The entire club was made of wood.
Some of the cars were close enough to share the explosion with the structure.
It seemed like the thought ran through the entire room at the same time. Jin picked Jade up and slung her over his shoulder, and behind him, we all hustled to get out. Gio caught the first bullet to his shoulder. He knocked into me some, since I was the last one out, but we managed to follow Jin to where he’d taken shelter behind an old folding table Vinny had sitting next to the club. Someone had turned it on its side, and our men, Jin’s men, Vinny and Sam were all huddled behind it. The girls were plastered to the ground with their hands covering their heads behind it. Except for Jade, who took the spot next to Jin.
“Well, shit,” Gio said, pulling his gun and taking a shot into the unknown from our spot. “It’s been a while since I got a new hole. And if whoever’s shooting at us hits this table, the bullet is going straight through. Good thing it’s smokey and they seem to be aiming high.”
“You know what this means?” I lifted some, trying to determine where the shots were coming from. It was hard to tell in which direction with all the fire and smoke. Evening was coming down, and it was even darker inside of the cloud we were in. “Grandmamma,” I said in a real ritzy type of voice, “is going to demand to take care of you—she’s going to want to feed you and then wipe your ass, just to teach you a lesson.”
“I don’t have a fucking clue why anyone would accuse you of having a sense of humor, Bigatti, unless they’re under duress,” Gio said. “You suck at it.” He lifted some. “See anything?”
“We should just light it up,” Vinny said, his face full of soot, the white of his eyes and teeth neon. He lifted some. “Light the motherfuckers up!” He covered his head and said “Oh shit!” when a bullet whizzed past.
Sam put a giant hand on his head and pushed him down like a Jack in the box. “Stay down, Boss.”
“Visibility is slim,” Jin said. “Vincent has a point.”
“We’ll unload a clip each and then save the rest,” Gio said.
We all checked our weapons, took our spots, and at Umberto’s signal, we all started firing in different directions. My ears were ringing once the blasts had stopped. It took a few minutes to realize the silence was from a break in shots coming from the opposite direction. The only noises were the sound of sirens in the distance, the fire eating whatever it could in crackles and sizzles, and Vinny and a few of the girls choking on the thick smoke.
“Is it quiet or is it my ears?” Jin shouted.
“Your ears!” Jade shouted back.
“It’s quieted down some,” I said.
“Who’s going to check?” Vinny asked.
“Certainly not you,” Gio said.
“I have responsibilities,” was Vinny’s response. “I have to rebuild this place!” Even though Vinny sounded shaken, it was almost like I could see dollar signs flash in his eyes at the thought of the insurance money.
A few minutes later, firetrucks came rolling into the parking lot, and the entire street smelled of barbecue after their hoses hit the fires. The Fire Marshall gave Vinny a look as suspicious as the police were giving Umberto, Jin, Gio, and me.
It was almost the start of a joke, if I would have been in any mood to find anything fucking funny. I was covered in soot, my lungs were burning, and out of all the bodies that were found—a woman and two men—none of them belonged to Freddy Money. His girlfriend had on the same clothes she wore in Jin’s video, and she had a bedazzled gun next to her.
“Not a word,” I said to Gio as he was hauled off toward an ambulance. He said he was the victim this time, and he refused to go to the man we usually went to if things went sour—Kitty knew him, and she’d make Gio pay after, especially if he went straight home to recoup.
Gio grinned at me. “Young probably shot you with that bedazzled gun. No wonder I’ve been seeing a sparkle about you lately. Her bullets were probably full of glitter.”
I shoved the stretcher and it went rolling, Gio shooting me the bird as he rolled away, the emergency team running after it.
I still had a man to pay a visit to.
* * *
Surprise,surprise, Money was just pulling into his gated estate when I crawled up behind him in a car one of my men had delivered to the smoke shack. My other one was nothing but a pile of melted metal, vehicular ashes, in Vinny’s parking lot.
My eyes were bloodshot but trained on Money’s Lamborghini. Not giving him an inch of space between his car and mine. He stalled at the entrance, probably trying to decide what to do, or if he had enough time to get through without me following him.
I didn’t give him a chance to outrun me.
He’d never outrun me.
I smashed the back of his car when the gate started to open and pushed him through. Halfway to his grand estate, he slammed on the brakes and stepped out, holding his hands up. His face wasn’t entirely streaked with soot and ash, but I could see he had a line of it below his hairline.
“I didn’t do it,” he said right away.
