The Dominator (61 page)

“It’s okay, Tia. You can tell me. I promise you, you can.” He said softly, breaking the long silence on the line.

So, I made a judgment call and told him what I knew of where we were, which I only really knew from remembering that map with the old lady and old man that day Tommy had tested me.  I knew the nearest intersection and I described the barn and the house. He told me he was coming, he had guns, and that I should stay hidden until he’d eliminated the threat. He said that if I thought I could get to the jeep I should run for it and drive out of there but if someone continued to stay inside I should try to stay hidden.

An hour later, I was still in the tall grass and I hadn’t heard back from Tommy or Dario. That had me more than a bit stressed out. No one had come and the guy inside hadn’t come out. He was obviously waiting for us. 

Finally, I saw a black hatchback car drive by. It didn’t slow, just kept going.  It was the first car that had gone by so I wondered if it was either more bad guys or maybe Nino scoping the place out. A few minutes later I got a text from Nino asking me where the door was on the barn and asking me if any downstairs windows were open. I wrote back describing it as best I could in quick order.

Fifteen minutes later, I saw Nino and Dex coming from the pond side toward the barn. They were on foot, sneakily making their way to the barn, guns drawn. Thirty seconds after they were inside the barn, there was gunfire. Then thirty seconds after that, Nino was calling my phone.

“Come quick and careful. I’ll cover you from the stall window in case anyone approaches.”

When I finally got to the barn, heart hammering in my chest, Nino was in the doorway.

“Get into the jeep.” Nino handed me a small handgun and my purse, which had been upstairs. “Listen. We found a tracker on the jeep. I got it off. We’re putting it on my ride so we can see if we can lure whoever it is. I’m taking that, Dex is staying here to see what comes, and we got more guys on their way. Put this under your seat and drive to the city. Drive to my wife’s shop and she’ll meet you and take you to her mother’s place until we get shit sorted. You remember where Bianca’s shop is?”

I nodded and thanked him profusely and got into the jeep and drove out like a bat outta hell.

It’d been a while since I’d driven and I can’t say I was all that great at it but I got out of there, quickly. I drove the opposite way that we usually came in, figuring I’d figure the rest out later and also figuring if the other guy wasn’t far, he’d come from the other way.

Ten minutes later I was kind of lost but I was pretty sure I hadn’t been followed.  Fifteen minutes after that, the flip phone was ringing and it was Dario.

“Dario!” I answered.

“Tia! What’s your status?”

I spoke fast, “I got Nino to the safe house because these two guys were there with guns and Nino got one, I don’t know where the other is, he left before Nino got here and I got into Tommy’s jeep and I’m maybe about 30 minutes away from Bianca’s salon where Nino said to meet her. There was a tracker on the jeep so whoever put it there knows where the safe house is!”

“Okay, yeah, I just got off the phone with him. Change of plans,” Dario said, “Are you being followed?”

“I don’t think so. I’m on a dirt road alone. Haven’t seen a car for the whole time I’ve been driving. Where’s Tommy?”

“I’ll explain after. Get to 15 Sweet Avenue as fast as you can. Don’t put 15 Sweet into in the GPS in the jeep in case there’s a hack on the GPS. I will give you directions.”

He gave me directions and let me go.

I got a text and it said Tommy,

“Where r u?”

I pulled over and dialed his number. No answer.

I answered back, “Trying to call!?! Urgent!”

“Can’t talk live. Text me where u r.”

“I’m driving to meet Dario. Someone came to the farm!”

“Were ru meeting Dario?”

Something wasn’t right, “Where are you, Tommy? Is everything ok?”

“Im ok. Were r u goign?”

I suddenly had this sinking feeling, remembering the text that came through that was a fake about Luciana’s labor.  How did I know whether or not this was Tommy? I wrote,

              “I need to talk to you. I need to hear your voice.” 

              “I cant talk 2 u. Need u 2 tell me were u r so I cna meet u. its urgent.”

My gut told me it wasn’t him.

“What’s OUR favorite ice cream flavor?” I wrote.

“Strawbery. Were r u honey pls”

The answer came after a long time. Strawberry? Honey? All those typos? Not Tommy.             

I called Dario back and told him someone was texting me from Tommy’s phone or that Tommy’s phone was cloned and he told me to just hurry to meet him. I ignored the next three texts that came from whoever was pretending to be Tommy.

I pulled up to 15 Sweet Ave and it was a small run-down looking house on a small and quiet street and all the lights were off. I parked the jeep and put the gun into my waistband under my shirt at the back. I knocked on the front door. I saw a figure move behind the curtains on the window adjacent to the door.

Finally the door opened a little and Dario pulled me in by the wrist, “We gotta move!” He walked me through the house, holding my elbow. It was a sparse run down place with no furniture and everything was in rough shape. He went down the stairs to the basement and now I knew it was Dario’s safe house. The basement apartment was totally redone, high tech, every modern convenience. No one appeared to be there but him. I used his washroom and then he grabbed a duffle bag and we went back upstairs, “Stay here!” He said and I waited by the top of the stairs and he headed toward the front of the house. He was gone only about 30 seconds, then he rushed me through the back door and there was an alley with a separate garage. Inside was a black SUV. He ushered me into it.  This looked like the same SUV I’d been picked up from my grad in.

“Where’s Tommy?” I asked.

He shook his head, “I don’t know.”

“I remembered that he said someone faked a text from Eddy so I was wary.”

“Good.” He drove crazy fast.

“Where are we going?” I had no idea what that place even was.

“Bianca’s ma’s house, where I’ve got the girls and the kids.”
“Luciana?”

“She’s there, too.”

“How’s your Dad?”

“Pop’s hanging in, last I heard.”

“When did you last see Tommy?”

“I haven’t seen him. He was supposed to meet me this morning. He never showed.”

I felt sick to my stomach.

My phone rang. It said Tommy on it.

“Tommy!” I breathed at the phone and looked to Dario.

He jerked his chin at the phone. I answered it, “Tommy?”

“Not Tommy,” said a male voice, “But we have him. Get to where Tommy’s brother is and call this number back.”

“What do you want?” I looked at Dario with panic.  He took the phone from me and pulled over to the side of the road.

“Who is this? This is him; what do you want?” Dario held the phone for a minute.  Then after a minute of listening, he said, “Put him on the phone.” A minute later he said, “Hey. You alright? Yeah, man. Yep, she’s with me. Right. Right.” Then he hung up.

“What do they want?”

“Money,” Dario said, pulling back onto the road.

“Money?”

“Yeah; they want a million cash. That’s it. These guys are small time, guys hired by Castillo’s nephew. They were hired to take out a hit on Tommy but decided to sell him back. They want you delivering the money. Pop has enough money in his vault. I’ll get it and we’ll make the drop.”

I was speechless. Dario pulled around in a U-turn and drove in the opposite direction. Ten minutes later we were at their Pop’s place and Dario pulled in and made me follow him inside.

“Why do they want
me
delivering the money?” We were in Tom’s office and Dario was opening a safe in the wall behind a family photo of Tom and the four grandkids.

“They probably figure you won’t shoot them; you’ll give them the money and they can get outta there clean. They’ll figure if I’m in there it’s a big chance that I’ll be carrying and it’ll go south.”

Dario pulled out 10 stacks of bills and then put them into a duffle bag that he’d fetched from a closet.”

“But what if they just take the money and shoot me? What if Tommy’s already... already...” I was panicking, big time.

“I’ll have you covered. We’ll have the place crawling with men. Let’s go. They’re calling in fifteen minutes with the drop location.

“You sure they’ve got Tommy?”

“They put him on the phone.”

The idea of Tommy being taken seemed all but impossible to me. He was so strong, had such a presence, it was hard to imagine him being overpowered. The idea that they’d found his safe house and could’ve shot him…

Dario interrupted my thoughts, “This crew is small time. We give them the money, get Tommy, Tommy and I eliminate the bigger threat, and we send some of our guys to get our money back and take these guys out. It’ll all work out. Don’t stress.”

Don’t stress? Easy for him to say! There was so much going on here. Tom Ferrano in a hospital bed, my father in jail and a sitting duck (or maybe by now a dead duck), Tommy kidnapped for ransom and not from the bigger threat but some other new threat, the rest of the family in hiding. Tessa’s husband dead.  And me: expected to do a money drop to get Tommy back?

All while wondering if my Dad was alive or dead.

Dario pulled into a coffee shop drive thru and ordered a coffee and looked to me. “Just water,” I muttered and he ordered for us and then parked in front and stared at the phone.

Tommy

They’d tracked me somehow to the farm and waited. They ran my bike off the road just a down the road and I’d gotten knocked out cold. When I came to, they had disarmed me and had me cuffed in the back of their covered pickup. Now we were in a motel room. I knew this motel. It was 2 minutes from my condo, where my brother now lived. I knew the décor because I’d fucked a girl here a few months ago and then one of the guys had come in from outside and I recognized the neon diner sign across the road.

These guys were trying to be up and comers, subbing work for Jesse Romero, Juan Carlos Castillo’s nephew.  They were stupid. They were careless. And I didn’t like that I’d heard them demand my girl make the drop for the money.  I was relieved that by brother had Tia with him but Dare had better find another way. There was no way he’d send Tia in here, would he?

I didn’t know how she’d wound up with him but that was a relief. I didn’t wanna think about what they’d have done to her if they’d caught her back at the farm and the minute I woke and knew they’d found my safe house I’d been sick with worry about her being there, vulnerable. There were two of them, one had junkie written all over him. The other guy, a jock type, started chirping at me, asking me what my girl looked like, why there were no pics of her on my phone, talking about how maybe he’d get a taste before they let me go. I sat, not giving them anything, no words, no looks, just dead eyes.

All that was wrong right now with me was a bit of road rash, a kick to the ribs, and I’d been hit in the face when they asked me her ice cream question and asked what my pet name was for her. When she stopped answering their texts after my face made them think they knew what the right answer was based on the answers they were running through, they knew they were skunked. I was proud of my girl for suspecting it wasn’t me texting her.

These guys weren’t smart enough to win at this game. They had no idea how connected my family was but would soon find out. Dare would deal with this shit and get me outta here so we could finish dealing with Romero.

There was a digital alarm clock on the nightstand beside me. I was sitting on the floor against the wall. I watched time tick by and about an hour passed and then my burner phone rang. The junkie answered it,

“You got the money? Have the bitch bring it. Room 302, Knight’s Inn on Lakeshore. She comes alone or we put a bullet in your brother and then in her.”

Fifteen minutes later there was a knock at the door.  Jock opened it with a gun behind his back and Junkie stood with the gun pointing at me.

After the door swung open, I saw a female figure step into the room carrying a knapsack. I was fucking fuming. How could they send her in here? Then I realized something wasn’t right. She was way taller than Tia. The light caught her face and I saw that it wasn’t Tia. Who was it? It was Bianca.  Good thinkin’, Dare. I hid my smile.

Bianca grew up with us. Her Pop was as bad a bad ass as they come. Bee was badass herself. We used to practice together on the gun range. Her, me, and Earl. She could shoot better than most men I knew. If she’d been a boy, she would’ve been right in there with Dare and I running things. If her Pop hadn’t been taken out by my Pop, and she’d been a boy she’d be running the show; we’d all be working for her.  Knowing her like I did, she
could
run the show, female or not. She was happy to be a mother and run her salon but the chick was smart, cunning, and she was good with not just a gun but her fists, and her feet. She’d taken martial arts as a kid and she once beat the snot out of Dario for dumping her best friend’s little sister for another girl. Gave him two black eyes and then cracked a rib with one of her roundhouse kicks.