Page 17 of Little Deer
“I’ve already started instructing the men to go through any books or items they come across,” Nico replies. “But this place is so large that it’ll take time we don’t have to get through it all.”
“I’ve pulled the blue prints, but nothing seems out of place,” Dante adds. “If Nico’s mother was part of the blueprints, though, then she wouldn’t have allowed the actual blue prints to be put in public record.”
“What about the engineers or workers that built this place?” Alonzo asks. “Some of them should still be around.”
“The company that did the work went out of business ten years ago,” Dante replies pensively. “The owner passed away a year later, and his widow two years after that. Reports say it wasnatural causes since they were in their early eighties. The house and everything in it were split up between the kids. None of those kids are in this life, so if they knew what they had, I doubt they realized it. If they didn’t throw it out.”
“We don’t have time to track down people that won’t have shit to give us,” Nico snaps, clearly on edge.
“Then we search this place high and low for anything else that might be hiding,” Papa agrees. “All of us will need to search our rooms. We may need to have Amara help with this, or see if Rori will allow Hades to search them. Perhaps the dog is trained in scent detection.”
“Only if he has a scent to go off of,” Alonzo states. “But I’ll ask her.”
“Perhaps I should be the one to ask her,” I suggest. “She’s liable to tell you to fuck off just to spite you.”
“Fuck off,” Alonzo growls at me, eyes dark and foreboding.
“I’ll speak with her,” Papa says firmly, giving Alonzo a quelling look when he opens his mouth to argue. Alonzo wisely shuts his mouth, but I can practically hear him grinding his teeth. “I also need to speak with her about her information on thischameleongroup. If she’s already contacted them, we have to hope that she’s convinced them to let this go, but if not, we need to be ready for what they might bring as well.”
“We need guards on the women at all times,” Alessio says firmly. “If they’re as good as Rori’s suggested, they could get past us and get to them without much effort. I’d like to think that they’re not the targets, but we can’t take any chances.”
“Giovanni won’t want the women dead,” I agree. “He has uses for them. We still don’t know what Ivan and him are cooking up together, or what Giovanni has promised them. So whatever it is, the women are probably all going to be part of that.” My gut twists at the thought but we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen.
“We need someone on the inside to get us information,” Nico states with exasperation. “This shit is going to be a fucking mess if we can’t get some intel.” He looks at Dante expectantly.
“I’m already working on it, but few are in Ivan’s inner circle, and he’s already found and killed a few of our spies,” Dante reminds him tightly. “And with all these closed door meetings that not even the upper guards are allowed in then it’s near impossible.”
“Not to mention that all his men are ridiculously loyal to him. The one thing that I hear consistently from Ivan’s camp is that his men don’t stray. They rarely talk if they’re captured. The Irish and De Lucas never had that issue.”
“Clearly he has something that keeps them there or he’s just weeded out the ones that aren’t effective,” I summarize. “So if we can’t get an informant, then we need to figure out another way.” I look at Urso and Zeno. “What about Orlando’s hard drives and shit?”
“We’re working on them, but he’s got those fuckers locked down tight,” Urso replies with a grave look. “He’s also set it that too many attempts will destroy everything. We have to be careful. I might have to call in a couple of contacts to help with it.”
“Do it,” Papa orders. “No wasting time with trying things ourselves. Shit is going to hit the fan and we don’t dare be caught unaware. Especially not with how pissed Giovanni is going to be that we have them. He’s probably already planning on launching another attack on us to prove a point, so we don’t need to be distracted.”
“Perhaps it’s time we look at calling in more help,” Dante suggests. We all look at him, and I see Papa’s eyes narrow. Considering how many men we have brought here, I’m sure he’s thinking that Dante’s statement is offensive. Dante doesn’t wither under the stares, and instead suggests, “We haveconnections in other cities across the country. We have so many things to consider now, and we’ve lost men through all the fighting that we’re going to be at a disadvantage if we’re attacked on all sides. Leonardo isn’t going to take Lucy being taken well, Marco will learn that we have Lucy and try his own hand at getting to all of them, and then there’s Giovanni and Ivan that might call in thischameleongroup. On top of all those threats, we have to figure out if there’s anything going on in our own space that some of them might know or use against us. You really think that Leonardo won’t know of something that Nico’s mother hid that we haven’t found yet? Or Seamus and Giovanni? We can’t allow any of them to get to whatever those might be before us, but that takes man power that we can’t spare to focus on.”
We’re silent, and I have to agree that he makes a good point. I can tell that no one else is pleased by that, but while I don’t trust the fucker when it comes to Sofia, I’ll give it to Nico that the man is clearly an asset to him. Still, it’s not that simple. “Who would you suggest then?” I ask. “Bringing in outside people will make all of them pay attention. Right now we’re keeping this from being a bloody war that hasn’t spilled to the streets and is only focused on each family. Bring in more people and we’re inviting chaos that we don’t need.” Dante acknowledges my point with a slight incline of his head.
“We have more men at home that we can send for,” Papa points out. “I don’t like leaving our home so light on men, but I can call in some alliance favors there to ensure we have coverage from the other families.” He nods stiffly at Dante. “You make a good point, but bringing in more people will only cause more problems. We work with what we have, and we do it well. Caesar is training your men, and our men will continue to make sure they are ready for anything that might come.”
“How many dogs do you have?” Lazaro suddenly asks.
“A dozen,” Nico answers. “Why?”
“Perhaps we should think of bringing in more. Dogs will alert faster than a man will hear.” He looks at Aurelio. “We have two dozen at home, perhaps we have some of the men bring a few more.”
Aurelio nods. “It won’t hurt. I’ll have the ones that we can spare brought with them.”
“I have a few contacts I can get in touch with to see if they have any ready to work,” Dante says, looking at Nico.
Nico nods. “Get it done. Anything we can do.” He looks at Alonzo and asks drily, “What are the chances that the bounty hunter has another couple like her demon hiding somewhere? Or is she keeping them secret to send after your balls once this is all over?”
We all snicker, while Alonzo glares at Nico. “Oh, my Boo Bear made a joke,” Alessio preens with a laugh, side-stepping swiftly when Nico rounds on him, and Papa sighs. “I think all those sessions have been finally working, Boo Boo,” he jokes, prodding him even more.
I swear to God, my brother has unscrewed a few things in his head since we got here.
“Alright, enough,” Aurelio says sternly. “Nico makes a good point, even if he is trying to get his ass beaten.” He gives Nico a stern look as well, before looking back at Alonzo and asking, “Is there a chance that Rori might know someone else that could be useful or helpful in this mess?”
