Page 59 of Degrees of Power
“You do need to know, but I’m going to let your father explain,” Chase says, eyeing the telephone in the middle of the conference table.
“Dad?” I say, walking towards it, “tell me.”
“Is it not enough that I am on my way home and will take care of this once I arrive in the States?” he says.
“Take care of what? Tell me, Dad!”
“Chase, I trust that you will take care of my daughter and anything else that needs attention,” Carlos says.
“Dammit Carlos. You know I will, but tell us what the fuck is going on. You cut all …” Chase says.
“Enough!” Carlos bellows through the phone. “I’m trusting you and Don to take care of things. In the interim, I’m taking the next flight out, and for the record Vicenti is more than interested in buying the business out, but not until we get the family under control.”
“Carlos, we can discuss it when you get home,” Chase says, at the same time Jay walks into the room, motioning Chase and pushing the mute button. “Keep him talking, we need three more minutes,” Jay says, releasing the mute button.
“Carlos, there’s one thing that’s been on my mind that I need to tell you about,” Chase says.
“Chase, I need to get on the fucking plane,” my father says impatiently.
“Carlos, I need to give you a heads up about the Vegas properties,” Chase says.
“Nothing can go wrong with those, Chase. You know that’s the Larussio family’s future,” he says.
“Carlos, we’ll work everything out, but you need to know that we’re getting some serious push back on the properties. Someone is attempting to block state approvals,” Chase says.
“Dammit! Thanks for letting me know Chase. We’ll talk when I get home, but right now I need to get in the air,” he says, as Jay gives Chase the thumbs up and Carlos disconnects.
“Jay, what the fuck is going on?” Chase says.
“You were right about Carlos. As soon as he got to Vicenti’s he cut all eyes and ears from the devices we had fitted on him. Fortunately, he didn’t know about the plants we had on the property. The teams are pulling the feeds together as we speak and I’ll have something to share with you shortly,” Jay says.
I look at Chase and then Jay. “So the same recording methods you used when I went to see Vicenti?” I ask.
Jay looks to Chase uneasily. “Jay, it’s fine. She knows we had surveillance in place when she was in Brazil.”
“Sorry, Kate. We couldn’t let you go in there without protection,” Jay says.
“It’s fine. I really appreciate the fact that you were there for me even when you were still in ICU. I need to know what’s going on with my father. My mother is at home completely oblivious. My heart is hurting for her right now,” I say.
“Just a moment,” Jays says, holding his hand up, signaling that he’s listening into a call on his headset.
“Send in air support, do it now!” he says, walking toward the panoramic window that at this time overlooks nothing but late afternoon duskiness settling around the property. “Chase, we’ve got the Augusta circling, trying to keep a clear path for Carlos to the airport.”
“Whatever it takes,” Chase says.
“Shit, Chase, we just received a shots fired message- they’re taking on fire. Shots out team,” he yells into the mic hanging low from his headset.
“Update,” Chase says almost immediately.
“Chase, safe room! Let us take care of this. Stay on the burner,” Jay says.
“Dammit,” Chase explodes, taking my hand and leading me toward the kitchen where Gaby is bent over reading a cookbook.
“We’re heading downstairs. Tell us what you need,” Chase says to her.
“Let’s move. You know I’m prepared for anything. You think that refrigerator downstairs isn’t stocked just in case you give the say so?” she says.
He smiles and kisses the top of her hair. “Excellent, let’s move,” he says, leading the two of us down the main elevators. We enter the safe room, which is an exact duplicate of the floor above. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be in the kitchen,” Gaby says, sashaying out of the spacious living room.
