Page 156 of The Dominator

“Yeah; they want a million cash. That’s it. These guys are small time, guys hired by Castillo’s nephew. They were hired to take out a hit on Tommy but decided to sell him back. They want you delivering the money. Pop has enough money in his vault. I’ll get it and we’ll make the drop.”

I was speechless. Dario pulled around in a U-turn and drove in the opposite direction. Ten minutes later we were at their pop’s place and Dario pulled in and made me follow him inside.

“Why do they want me delivering the money?”

We were in Tom’s office and Dario was opening a safe in the wall behind a family photo of Tom and the four grandkids.

“They probably figure you won’t shoot them; you’ll give them the money and they can get outta there clean. They’ll figure if I’m in there it’s a big chance that I’ll be carrying and it’ll go south.”

Dario pulled out ten stacks of bills and then put them into a duffle bag that he’d fetched from a closet.

“But what if they just take the money and shoot me? What if Tommy’s already... already...” I was panicking, big time.

“I’ll have you covered. We’ll have the place crawling with men. Let’s go. They’re calling in fifteen minutes with the drop location.

“You sure they’ve got Tommy?”

“They put him on the phone.”

The idea of Tommy being taken seemed all but impossible to me. He was so strong, had such a presence, it was hard to imagine him being overpowered. The idea that they’d found his safe house and could’ve shot him…

Dario interrupted my thoughts, “This crew is small time. We give them the money, get Tommy, Tommy and I eliminate the bigger threat, and we send some of our guys to get our money back and take these guys out. It’ll all work out. Don’t stress.”

Don’t stress? Easy for him to say! There was so much going on here. Tom Ferrano in a hospital bed, my father in jail and a sitting duck (or maybe by now a dead duck), Tommy kidnapped for ransom and not from the bigger threat but some other new threat, the rest of the family in hiding. Tessa’s husband dead. And me: expected to do a money drop to get Tommy back?

All while wondering if my own dad was alive or dead.

Dario pulled into a coffee shop drive thru and ordered a coffee and looked to me. “Just water,” I muttered and he ordered for us and then parked in front and stared at the phone.

They’d tracked me somehow to the farm and waited. They ran my bike off the road just down the road and I’d gotten knocked out cold. When I came to, they had disarmed me and had me cuffed in the back of their covered pickup. Now we were in a motel room. I knew this motel. It was two minutes from my condo, where my brother now lived. I knew the décor because I’d fucked a girl here a few months ago and then one of the guys had come in from outside and I recognized the neon diner sign across the road.

These guys were trying to be up and comers, subbing work for Jesse Romero, Juan Carlos Castillo’s nephew. They were stupid. They were careless. And I didn’t like that I’d heard them demand my girl make the drop for the money. I was relieved that my brother had Tia with him, but Dare had better find another way. There was no way he’d send Tia in here. Would he?

I didn’t know how she’d wound up with him, but that was a relief. I didn’t want to think about what they’d have done to her if they’d caught her back at the farm and the minute I woke and knew they’d found my safe house I’d been sick with worry about her being there, vulnerable. There were two of them, one had junkie written all over him. The other guy, a jock type, started chirping at me, asking me what my girl looked like, why there were no pics of her on my phone, talking about how maybe he’d get a taste before they let me go. I sat, not giving them anything, no words, no looks, just dead eyes.

All that was wrong right now with me was a bit of road rash, a kick to the ribs, and I’d been hit in the face when they asked me her ice cream question and asked what my pet name was for her. When she stopped answering their texts after my face made them think they knew what the right answer was based on the answers they were running through, they knew they were skunked. I was proud of my girl for suspecting it wasn’t me texting her.

These guys weren’t smart or sober enough to win at this game. They were out-of-towners who had no idea how connected my family was, but they would soon find out. Dare would deal with this shit and get me outta here so we could finish dealing with Romero.

There was a digital alarm clock on the nightstand beside me. I was sitting on the floor against the wall. I watched time tick by and about an hour passed and then my burner phone rang. The junkie answered it,

“You got the money? Have the bitch bring it. Room 302, Knight’s Inn on Lakeshore. She comes alone or we put a bullet in your brother and then in her.”

Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Jock opened it with a gun behind his back and Junkie stood with the gun pointing at me.

After the door swung open, I saw a female figure step into the room carrying a backpack. I was fuming. How could Dare send her in here? Then I realized something wasn’t right. She was taller than Tia. The light caught her face and I saw that it wasn’t Tia. Who was it? It was Bianca. Good thinkin’, Dare. I hid my smile.

Bianca grew up with us. Her pop was as bad a bad ass as they come. Bee was badass herself. We used to practice together on the gun range. Her, me, and Earl. She could shoot better than most men I knew. If she’d been a boy she would’ve been right in there with Dare and I running things. If her pop hadn’t been taken out by mine and she’d been a boy, she’d be running the show; we’d all be working for her. Knowing her like I did, she could run the show, female or not. She was happy to be a mother and run her salon, but the chick was smart, cunning, and she was good with not just a gun but her fists and her feet. She’d taken martial arts as a kid and she once beat the shit out of Dario for dumping her best friend’s little sister for another girl. Gave him two black eyes and then cracked a rib with one of her roundhouse kicks.

“Here’s the money. Please let him go,” she said softly.

Junkie took the bag and opened it. Jock started circling her.

“Damn, girl. You got a fine ass on you,” he said.

Bee rolled her eyes at me.

He leaned over and touched her face. “Maybe you need to pay just a little more, a tax, to get your boyfriend outta here.”

---