“So my fate is to die within inches of the goal, huh?” Barrett stated. “Well, at least I got this far. But as dismal as this seems, I might still have a surprise or two up my sleeve yet. Even if I die here, I’ll take everyone here down with me.” He turned to look at a few men Zeus had dragged in the clubhouse with him.
They had tried to fool Leon and the others but in the end, they were caught…dragged in here with their hands tied behind their backs, just like Barrett himself.
“Oh, you won’t die here,” Gina assured him.
Everyone there turned their heads to stare at her.
“He won’t?” Zeus asked her while looking puzzled.
“Nope.” Gina popped the p as she shook her head. “Why should you or anyone else here give him what he wants?” She glared down at Barrett. Raising her head, she gave the same glare to the others brought in with him. Finally, she turned to Zeus. “You said he had his own men coming tomorrow, didn’t you?”
Zeus nodded, as he still looked confused. “Yeah he did, or rather he does. But then he went and got caught. The damn fool.”
Gina shook her head. “Not such a fool, as he’s following the plan.” She turned to Barrett. “Are you following a master plan you set up, scumbag? The one with you being inside waiting for your army to show up then hit us from the outside as well as the inside?”
Leon looked over at Barrett and he could read what was in his eyes for himself. “Fottuto stronzo!” he swore in Italian as he gazed around the room as the truth could be seen in the eyes of the men who’d been captured with Barrett.
“How does he plan to let them in from inside a jail cell?” Captain asked no one in particular.
Zeus turned to look at the men who’d been with Barrett at the gate.
They tried to blank their expressions but they weren’t fast enough.
Zeus snarled as he glanced over at Click. “Check the heat seeking cameras and tell us how many more men are waiting beyond the fence.”
Click rapidly typed commands in and when his tapping stopped, he stared at the screen then looked up at Zeus. “There are about a dozen men or so but I have a feeling that by morning, there could be a whole lot more.”
Delaney joined him and studied the screen as well. She shook her head and pointed out three men that shouldn’t be there. “Chico and a few of his friends are still out there.” She looked over at Barrett. “What did you promise them, Dad? You have no money left.”
Barrett snorted. “This place has lots of secrets, you stupid little bitch.”
With a low growl in his throat, Memphis raised his foot and kicked him with his boot.
Barrett wailed in pain and curled his body into a ball.
Leon looked over at the men who’d been with Barrett and asked, “What did he promise you? It must be air, as he is down on his funds just now. Like way down. In fact, he is dead broke.” He smirked. “Well almost. We found the gold, diamonds, several bags of jewels and a hell of a lot of cold cash, what else is there?”
The men all glanced at each other then finally looked back at him.
Leon placed his hands behind his back and bent a bit as they sat on the floor. “You can answer me here,” he stated ever so politely. “Or perhaps, in my dungeon. I have certain men waiting there. They simply love a good challenge. So far in the game of getting men to talk, they are batting a thousand.”
The men stared up at him and some had gone white in the face while others gulped heavily.
“He promised us his family recipe for the moonshine they were once producing,” one of them blurted out in a shaky voice.
Another one of them nodded his head and added nervously, “H-he said i-if we got it, we could make a good living. He told us he had the whole setup here, the stills and e-everything.”
Delaney started to laugh.
The men all turned their heads to stare at her then back over at Leon as he laughed with her.
Captain snorted as he asked them, “Did he also tell you he blew up the stills? He found out that we blocked the tunnels. So being the brilliant man that he is…he thought he’d set a charge to get rid of the blockage. But unfortunately for you, he blew up the stills instead. He didn’t realize you can’t set a charge off inside the building. The dumb ass.”
Alfredo growled and struggled to get to his feet. He did not look amused at all by this new development. He glared at his son. “You little worm, that recipe is not yours to sell or give away, not as long as I am alive. That was the one thing we Raggettis had left that no one else could claim. Besides, that recipe is not written down anywhere. It’s all in my head. You can’t sell it or promise it to someone else without me.”
Barrett looked shocked. “But Grandpa told me he wrote it down.”
Alfredo scoffed. “Oh, he did write it down once, but then he got pissed at Leon’s father one day when he told my dad he had to repay a loan he took out and forgot about paying it back. So my dad burned the recipe and told him he had no way to repay without the recipe. My dad never remembered anything unless he wrote it down. Leon’s father kicked his dumb ass out of the family by then and Alfonso still lost everything he had to repay that loan. By the time he was done, he was broke again and had to restart.” Alfredo shook his head. “He also didn’t manage his money very well. He always spent it faster than he could make it and he’d end up robbing Peter to pay Paul. Similar to what he taught you to do. And guess what? You ended up the same way. With nothing.”
Delaney stared at him. “But grandpa, you’ve been making his shine forever.”
Alfredo nodded. “Yes, I have and had he asked me I would have told him what the ingredients were and in which order they need to be added, but my dad never asked me. He tended to ignore me a lot when I was growing up. I waited until he passed away to start making it again. But I never wrote anything down.” He tapped his head. “It’s all up here.” Then he looked at Barrett, “But it’s not for someone like you to barter away. When I die, that recipe will go to Delaney.”
“It will go to me and my sister.” Delaney growled. “Another useless girl you couldn’t and wouldn’t ever claim.”
Barrett paused, as he looked confused. “Sister?”
Delaney looked over at Desi as they both shook their heads.
“Get these losers down into a cell.” Zeus growled at his men.
Barrett stared at him in disbelief. “What about me? I need a doctor. I’m bleeding all over the place here.”
Grave Digger grumbled and said, “Bring him back to the infirmary but I want him tied up the whole time. He’s caused enough trouble for this MC.”
Barrett sneered at him. “You the doctor or something?”
Grave Digger nodded. “Yeah, a full MD. They call me Grave Digger.”
“You ain’t touching me.” Barrett snarled as he shook his head “You won’t be digging my grave.”
Grave Digger shrugged. “You are right about that. Someone else will be doing the digging.” He glanced over at Zeus. “You heard the man, I ain’t touching him. Guess he’ll have to bleed then.”
Zeus nodded and waved at his men to move them out.
Barrett complained and shouted as he and the other men were all taken down to the cells.
Just before the door shut, Zeus called out to his men, “Make sure you empty their pockets first.” He shook his head and looked back over at Leon. “He’s running out of things to barter with.”
Leon barked out a cough. “He never had anything to barter with. Except maybe the lint in his pockets.”
“Don’t be too sure about that,” Gina stated as she cocked her head at him. “He’s a man with many secrets.”
Leon raised an eyebrow at her. “We know this very well. But what exactly are you referring to?”
“When I discovered that he was my girl’s father, I checked on his prison files,” she explained. “They went back many years as he’s spent over half of his life behind bars. The man is a real winner,” she scoffed. “With some serious hangups. He truly believes his grandfather was an awesome man. But in reality, he was nothing but a thief. And not even a good one because he stole from someone who did care and made him pay it all back.”
“Oh, he paid it all back,” Leon growled. “With interest. Many years later, I might add.”
Gina nodded. “But Barrett never thought you’d find it all, did he? He still thinks you haven’t found everything.”
Alfredo stared at her. “Impossible, what else could there be?”
“Boss, the men are getting closer,” Click called out.
Everyone joined Click and they all watched as the group of roughly eighteen men began moving closer to the fence line.
”Too bad, we don’t have a few grenades. We could lob them over the wall from the roof to scatter them.” Gina chuckled. “We could scramble them good with a few blasts.”
Delaney turned to stare at her. “How would we get them close enough to do enough damage?”
Desi snorted. “Oh, have no doubt sis. Gina is a master of improvisation. She’d get them there if we had anything that would work.”
Delaney looked over at her grandfather.
Alfredo nodded at her. “Give it all you got, miele. This is a battle of them versus us. I prefer us to win this war.”
Gina turned to look at Delaney. “What are you thinking?”
“I made some serious flash bangs.” Delaney shrugged. “But when I used one in the underground tunnels the blast alone killed two of them right off the bat. Damn near killed me too, but I was blown back into another hidden room.”
Gina paused as she thought about the explosives Delaney was talking about. “Do you have any of these flash bangs left?”
Delaney shrugged. “Yeah, maybe a dozen or so.”
Gina turned to Desi and smiled. “Then all I need is a delivery system.” She rubbed her hands together and laughed. “Damn girlfriend, this is gonna be so much fun.” She looked back at Delaney. “What kind of fuse you got on these bangs?”
“I can give you up to a minute before it goes off?”
“That’ll do.” Gina grinned at her. “Now, how are we going to get them airborne?” She looked around the room and asked, “Anybody here got a slingshot?”
Zeus snorted. “A fucking slingshot?”
“Well Mr. Almighty, a small rocket launcher would work much better but we don’t have anything like that, now do we?” Gina quipped.
Leon shook his head. “What exactly do you have in mind, young lady?”
“If we can get high enough and I think the roof is just that,” she explained. “We can lob a few flash bangs over the top of the fence and scramble those men. If the flash bangs are heavy enough, we might just take a few of them out. With fewer men out there, that would give us a better chance of winning this war.”
Leon glanced over at Zeus and nodded. “It just might work.” He then swung his keen gaze back over to Gina. “But it will bring the law here as well, don’t you think?”
“Desi and I are members of the U.S. Marshal’s office,” Gina stated. “We should have you covered that way. I can always call more agents in, if that’s got your panties in a twist,” she quipped carelessly.
Desi gasped as she stared at her partner with wide eyes.
Alfredo, Delaney, Zeus, Captain, and all the men present stared at her with stunned expressions on their faces. The woman had the gall to call out Leon?
Calderone raised his head up as he sat with Click at the table. Staring at Gina, he slowly shook his head.
The room went completely silent.
Leon smoothly stepped over to her and stated very quietly, “First of all, I do not wear panties, my dear. Secondly, if I did get them in a twist as you put it. Many others would feel the pain of it, not me. Capisci?”
Her amused expression faded from her face as she stared at him. Then she slowly nodded her head.
“This calling in would also put mine and Calderone’s panties at stake as well.” Leon gave her a steel eyed wink. “I do not answer questions posed by authorities, either. I mean…” He casually waved his well manicured hand with his signet gold ring. “There would be too many badges and lawyers here. My bodyguards would get antsy. It would be a whole thing.”
Gina stared at him for a moment then she swallowed heavily and said, “With all the rooms and tunnels in this place, I’m sure we could hide you and your son long enough if the Marshals did come. I’m certainly not going to tell them about you being here. I like living too much to run afoul of the Family, thank you very much.”
Leon stared at her for a long tense moment then he finally nodded. “I see you do understand then.”
She chuckled dryly. “Oh, I capisci alright. I was born at night, Mr. Vincinti, but I wasn’t born last night.”
Leon stared at her then tilted his head back to laugh.
Everyone in the room finally seemed to relax.
“Besides, I am sure you and your son haven’t broken any laws here,” she went on. “However, the same can’t be said about Barrett or his sons. But we can cross that line when it comes.”
“If you’re serious about this plan, I have something that might work like a slingshot,” Captain offered.
Gina turned to smile at him. “I am very serious. So what you got, Cap?”
