My smiled slowly slipped away. “What do you know about them?”
“Did you know that my father has listening devices rigged up all over this forest?” She laughed, shaking her head. “He listens to everything that goes on around here, including the birds.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“My people told me that you were headed out to the forest, so I followed you. The path always leads people right to this stream, so I took a shortcut and waited for you, out in the middle.”
“Why?”
I didn’t understand what was going on. At first I had thought she was kidding, but the way she spoke made me think that she wasn’t.
Which was even worse.
“Because this is the only place in this entire compound that’s truly safe from my father. He doesn’t listen to the vast majority of the tapes, and usually they get destroyed, but I can’t take a single chance with what I’m about to tell you.”
“What?” I said, completely mesmerized.
“I’m in charge of the Spiders,” she said slowly. “I run them. I’m the Spiders, Cassidy.”
I shook my head, unable to believe her. The Spiders were the enemy of the Barone family. The Spiders had killed many of her father’s men. And she was telling me that she was their leader?
“I don’t believe you,” I said simply. “That’s insane.”
“I’m sorry if it seems crazy. It’s the truth.”
“The Spiders are your family’s enemy.”
“No,” she said harshly. “They’re my father’s enemy. My father, the man who forced me to begin my own mafia because he was too proud to allow his daughter to join him.”
Her face was livid and angry, and I could tell that an old wound had opened up. She looked away, back downstream, her face slowly relaxing to its normal, resting pose.
But in that moment of anger, I believed her. It was too real to be faked.
And I was terrified.
“Why would you tell me this?”
“Because I need you to help me, Cassidy.”
“You nearly killed Rafa.”
“No. My people nearly killed him. I ordered them to take you and to disable him, not to kill him. Unfortunately, Rafa is more skilled than I realized.”
“This is insane,” I said, taking a step back.
“Wait, Cassidy. Do you still want to save lives?”
“Of course,” I said. “But I’m done with the human trafficking st
ory.”
“I don’t care about your story. Do you want to know why I started the Spiders?”
“Okay,” I said. “Tell me.”
“I wanted to join the mafia ever since I was a young girl. Where most girls dreamed about their wedding day, I dreamed about the day I’d run my own crew. I was my father’s daughter, and I taught myself what I could about the business for as long as I could.
“Until one day, my father forbade me to learn any more. When I pushed back and wanted to join, he refused. And so instead of doing what he wanted, which was to go off to college to become some normal idiot girl, I locked myself in my bedroom and I learned.
“It all started online. I got very, very good with computers, and I slowly created a following. Soon, I had my own cyber gang, and that slowly evolved into the real thing. One day, I heard about the girls who were being bought and sold, and I knew I had to do something about it.
“We never called ourselves the Spiders. We wanted to save the city, stop the mob, and free the poor girls locked in sex slavery.
“Now, though, I want to start a real organization. To do so, I need to make peace with my father, and come out of the shadows.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing. This beautiful, strange girl had gone from a talented computer hacker to running a deadly and highly trained organization of freedom fighters, all because her father wouldn’t let her join the mob. She was either the craziest person I’d ever met or the most dangerous.
She smiled at me. “So now you know. I’m the leader of the Spiders and my father’s greatest enemy.”
“I still don’t understand what you want from me.”
“It’s simple. I want you to broker a peace between my people and my father’s people.”
“I can’t do that. I don’t have any power.”
“Sure you do. He thinks you can contact the Spiders, correct?
I nodded slowly. “That was you, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” she said, smiling. “It was me.” She shrugged and then continued. “Tell them we contacted you and want to meet to make peace. Tell them whatever you need to.”
“I don’t think they’ll make peace with you, Louisa.”
“They will,” she said. “The Russians are still out for blood, remember. We’re already in talks with them to end our bloodshed. Arturo will have to come around sooner or later.”
“Does your father know?”
“Of course not,” she said, laughing. “That old fool doesn’t know anything.”
“Why do you think he’ll listen to me?”
“He won’t. But he might be willing to listen to Rafa. Or at least he’ll come to the table, even if he comes to kill us all.”
“You’d walk into a trap.”
“Maybe.” She smiled. “I’m very good with traps.”
I shook my head, overwhelmed. I didn’t know how to take all of this in.
“Does Rafa know?”
“You’re the only person who knows. You cannot tell a single person about my involvement with the Spiders. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
She stared at me. “If you think you can get revenge for what we did to Rafa, think again. Despite what you think, I’ve done a lot of good for this city, and I won’t let you torch that.”
“I understand,” I repeated.
“Good.” She began to walk to the far bank. “Go tell Arturo you got in contact with us, and ask for a peace. I’ll know if he agrees.”
“Why me?” I called after her again.
“Because I like you.” She reached the far side and smiled at me. “Good luck, Cassidy. Don’t let me down.” She waved and then disappeared into the trees.
I stood there in the freezing water, not sure what to think.
That was so much to take in. Louisa Barone ran the Spiders, and she wanted me and Rafa to try to broker a peace. And I was the only person in the mob who knew her real identity.
I began to trudge back to my shoes, my mind whirling. I knew I wasn’t going to betray her trust, but I didn’t know if I could make this peace happen. I didn’t fully trust her, and I didn’t believe that she really wanted a peace deal.
Still, this was her father. It was her own damn family. She was a member of the Barone family, even if she wasn’t allowed to actually join the mafia. Could she really kill her own people?
I had no clue what to do. I sat down and tied my shoes, and I just stayed sitting. I stared out over the water, my mind running through the possibilities.
I had wanted to help, and now I had the perfect chance. If I could broker this peace and stop the war, maybe I could help save lives. But then again, the Spiders were the only ones fighting against human trafficking in the city. Maybe I’d be helping to create another violent gang and the sex slaves would lose their only ally.
Louisa did say that she wanted to turn them into a real organization, but I didn’t know what that meant. Maybe she wanted to keep saving the city, but she wanted to do it on a larger scale.
It was too much for me to handle. I needed Rafa’s input, but I couldn’t tell him the most important parts.
I took a deep breath.
It was up to me. I didn’t know why Louisa had put it up to me, but she had.
I had to make the choice. I had to decide if I wanted to trust Louisa and help the Spiders, or if I would betray her and help the mafia.
I shook my head and stared at the water, lost in thought.
30
Rafa
Of course I was fucking skeptical of this peace deal. It just made no sense. I hated to admit it to myself, but as far as I could tell, the Spiders were winning. Sure, we’d killed a few of them and finally interrogated one, but we still knew nothing about them.
They were the terror in the night. They had the whole mob on edge, and if that was what they wanted, they had succeeded. We couldn’t hit them back because we didn’t know where to hit. There had been that one safe house a couple months back, but that had been a fluke. Since then, nothing.
Cassidy had nothing more to offer than that, though. She’d told me that they contacted her on her laptop again at a random time when she wasn’t even searching for them. She said they wanted to broker a peace, and they wanted her to do it.
I had no reason to mistrust Cassidy. She’d been honest with me from the start, and really, she was the one in the most danger. Maybe she was a little reckless and made bad choices, but that didn’t make her a liar. Still, I could tell there was more to this deal than she was letting on, but I didn’t press.
I had to trust her as much as she trusted me. If she needed me to know, then I’d know. Otherwise, I was going to go forward with this plan.
Truth was, brokering a deal with the Spiders was a good idea for us. It meant that they weren’t just a fanatical group of anti-mafia killers. It meant they could be reasoned with, and if they could be reasoned with, they could be dealt with. We’d see them for the first time, truly face to face, and learn about our enemy.
I knocked on Arturo’s office door and waited. “Come,” he called from inside.
I stepped into the room and closed the door behind me. I sat down in one of the leather chairs in front of his desk and leaned back.
“So?” he asked. “You have something important.”
“Cassidy was contacted by the Spiders again.”
He raised an eyebrow. “We’ve been monitoring her computer. My tech guys didn’t mention anything.”
I shrugged. “Maybe the Spiders are better than your guys.”
“Maybe.” He pursed his lips. “I don’t like that. Sounds like I’ll need new tech guys.”
“You might. But that’s not the important part.”
“What did the Spiders say?”
“According to Cassidy, they want her to broker a peace between us and them.”
Arturo stared at me for a second and then burst out laughing. “Peace?”
“Peace,” I confirmed. “They want to mee
t and talk.”
“That’s insane. Why the hell would we agree to something like that?”
“Because it’s a good idea.”
He laughed again, shaking his head. “No, young Rafa. I didn’t get to my position by making peace deals with people like the Spiders.”
“True. But we have no other options, do we?”
“We aren’t so desperate yet.”
“I think we are. The Spiders are winning this war, bit by bit. We still know nothing about them.”
“True, but we have the superior numbers and size.”
“Do we?”
He stroked his chin. “It’s true that we know nothing about them.”
“Making peace will allow us to learn about them. More than that, it proves that they’re not just a bunch of crazy people.”
“Crazy people don’t make peace with their enemies,” he agreed.
“We can work with them, learn them. And then destroy them if we need to.”
He sighed. “Nobody is going to like this. Too many of our men have died for this to go over well.”
“Fuck what they think. The bosses will understand.”
“Some won’t.”
“They can be convinced.”
Arturo shook his head. “I don’t understand why you’re pushing this so hard, Rafa. This will mean that we can continue pursuing human trafficking, which I understand you’re against.”
“True, but I’m also against a losing war. The other thing, we can figure that out internally. We can’t do both at the same time.”
He nodded, and I could tell that he was seeing reason. I didn’t know what was going on beyond that inscrutable face of his, but he at least was hearing me. Maybe he was making plans to kill me, or maybe he was making plans to meet with the Spiders. Either way, I did what I had said I would do. I made my stand, and that was all I could do.
“Very well,” Arturo said. “I have a lot to think about.”
I stood up. “We’ve made peace with enemies before, and we’ll do it again.”
“That we will.”