CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: VITO
Theengineinthe car sounds unbearably loud and I know it’s because of the silence.
I fold my hand into my pocket as I look across the backseat to Gio. His eyes are straight ahead, looking out of the windowsill of the car, and I know the tension in his body isn’t from the tense silence but from our mission.
Enzo is sitting in the driver’s seat, his fingers tight on the steering wheel. And Maximo… well he’s the only one who’s relaxed. He looks completely unbothered, stretched out with his feet on the dashboard and his arms behind his seat. His seat is reclined back slightly, and it almost touches my knees. I know he did it on purpose, but I’d decided to let the issue go.
We have more important things to focus on tonight.
One of Dox’s men had given the address, date, and time to one of our people and now tonight is finally the night that Seven Quad will be meeting up with the Ramos Cartel.
We were told that Luis would be here for sure. Or at least, that’s what he’d told Maddox and what Maddox relayed to us. We need this to go as smoothly as possible.
If you cut off the head of the snake, the body dies.
And as long as we kill Luis, we’ll be golden. The beef with the Ramos Cartel disappears and so does the hit on Winter’s head. Lucia hasn’t had any luck actually finding The Drake, but it’ll be a nonstarter once Luis is dead, because if there isn’t any money to be made, the hit will be canceled.
I shift in my seat as headlights flood the parking lot. We’re parked just behind a building off to the side of the lot, but the view is still good enough for us to see everything going on and it’ll be easy enough to join in on the action once it gets started.
“Don’t forget, we need a visual on Luis before anyone starts shooting,” Gio says into his phone.
“Yeah, yeah,” Diamond replies, sounding way too entertained for the seriousness of tonight.
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
I understand why Maddox isn’t here. The fucker is too old to move the way that he used to, a little to slow on the take. But I’m sure he could have found someone other than his jackass son for the meet.
Giovanni’s posture tightens, and I know he wants to say something, but he bites it back, instead hanging the phone up.
The headlights of the car are joined by another as the Ramos pull in.
The two cars park at opposite ends of the parking lot and I watch as Diamond gets out of his car.
He walks closer to the other car, stopping halfway. And then he waits.
The door of the other car opens up and I lean forward in my seat, squinting.
“Is that Lu-”
Giovanni’s question is cut off as a shot rings through the night.
“Fuck.”
More shots ring out and I watch as Diamond goes down. Men storm out of the Ramos car and the seven quad gang pile out of their car, as more and more cars pull into the lot.
“Fuck, its a set up,”
Giovanni says, slamming his hand down on the seat.
“What do we do?” Enzo asks but Maximo’s door is already flying open as he gets out of the car.
“Fuck, Maximo!” Giovanni calls out but Maximo is already heading into the fray, his gun drawn.
“Go!” Giovanni barks out at Enzo.
I think Enzo is already out of the door before Giovanni can get the full statement out of his mouth and really,, it’s no surprise. There’s no fucking way he isn’t ever not going to follow Maximo right into danger.
“We going?” I ask Giovanni, never taking my eyes off of the fighting.