But not without a little bit of revenge first.
“Marco, I read your reports,” I started. “Can you connect with your contact today?”
Marco nodded. “I’m taking a few heads with me and meeting up with him this evening down in Sling’s Row. He’s not liked there, so he should be good.”
“Good. Keep me posted on what he says.”
“Yes, boss,” Marco replied.
“Molly, how’s Maine?” I asked.
Molly’s branch of the business, the drug run, was the first thing we shut down. It was the most dangerous part of our business, and I’d caused some trouble there when I went Binachi hunting about a year ago. Ever since then, Molly took on getting a new estate established for us in Maine.
“Good. Yours and Willow’s house finished up today, so all four are done now. They’re moving onto the main house, and Marco and I are gonna run through security options. We’ll need your input for the technical aspect,” she replied, although with venom in her voice.
“Okay, we can work on that tomorrow. I want to keep the slate clear in case I need to go with Marco.”
I looked over at Stacy. “Stacy—”
Gabriel held up a hand. “Actually, I was hoping we could give Stacy a break, if for no reason other than she’s still got the studio and is working on getting it and her parents shifted to Maine.”
“That’s fine, but I was going to have you two do a club run to cash out some favors, so you’re on your own. She was your muscle, so you’ll have to figure something else out.”
“Maybe Molly can go? She’s way tougher than me,” Stacy said with a laugh, and then her eyes shot over to Willow. “O-or Willow. They’re both tough.”
It wasn’t a good cover, but a glance over proved that Willow couldn’t be bothered. She barely blinked at Stacy’s statement and sat in total silence.
“I can go,” Molly said.
“Excellent. Luca, where are you with getting everything else shut down?” I asked,
Luca let out a long, frustrated sigh before responding. “It’s slow going, but it’s happening. I’ve got some runs to make today to make sure the last of the laundering sites are down, but I imagine it’ll be done by the end of the week.”
“It had better be, or we’re gonna have a problem. As soon as we dig out Dario, we’re moving, and I don’t want any loose ends keeping us here any longer than we have to be.”
Luca’s jaw clenched. “Fine.”
“Does anyone else have anything they need to tell me?” There were no responses. “Good, then you’re dismissed.”
Molly was the first out, and Stacy and Gabriel were out after her. Luca and Marco remained on the couch that faced me until Luca looked over at Marco. “I gotta talk to Sandro.”
Marco let out a groan. “Can you two knock it off? I got a kid on the way. Let’s end this and get the fuck out of here.”
Luca’s passing glance turned to a glare. “I gotta talk to Sandro.”
Marco growled as he stood up from the couch and walked out, slamming the office door behind him. Luca’s glare turned to me. “Don’t you threaten me in front of everyone again, child. I will put you in the ground.”
“I’d put you in first,” Willow snapped from next to me.
Luca barely acknowledged her. “Don’t forget your place.”
I opened my mouth, but Willow leaned forward. “Currently, my place is higher than yours, so I should be telling you not to forget it.” I looked over at Willow, and her stare was borderline murderous. “A weak spine like you who could barely keep the business together without his daddy for a year has no right to speak to me that way.”
Luca leaned forward, shaking his head. “You do not want to go toe-to-toe with me. I’ve got demons you haven’t even seen.”
“I know,” Willow hissed back. “They were so overwhelming that some of them came to live with me.” She was unmoving against Luca. “But if you’d like to battle it out, I welcome the opportunity.”
Luca took a deep inhale and then let it out. He stood up off the couch and walked around toward the front door. He threw a nasty look back at me. “You had better learn how to muzzle your dog.”