Page 64 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
But Mick and Tommy both agreed there was more upside if they got Luddie alone. “Grace wants Tommy back in one piece,” Mick said, “and we aim to deliver.”
“But Trina, on the other hand,” said Sal to Reno, “would be kissing the ground we walk on if your ass didn’t make it back.”
Reno gave Sal the evil eye. Robby laughed as he pulled to the side of that backroad behind Luddie’s house and Mick, Tommy, Sal and Reno got out and began walking through the alleyway between houses that led to Luddie’s place.
But as they were walking up to the basement door, which they had determined would be their point of entry, Mick’s phone buzzed. He pulled it out and read the text. “Gotdammit!”
“What, Uncle Mick?” asked Tommy.
“They lost Luddie. They thought he was in the club, but when they went inside to eyeball him again, he was gone. His car’s gone too. They lost him. We need to get inside before he gets here.”
“What kind of G-men are they?” asked a flustered Sal. “They didn’t have anybody in the club keeping an eye on him?”
“They don’t give a shit about Luddie like Hammer said,” said Tommy. “They deal with government-to-government shit. Not some smalltime hood like him.”
“Wait,” said Mick. And they all listened too.
“The garage is opening,” said Reno. “Is he coming in already?”
Sal hurried to the side of the house. And that was when he saw an Audi 8 backing out of the garage. “His ass was already here. He’s leaving!” Sal yelled and began running around the side of the house to the front. Tommy, Reno, and Mick ran around the house to the front too.
When Robby, in the Escalade, saw what was happening, he sped off too.
But by the time Sal and the team made it up front, the car was already backing out of the driveway. When Tommy saw that Luddie was behind the wheel, he pulled out his weapon to disable the tires. But Luddie sped away too fast.
They all ran out to the street, to fire on him, but that was when Mick’s Escalade came speeding out of the side street and rammed into Luddie’s Audi. The car sped around as Mick and the team ran toward it, but Luddie self-corrected with a triple-swerve, and then sped away.
Mick flung open the driver side door of his Escalade. “Get over!” he yelled to Robby as a terrified Robby was already getting over. “I’m driving,” Mick made clear.
And as Tommy, Sal, and Reno hopped into the backseat, Mick sped after Luddie’s car.
And Mick drove in his reckless, on-the-edge-of-your-seat craziness the way he always did. Robby and everybody in that car were holding on for dear life. Reno had his head in his lap. “I can’t even look,” he said.
“Why didn’t you stay behind that wheel, Robby?” Sal yelled at his underboss. “You know how dangerous Uncle Mick drives. He’ll kill us before Luddie does!”
“Then get your ass out,” said Mick as he turned a corner on two wheels. They all slid to the opposite side of the SUV. And Mick kept speeding. He was determined to overtake that Audi if it was the last thing he did. And as everybody in that car knew, there was no stopping him now.
But there was method to Mick’s madness because a car that should have easily gotten away from his tank of an SUV, was within inches of that tank after several more turns and near-misses.
But when he was about to ram that Audi, Tommy, the only one in the SUV that could penetrate Mick’s wall, spoke up. “How are we going to do this, Uncle Mick? We need answers from him. We can’t kill him.”
Mick glanced at Tommy through the rearview mirror.
“What are you doing?” Sal yelled at Mick. “Keep your eyes on the road!”
But Mick was looking dead at Tommy. “You don’t think I know what I’m doing?” he asked him.
“I’m just reminding you that we need Luddie alive.”
When he said that, it was as if Mick became even more determined to do it his way. He rammed into that Audi, but he didn’t allow it to escape the ram. He saw a path that led to a dead-end. That was why he rammed it when he rammed it. And he forced that Audi to turn down that dead-end path.
When the Audi ran out of real estate, Mick ordered his nephews to jump out. “He’s gonna make a run for it,” he warned them.
And sure enough, as soon as Luddie realized he had been tricked into turning down a dead-end street, he jumped out of that Audi before it came to a complete stop and was running away.
But Tommy, Sal, Reno, and Robby, too, had a jump on him. And Robby, the youngest of all of them, was able to overtake Luddie easily. He knocked him to the ground.
Mick, who still had sharp pains in his ribs from that fall he took at that safe house, remained in his SUV. But as soon as they placed Luddie on the second-row seats, with Tommy and Sal sandwiching him in, and Reno and Robby hopped onto the third-row seats, Mick sped away. He was certain all of the raucous would have cops in the area soon enough.
