Chapter 3
Lucas
“So that’s a no-go.”
I raked a hand through my hair, fighting the urge to throw the phone across the room. “That’s unacceptable, Emil. I fucking need more than that.”
“I don’t know what you want me to do, Don,” Emil replied evenly, never one to be ruffled by my outrageous demands. Hell, there had been a lot of them over the past few days. “I can’t conjure men out of fucking nowhere.”
Sighing, I stared out of the dirtied window to the brick building behind the one I was currently in. “How the fuck am I going to fight Adrian with just a handful of men at my disposal?”
Before, I would have just gone with the dismal number and to hell with the rest. But now that I had nearly been killed, my priorities had changed. I couldn’t just run headfirst into the war, not without some plans. After all, Adrian was going to come at me with everything he had now that he didn’t have me in his grasp.
“I don’t know, Don,” Emil stated. “I will keep trying to rally the forces, but they aren’t out there. Adrian has executed anyone that could have been of help, and now that he has Carmine on his side, it’s hard. I could reach out to the Irish and the Russians, but they’re more liable to shoot me as soon as I step on their turf.”
“Triads? Yakuza?” I asked. “The fucking Koreans?” At this rate, I was willing to get the sidewalk crackheads if they were willing to fight.
“They’re sitting this one out.” Emil replied. “They have no interest in rocking the boat. As far as they’re concerned, this is just another senseless Mafia dick-waving contest.”
They wouldn’t be wrong… I thought bitterly. “Keep trying.” I said and ended the call before I said something I would regret.
For the last few days, I had kept myself out of sight, wanting everyone to think that I was dead. The accident had scared Emil shitless, but he was the only one to know that I was here at the Wongs, trying to mount my comeback.
The trouble was: comebacks were a lot easier to pull off when it was backed by something. I needed guns, I needed men, and I had neither.
Things were complicated by the fact that Adrian knew that I had escaped.
Of course, I was the least of anyone’s concerns right now. I was a defunct Mafia Don with no one to turn to. Word from the grapevine was that the other Dons were gone as well—killed by Carmine two days ago in his own fucking basement. Their bodies were hung from the Brooklyn Bridge for everyone to see.
Carmine had put the hammer down, and nobody was willing to pick it back up.
The cops weren’t doing anything either. After all, what did it matter to them that a bunch of Dons were dead? Any investigation into the affair was stonewalled, and Carmine even managed to talk his way out of the supposed dinner, telling investigators that he would never have allowed wined and dined people who didn’t even bother to visit him in prison.
Whether or not they believed his story didn’t matter. Nobody was willing to do anything about it. The entire power structure of the different Mafias in the city was suddenly dismantled overnight. Capos went into hiding, and soldiers turned on their former bosses. The jungle had torn itself down, and everybody scrambled for what little cover there remained.
People looked for replacements and businesses on different protection payrolls were left wondering if they were next, terrified of what was coming next and unable to do a damn thing to respond.
Under the veneer of civilization, anarchy reigned.
And here I was, trying to find forces to go up against Adrian and get my own fucking Mafia back.
“It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.” I muttered to myself, quoting A Tale of Two Cities.
Charles Dickens could go eat a bag of dicks. It was only the worst of times right now.
And Leda. Just thinking about her punched a hole in my chest. I still didn’t know where she was, and without knowing Nico’s number, I had no way to contact her brother. Most of all, I didn’t want to tell Nico that I had failed his sister.
The thought cut deep. I failed her.
She wouldn’t have left if I hadn’t forced her to do so, and for the rest of my days, I would fucking hate myself for it. She had been the only constant in my life, the only means to make me feel a shred of happiness, and I had given that up for what?
For my fucking pride?
For thinking that I could actually move through this world without her?
I was wrong.
“Xiao Lu!”