Matteo is our intermediary, the person in charge of connecting different parts of the Messina clan together and helping us work together as a team. He’s Riccardo’s cousin and Liss’s husband. They got married after she betrayed Giovanni-as it turned out, for a good reason, because Gerardo had managed to deceive and hurt even her. Apparently, killing one’s family member and then blaming it on the Messinas is the best way of gaining loyalty.
Can you fix it?
I send Matteo a message along with the photo of the car before turning around to face the warehouse. It’s the main base of the Messina
clan, an old storage for farm machinery that has been turned into a facility for packing and sending drugs to different parts of the country. Even so late at night, it looks like a busy hive with the voices of dozens of workers and bright lights reflected on the surface of Little Calumet River.
It is pretty, in a way, but I don’t linger for long enough to appreciate it.
As I walk to the warehouse, I look at the window of Riccardo’s
office on the second floor, and the dim lights inside make me pick up my pace. Maybe I will be able to catch him after all. I walk past the guards, raising a hand at the one I’ve had a few patrols with, and run up the stairs- only to bump into Paolo halfway there.
“Hey, careful,” he grumbles in his usual manner, but I can’t blame him for being tired at this time of night. It takes him a moment to recognize me, though, and he frowns deeper. “Isabella? What are you doing here?”
“I have something important to tell Riccardo. Is he still in the office?”
I didn’t even realize how out of breath I am, but at least it makes me sound urgent enough for Paolo to give me a sharper look. “He’s still up there.”
I nod and hurry past him to the office, Paolo’s steps following right behind me. Well, it’s good for him to hear it as well.
“Has Matteo told you?” I say as soon as I burst through the door and step inside. “Gerardo is back.”
In addition to Riccardo, Louis and Sasha are there as well, and all three of them turn to me with a look of surprise on their faces. But while Louis and Sasha exchange a quick glance that only deepens their confusion, Riccardo narrows his eyes and stands up from his chair, leaning on the desk.
“So it’s true.”
“How do you know?” Louis frowns and looks between me and Riccardo. “Did I miss something?”
“Kind of, yeah,” I say in a lower voice. It looks like Riccardo needs a moment to think about the news, so I take it upon myself to explain the
situation to the other three. “About an hour ago, Matteo received a message from one of ours saying that they’d spotted one of the Escarras by a grocery store in Niles. I drove there and got into a gunfight with Hugo before he
escaped me.”
Sasha narrows her eyes. “And Hugo is…?”
“One of Gerardo’s closest men.” I glance at Paolo. “I believe we saw them together in Chula Vista a couple of months ago.”
Paolo nods, confirming my thoughts, and I turn to Riccardo and walk to the desk with a sense of urgency nudging me from within. We have
to do something. We’ve had a year to get ready for his return-and now, it’s time to act.
“Hugo is like a brother to Gerardo. You can ask Jacinta.” I nod at Paolo-he’s the smart one who kidnapped Gerardo’s precious daughter only to propose to her a month later. “Everyone knows it. Gerardo wouldn’t send him here on his own. I swear, they’re planning something, and we have to stop them before they rise from the ground.”
With the last word, I put my palm on Riccardo’s desk, demanding his attention. All this time, he’s been staring at the papers on the desk with a thoughtful frown, but now, finally, he raises his head, and… I can’t say I like the grim look in his eyes.
“We can’t,” he says. “Not now.” I blink. What?
“Aren’t we the Messinas? The biggest damn family around?” I don’t know why this conversation makes me so agitated, but just the image of Gerardo smirking with victory makes me sick and furious. “It’s been a year, and we still aren’t ready? That’s bullshit!”
“It’s true,” Paolo says all of a sudden, and I turn to him sharply. He gives me the same grim look as his brother. “We don’t have enough people.”
I frown and glance at Sasha. “What about the Russians?”
“We may be a strong ally, but our resources have limits,” she says in a matter-of-fact tone, and I’d argue with her if I didn’t see a distressed look in her eyes that she shares with Louis.
The Russians want the Escarras gone just as much as we do. After all, it was the reason behind the sudden marriage of Riccardo Messina and Elena Pushkova five years ago that forced the old enemies to reconcile in order to defeat a common foe.
Yes, some ten years ago, if you took a look at the underworld of Chicago, you would see that the Italians and Russians were the only ones on the scene-and they’d be at each other’s throats at any given moment. The Messina clan and the Russian Bratva had been blood enemies for decades until Cassio’s death forced Riccardo to ask for help from Yuriy Pushkov, the Bratva’s leader at the time.
It didn’t go as well as you would expect. Yuriy turned out to be an asshole-even more so than Gerardo, and that says a lot-and betrayed
Riccardo. Louis and Sasha spoiled his plans, and his wife Olga killed him and restored peace between the families. This time, for sure.
“Gerardo has people scattered all over Chicago,” Riccardo says, pulling me back to the present, and I turn to him with a scowl. “We’ve been after them for almost a year, but it’s not enough. We can fight the Escarras but we can’t kill them all at once.”
I can see in Riccardo’s eyes just how hard it is for him to admit it- Gerardo killed his father, after all, and Riccardo swore to get his revenge.
Just like I did, and Giovanni, and Liss. God, he managed to set quite a handful of people against him, didn’t he? I bite my lip, thinking about it again and again. It feels as if there’s a thought that keeps escaping me as soon as I try to reach it. An idea. A solution.
A name.
“What do we need to get rid of them once and for all?” I look at Riccardo with a grim frown, and he shrugs as if it’s obvious.
“People. Preferably, someone experienced and willing to fight against Gerardo. We have plenty of recruits, but they’ll be useless on a
mission that requires anything more than blindly shooting the Mexicans.”
I hum, rubbing my neck in thought, as my gaze stares into the distance. Is it gonna work? It may-but what is the price? I sigh and shake my head. God, I can’t believe I’m willingly dragging myself into this. But if it means erasing Gerardo off the face of the earth, no price is too big to pay.
“I think I know the right man.” I look up at Riccardo with determination burning in my heart. Whatever it takes, I will do whatever it takes. “And I know how to get him on our side.”
Riccardo frowns, but I see a flash of interest in his eyes. “Who are you talking about?”
“Raul Jose de Lugo.” I glance at the other three. “The drug lord of Tijuana.”
Paolo frowns in thought, but it seems that neither Sasha nor Louis recognizes the name of the most powerful man in Mexico. Well, they won’t remain ignorant for long.
“And how do you plan to convince him to come here?” Paolo asks, quirking an eyebrow, and I take a deep breath and straighten my shoulders, feeling chills running down my back at the thought of it.
“I’m ready to marry him.”
Whatever it takes, I will do it to make Gerardo pay for Mom’s death.