Page 2 of Operation Wolf: Eli
Nick Santorini was a capo for the Chicago Outfit, the Italian mobster organization my dad used to belong to. I had worked for them indirectly via the street gang I used to run with. I’d quit the business shortly after Dad was shot during a gang fight, but I remembered Nick as one of Dad’s drinking buddies.
“Sure. What can I do for an old friend of my father’s?”
“Ah, so you do remember! That’s good,” Nick replied with a chuckle. “See, I wasn’t sure if you would, what with you being gone so long. I’m really sorry to interrupt your conversation with your buddy Ian over here, but I felt like he wasn’t adequately explaining the situation to you, and I just wanted to help him out.”
“Sure,” I replied, feeling a cold lump of lead drop into my stomach. I could already see where this was going, and I cursed myself for being stupid enough to answer the call. “What exactly is the situation?”
“Well, see, Ian’s gotten himself into a bind here,” Nick explained. “He’s got a fairly good eye for poker, but he slips up when he’s drunk, and he owes one of our casinos quite a chunk of money.”
I bit back a groan. “How much?”
“Well, it’s in the six figures. Ian’s a good kid though, and we’ve been trying to work with him on the payments, but I’m afraid the boss has run out of patience. Either he’s got to pay up now, or we’re going to have to pull the deal, if you know what I’m saying.”
I swallowed, knowing what that meant. They were going to kill Ian if he didn’t quickly pay the debt. There was no way my old friend was going to be able to come up with anything close to the amount that would assuage the Outfit once they got blood in their eyes.
“I’m not sure what I can do to help, Nick. I don’t have six figures to lend Ian.”
“Well, I figured you wouldn’t, with you just coming back from the military and all.” Nick chuckled.
“How did you know that?” I snapped.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Ian told me. Anyway, I wish soldiers got paid that kind of cash, but that just isn’t how it goes. Nah, I’m not after you to try to squeeze you for cash, sonny. What I want is your expertise.”
“My expertise?”
“Yeah, that’s right. See, good soldiers are getting tougher to find these days, especially with the FBI cracking down on us harder than they used to. The boss is starting up a new business opportunity, and we can’t have guys on board who are going to turn into informants and go running off to witness protection. Bad for business.” He paused for a moment and then continued, “I remember you did good work back in the day, sonny, and I want you to come and work for us again. If you do, we’ll consider Ian’s debt paid in full.”
“I see,” I replied slowly.
I wholeheartedly wished I could reach through my cell and throttle the shit out of Ian. Doing so would certainly save me a lot of damn trouble. But, deep down inside, I knew I couldn’t let the mob kill Ian, not if there was a way for me to stop it. Though Ian was a weak-willed man, he’d always been there for me in the past and even saved my ass on a few occasions. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself if I turned my back on my old friend now.
“How long will I have to serve?” I countered.
“Excuse me?”
“How long will I have to serve the Outfit?” I rephrased my question. “If I’m doing this to pay off a debt, I’m assuming I won’t be getting paid. I want to know how long I have to serve and whether or not I’m going to need to quit my job at the club and find a different one that’ll fit better with my schedule.”
“Oh, don’t worry about keeping a second job. You’ll still get paid,” Nick assured me. “Maybe not as much as your father did, not with you starting off as a soldier and all, but you’ll make enough to keep that nice little apartment you’ve got there. As for the time frame, I think five years is a good number to pay off $250,000, don’t you, Ian?” I didn’t hear Ian say anything in the background, but I assumed Ian nodded because Nick said, “Exactly. Five years, Eli. That’s all we’re asking for. Then you’re free to get on with your life.”
“Okay,” I agreed, even though I knew Nick was lying.
Once you joined the mob, you were usually in for life unless you went to the Feds, offering to cough up valuable information in exchange for protection. Witness protection was the last place I wanted to go. Since I couldn’t go back to the military again, I could see no alternative aside from letting the mob kill Ian. And even that wouldn’t help now that they knew I was back in town and where I lived. They’d simply find some other way to leverage me back into the mob, and if that didn’t work, they’d just kill me.
What the mob wants, the damn mob gets.
“That’s what I wanted to hear!” Nick chuckled. “The boys will be so glad to hear you’re back, Eli. They really will. We’ll have something for you tomorrow, so be here by eight o’clock.” He rattled off an address to me. “Ian will be here too, so you’ll have a friendly face to look forward to.”
“See you then, Nick.”
I ended the call, knowing that my last few hours of freedom would soon be over.
