Code Red (Book#2 of The Runaway Club)

13. Monsieur's Bad Ideas

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I sat on my large swivel chair in my study, facing the garden window with my back to the table and the guests who sat on the other side.

"Red, monsieur, we would never think about disconnecting your supply chains for the likes of the Italians." One of the two Corsican men said, "Sure the Italians are very powerful everywhere but you are our largest purchaser. Why would you doubt our loyalties, monsieur? We even gave you one of our men who wronged you..."

"Giving one of your dealers is no testament to your loyalties, John." Antonio said on my behalf while flanking me with his arms crossed and facing them. "My boss needs your word that the Krokodil incident wouldn't happen again and that our... issues with the Italians wouldn't affect our partnership. If you have any problems, state them now."

"No, no! We have no problems with monsieur Red—"

"Oh you wouldn't have problems with monsieur Red alright. The magic words, John."

There was a moment of silence.

"The Krokodil incident will not be repeated." John began, "We will continue supplying Los Profetas. But..."

"But?"

"We wish to remain a neutral party, monsieur Red."

There was a pause again and I knew that the two men would have been staring at the back of my chair expectantly to give them a sign. I raised my fist and waved dismissively. I could hear the exhale of relief from one of them.

"Boss has agreed to your terms and so does the rest of Los Profetas del Diablo. You may leave now." Antonio verbalized my wordless decree.

"Thank you, monsieur Red! Thank you!"

I sat silently as I listened to my men's footsteps escort the two Corsicans outside and close the doors. I even waited a good few seconds after their footsteps disappeared before swinging around. Antonio was eyeing me with amusement from next to my liquor shelf.

"Would monsieur like some scotch?"

"F*ck off."

He laughed boisterously at my annoyed look. There was a knock on my door to which I gave my permission to enter. A mop of wildly curly black hair popped into the room.

"Hey, boss!"

"Hey, squirt." I smiled.

Robert's lanky body squirmed inside my study and bounded over to my desk with his trusty laptop in his arms. He wore a shirt with his college logo on it with sweatpants and I could taste Antonio's disapproval from where I sat. I knew for a fact that he had tried to force Robert into a decent dress shirt once but that didn't, obviously, happen.

"Okay, so I erased all traces of you from airport and all the way to the yacht." He planted his laptop on the desk and plopped down on the chair opposite as he furiously pulled up multiple tabs to explain. "Got all the dirt I can possibly dig up on the Italian from their moles in the PD to their illegal 'brothels' that has ties to human trafficking rings. And turns out, this isn't the big bad Made Man Giuseppe's first stint at killing his mercenaries. In 2017, he had assigned one sniper named Janis Valkov to kill a former right-hand man who was about rat out on him. A month after Janis killed the rat, Janis' body was found in an abandoned construction site OD'ed on a cocktail of hard drugs. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what happened there."

"And FBI never pursued the case?" I frowned.

"Nope. Called it cold and left it in their storage... which brings me to the point of the people in the department that works for the Italians, especially Giuseppe." He immediately pulled up the official records. "The Italian mob here might have weakened but it would take another century to bring La Cosa Nostra down a few pegs." He mused.

"And that is what you want to do, is it not?" Antonio raised his eyebrow at me as he placed a glass of neat scotch in front of me. "I mean it with good intension, Red. Going to war with the f*cking La Cosa Nostra isn't worth the effort. Sure we can defend ourselves if Giuseppe is still after your head or even that pretty boy, just to send a message. But taking them down, oof I am not too sure about that."

"Taking down La Cosa Nostra as an institution might be impossible." I drawled, "But what if I just want the institution out of the Maranzeno bloodline? If I just kill off Giuseppe, his son would want my blood out of honor. If I kill them both, chances are the Commission would just reassign another Made Man. And trust me, the Commission wouldn't be all that unhappy that I killed off one of the Maranzeno line 'cause they've been there forever."

"But we'd still have a target on your back." He countered.

"If there is a back in the first place." I grinned sneeringly. "In the room that we traded deal, there were two guards, both the Romano's, a henchman called Pedro and Giuseppe. They were the only ones that that know who Red is. We kill them all."

"The guards and henchman? Easy. Romano junior and senior? Might take some time but doable. But how on earth do you plan on taking down Giuseppe when he knows who you are?"

I didn't answer Antonio's question but turned to Robert who was following our conversation in intrigue.

"How easy is it to hack into a company's cloud to get menial information... say someone's planner?"

"Once I get the firewalls down, it should be pretty easy." Robert answered after a moment.

"Great. I want Aaron Krystal's schedule as soon as possible."

"Don't tell me you are going to conspire with that pretty boy." Antonio groaned. "Then we might as well show up at the Maranzeno mansion blindfolded with a five-seven pistol."

"No, idiota." I growled at Antonio who shut up wisely. "Giuseppe is going to send men to Aaron and we need to get there before he does. And if the track records are true, we might get something out of it."

"What?" Robert asked, beating Antonio by a few second's margin.

"You will see." I smiled deviously and turned to Antonio who was watching me confusedly. "Have you got the Russians who doped our goods?"

"Yes?" He replied, more of a question than an answer.

"Good." I eyed my mask hung over the mantle, "Looks like I will be visiting them as well. Robert ready up my voice distorter."

There was silence for a beat before Robert spoke up.

"Why do I feel like this is going to be a bad idea?"

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Oooh, things heating up! Keep your supports up I love you, mwah!

NEXT UPDATE: (...Does hinting that shit is about to escalate next, help?....)