Page 31 of Lines Drawn
“I still can’t believe Cristian gutted him,” I mutter.
“Yeah…that’s pretty much the reason we’re fucked. From what I gathered—not that I actively spy on the Family, it’s a matter of keeping my skills up to par—Lio walked away from Il Padrone because he refused to do anything about it. Instead, Il Padrone is standing by Cristian.”
I let out a whistle, because that is fucking serious. “That’s not good.”
“Oh, it gets worse.” Antonio almost bounces in his seat. I tighten my fingers on the steering wheel, because if he’s happy, that means the gossip is gold. Fucker likes to know everything. “Benjamin stabbed Cristian.”
“What the fuck?!” I swerve in surprise and have to straighten out the SUV. Thankfully, there are no cops nearby. “That… Benjamin…”
“Yeah, so Carter left Cristian. Lio left Il Padrone. Ignacio was gutted. Oh, Tennant was stabbed. Also by Cristian. And now, Benjamin went ahead and stabbed Cristian. Isn’t it great?” My jaw drops and I can only make croaking noises. “So, can I listen to my music now?”
“Uh. Sure. Go ahead.” My mind races as I try to figure out some kind of strategy to fix this, but there’s nothing. “Fuck. I can’t even disagree with Lio on this. Il Padrone shouldn’t be backing Cristian.”
“Right? It’s going to be interesting. Thank fuck, Il Padrone hasn’t come searching for me. Yet. I don’t want to get involved in this.”
“Wait until family mealtime…” I cringe as I trail off. This is going to be beyond awkward.
Antonio switches playlists and I wrinkle my nose at his choice of music, but let it go. “We have a list of impossible targets. I’m sure I can be busy during mealtimes.”
“Smart.” I pull off the highway and slowly enter the residential area. “I’m doing the Fire Chief first. We’re supposed to only observe at this point.”
“It’s going to be way too slow to do that. Make a pass by his house, if it looks empty, I’m going to duck in.”
“Antonio…” I growl a warning, “Let’s not piss Il Padrone off anymore than he already is right now.”
“Do you want to spend weeks playing spy on the assholes, or get answers?”
“Fuck. Fine, but only if it’s empty.” I slow down to a crawl as we come up to the house and follow Antonio’s directions on where to park. He rummages inside the bag he brought, looking for a hat, sunglasses, and…a dog leash? “What the fuck, man?”
“I’m looking for my lost dog—duh.” With that, he hops out of the car and starts walking down the sidewalk, occasionally shaking the leash.
I stare in astonishment as he turns up the driveway that belongs to the Fire Chief. There’s no way he’d… Yep. He’s ringing the fucking doorbell. “Fuck, I hope they don’t have a door camera.”
When nobody answers, he disappears around the corner and I sit and wait, trying to keep my anxiety under control. He’s taking too much of a risk.
I watch the numbers slowly click over on the clock on the dash. Time has never moved so slow before. When a cop car comes down the road, I think I’m going to stop breathing completely. I carefully shift to check my gun, but the car doesn’t stop by me. No, it’s worse. It stops at the fucking Fire Chief’s house.
Two cops exit the car and stroll up to the house. They don’t bother knocking, they just walk right inside. I don’t have any data on this. There’s nothing in the profile that said he had friends among the cops—at least, not on that level. What the fuck?
Grinding my teeth, my fingers hover over my cell. The problem is…if his cell isn’t on silent, I’ll alert the fuckers. I swear, when Antonio makes it back, I’m going to take him straight back to the mansion and tell Il Padrone he needs his ass spanked. Then again, that’s probably a reward for him.
Sweat rolls off me, as I can’t do shit. Finally, five minutes after the cops enter the house, the SUV door opens and Antonio slides in. I don’t even know how he got here. It sure as hell wasn’tthe same way he went in, but fuck if I'm asking. I immediately put the car in drive and head out, my fingers flexing on the steering wheel.
“Oh, come off it,” Antonio grumbles. “I know you’re pissed, but the silent treatment?”
“You could have been found out! I don’t know who those officers were. I had no way to contact you safely. It’s one thing when we do this and you have your earbud in, but this solo cowboy shit? No. We’re not doing this again.” I turn onto the highway and floor it, having to fight myself not to go over the speed limit. I need to get away from my asshole best friend.
“Whatever. Do you at least want to hear what I found out?” Antonio rolls his eyes at me.
Grinding my teeth, I hesitate to answer. I don’t want to feed into his bad behavior, but something doesn’t line up. Giving up, I gesture for him to continue.
“They weren’t there for the Fire Chief.”
“What?!” I exclaim as I glance over at him.
“Yeah, so…there may be someone in the basement. I don’t have all the details. I want to go back later and break him out. The cops weren’t getting answers from him—at least, not that I could tell. I wasn’t able to make out all the words. So tonight, let’s break him out.”
“Fuck. Alright, we’ll talk to Il Padrone. If they’re holding someone…”
