Page 14 of Odin

“I am not sure how smart it was. I shouldn’t have put myself in that position to begin with.” She scrunched her nose and tried to cover her face with her hand.

I caught her hand and held it in mine as I moved in closer, forcing her to look at me. “Never let him make you feel inferior.”

***

Iwaited until Serena was sleeping comfortably before I snuck out into the night. Serena might have believed the car wreck was an accident, but I'd recreated similar scenes for pay. I parked a mile down the street from the Lombardo compound and smirked at the irony of the situation. This was the same route I'd taken to get to Serena night after night when she lived here.

It shouldn't have surprised me they had made no upgrades with the times. This place could have stood impenetrable, but their security had too many holes to exploit. The compound was three-sided enclosed, with a guard shack at the front. None of the brick walls had any type of electric fence. As long as the guard wasn't looking, you could scale it without a camera catching you. I'd preferred to walk the paths that someone had cut out through the forest on the south side.

I picked my way through the trees until I approached the brick half-wall. Jumping over, I waited in the shadows until one o'clock approached. The guards were still taking their breaks together, and nothing had changed.

The cameras only pointed to the outskirts of the compound, so I flattened myself against the inside wall and made my way around to the garage. There was only one garage door with a camera, but I was banking on the Lombardos being creatures of habits. None of the home's windows had an alarm, and I figured the garage wouldn't either. My penthouse was twenty stories up, and I still had the place wired. Dumb fucks.

I crouched down near one of the lower windows to the garage and checked for a camera or any sort of wiring. Not seeing any, I figured I was good to go. Running my knife along the edges of the window seal, I waited until I could feel the knife slide through the caulking like butter. I broke the seal, raised the window, and crawled through.

I had to keep reminding myself that Serena was at home, in my bed, safe. It was the easiest way to keep my anger in check about the fact that the Lombardos barely had any defensive measures.

It was your typical garage, but I pulled my phone out and clicked the flashlight. As long as I shined it away from the windows, the light wouldn't show from the outside.

Inside looked like a horse stall more than a garage, where each vehicle had their own bay. I walked down the row and placed names to the cars.

The Old Man's daily driver.

Lorenzo's Porsche.

Sergio's car collection, which was probably worth more than my entire net worth.

When I reached the other end of the garage, that's when I saw it.

No cover, broken glass still in the windshield, and blood all over the front seats. Serena had been right.

The Old Man had kept his best friend's car. This situation's red flags were screaming at me. If this had been a hit, who had ordered it, and was the Old Man guilty or protecting someone else?

I wasn't as passionate about cars as some of the other men in mafia families, but I had enough knowledge to detect if there was any tampering. Laying flat on the ground, I shined my phone's flashlight underneath the car, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. I walked around the other side and tried again.

The car had sat here for decades, but the brake cylinder was empty. It should have had brake fluid, even a small amount. I took a few pictures and sent them off to the Nerds for research, but I was pretty sure someone had drained the brakes until it rendered the car useless. No one had informed the Contis on that fateful night.

Chapter 8

Odin

Two months went by with no change. I went about my daily business. I ran appointments in the morning, had lunch with the in-laws in the afternoon, and followed Carazzo at night when Serena was asleep. He still hadn’t found the tracker inside his wheel well, so at least it was easy to keep a read on him. There were no more hidden meetings and no more hidden clues. It was like someone had told him to lay low, and he was trying not to be noticed. He left the compound when he was supposed to and most nights stayed home without company.

I wasn't worried. I was tired of all of this, and if I had my way, the cop would already be dead. No questions asked.

The one bright spot was my wife. I couldn't pinpoint any time in my life where I'd given a shit about a woman until now. When I'd left the orphanage for the streets, I hadn't even bothered looking for company, because I wasn't adding another mouth to feed to my burden. I had barely been eating as it was. By the time I'd graduated med school, life had been different, but insteadof slowing down, I had only focused on making money. Dating required meals and outings, and I hadn't been about to spend money on that bullshit if I didn't have to.

Serena was the first woman I had wanted to treat well, and I made sure I was present, no matter how big or small something was. The first date to the outdoor movie theatre hadn't given me heart palpitations as I'd swiped my card. A few days after, I'd sent her flowers when she was home. It still hadn't sent me into convulsions. By the time I had bought her a few romance novels when she'd finished hers, I couldn't explain why the money wasn't sending me into shock. I reasoned that as long as it wasn't an enormous expense, I'd be emotionally okay. I wanted to see her happy and smiling.

***

Ifound myself in the Lombardo inner office again on a random Tuesday afternoon. They never talked about anything illegal in front of me. It was clear I wasn’t one of them. However, they asked my opinion on random topics. Which port did I think was more secure?I don’t know, and I don’t care, but I didn’t say that. Which family do you think would be better for some new venture?That’s not my thing, and you made a deal with Mr. De Angelis that he receives first rights.I didn’t slight them, but I really wanted to ask why they were trying to include me when it was obvious I wasn’t a businessman.

This time wasn't any different. Lorenzo went over the legal invoices for the week. He’d sign off on them, and then Giuseppe would make unnecessary changes. They wouldn’t fight, but I could tell it was brewing and had been for a while. Sergio just sat on the couch opposite me and watched it unfold. He'd often shoot me looks, as if to say, "Can you believe this fucking shit?"

Once I knew what to look for, I could tell why Lorenzo was broke. His wife spent like there was no tomorrow, and his father stuck him with all the family's bills. By the time he paid the men, paid all the invoices, and paid the staff, there was nothing left. His father was bankrupting him, and his son didn’t care enough to build upon their largest asset, Euforia.

On this particular Tuesday, I went to take my leave with the other men when Giuseppe stopped me.

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