My heart starts beating harder in my chest as I walk down the stairs. I hope we’re all alone. I hope there’s not a singe other soul down here. I can take Matteo out. I can gut him like a fucking fish and claim he came at me first. That when I said Stephan wouldn’t be happy with the quality of the guns they have, he saw red and attacked me.
My hands ball into fists as I prepare this story in my head. It’ll be almost too easy. They might not believe me, but that only makes the story better. They didn’t believe me, they attacked, we had to kill them all.
There’s just one problem.
As we get to the bottom of the stairs, I see that there’s one armed guard for each corner of the basement.
Taking out all of them before alerting the guards on the ground floor will be quite a challenge… One that I’m not sure would be worth the risk. Not of my own life, but of blowing my cover entirely.
I quickly decide that it will be better to take the Carvels out a different day. With more men at my side and their stash of guns whisked away somewhere they can’t get to it. Perhaps offering their help to the Bianchis will end up being their downfall…
I think about how this could work as I’m led over to not one but two chests in the right corner of the room. The guard standing by the chests takes a step to the right after nodding in obedience at Matteo.
“These guns were smuggled from Russia just a few days ago,” Matteo explains.
Damn, betrayed by my own country…
I watch as he unlocks the first chest and slowly opens the lid. I know what’s inside the second I can see. He doesn’t even needto tell me, but he does. I barely listen as he talks, taking in how many are there, trying to calculate in my head.
In that chest are at least a dozen semi-automatic rifles. All in pristine condition, likely never used before.
“You can imagine what is in this second chest, can’t you? Or do I need to open this one too?” Matteo asks me.
I shake my head. “I get the picture,” I reply. “Must have cost you a fortune.”
“Oh, it did. Which is why we need to make a deal with Don Bianchi,” he tells me. “Not just for our weapons, but for his money. Our help doesn’t come free, you see.” Matteo pulls out one of the guns and shoves it to my chest.
I look over it, ensuring it’s in the condition I think it is. Checking the barrel and the chamber. It feels good in my hands, not as good as my own gun…but pretty damn good. It would be a shame to have these guns in the hands of the Carvels and the Bianchis for too long.
“Solid. Definitely came from Russia,” I say with a smirk. If only he knew the man he’s talking to did too.
“So, do we have an understanding?”
I tilt my head to the side and look down at the rest of the guns. “We have an understanding.” I reach my hand out and shake his. The feeling of his hand in mine makes my shoulders tense and my body wants to recoil, but I keep my calm.
“You saw the guns?” Stephan asks me as we all stand in his office. Butch, Dante, Lucas, Matteo, and me.
It’s frankly crowded in here.
“I did. They’re in exactly the shape he says they are. About two dozen of them,” I explain.
“The finest weapons from Russia, and you know they do their arms right,” Matteo says with a charming grin and sits down in one of the chairs in front of the desk.
Stephan eyes him and then looks back to me and Butch. “I trust you wouldn’t have brought them here if you didn’t think a deal was…valuable to both sides,” he says.
I nod my head slowly. Butch ends up speaking for me.
“I don’t know if I trust them completely, no offense, but they could come in handy going against the Dresvannis for damn sure.”
Stephan chuckles softly and folds his hands on the desk. “Well, I guess we’d better talk a deal then. What is it you’re offering exactly?”
“All twenty-four of the guns, twelve of our men,” Matteo says. “We don’t have very many men to offer you, but what we have…they’re yours until you don’t need them anymore.”
I bite on the inside of my cheek. Even twelve more men is enough to cause a problem with the Dresvannis. Even if they’re from the Carvels—not exactly the best men on the streets. We can take them down, but with the arms included it’ll be one hell of a fight.
I try not to look distracted, while also keeping a note in my head of what I need to bring back to Tommy.
“That’s a mighty fine offering,” Stephan says slowly. “What’s the price?”
