Page 156 of Savage Roses
“You think he’s really late?” he asks.
“You mean is this another play by him?”
Stitches nods. “Seems convenient is all I’m saying.”
“Who cares?” Brenda asks. “If he’s not there, then we can show these tapes to the other Families. Ambush him when he arrives.”
“Pipe down, Xena, Warrior Princess. It ain’t that simple,” Stitches snaps. “You’re new to these types of situations. We can’t just burst in there and commandeer things. It needs to be handled a certain way.”
Brenda blows out a sigh and rolls her eyes. “Says who? You guys are criminals! You make up your own rules—”
“How do we know he’s not really running late?” Fabio interjects. He’s off at the table of the office we’ve camped out in. Some law office across the street from the headquarters of Northam Bank. He’s got his cane with him, though he insists he’s good for tonight.
I ignore all of them, accepting the binoculars back from Delphine.
“Plan moves forward as is,” I say. “If this is a ploy, then he wants us to switch up. He’s counting on it.”
“So the solution is to do nothing?” Brenda asks, sounding incredulous.
Delphine answers before I can. “Don’t you see? It’s a classic chess strategy. He’s trying to throw Salvatore off last minute. He’s counting on him to change our plan. That’s part of the trap, thinking a step or two ahead of your enemy to get them to make the move you want.”
“And if he has a trap set either way?”
“We’ll set a trap for him,” I say, peering out the window at the towering bank building. “We’ve got to makehimparanoid. That’s where you could be of some assistance, Brenda.”
She jabs herself in the chest with her finger. “Me?!”
“Yeah, you. You’re the most unknown in this group. How good of an actress are you?”
“I fooled everyone around me about NorthamNeptune. Sorry, Delphine.”
Delphine smirks at her. “If you’re about to help save the day, we’ll call it even.”
* * *
I explain to Brenda and the others how we’re going to throw a wrench in any plan Lucius has. Brenda agrees even after I stress how extremely dangerous this could be—she could be shot on the spot. She could be tortured or maimed.
“I’ve got nothing to live for except getting him back,” she says bluntly. “I need this.”
That seems to be the mindset everybody’s settled on for our mission. Including myself.
The high risk and danger are worth the potential payback.
Lucius arrives almost half an hour late. His stretch limousine crawls to a lazy stop outside the main entrance—so arrogant he doesn’t even opt for the back like everybody else—and his driver opens the door for him. He’s seemingly gotten rounder since the last time I saw him, a huge blob without binoculars.
His most trusted crew of men escort him inside, heralding him like some kind of fucking king.
I grit my teeth, watching and waiting. I’m biding my time.
We deploy Brenda only minutes into Lucius making it to the conference room.
The meeting hasn’t even officially begun yet.
Though the room buzzes with conversation as the Families mingle and exchange strained, forced pleasantries. It doesn’t take long before Lucius pisses everybody off—dismissively ignoring the female assistant Nick Giancola brought with him and then outright insulting Saito over his accent. The other heads of Families exchange looks whenever Lucius is too pompous to notice.
Nobody can stand him. They simply don’t do shit about it because he’s too powerful.
But if they had a nudge in the right direction…