Chapter 24

Corrin

Sevina’s hand disappears from my hair, leaving me to savor the remains of her touch, momentarily dissipating at the creaks in the van. As I jerk into a sit Will slumps on the bench, her lips in a line and breathing heavy, eyes red as if she’s been crying. We all, gathering around her, share jumbled stares.

“Will?” Sevina’s first to break the silence, gently pushing me to the side and moving closer to her friend.

“Did you find anything out?” Aida props her elbows on her knees.

“Let her catch a breath,” Sevina shoots, but Aida’s unrelenting.

“If you didn’t notice we’re on a tight schedule here.”

Sevina overlooks her as she leans closer to Will. “Let me look if you don’t want to talk.”

“No.” Will rubs her eyes with her palms. “In the middle of the night I’ve been summoned by the higher-ups. All my partners were. Dan didn’t come to investigate. I don’t know the man. He gathered us all in an empty room. He shot the last guy who was overseeing the delivery in front of us. He said if boss’s people won’t find whoever did this soon they’ll kill each overseer before or after and take in some new people from the gangs to fill our places. I take it the boss is completely lost at who’s to blame.”

“How killing everyone will solve the problem?” I voice.

“Maybe it’s a scare tactic,” Quint murmurs.

“I think your father’s willing to do anything at this point to keep his clients and other families from suspecting each other,” Will growls. “But what matters is that it wasn’t Dan. It was some other guy, a bald pig.” She tenses as if about to attack me, but I keep steady. “You said it was gonna be Dan, you son of a bitch.”

I gape.

“Crap.” Sevina slides into a squat.

“So what do we do now?” Quint asks.

“We’ll go back to plan A.” Sevina turns to Will. “Jobs for your man. You’ll introduce us.”

“So we’re still going at it, huh?” Quint says.

Sevina’s amber gaze glides across our eyes, unfaltering. “Yes, we are.” Her fingers clench into fists. “We’ll find that son of a bitch.”

…

Will’s supervisor, or capo as she calls him, is a tall and repulsive man in his mid-forties. He burrows in a high–ceiled room on the second floor of the warehouse, with covered windows and a led lamp on his desk to brighten the place. His bony fingers tap the old keyboard, with actual keys. Close to him, on a leather sofa sits a dark-haired woman in her underwear, bobbing her head in a relaxed manner. Definitely has earpieces.

“These are the kids I told you about.” Will shuts the doors behind me, Sevina and Terrel.

A man cocks his head at us, wrinkling his nose. “What kids?”

“The ones I’d suggest for you to take in. Who helped me from the kidnapping.” Will strides across the room and cracks the window.

The man pops a cigarette from the pack that lies on his desk. “Will you, dear?” He lowers his hand to the head-bobbing girl. She takes a lighter from the desk, right under his nose by the bottle of whiskey, and lights it.

I look at Sevina sidelong. She stands stoically, her shoulder brushing against mine and her face masked into neutrality.

Capo’s chair creaks as he twirls in it. “Say they trustworthy? We could do with more trusted people since the burn. More protection to save my skin.” He blows the smoke down.

“Another family probably did it.” Will leans against the windowsill. My father must think so as well. He was killing governmental people. A chance is, he thinks he infuriated someone more powerful. Unfortunately, it’s just us.

“Doesn’t matter who did it. We get to pay for it.” Capo motions at Will. “You and me, love.”

“Who do you think did it?” I ask, provoking Will's sharp glare. The man looks at me like at a mouse that squeaked at the wrong time. I’m not that familiar with the rank system and didn’t give a thought to keeping my mouth shut. I’m the boss’s son. Technically, I’m superior to everyone.

“I like this one.” Capo cracks a crooked smile and stands. “Bold. They’re never that bold. Where did you dig him up?”

“Ah, well. You get those from time to time.” Behind his back Will’s posture turns rigid and she’s all but screaming at me not to misbehave.

Capo nears us. “You’re good.” He glances over Terrel. “Muscles. Always useful. And a girl…” Smoke in his mouth, he swivels to Will. “Hey, look, the fact that they placed you on my shoulders doesn’t mean we can have a woman working. Woman is never trustworthy. Especially from the gangs.”

Willow crosses her arms on her chest. “She’s quite a rarity.”

Capo scoffs. “What? Like you?” He bends forward to Sevina’s level. “Not enough guts to see a job till the end. But cops eh, they are weaker.” He looks Sevina in the eyes. “That’s some gorgeous eyes you have, love.”

Facing him, Sevina holds in her place like a tree. “It’d be less for you to worry about,” she says flatly.

Wrinkles gather on capo’s face and he recoils with faint surprise. “Bold as well.” Confused at something I don’t understand, he weighs his words. “My boss did instruct us not to take anyone new in. But you and I could do with some personal protection and someone to pin things on, just in case.” Well, better than nothing.

“Oh, how considerate. You don’t want to lose me,” Will jeers.

“I already lost one of the guys this night and will lose more if higher-ups won’t find the cause of the burn. I don’t want to work with new gangers. Might as well give them to you. But I’m not paying anyone of you.”

“Naturally.”

Does that mean we don’t have to kill? But it also means we’re not in the family, not officially.

“And those two others, who are waiting outside by the van. They available?” Aida and Quint.

“Yes.”

“Fine then, take them all in, and keep it quiet,” he hisses at Will. “We might get inspections from the higher-ups soon, searching for anything suspicious. I’ll notify you prior so you have time to hide them. If you don’t I’ll pin everything on you and them.” I assume this is how it works; someone always pins things on the other.

Will nods, spits him blunt thanks and rushes us into the dusty corridor. We walk past the bathrooms and a few doors down to the first floor and to our van outside by the garage. The car repair shop is open, three men tinkering with the vehicles inside. I assume, they’re simple citizens not in the mafia business, working an illegal, but peaceful job.

“Did you see that punk?” Aida beats me to the question. And by punk she means Dan.

Biting her lip, Sevina slowly shakes her head. “No. This man has never met Dan.” Aida curses and hits the wall of the van with her hand, rocking the vehicle.

Occurrence this prominent—almost starting a war. No one else but Dan had to come investigate. It’s baffling! Unless… it’s not that prominent, unless the scheme is far greater than I previously imagined. I knew we rented the warehouses, the docks, but what if it’s only one branch of a tree. What if Casinos or something else is more important…

Oh, I wish I knew where Dan has his apartment or any of his habits or favorite places, but my brother hid everything about himself since he returned from his trial.

What if Father discovered he was betrayed by his remaining son. Would he go as far as kill his only successor? His last successor?

“Your family isn’t as small as we thought,” Terrel says with a slump of his shoulders.

“We should keep working,” Sevina proposes. “I think capos supervisor might have something. When he visits I’ll take him.”

“And when will he visit?” Aida prompts.

Reluctantly, Sevina murmurs. “I’m thinking in the next four months. But he should report to one of the higher standing men.”

“Are you certain that’s the only choice?” I ask. She nods.

“Let’s return to the hideout and pretend nothing happened.” Aida throws in her suggestion, but it sounds like a demand. No one replies and she curses. “Screw it, I’m going for a walk. I can’t take this anymore.” She storms out from the parking lot.

“Be careful!” Terrel calls after her. She swats her hand at us, disappearing around the corner. We need a faster way, only there is none.

“What was with that sentence?” I lean my shoulder closer to Sevina.

“He was…” She glances at me, her face considerate, then sighs. “Looker and lookee confidentiality, sorry.” The answer leaves me disappointed and she adds. “You’d prefer that too.”

“I would, yes.” It’s nothing but dignity on Sevina’s part. Maybe, she would’ve told me if we were alone.

“What sentence?” Quint asks.

“Sevina went all mental on him,” Terrel grins.

“You should’ve seduced him.” Quint wiggles his brows.

Sevina scoffs. “I can see lives. I’m not a wizard.”

“Is there a difference?”

She rolls her eyes. I notice her demeanor and for a second I’m amazed. She stands like she’s one of us, unmarred by shakiness or slouching, her feet wide, arms hanging at her sides in a relaxed but ready manner, and her head, facing forward. She’s learned so much already. And once she learns to flawlessly control her powers she’ll be unstoppable.

“What?” Her eyes catch me staring.

I look down. “Nothing.” She’ll see it soon anyway.

Dimples form in her cheeks as she smiles. “Manly thoughts?”

I groan with pleasant irritation, feeling tingles in my pelvis. “No, absolutely not.”

“Yeah, sure.”

We share a brief look and chortle.

…

The evening grows quiet. Car mechanics leave, and capo, who apparently lives in his little adjacent building, asks Terrel and Quint to stand a night watch, patrolling the warehouse.

Aida joins capo’s girl in one of the dusty rooms in the capos building, with some cots and sofas. Will leaves to her apartment and Sevina and I stay to guard the van.

I spring awake in the middle of the night, my forehead beaded with sweat. In the van, with its suffocating ceiling bearing on me my nightmares are ever so present.

Huffing I sit. Sevina’s asleep on the bench, curled into a ball, her smooth brown hair lit by silvery highlights from the dim light on the wall.

My muscles twitch at the gory reminiscent of the dream and I inch closer, fervent to ease my head onto the bench next to her. I could wake her, ask her to settle next to me, lie on her lap, which I think I slept on last night, and have her hand in my hair…

I stop.

She’s still with you Corrin. She’s still supporting your wild crusade. Her knowing eyes are here, tempering the need to share. I’m all right with her knowing it all. I’m indebted to her till the end of my life and she has the right to explore every crevice of my mind. But she won’t support me forever. Sooner or later, as she said, she’ll leave. This unlawful, heinous life is not for her. I’ll have to learn to live and help Dan without her. How? I can’t fathom my future alone. Dan, a person trustworthy, but strangely distant at the same time, doesn’t seem such a good fit. ‘What? Are you having nightmares, little chicken?’ He’ll be bound to say. ‘You should visit a therapist and take some meds…’

I lie on my thin mattress I had unrolled on the ground and spread my arms to the sides as wide as the walls allow. I have to learn not to depend on Sevina, or anyone, and instead follow Dan and go back to being the son of the boss. That’s my task.

As I drift back to light sleep I reimagine the evening I stepped onto the roof. The kite and my mother. Sevina is there too, her forgiveness, a nimbus of weightlessness, a part of my solace.

…

For the next week Sevina, Terrel and I are on duty as personal assistants, guarding the perimeter and capo himself.

Aida and Quint deliver the packages. They meet with the men from our gang to pass the money to help support the kids. Most of the stacks we stole from the crates disappeared too. Will drives around the city, running errands as usual.

Capo was summoned a few times during the week, but Will said the higher-ups only warned him to regard everyone with heightened suspicion.

A few days ago, capo instructed us to leave for the day. We scurried to the van and drove away. Will later said an inspection visited like capo predicted; two men, possibly very close to my father, arrived to inspect the warehouse. They searched the premises, recounted the boxes inside and allowed capo to hire some gangers to protect the site which he essentially already had done.

I notice Capo likes having Sevina handle him his tools whenever he fixes the cars random thugs drop off at his garage. From what I see Sevina doesn’t mind it. It’s quaint. You’d think she’d be peeved by a string-thin fetid man like him. But no, she even asks him things about cars and he explains them. It prompts me to think she discovered some sensitive information from his head and adjusts herself accordingly to be likable.

Late in the evening, we gather by the van in the garage, like we always do at the end of a workday. Will’s working late, likely on the next shipment, so we’re waiting for her.

“There’s a job.” Aida sits on the edge of the open van, her legs propped on the car’s bumper. She flicks her finger to her tablet. “Come.”

Sevina in front of me pivots to Aida and I leap forward, catching her wrist; we’re still training whenever we have a free hour. With her distracted it takes me no time to twist her arm behind her back. “Watch the opponent.”

Remorseful, Sevina tightens her lips, but her attention stays on Aida. As soon as I release her arm she struts off without a glance backward. I can’t comprehend how it’s possible to hate fighting so much.

Quint and Terrel near Aida too. They’d been tinkering with the van for a few hours.

“This job, it’s something else,” Aida says. “Capo offered it.”

Terrel wipes his palms on his shirt. “When? Why didn’t he call us?”

“Like he’s got the time to call you all,” Aida grumbles. “Maybe since Terrel and I are the oldest ones, and I was helping him with his car. Anyway, he said he has a plan and if we succeed he’ll get us into the family for sure. He’ll back us up and pay us.” She taps on her tab, bringing up a map. “Recognize this?” She lifts the tablet to me.

“A casino?” Terrel leans closer, inspecting the street and the building.

“My father owns a couple of casinos,” I confirm. “Though I never knew which ones.”

Aida scratches her neck. “Capo said there’s a possibility your father’s keeping his IT there.”

“What’s an IT?” Quint sits on a creaky metal stool beside the van and gives me a wondering look.

I shrug. “No idea. Like Information Tech?”

“Sort of, but it’s a single person under an inconspicuous name. Capo said it’s the most vital part of any crime family. A man or woman responsible for representing a family in the crimes black net. Only bosses are allowed to see their IT’s.”

Sevina’s eyes narrow. “I don’t remember this.”

“You sure? Capo seemed quite convinced.”

“I think not.” Sevina crosses her arms on her chest. “But I must’ve forgotten.”

“So what does he need us for?” Terrel asks.

“To scout the Casino and confirm the IT’s location.”

Silence falls and the shadows of the night around the garage seem to thicken, Quint then murmurs. “I can’t remember you joking.”

“I’m serious.” Aida’s words cut the air. “Listen. It’s a good opportunity. Even if this IT is bullshit. We’ll poke around as a bunch of waiters and blend right in. Sevina, if by any chance you get a look into IT’s eyes you’ll know everything. And besides, I’m sure capo has some ambitions himself. He just didn’t have so many disposable gangers before. Even if we find nothing, there are bound to be some men of higher standings that you might get a look at. It’s a win /win.”

“You were the one who said it’s risky what we’re doing. Now you’re proposing this?” Sevina shifts her weight to the other foot, dubious.

Aida lowers her chin. “I-I understand you won’t back off. No matter how hard I try you all keep going. So I might as well flow with you.”

Quint spins on his stool. “It’s so unlike you.”

“I know, but I want to finish this as fast I can. We all do.” A gust of wind, howling into the garage, follows Aida’s words.

“I think… we should do it,” Sevina says in a subdued voice. “But we have to tell Will.”

“Err,” Aida lets out. “Capo said not to tell her.”

“Yeah,” Quint barks without much thought. “Will’s nothing but a thug. We’re almost on the same level as she is. Gotta move on.”

“Don’t be an asshat,” Sevina says. “Will’s a part of our group. We wouldn’t be where we are without her. Besides, there are some personal vendettas involved.”

Will would definitely screw it up, but— “she’s already in danger enough as she is. We don’t want other thugs recognizing her at the casino or in the van. If telling her means putting this opportunity and her at risk, then better leave her in the dark.” My argument softens Sevina’s expression.

“So, how are we getting in?” Terrel asks.

Aida squares her shoulders and sighs as if about to go to war. “A back door for the staff Capo said. I’ll stay in the van and guide you over the comm.”

“Are we going at night?” Quint inquires.

Aida nods. “People will provide cover.”

“If IT’s that important aren’t there going to be guards?” Sevina asks.

“There might be, but we’re only scouting. If we encounter security we’re to report how many and what they might be guarding. Capo said he’ll keep in touch with me when you’ll be in. He was working on this plan of his for a while like we on ours. Plus, we owe him one for the inspection. We don’t have a choice if we want to keep peace with this man.”

Everyone’s working on something. A wall of bricks this scheme isn’t, but it might be a house of cards with adhesive.

“Sounds like a plan.” Terrel nods stiffly, his words a final statement.