Page 10 of Blood & Loyalties
I quirked my brow in challenge, reaching behind me and pulling out my gun then setting it on the table in front of me. If he wanted to be disrespectful, I would show him real quick what that would get him.
“Why?”
There was always a reason for quick change in protocol. Nothing that involved product and money got done at the snap of a finger. Discussions happened before anything was even considered. Remeo should know that unless he had already talked to Vino and Sal fully, and they were on board with it.
“Zan’s a fuck-up.” He stood and walked over to the bar, grabbing a manila envelope and tossing it on the table. It slid across the flat surface, stopping right in front of me.
Anger rose inside, and it took every bit of control I could muster to keep it reined in.
“Read this shit. Take it. You’ll figure it out quick enough,” he dismissed.
“You’re accusing my uncle of some serious things here.” I grabbed the envelope and held it in the air. “You sure this will be enough to convince me not to put a bullet in your head?”
“You’ll see it.”
I rose from the chair, placing my gun in the back of my jeans and clutching the envelope. “Remeo,” I said, walking around the table and standing in front of him.
“Yeah?” he answered calmly.
I nailed him hard in the gut with my fist, causing all the air to leave him in a whoosh. He tumbled to the floor.
“Remember who the fuck you’re dealing with. If you act like that to me again, you’ll get much more.” I left his wheezing body on the floor, opened the door, and motioned for my men to follow me. I needed to get the hell away from Remeo before I really did put a bullet in his head.
The shock of the information lying at my feet was eating at me. I wanted to look in the envelope I was carrying. It couldn’t be fucking true. My uncle wouldn’t do shit, right?
In the car, I opened the envelope, and a DVD, pictures, and a stack of papers stapled together floated out into my hand. I sifted through the numbers on the papers and didn’t have to look hard to see the numbers weren’t adding up. From the looks of it, some other product was in the mix with ours, but it wasn’t clear what it was. The pictures were a bit grainy, but several were of Zan talking with another player in the field, Johnny. He had been a rival to the Lambardoni’s for years, trying to take over our claim, which would never happen, but that didn’t stop him from trying.
Entering the hotel room, I pulled out my laptop and plugged in the DVD. Sure enough, Zan, Johnny, and some guy I had never seen and couldn’t make out were in several different meetings. Fuck.
First thing’s first, I had to figure out if it was legit info. Then, uncle or not, I had to gut the motherfucker.
“Is this shit legit?”was the first question I asked my bosses at the meeting later that day. It had taken me a bit to come down from the seething anger that swept over me at having the hood pulled over my eyes.
How in the fuck did I not see this shit? With having our major distribution in California and then our sellers here, it gave us a lot of wiggle room to hide shit when necessary. A cross country sting by cops was much trickier, but with this new development, I might not be able to stay that far away.
“We had our computer guy, Techie whatever…” Vino waved his hand dismissively. He had never been a tech person; he was always more hands-on. “Unfortunately, yeah. This is why we called you here and didn’t discuss it over the phone. No idea if anything is bugged. We are having all offices, meeting rooms, and houses swept as we speak. This won’t be pretty.”
“Why not just talk to me instead of having that fuck-ass Capella?” Did they not fucking trust me?
When Vino and Sal laughed, I glared.
“Remeo wouldn’t get off our asses after he brought the information about your uncle to us, so we figured, if he saw you, it’d shut him up for a while. He didn’t summon you; we did.” Sal said.
That sounded so much better than that little half-wit calling me at his whim. I was still fucking irritated at the whole damn thing, though not as pissed.
“It was also best that you learned about Zan here and not in California.” I could see his point. “And truth be told, we didn’t want to be the ones to tell you.”
I seethed at the last comment. Why in the fuck did they not want to tell me?
I decided to let it go for now. “Do you have a plan?”
Vino’s face turned deadly in a flash. That man had been doing this shit for longer than I had been alive, and he knew it well. He also knew exactly what to do in all situations: big, small, and in-between. That was why he was the boss.
“Trap him. Make one hundred goddamn percent sure Zan’s a disloyal piece of shit, and then dismantle his distribution and wipe him out.”
“You want me to set it up?” Even though Zan was my blood uncle, he was bringing the family down, and that shit would not be tolerated.
“No. We have it in play as we speak. The three of us along with Val and Matteo will come back to the table and evaluate the evidence. We’ll have to fix that whole line, and Remeo is giving us that out.”
