Rolling my eyes, I hung up. “I’m not the one who’s always late… that would be Braxton,” I muttered.
“Master Luca, we have the containers we need off the first freighter. They’re halfway done with the second, but I know you wanted the shipment moved, but the trucks aren’t here,” Ted informed me.
I glanced at my watch, knowing the first group of trucks should be here by now. “What do you mean the trucks aren’t here? You know what, never mind, I’ll handle it. Just get everything staged and ready so when they get here, we can get this show on the road.”
Turning on my heel, I headed back to my office here at the docks. Caprioni Inc. had many subsidiaries, one of them was a shipping company we used as our cover for smuggling goods. This gave us a legitimate presence here on the docks, where we brought in authentic orders for our builders and other supplies we needed. Mixed in those products were the drugs, guns, and skins we smuggled. Thankfully, I always put a hold on the skins this time of year because these boats were kept out there drifting for upward of a month. Once the agreement was settled, everything would be back to business as usual.
Shoving open the door to my office, I used the burner phone to call my transport people.
“Master Luca, I was just about to call you,” the man on the other line answered in a panic. “We have a problem.”
“What the hell kind of problem are we talking about?” I demanded.
“The Red Tigers are here demanding their product, but we don’t have it since we haven’t picked it up yet,” he answered. “They keep threatening to tear the place apart until they find it saying we’re trying to cut them out.”
“Fuck,” I swore. “Hand the phone over to Big Time.”
“Really?” The man all but squeaked.
“Tell him it’s me, and if he wants his fucking drugs, he’ll take the phone call,” I ordered.
“Y… yes, sir,” the man said with a tremble in his voice.
There was the sound of a man walking and people shouting in the background. As I waited for him to gather the courage, I shot a text to Ryker, Jace, and Braxton, guessing Astin wouldn’t look at her phone if she was meeting with someone. Then I sent another message to the boss so he was in the loop.
“So, did you find my product?” Big Time demanded of my guy.
“N… no, this is Luca. He says you’ll want to talk to him if you want to get your product.”
“Hand me that.”
There were lots of muffled sounds, and then a shot was fired, making me shoot out of my seat.
“Luca, if I don’t have my drugs in five minutes, I’ll kill another one of your men. That bitch thinks she can cut me out, I’ll show her who she’s dealing with. That cunt needs to learn her place, and it’s not in this motherfucking business,” Big snarled into the phone. “Ticktock now, tell yourmistressshe fucked with the wrong man.”
“I would say your goodbyes now, Big, because you just signed your death sentence,” I bit out between clenched teeth.
“Ha, you think I’m afraid of you? Boy, you’re nothing but a mutt on a leash,” Big said, laughing.
I snorted and shook my head as I grabbed my leather jacket and headed out. “No, you shit stain, it’s not me you need to worry about. Our queen has had a rough day, and if you think for one second she isn’t going to feed you your own dick for this insult, you’re a bigger idiot than I thought you were.”
“I ain’t scared of no whore. She just needs the right man to put her in her place, and I’ll happily do that,” Big threatened before hanging up.
Dropping the burner, I smashed it under my booted heel, knowing we’d have to scrap the warehouse after this. Dead bodies tend to blow your cover and draw far too much attention from unwanted sources. We might have the local police and government under our control, but if the next level got involved, we’d be in some hot water.
“Master Luca, where are you going?” one of my foremen called, looking utterly confused.
Tossing a leg over my motorcycle, I pulled the keys out of my pocket. “To witness history in the making.”
“What?”
“I’m getting our trucks,” I hollered back over the roar of the throaty engine then peeled out of the parking lot.
The warehouse the Red Tigers were holding up was twenty minutes away if you followed the speed limit. I was betting I could cut that in half, not to mention on a bike I could take some of the alleys shaving off even more time. This needed to be wrapped up in a timely manner while I still had our people working the docks. Tomorrow was a mixed bag which would make it harder if we were delayed, but we’ve dealt with worse.
When I got close, I stopped a few buildings over and cut the engine coasting into another one of our warehouses where we stored building supplies. I’ve learned if we keep legitimate business mixed with the illegal, it’s harder to spot who’s coming and going for what. The cops either had to stop and search everyone or none of them if they wanted to catch us that way. It clogged things up and made it easier to get out the back so they stopped doing it.
Hopping off my bike, I grabbed my phone and looked over the messages. Boss had told me to call him, so I returned that call first. “Boss,” I greeted when he answered.