Page 35 of Sacred Vow

“It was a set up,” he said darkly.

“You don’t say.”

“I’m sorry, Romeo, I let you down.”

“Keep your head in the battle, Simo, we can discuss your failures later, for now, wound one and kill the rest.”

Sirens could be heard in the distance getting closer by the second. Time to get the hell out of here.

Their ambush hadn’t finished us. Now, between the spreading fire, our counter-attack, and the approaching sirens, they broke and bolted. Both my brothers seized the opportunity–Massimo peppering one guy’s legs with bullets and Fausto taking deliberate aim and blasting out another guy’s knees, first one and then the other. While any of their men grabbed their wounded and made their escape, Massimo heaved his screaming victim into the trunk of his car and turned to me.

“Go,” I ordered. “I’ll finish up here.”

Massimo nodded and was gone. Dante seized Fausto’s wounded and ran for another car. The rest of our men grabbed their injured and made their getaway in the growing chaos as Fausto and I rallied our surviving troops.

The wind was strong, whipping the flames higher and sending sparks out to other warehouses. I’d lose the whole block for certain, but I didn’t care. It would take all night to put the fire out, and although I knew the bullets would be found in an investigation, we paid the authorities well to overlook them. Fausto and I ran to the front of the building in time to see an unfamiliar car, but it had no plates and whoever was behind the tinted windows shot the men attempting to climb in and peeled away. I emptied my gun into the vehicle. Fausto fired what should have been a clean head-shot into the driver’s window, but either they had bullet-proof windows or there was a ghost behind the wheel.

The guy’s a ghost, I swear.

Well, no time to think about it now. Time to get home, and ensure the safety of the family.

Hours later, and after two slow deaths, I was no closer to learning who was after me. The men we took talked plenty, but knew nothing. Hired guns, didn’t even know who they were shooting at. But even that told me something: that whoever ordered the hit didn’t want me to know it was them, and that meant I knew them. At the very least, we had a leak, and possibly more than one.

That revelation didn’t come as a surprise. The thefts and attacks were too perfectly timed. There was no other way for them to know unless they were getting their information from the source. And again, Massimo was quick to point out that those attacks only started after my marriage.

“Vittoria has no part of this,” I said in a tone that should have put an end to it, but my brother’s frustration was at its limit.

“Why is it so hard for you to accept the obvious fact that Vittoria is a plant, sent here by her father to bring down our organization?”

“I’m getting tired of this, Massimo. Let me ask you, how do you expect Vittoria to have access to this information? She isn’t privy to anything we do. The first time our shipments were seized, she was still spending her down-time handcuffed to the bed. I agree the timing is suspicious, but my wife has nothing to do with these attacks. If you had half as much interest in finding the real enemy as you do in blaming her, we’d have them by now.”

Massimo scowled, but did seem to take a mental step back and think about what I’d said.

“What about her guards?” I prompted. “Do we know where Theo is tonight?”

Massimo shot me another glare. “Yes, he was at the docks, and if he wanted you dead, he’d have put a bullet in you instead of taking three of them making sure you survived. I vetted that man. I trust him.”

“We got some new faces around the grounds. You trust all of them like you do Theo?”

“Of course not,” Massimo snapped. “Which is why they don’t have access to areas with sensitive information! In fact, the only men with that kind of access are yours, mine and —“

“Don’t even say it,” I warned.

“Look, Rom, we knew things would be shaky after your father died. We knew you expanding the shipping routes would encourage attacks, but these are very targeted and time specific. No one just gets lucky that many times in a row. There has to be an informant in our ranks, high in the ranks.”

He was right of course, but what to do…

“Let’s get them at their own game,” I decided. “We’ll plant a dummy schedule that only the senior capos have access to. When they attack, we’ll have narrowed down the options. Put trackers on all their vehicles, but don’t let them know. And I mean all of them, even what they drive here, is that clear? Let the asshole come to us.”

My consigliere nodded his head.

“And add Simon to that list,” I said. “He has more access than the average soldier and works alone. He could easily share information without getting noticed.”

“Consider it done. But, boss —“

“No. I don’t want to hear it. Stop chasing shadows and do your job, Massimo. When everything is done and we’re back in control, then you can get all maudlin and apologize, but right now, I need you on your A-game.” My tone softened and I gripped his shoulder. “Let it go, brother.”

I felt the shift, his resolve strengthened. He nodded once, silent, and left.