*Leo*
I was so pissed I nearly threw the phone that Franky’s voice ca out of across the room. What the ever-loving fuck? This was just my luck. The way things were going lately I could have probably predicted this whole scenario.
Three n dead, a drop off point shot up to hell, and now I was heading to an address that Franky gave as he interrupted himself to take another call. This ti it was much, much worse.
When I arrived at the address that Franky gave , I started swearing even harder. This was bullshit. The whole damn block was shot up to hell. They rated the warehouse there. So of my n were down. A few of their n were down. None of them were breathing.
The rest of my n stood around, waiting for to get there. I got out of the SUV. I had sped all the way there, and now, I headed straight for the front door.
“Boss,” one of my n called to , stepping in front of , trying to keep from going through the front door of the warehouse.
“Get out of my way, Jacob,“ I ordered.
“I just wanted to prepare you, boss, it don’t look good in there.“
“What went down, Jacob?” I stared into Jacob’s eyes, waiting for his explanation.
“Well,” he began, swallowed hard and started sputtering out the story to .
Apparently, him and the guys have been fucking around not really paying attention to what the hell was going on around them. I wanted to smack so sense into the big dummy, but he had been expecting a normal night just like everybody else had.
I hadn’t expected to have to leave my house in the middle of the night to co check on a warehouse that should’ve been safe. Jacob didn’t expect for a raid to happen during his watch either.
I had to keep my cool as I listened to the story unfold about how several n in masks started shooting at them imdiately. They had fought back, trying to protect what was mine and the families.
Several of my n both inside and out were shot. So of them were wounded, others were dead. No matter what was going on between and Michael, he shouldn’t have gone after my n like this.
“Boss, there’s one more thing,“ Jacob shook all over. I was sure he was terrified that I was going to kill his ass.
“What is it, Jacob?” I asked, trying to smooth out my expression. Maybe if I stopped scowling at him, he’d stop being so nervous?.
The man stood in front of , ringing his hands like a woman. I wasn’t going to hurt him. I wanted to lash out, but this was no more his fault than it was mine. I wanted Michael’s head on a fucking platter, and killing Jacob wasn’t going to get what I wanted.
“I don’t know who did it, but the press is here. Sobody called them in.”
Fuck my life! Why in the hell was everything going wrong all of a sudden. It was like everybody thought I wouldn’t do what Elio did as the Don. They were highly mistaken. I was a lot more ruthless than Elio had been.
I knew how to scrape for what I wanted and what I needed. I knew how to survive, and I didn’t quibble over killing sobody just because they thought I wouldn’t. Elio was far more empathetic, I wasn’t. And now I was highly pissed.
Michael thought doing stupid shit like this would make weak, but all it did was make hunt for him more. When I got my hands on him, I’d make an example out of him. I wouldn’t quibble about killing him in front of his n and all of fucking LA if I could.
The only thing that would stop from killing him in front of all of LA was the fact that I didn’t want to end up behind bars, but there were so many people that would know what I had done to him and why. They wouldn’t fuck with my family again after this.
Then, I saw Peter, our cop.
“What’s up cop?“ I asked, staring at him.
“Fuck, Leo, there’s nothing I can do.“
I closed my eyes and breathed in deep. Again, I had to stop myself from lashing out and beating Peter within an inch of his fucking life.
“What do you an? There’s nothing you can do?” I asked, clenching my fingers and holding myself back. This rage would have to wait to be satisfied. Peter and Jacob were not the ones I needed to take it out on.
“I won’t be able to hide most of the details because the press was brought in.“
I pushed my fingers through my hair and started to pace. Every curse word I’d learned since the age of six ran through my mind. It was hard to think through everything that was going on and the stress and anger that bombarded from all sides.
I was a businessman. I was the Don. I had to figure this out. I had to save my people and keep them safe. Right now, I wasn’t doing that. I wanted to scream and holler and tell everyone to just leave the states for now. But I couldn’t do that either.
We still had business operations throughout the United States that I hadn’t shut down because we couldn’t. While we had sent a lot of our stuff across the pond to Italy, we still had several operations here in the States.
What was I supposed to do? Tell our contracts in the United States that we were at war with another LA family? Hell no, I wasn’t going to do that. I couldn’t tell anybody about a war that wasn’t even supposed to exist.
Every step I took I kept running into a wall of I can’t or it won’t work. Still, I had to figure sothing out for my n.
“Pete?“ I hollered for him before he could leave.
“What’s up, Leo?“ The cop asked.
“Is it possible to get bulletproof vests for my n? We could pay for them.“
The cop stood there for a mont and thought about it. he looked unsure, but said he’d look into it for . That was one of the things that I could do for my n. I could get them better protection.
It was crazy to have them wearing helts and flak jackets to guard a fucking building that should be safe, but I wasn’t taking any more chances with my people. The won and children were going to have to stay at ho and keep out of the streets for right now.
We would hook everybody up with delivery apps and make sure they had a subscription, so that it would keep cost down. No more going to the grocery store or going out to eat. If they wanted to eat, they needed to eat in.
With the children at ho, we would buy more ga consoles and stuff like that, maybe so more tablets and iPads and iPhones. We had to do sothing to keep them entertained and in the house.
I didn’t want our kids being shot up by crazy mother fuckers that wanted to kill my family. This had to stop, and the only way I could think to make things easier was to try and keep everybody in their central locations.
The top heads of the family would probably have to co to the compound, but I wasn’t that desperate yet. Besides, even though this was a complete cluster fuck, I wanted to make sure things between and Bianca were better before I start pulling people into our ho.
“Why in the world would they do this?“ I asked Franky as he walked up to .
I had let Jacob convince to stay out of the warehouse because I knew Franky was inside taking care of everything in there.
“The only reason I can think of for them to attack this drop off Point and publicize it by calling in the press is to compromise our reliability with this particular client?”
I stared at Franky for a mont and calculated the odds. This was our drop off point connected to two specific clients. One of them was a big company and the other one was a small-ti dealer that we had been in bed with for decades and still helped out occasionally.
Franky’s assessnt made sense to . I nodded at Franky’s question, my hands in my pocket. I was glad that one of us was thinking clearly tonight. I was a bundle of emotions. and Bianca had fought earlier, then Franky had called with the report about our n and the other drop off point. Now, this.
I needed to get my head screwed on straight and stop worrying about shit. I couldn’t change. I couldn’t handle the whole Bianca thing right now because I had this to deal with. So, deal with this, I would.
Just as I blew out of breath and tried to Center myself to deal with the situation in front of , my phone rang. When I saw the number of the CEO of the company this warehouse was connected to, I trembled a little bit. I wasn’t afraid so much as angry and disgusted.
“What the actual fuck, Leo?“ Carlson Marks, the president and CEO of Mark’s enterprises asked without preamble.
“I’m trying to figure that out myself right now.”
“Well, you’d better figure it out and figure it out fast!“ Carson yelled in my ear.
“Wait a minute. I better do what? I think you’d better rember who you’re talking to, Marks,” I said, lowering my voice and putting nace in my tone.
I wasn’t above taking my anger out on Carlson. He was a rich boy and spoiled rotten. He was spending his daddy’s money and sending his products to people he assud had to do his bidding. I helped him because of the money and because it was supposed to be an easy deal. He scratched my back. I scratched his. He wanted to get nasty, so would I.
“Shit, I’m sorry, Leo, but you and I both know how this looks. My product is missing and not only that, the press is all over this. The police are going to be all over this, too. I cannot have my company associated with your family and they’re dealings.”
“And who said it would be?“ I asked, my voice smooth, calm, with a hint of sarcasm thrown in for good asure.
“You and I both know that the warehouse can be tied back to . I swear if this gets out will end our contract with you and your family.“
“This isn’t a bank, Carlson,“ I said smoothly. “I’m not your average businessman and you know that. So don’t threaten unless you want more than just your company on the line. Maybe you’d like to have your neck on the line as well?“
I heard him gulp over the line just before I hung up.
“Dumb bastard,” I muttered, and slid the phone back into my pocket.
“Michael seems to know how to cause more damage than we thought,“ Franky said, standing beside with his hands in his pockets and surveying the ridiculous circus this had beco.
After the first call with Carlson, I sighed as I knew the next call was only the beginning of a barrage of calls from different contracts around the country. I wish I could pass it on to Franky, but I knew better. They needed to hear from the Don.
Many of the callers only wanted to make sure it wasn’t their drop off points that had been compromised. It was nice to be able to tell them that no it wasn’t. However, I had to answer calls from the smaller family that we worked with on a regular basis, and I wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.
When I was able to get a mont between phone calls, I snagged Franky for a mont.
“Hey, I want you to find out what happened here and how everything went down.“
Franky shook my hand and clapped on the back saying that he would have a report in the morning. I walked to my SUV and sat down in the driver seat to call The Monticello Family and give them the bad news.
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