Page 46 of Little Deer
I hate that he’s right. “We need to have Dante check the feed. And why did they pick this room out of so many? I know it’s out of the way, but so are so many other rooms. This is the farthest you have to travel.”
“Maybe it was the only one they could get to with everything going on. Most of the other wings had people in them. I wouldn’t be surprised, though, if they had multiple rooms picked and this was just the one they were able to get to.”
“Orlando has to have blueprints of this place.” He curses. “We need to get through the files on those drives, but Urso andZeno said that if they go too fast, they risk corrupting the entire thing and losing it.”
My own frustration bubbles. “Fuck. This whole fucking thing is a fucking mess. So if this was one of Giovanni’s men, then the men out there had to be his men or Russians.”
“Or it could be that Giovanni saw an opportunity. Leonardo attacks, and his guys sneak in in the fray. If we didn’t sweep the house, we wouldn’t have known they were here. I doubt any of this is Marco. He’s not smart enough for this. This is clever and precise, and Marco is all action without thought. Hell, he’s trying to take over Seamus’s territory amongst all this shit? Fucking suicide.”
Yeah, he’s definitely right on that. “Once we talk to the men in the basement, we’ll find out, then we can plan. We need to schedule rounds up here, though. Have our men start searching every room. Nico’s men are fucking lazy, and even though Caesar is working with them, you can’t change shit like this overnight.”
Caesar is one of Nico’s men who was recently promoted to help get the men in shape, and while we can see some of the changes starting to take place, it won’t happen quickly enough.
Alonzo nods. He pulls out his phone to send a message. “Lazaro has been working with Caesar and Davide on the soldier rotations, so I’ll have him set it up with our men.”
“Good. Any word from the others?”
“Dante just messaged that they cleared everything and we’re all meeting in Nico’s office quickly before we get the women.”
We make our way down to Nico’s office, but I’m definitely going back up to that room. Whatever is in there, I’m going to find it.
Nico’s office is full of tension, the stress of the day filling the room. It’s well past evening now, but we still have a lot to do. “What do we know?” Nico demands.
Dante gives a quick report, finishing off with, “We’ve lost five men, have some injuries, but they lost more. We have three men in the basement waiting for questioning.”
“Good.” Nico’s eyes are bright with anticipation.
“Couple things about the men I caught,” I add. I give a quick rundown of what I know. “Alonzo made the point that they might not be part of Leonardo’s crew, but actually Giovanni’s trying to get in during the fray.”
“It’s possible,” Alessio agrees. “Sounds like something they would try to do. We’ll get the information out of them.” He looks at Lazaro. “You and Dante?”
Lazaro nods. Lazaro and Alonzo are our top interrogators, but if we want to leave pieces of them, then we’ll only sic one on them for now.
“I’ll be there,” Nico adds, his expression hard, like he expects someone to argue with him.
“I’ll be joining as well,” Papa says. “The more information we have, the better. Urso, Zeno, I want you both to get back to work on finding out what’s on those drives. Dante, we need to find out how these fuckers got in in the first place.”
“Already have the men pulling up the feed. I should have it shortly.”
“Good.”
“What about the women? Do we leave them in there for much longer or get them out?” I ask. Worry fills me, thinking of Lucy and Soren immediately as soon as the words leave my mouth. “If we didn’t catch everyone, I don’t want to risk them getting in while we’re doing shit out here.”
“Everything cleaned up?” Papa asks Dante. Dante nods. He looks back at me. “Alright, Massimo, you go and get them, while the rest of us handle what we need to. We’ll meet back here to discuss everything once we have more information.”
“Do we have a thought on who this was?” Zeno asks before we can all disperse.
“Right now it’s looking like Leonardo, but it also could be Giovanni, so at this point it’s anyone’s guess,” Dante replies grimly. “We just have to see which of our guests turns first.”
I don’t wait to listen to the rest and instead move to the hidden door in the office and open it, slipping inside. It takes me a few minutes to make my way through to where Sofia texts me they are, but when I finally round a corner and see them all sitting in the middle of the passage, relief fills me. Especially when I see Lucy sitting there, calm, and Soren asleep in Rori’s lap. Hades is right next to her, his head beside Soren’s, almost dwarfing the baby with its size, and it only lifts when he senses me. But when he realizes it’s me, his head lays back down, his big tongue gently licking at the top of the baby’s head.
Lucy sees me first, and I see her eyes move over me quickly. I smile at her. “Ladies, your knight in shining armour has arrived.”
There are a few quiet chuckles, and Lucy reaches over to grab Soren from Rori, waking the baby instantly. Soren starts to cry, and Lucy tries to soothe him.
“Glad to see you’re still alive, handsome,” Rori says as she stiffly gets to her feet. “And everyone else?”
The question is casual, but I know who she’s asking about. “Everyone is fine. A few scrapes and grazes on a couple of us, but nothing terrible.” Her eyes narrow ever so slightly, but I see the worry flash. “I’ve come to release you.”
