“Actually, no,” I replied. “A few years back, word started to spread that Carlos Gambino’s son Anton was going to be taking over the Gambino family when he retired. The only problem with that is that Carlos’s only son is named Eddie.”
“He’s currently touring Italy on a photo shoot,” Lany added.
Sparks eyed him critically. “And you know this how?”
I snorted.
I couldn’t help it.
Jerry groaned. “Because he’s one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” He waved his hand at Lyn and then Lany. “Those are the other two. There’s a fourth one floating around, the former head of the Irish mob out of Chicago.”
Sparks’ eye twitched. He pointed to Lyn. “You’re a member of the FBI’s cyber crimes unit.”
Lyn nodded. “I was a member of SWAT team one, but I went to work for the FBI a few years ago. Now, I’m married to the second-in-command of the SWAT unit.”
Sparks nodded a couple of times before pointing at Lany. “You’re the police commissioner’s nephew and married to the commander of the SWAT team?”
Lany grinned as if he found this whole thing funny. “And the father of six.”
“And you know the son of the head of the Gambino family and the former member of the Irish mob out of Chicago?”
“Yeah.” Lany nodded quickly. “Danny, Lyn, Eddie, and I are out best friends.”
Sparks stumbled back a couple of steps and then reached for the arm of the couch, slowly lowering himself down onto the cushions. “I think I need a drink.”
Jerry snickered. “I told you that the world of Lany Delvecchio is not for the faint of heart.”
“How?” Sparks asked. “How do you justify being involved with criminals? You’re officers of the law.”
Hadn’t we already gone over this?
“Alleged criminals,” Lany pointed out. “They have never been found guilty of a crime.”
“That time when Juarez kidnapped Lany and was trying to sell him,” I said in a terse voice at the memory, “Vinnie Castellano not only located him before we did, but he bought Lany for two million dollars, preventing him from being sold to someone else.”
“Carlos was the one to give us the name Eduardo Salazar,” Lyn pointed out. “He has his men searching for him now. If he finds anything, he’ll let us know.”
Sparks’ eyebrows snapped together. “Why would he do that?”
Jerry sighed heavily. “As much as I hate to say it, Carlos is not that bad of a guy. I’ll admit that we stand on opposite sides of the law, but he strangely has a moral compass that doesn’t allow him to shed blood indiscriminately. He works with Sal quite often to keep the peace in our fair city.”
“Kind of like he is doing now,” Lyn pointed out. “While it is somewhat self-serving, his heart is in the right place. Carlos doesn’t want to see blood in the streets any more than we do.”
I chuckled when Sparks frowned. “Yes, there are mafia men with morals. Unfortunately, they are a dying breed.”
“It’s why Vinnie got out of the business,” Lany stated. “He was getting tired of cleaning up messes of people that did whatever the hell they wanted with no regard for life. Even if they don’t strictly follow written law, there has to be a line that you don’t cross, and these idiots nowadays don’t seem to know where that line is.”
“This guy we’re trying to find is a good example,” I told him. “He doesn’t care who he hurts as long as he makes a profit. He used a bomb threat to kidnap Lany so he could sell him as a sex slave online. He was also manufacturing illegal drugs that are used in date rape cocktails.”
“Carlos doesn’t deal in drugs or sex slaves,” Lany said. “That is a line he won’t cross. He wants this guy off the streets as much as we do, so we work together to make that happen.”
“Don’t get us wrong,” I said. “If we found concrete evidence of Carlos breaking the law, we’d toss him in jail so fast his head would spin, but until that point, we work together to keep the peace.”
“It’s a fragile collaboration,” Jerry explained, “but it’s one we all work hard to maintain.”
I chuckled at Sparks’ confusion as I pulled out my cell phone when it rang and answered it without looking at the caller ID. “Delvecchio.”
“Is Junior close to you?”
