Back in my car, I started toward the freeway, using a different route, just in case I’d gotten another tail. My mouth opened to tell the navigation system to call Olivia, but it closed soon after. She wouldn’t expect me so soon. Why not make it a surprise, pick up some food on Marathon Key beforehand.
My detour toward the freeway added about twenty minutes to my trip. In between the islands, I found myself speeding, passing other cars as if to make up the time. I slowed down when I realized it.
One of the first rules of being a criminal, besides never talking about your crimes, was to keep yourself unnoticed. Don’t commit needless crimes. Every hood heard stories of idiots who got pulled over for speeding or even a broken headlight when they had a man in the trunk or a back seat full of contraband.
I never went more than five miles over the speed limit. My desire to spend a little more time with my new wife overcame that caution. If that wasn’t love, I didn’t know what was.
By the time I reached Marathon Key, one of the cars up ahead of me caught my eye. Ironic, as I’d been keeping track on the vehicles behind me. It was a dark blue Maserati SUV.
When Porsche had come out with their own SUV, the idea bothered me. What was the point of it? When you thought Porsche, you thought of their sports cars, the classic 911. Get a Rolls, or a Landrover if you wanted a bigger car from a luxury brand.
Maserati’s entry into that market made as little sense to me. I’d joked about that with the don before he’d passed. He shared the sentiment but made sure to caution me against such jokes around Pirrello. His consigliere had recently purchased one, with ‘Blu Nobile,’ even.
Now, what were the odds of two dark blue Maserati SUVs being on the road in Miami and the Keys? It didn’t seem likely, not at all. Instead of pulling off for some takeout, I kept following Pirrello’s ostentatious SUV all the way across the Key, my stomach knotting as he approached the turn-off to the safehouse.
The gate sat open, even before he pulled in front of it. I had told Olivia to keep it closed to anyone but me. She wouldn’t have left it open, would she? I frowned that my first thought was betrayal.
Once Pirrello turned down the drive, I pulled over to the side of the road. I hadn’t told Olivia about it, but I had the same camera feeds that the safehouse’s security tablet included. A few taps on my phone’s screen and I almost dropped it.
Pirrello’s daughter Celeste stood in the living room of the safehouse, a gun in her hand. The barrel pointed toward Olivia. My wife held her hands up to her sides, wine glasses in each one. That told me Celeste had betrayed her but that she had expected Pirrello’s daughter to arrive. She’d offered her wine, even.
The door behind Celeste opened. Pirrello stepped through, unsurprised. His lips twisted into a feral smile when his eyes fell on Olivia. A tap on the screen and the audio unmuted.
“I so wish I could have been the one to spring the surprise on you, see the look on your face,” Pirrello said through the phone’s speaker. His hand slipped under his suit coat and he pulled his own pistol, advancing on Olivia.
My heart thudded, pulse pounding in my neck. Every instinct screamed at me to storm into the safehouse, take the Pirrellos out, preferably as painfully as possible. I held back. If they wanted Olivia dead, they’d have killed her already. They wanted to use her to get to me.
“Did she cry, curse?” Pirrello asked his daughter on the screen before chuckling.
“No, she didn’t even ask a question,” the younger Pirrello answered. “She seems to think that Russian bastard is going to come and save her.”
“He won’t be back before we’re gone,” the soon-to-be late Mr. Pirrello replied. “We get her back to the city, set up the scene and lead the fool right to his downfall.”
Phone in hand, I slipped out of the car. As I crossed the road, I kept my eyes on the scene happening in the safehouse. As long as both Pirrellos remained focused on Olivia, they wouldn’t notice my approach. They didn’t think I’d arrive so soon; that gave me an edge.
“He’s smarter than you think,” Olivia spat, narrowed eyes glaring between the both of them. “I don’t know what you have planned, but it won’t work.”
“A lot of faith in that husband of yours now,” Celeste hissed back at her, lifting her gun higher. “Just 20 minutes ago, you were shaking in fear of him, wanting to flee the house.”
“Because I believed your lies!” Olivia roared.
She reared back with one hand, ready to throw one of the wine glasses at the girl. Celeste’s eyes narrowed but her father stepped in between the girls. By now, I’d made it up the driveway. Crouching behind the bastard’s Maserati, it became difficult to keep myself from storming the safehouse. I needed to bide my time, though, make my moment.
“Don’t let her goad you, Celeste,” Pirrello warned. “We need her alive.”
“My father trusted you, he made you rich,” Olivia sneered. “This is how you repay him? Betraying his daughter, murdering me?”
“He betrayed me!” the man screamed, storming closer to Olivia, gun aimed at her head. “I served him well all these years, was his right-hand man and what did he do? He put that fucking Russian in charge, gave him you. I thought you’d end up killing the Russian. Ironic that everyone in the world will think he killed you.”
“If he kills anyone, I’d put my money on the two of you,” Olivia replied.
She didn’t flinch at the gun in her face. I knew she was strong, but I’d seen her vulnerable too. After the assassination attempt, she’d been more than shaken. No matter how she felt about me before, no matter how Celeste had tricked her into thinking I’d betrayed her, she held a lot of faith in me. I wasn’t going to disappoint her.
“When your father first brought his insane Russian scheme to me, I tried to talk him out of it,” Pirrello said, pistol aimed at Olivia’s head. “I even offered to marry you myself. With you by my side, the other men wouldn’t have even questioned my position as the new don. I would have made you happy too. Given you a whole litter of kids to dote over.”
“You’re older than my father!” Olivia spat. Even with a gun in her face, she remained feisty. “The fact that you so easily betrayed me shows exactly why my father was right to pass you over. Dimitri is going to kill you.”
Staying low, I padded toward the front door. On the phone, a few more taps sent a quick message to the security team on the other side of Marathon Key. They’d be the failsafe. If I couldn’t save Olivia, they would make sure neither of the Pirrello traitors would survive long enough to celebrate their victory.
