Page 35 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
And there it was. Niko was speeding in his Corvette when he entered an intersection. He had to slam on brakes to avoid colliding with a big Dodge Durango, and nearly lost total control as he overcorrected. But they collided anyway, causing audible gasps in the room.
“Good Lord,” said a stunned Savannah.
The gunmen, none of whom hid their faces, ran up on the Corvette with guns drawn. The leader dragged Niko out of his car and tossed him into the backseat of another SUV. The leader got in beside him and the SUV took off.
“We traced that SUV for several blocks,” said Scottie, “relying on other cameras in the area, but then it disappeared into neighborhoods with no cameras anywhere. We lost them.”
“Do we have a read on who these people are?” asked Marcellus.
“Only the leader,” said Scottie as he rewound the video to when the leader was grabbing Niko out of the Corvette. Scottie drew a box around the leader’s face. “His name is Boris Escabatti, a particularly rough character with ties to the Russian and Greek Mafias.”
“The Mafia?” said a frightened Kalayna. “Niko was involved in the Mafia?”
“We don’t know that yet. But we do know he was making deals with criminals of various stripes, including Escabatti.”
“What kind of deals?” asked Marcellus.
“Ammunitions mainly. Firearms occasionally.”
Marcellus frowned and looked at Scottie. “Where is he getting ammo to move like that?”
“We don’t know.”
“Your ass didn’t even know he was involved in this shit,” said Freddy. “Did you?”
Scottie hated to admit it. “No, I didn’t. He was moving under the radar.”
Freddy shook his head. “Now we’ve got a fucking mafia crisis on our hands too. You can’t make this shit up!”
Marcellus felt as frustrated as Freddy sounded. “Now that we know this Escabatti is involved, what are we doing about it?”
“Tracking him down and anybody with any connection to him whatsoever. We’re also running backgrounds on the other faces in the abduction. If we find them, we will be holding them until Niko’s released. That includes their children, their wives, and anybody else affiliated with them.”
“Children?” asked Savannah. “You’re going to kidnap children?”
“See Pop? That’s what happens when you let outsiders sit in on family matters.”
“She’s not an outsider. She makes a good point.”
“So you agree with her?” Scottie had shock in his voice. His siblings were in disbelief too.
Until Marcellus spoke again. “No, I don’t agree with her. You bring in whoever the fuck you need to bring in until my child is back home safe and sound. I don’t care if it’s an infant. You take that motherfucker and throw her in a cage too. They nearly killed my son during that abduction.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” said Scottie with a nod. He knew his old man wasn’t getting soft. No way.
But Savannah was horrified. She knew Marcellus could be hard, but notthathard. But who was to say how she would feel had it been a child of hers in that situation? That was why she decided, from then on out, to keep her displeasures to herself.
“We’ve got everybody on it,” Scottie continued. “I have armies of men trying to find Boris, and I’ve got my office using every available face recognition technique to find out the names and locations of the rest of that gang.”
Marcellus was pleased to hear it.
“When did it happen?” asked Savannah.
Scottie rolled his big blue eyes.
“Answer her question,” ordered Marcellus.
“It happened two weeks ago. Okay? The date stamp’s right there.” He pressed angrily at the screen.
