Bow Down(50)

I raised an eyebrow. I knew better than to press for anymore information, but that was a goldmine.

He didn’t need to spell it out for me. There was only one thing that necessitated getting rid of the dealers: drugs and a lot of them.

That was exactly what I was looking for. I had to assume that he had a lot of money riding on this deal, which meant that it was a huge opportunity for us. If Louisa’s people could destroy the shipment, or even steal it, we could do some serious damage to Arturo’s organization. They had to be hurting as it was, and probably needed the cash flow from this deal.

“How can I help, Arturo?”

“Arrest more men. I don’t care if the charges don’t stick. Round them up over the next few days and give me some room to move in.”

“That’s all you want?”

“That’s all.”

“They won’t stay in jail for long. Maybe a few days at best.”

“Good enough. I’ll take their territory while they’re rotting in their cells.”

“If you’re more patient, I can make sure they stay in those cells.”

“I’m out of time, Wyatt. Do as I ask and we’ll be even.”

I nodded. “Okay then.”

“Good. Get it done.”

“Consider it already taken care of.”

I walked close to him and we shook hands. He gripped mine, looking me in the eye.

“I trust you, Wyatt.”

“I’m glad, Arturo. We make a good team.”

He stared at me for another second before releasing my hand. “Thanks for coming.”

“Thanks for showing me this room. It’s beautiful.”

He nodded but was already looking off into the distance. I knew it was time for me to leave.

I turned and head back the way I came, my mind spinning.

There was a shipment coming through the docks, probably of mafia drugs, in three days. I didn’t know what time or what container, but that wouldn’t be too hard to figure out. Louisa was good at that sort of thing.

The biggest drawback was that it would tip our hand. He was going to know it was me as soon as we took that shipment. Maybe he told other people, but it was just too obvious that it was me.

That didn’t matter. Once we had the drugs, we’d have him. It would only be a matter of time before we finished it. I’d go live underground with Louisa, work remotely, until he was finished.

My heart was hammering and I couldn’t help but grin to myself.

That stupid old bastard just hanged himself.





26





Louisa





The shipment of drugs for the mafia seemed too good to be true. I made my living spotting that sort of thing from a mile away, but in this case I was ignoring my gut. Kasia insisted that we skip out on this mission, but I decided to ignore her, too.

I trusted Wyatt. I trusted that he believed in this information and that he knew what he was doing. So far, trusting him had taken me far.

We were hitting the mafia harder than we ever had. The unrest in the ranks hadn’t gone away, but the girls collectively decided to put aside their issues for the greater good. They were beginning to understand that we needed the mercenary men if we were going to really win this war.

That didn’t mean they liked it. I didn’t like it either. But we had to take risks.

This mission was a risk. Everyone knew it, including me. Wyatt wasn’t pushing it, but he did say that he got the information directly from Arturo himself. I knew how my father liked to brag, and so I believed him.

Still, there were so many unknowns. As soon as Wyatt brought the information to me, I began to research.

It took me nearly two days to finally find what I was looking for. It was hidden inside of a shell company inside of a shell company, buried down deep within the shipping manifesto. I spotted a shady looking company called Swiftly Industries and followed them down the rabbit hole. They turned out to be a mob front, and from there I figured out that there was no shipment of bananas coming in from South America.

That shipment was full of cocaine. I suspected Arturo planned on cutting the cocaine and turning it into crack, though that didn’t matter.

It had to be a lot of coke. The manifesto said the shipment was at least two hundred pounds of bananas, which meant an equal amount of coke. That was in the millions of dollars territory.

Just finding that shipment gave some truth to what Wyatt was saying. It also helped that the shipment was scheduled to come in overnight, which was clearly an attempt by the mob to hide their actions.

All the evidence was pointing toward this being a legitimate mafia action. Even Kasia had to admit that it looked like it was real.

And so, with only a day to plan, we got the men together. We were using the mercenaries for this move, because we wanted to keep our girls safe in case something went wrong. We armed the guys with our new weapons, and we armed them to the teeth. We scouted out the location and Kasia made some tactical plans.