“Sure thing, sir. Nice to meet you, Ms. Russo.” He nods politely before stepping back into the box. Mickey pulls out his phone and opens an app. He enters a code, and the gates slowly start to open.
“Holy shit. I can’t believe we’re going into the fortress.”
Dad snorts. “They are still calling it that?”
I nod enthusiastically. “Yeah, they do. Who lives here?”
He laughs at my enthusiasm. “We do, princess.”
ChapterThirteen
The car pulls through the large, towering gates, which slowly close behind us, and drives down a landscaped driveway. We pass the front door to the fortress, which has a stylized R F decorative emblem on the wall next to it. The black brick is imposing, and the windows are tinted so I can’t see anything but the reflection of the car slowly gliding past. Around the side of the house, we enter a garage which slopes downward. I gape as the huge mansion disappears above us, replaced with a concrete ceiling.
It opens out into a wide underground parking area, kind of like the public ones in the city but on one level, and Dad maneuvers our car into one of the parking bays.
“Hey, look at that, Tori. You’ll be able to park your car inside instead of out in the driveway,” Gio teases, and I flip him off.
We get out, and I look around the room. It looks just like a parking garage, nothing special, but there is an elevator door on the opposite side of us. Dad, Gio, and Mickey start heading that way, so I hurry after them.
“This is our family home, but as you know, the Mafia rumors follow it. Your mother and I wanted you to have a relatively normal childhood without members of our organization coming and going all the time, so we bought the other place. The two of you will move in here, and we will begin your training, Tori.”
“Will Penelope be coming too, or will she stay at the other house?” I ask, remembering what she said before we left. Dad sighs, and I’m already dreading his answer.
“No, it’s better if we keep her close. She will be coming here.” The elevator doors open, and we step in. The interior is all mirrors and polished metal. The doors close behind us, and instead of pressing one number to take us up, he enters a sequence, and I feel the elevator start to descend. “No one has access to the levels below ground via this elevator except for us, which now includes you, Tori. In fact, most people don’t even know there are lower levels, including Penelope. She believes we have warehouses and other locations where we store our product. The only other access to the levels below is through a tunnel which comes out halfway into the forest surrounding Gio’s college. Only our most trusted members even know the location of that.”
The elevator comes to a stop, and the three men look at me.
“Are you ready for this, Tori? If you say no now, there will be no hard feelings. I will change the combination, and you can go back to your life as it was. Maybe I will send you to Europe for school and you will find a nice man—person to marry, and have abambinoor two. You are my princess, so if that is what you ask for, how can I not give it to you?”
I swallow hard and shake my head, determined to be an asset to this family, and by extension of that, get that much closer to my revenge on Stacey.
“Brava, I knew you would say yes. Didn’t I tell you, Stefano?” Mickey crows, and Dad and Gio roll their eyes.
“You’re a real know-it-all, Mickey,” Dad mutters as he studies my body language, and I guess he must be pleased with what he sees. “Very well then, for now, watch and learn. Save your questions for when we are not in front of the employees.”
The elevator doors open onto another wide-open space. It looks like a military bunker from a TV show, all gray concrete and fluorescent lighting. This one has a couple of trucks in it with a few men standing around talking, and a couple more unloading unmarked crates with forklifts.
The four men standing together catch sight of us and quickly become alert. I don’t recognize any of them.
“Mr. Russo, I was hoping to see you while we were here.” One of the men holds out his hand as we approach, and Dad takes it. He looks Italian, with an olive complexion and dark hair, but there’s a sadness in his eyes I wasn’t expecting from a mafia henchman. “Thank you so much for taking care of my brother’s funeral bills and for paying off his wife’s house. We are forever in your debt.” He kisses the back of my dad’s hand, and as he straightens, I see a glimmer of tears in his eyes before they shutter and the emotion is locked down.
“Ah, Tony, I am just sorry that I had to. The loss of Louis and the rest of the men will not get swept under the rug. When we find out who the mole is, wewillmake them pay.” There’s a fierceness in Dad’s voice that I’ve never heard before, but as I’m discovering, there’s a lot I’ve been kept in the dark about, and I’m excited to explore all of it. He holds himself loosely, but there is an air of coiled violence to him that is ready to explode at a moment’s notice. Gone is the easy-going father, and in his place stands the stone-cold, ruthless mafia leader I now know him to be.
Tony nods his head. “Thank you, sir.”
“Tony, you know my son Gio, but I’d like to introduce you to my daughter, Victoria. She is learning the day-to-day operations of the organization.” Tony’s eyes widen minutely, but unless you were looking for it, you would have never noticed. I guess not everyone is up to speed regarding equal opportunities for women in the organization.
“It’s a pleasure, Ms. Russo.” He nods again politely, and I smile back, not sure how I should play this. I must ask Gio quietly when I can. When I glance at him, it’s all I can do not to snort. Maybe I should be adopting a resting bitch face, which is what Gio is achieving at the moment.
“Tony, could you please run Tori through some of our inventory we have on hand at the moment?” Dad asks, and I watch Tony puff up with importance.
“Of course, Mr. Russo. If you come this way, the boys have just unloaded the latest shipment from Mexico.” He leads us over to a set of black crates that are lined up against a wall and cracks one open. In it, piled almost to the top, are various weapons. “We mainly deal with small arms, weapons designed for personal use, which are easily sold on the open market.” The box is full of different handguns, shotguns, automatic rifles, and machine guns. He picks one up and hands it to me. I reach out to take it, but Gio intercepts it. He flips a switch, and the thing holding the bullets drops out. He then pulls something back and looks inside the gun. I guess whatever he sees makes him happy, because he hands it to me minus the bullet thingy. I take it, surprised by its weight despite half of it missing.
“When we’re done, I’ll start your lessons on learning how to use all of these.” Gio nods at the box, and my eyes widen. Whoa, talk about starting my training with guns blazing. Although I’m nervous, my excitement and anticipation far outweigh it.
“All of them?” I squeak, and he grins.
“You never know when you might need to know how to use a machine gun.” He winks, and when I turn back to Tony, he’s nodding his agreement.
