[Aldo]
My blood is still pumping even as we drive down to the docks twenty minutes later. My flesh is crawling around my body, and I’ve barely said a peep since we joined with the Colombino’s.
Neither of us have. The last attempt was close.
Really fucking close.
All I’ve been thinking about is, what the fuck has Andre been up to? What is he not telling me? I’m chewing my damn lip off thinking about it!
I follow the other cars on autopilot. But soon we’re down among the old brick warehouses of Brooklyn and headed near the old Navy yard. There’s scrap metal everywhere, and I can practically feel the grease in the air.
Dawn is staring out the window, she looks troubled too.
I shouldn’t have let the thing about her brother slip…
“It was fucking close, hey?” I say, hoping to dissipate the air.
Dawn just nods.
“Those bastards, though. I just can’t think why the Kumairns would be doing this? Like, is it a Russian thing?” Again, Dawn’s reaction is minimal. She just shrugs this time, and I get the hint.
One of the cars pulls up to a stop, and I break suddenly too, jolting us both from the tiny world of the van.
The man rolls down a window and points for us to head left, even though they’re heading right. I do what he says. A car follows us and the lead car, and the last of our convoy, heads off to the left.
The block seems eerily silent. Like a ghost town. There’s a man waiting for me in the middle of the road; he’s dressed in a well tailored suit and has a toothpick in the corner of his mouth.
I almost laugh at the stereotype of a New York Italian mafioso.
Because I then remember how Luca cautioned me not to joke around with these guys, they were dubious of me.
I had been a known associate of Tommy Russo before working for him. I was still under suspicion despite everything on our end.
He motions to roll the window down.
“How ya going Aldo.” Statement, not a question. He jams a hand towards me to shake.
I shake it and nod at the other man further up. “I’m good. Are you Leandro?”
“The one and only,” he says. He grins then and smiles through to Dawn. “Miss Martinez.”
Dawn smiles and gives a small wave back.
“Alright, here’s the thing. The meeting is happening up there in the building on your right. Alex, who chaperoned you two here, has just gone around the other side to meet the Kumarin’s. They’re gonna radio through to us for when you can roll through. You roll in. Get out of the van. Then get out of the warehouse. It’s that easy.”
I nod and regrip the steering wheel. “Right. Not a problem. I only have one question.”
Leandro gives me a look like there isn’t a chance of me asking a question. I’m meant to stay silent.
I know who he is and what level he is at, but I’m pissed off at these Russians for intimidating us along the way.
“I just want to know why the Russians felt they had to try and intimidate us on the way down.”
Leandro’s face doesn’t turn to surprise; he doesn’t even react. I can tell the information has shocked him, but being the heir to the Don of the northern Colombino family has given him a poker face like no other.
“Expand.”
I look at Dawn and then back at him. I nod toward the front of the car. “As you know, we needed an extra twenty-four hours to get here because of our busted radiator. Well, someone pulled out in front of us, but it wasn’t an accident.
The car had in fact been trailing us since the beginning, I believe. After the attempted crash, they were intimidating us the whole way. They were bratva men.”
“Kumarin’s men?” Leandro asks. A vein has bulged at the side of his head.
“I don’t know. All I know is that they were two Russian men, their car had identifying insignias of Russian crosses and the guys had some portraits on their hands.”
Leandro’s face darkens even more. He looks like he could chew cement back into dust.
“Look, I don’t know if they were Kumarin’s men, but I don’t know of anyone else who knew of this deal. Finally, they tried to ram us off the road just as we were leaving Jersey.”
Leandro twists his lips and looks away. He pokes his tongue out and rests it on his upper lip. He comes back. “They were not Kumarin’s men. That, I know. But, that doesn’t mean they weren’t Bratva.” He looks at both of us again with fresh eyes, we’re obviously smarter to him than he first thought.
“I won’t say our deal hasn’t been accepted by all. There’re plenty of people, even within our families, that believe that the families of our country’s origins should remain separate. There are many that wish for this deal not to happen. That this partnership does not come to fruition.”
He nods and takes the pick out of his mouth, he’s made a decision. He throws it on the ground. “I will take your knowledge into context.
The deal still goes ahead, but I will talk with Sergei. He will be able to get to the bottom of it.” He turns and looks at his friend down the street. He signals for us to drive on.
“It is time.”
Dawn and I inch down the street in the van. It is empty. There’s no one anywhere. I look at the corners further on, and even there, I can’t spot sentries of either Leandro’s or Sergei’s.
The man signaling us forward points into the warehouse. I turn, and we descend into the shadow of a big brick building.
Dawn shivers as we head in, and I feel like doing the same. I steel myself, though, for whatever could happen. I wish that I wasn’t bringing Dawn into this. I should’ve pulled over and let her out. I should’ve kept her with Leandro…
“Whatever you do, do not mention Sophie,” I whisper out of the side of my mouth. We’re inching towards a group of men standing in the middle of a clearing of debris. The warehouse has been long abandoned and deserted.
“Of course I wouldn’t. Why do you think I would?”
“I dunno. I’m just suddenly very on edge. The car followed us the whole way here. Now, the fact that Leandro wasn’t even surprised that we’d been followed… it doesn’t sit right with me.”