‘And remember,’Elio said as we got out of the SUV.‘Stay in the car, keep it locked, and pay attention if we call you.’
There were three cars pulled up to the old drainage pipe that would lead into the service tunnels of the Amante estate. It had taken us an hour yesterday to clear away the debris and scope out the place and now we were gearing up to head inside.
‘I know, you’ve told me three times,’Cini replied stubbornly as she fiddled with the shiny pistol that Dante had given to her. They had spent the last forty-eight hours since Dante’s dads had showed up at the mountain cabin practicing firing the gun and Cini had a surprising talent for it.
Too bad we didn’t have enough time for her to really get good at it.
‘And I’m going to repeat it until I’m sure you get it,’Elio scolded, putting a hand on her knee.‘If you see anyone coming out of that tunnel, you drop down onto the floorboards. We don’t know if your father or his men know about them.’
‘Fat chance of that,’Cini huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.‘If my father knew about them, he would have sealed them off long ago.’
We couldn’t argue with that, but that didn’t mean one of the old hats at the party wouldn’t know about it.
Someone knocked on the window, signaling it was time for us to go.
Dante, who was sitting next to Cini, leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead.‘Behave for Dale, okay?’
It had been decided that Dale and Ranieri would remain behind—Ranieri so he could run operations from the back of the van we’d brought along with us and Dale because the man’s knees needed to be replaced and he wouldn’t hinder us more than help us tonight.
We took turns saying our goodbye and I was last to pull her into a hug and inhale her honeydew scent.
‘Try not to let them blow up my babies,’Cini said, referring to the reptiles in her solarium as she pressed her nose into my neck.
‘Howard’s bombs shouldn’t be anywhere near that part of the house,’I reassured her with a kiss to her temple.
‘I love you guys,’she whispered into our minds as we stepped out of the SUV and into the densely wooded forest.
“Ricci, do you copy?” Edison Keane’s voice crackled through the comms device in my ear.
“Yeah, what’s up?” Elio responded as he tightened the straps of his bullet proof vest.
“My guys are set up on all access points, so we’re ready for Operation Mouse Trap whenever you are.”
Elio rolled his eyes. “We’re not calling it that.”
The sound of his rumbling laughter came through the ear piece. “Well, sue a guy for trying to have some fun.”
Elio ignored him. “Team One is a go, give us a twenty five minute buffer to get in and get into positions. Be ready once the fireworks show starts.”
A chorus of copy filled my ears as Edison’s men chimed in from all around the estate, six teams and thirty men in total.
I hoped we had done enough to make this work.
With one last look at the vehicles, we ducked slightly and entered the drain pipe.
The Amante estate was exactly how we’d left it weeks ago when we got married.
The service tunnels, though dark and filled with debris and spiderwebs, led us right into the kitchen’s underground storage. According to Cini, back in the twenties moonshine had been brewed right here and then was transported through the tunnels to be sold off to the highest bidding speakeasy.
But it had been years since anyone had used the tunnels and the door to the tunnel was now stuck behind a stack of boxes that we had to be careful not to knock over as we opened it so as not to alert the staff working above.
It was a bustling night at the estate thanks to the party, so most of them would have pulled everything they needed up and wouldn’t be coming downstairs unless there was an emergency item they needed.
The room was nearly pitch black as we turned our night vision glasses on and moved slowly between the long metal shelves thatfilled the room and found the small window that let out into the garden.
“Travis and Howard first,” Elio whispered as he slid it open.
Travis crossed himself. “Here’s to hoping this old man doesn’t get stuck.”
