Page 90 of Marco DeLuca

“We have to enforce the code. Sorry, we’ve been given strict orders that no one else is allowed in.”

“By who? The owner?” Ermes asks.

“No, the fire chief,” the second bouncer smirks.

Paolo chuckles to my left, and Gino steps closer to me. Before another move could be made, I pulled my gun out and pressed it against the first bouncer’s head.

“Consider me the muh’fuckin’ fire chief, and your ass has been violated,” I snarl, flipping my gun around and hitting the first bouncer in the head.

Before the other two can respond, Ermes and Paolo do the same.

“Stay out here. I’m sure our friend Alberto has been warned,” I instruct Paolo and Ermes.

Gino and Carmine step around the bouncers who are leaking from the head thanks to the flesh wounds they’re sporting courtesy of my boys and me and follow me into the club.

Smoke and red strobe lights create a hazy red cloud. Bodies flail everywhere in the club, and those who aren’t dancing are either drinking, smoking, or groping in a corner somewhere.

There are loud hisses and gasps as some people recognize us. They know this is Colombo territory, and I shouldn’t be on their stomping grounds. I don’t give a fuck.

They should know better than to fuck with the DeLucas. I promised I wouldn’t stop until I got the man who took my wife’s life. It may have been Rocco who pulled the trigger, but he wouldn’t have had the balls to do it without it being sanctioned by the bastard who owns this club.

My eyes do a quick scan. There are two sets of drawings for this building, one on file for the public and the other that only a few people have access to, including the fire chief, an old friend of mine.

I’ve seen the schematics of the building, and I know the entire layout, including the secured room hidden from the naked eye.

We walk up to the bar and sit, waiting for the bartender to serve us. Gino and Carmine have their backs to the bar, scanning the crowd.

“What can I get for you gentlemen, tonight?” the bartender asks after a couple of minutes.

“Three Black Russians,” I order.

The bartender walks away and becomes engrossed in flirting with a woman at the other end of the bar and fixing our drinks. The other bartender is slipping some pills to a customer at the opposite end of the bar.

“Gotta be quick. When we move, Alberto will be warned that we’re here.”

The three of us are seated in the middle. Just as the music switches to DMX’sWhat’s My Name,I jump over the bar, and Gino and Carmine quickly follow.

“Wait! You can’t do that!” the bartender, who was selling dope, says as he comes running up to me.

I backhand him and say, “Stay out of grown men’s business.”

“How fucking fitting is this music?” Gino gloats as Carmine laughs.

The other bartender remains at the other end of the bar, his face struck with fear. Glad he doesn’t plan to try me as I turn my attention to the wall before me.

I kick a glass shelf filled with expensive liquor. It looks like nothing more than that on the surface, but the glass mirror doesn’t shatter but turns inward.

Gino locks the door behind us, and we take the path down a short hallway to a door at the end. Gunshots ring out through the door from the other side.

We duck to the side, and I look at Gino as he slides a wire with a tiny scope at the end under the door. With a click from a remote in his pocket, he releases a gas that in five, four, three, two, one second has the door opening and two women and three men stumbling from the room.

The bodyguards are the quickest to recover, and they go for their guns. Gino puts a bullet in three men in rapid succession, and Carmine grabs the women and shoves them roughly to the ground, aiming his gun at them.

I step inside the room to find it empty. A quick look around, and I see another door that’s locked. It takes no time to shoot the lock off, and I step inside to find an empty bathroom.

There’s a hatch on the floor that I pull up and climb down. I see Alberto running down a passageway no sooner than I get through. I’m not about to run after him, so I take my time walking.

I remove my cuff links and watch and stick them in my pants pockets. Releasing the top buttons of my shirt, I pull my shirt tails free of my pants and then remove my shirt.

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