When he pulled into the warehouse, Hawk shut off the truck and motioned for Ranger to get out. Then he carefully turned to the pale woman in the backseat. “Are you all right?” His voice was low and comforting.
“Where are we?” she whispered.
“We’re safe,” he assured her. “You’re in our house now.”
She shook her head as it seemed panic had overwhelmed her again since she was now somewhere unknown. “Oh god, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time this morning and now that is going to hurt me, isn’t it?”
“You could have ignored what you heard this morning.” Hawk stared at her. “Yet, you didn’t did you? You reached out and warned Calderone and in turn us.” He paused then tilted his head. “I really need to ask why. Why would you do that?”
Willow had to concentrate to be able to answer his question, “Because it was the right thing to do,” she whispered back.
“Most people would have been too scared to make that call.”
After a moment, she sighed as she answered, “I thought about it for all day before I picked up the phone. I thought maybe he wouldn’t believe a word I said and did I really want to get involved in a mob war? Then there was the MC angle. I’ve seen you guys around town and like most people, I tend avoid trouble by walking the other side of the street.” She focused on his face. “But then I began to notice something about you guys.”
“Oh, what was that?” Hawk had to ask.
“I saw that the people in Boston respect your club. They don’t shrink into the shadows just because you guys are in the area. They nod in your direction and you nod back. You all may or may not be straight up but I don’t know you well enough to judge you, do I?”
Hawk studied her for a long quiet moment. “No honey, you don’t know us well enough. We aren’t saints by any means but we’re not all bad. And I agree, you didn’t have to say anything about us but you did.”
She shuddered. “If this thing happens… life in Boston will never be the same again. They said they would run the streets and they would become so strong that not even the police would be able to stop them. That they would put a blackmail racket on the business men in town and if anyone tried to stop them, their blood would stain the streets. From the way this guy was talking, he sounded like a mobster in a bad twenties film where the mob patrolled the streets and just shot everything up. It was ridiculous, but he was serious too.”
“So it’s a case of better the devil you know, huh?” Hawk asked.
Willow shrugged. “Maybe. I can’t lie. But I just felt I needed to do it. Tell him at least. But here I am.” She gazed around again. “In a strange place with an unknown future.”
Hawk just stared at her for a moment then nodded. “You will get your life back after we get to the bottom of this, okay? It will be all right.” He opened the truck door and got out. Going around to the back door, he opened it. He waited for both dogs to get out then held up his hand to her.
When she got out, the dogs took a position one on either side of her.
Hawk looked down at them then up at her. “What kind of training do you do?”
“I train them to be service animals and on rare occasions, they are protection dogs.” She rolled her eyes. “And this is one of those occasions.”
“Do you ever do protection dogs for kids?” he asked.
Willow looked him in the eyes. “Yeah. Sometimes, a dog is the only thing between a kid and someone beating them to death.”
Hawk nodded. “I have a five year old son and there are times when I or any member of the club can’t be with him. Me and my old lady have talked about this and we’ve been looking into getting him a dog. We had no idea where to even start looking.”
“I train dogs because I’ve always worked with at risk kids.” She held up her hand when he went to protest. “Not all the people I train dogs for are at risk kids, I just said I worked with that particular group. In that group, sometimes the child just needs to know there is someone out there that will protect him. That there is someone that will love him and that he can love back.” She shook her head. “I’m sure that your son knows that you and his mom loves him and that he has many people that would stand up for him but there are so many kids out there that don’t have the same support your son has.”
Hawk looked down at Zeus and Molly. “And these two? Are they trained as protection dogs?”
Willow nodded. “They are on alert at all times and as long as you and your men don’t make any signs of wanting to hurt me, they won’t attack you. But they will protect me, never doubt that at all.”
“Fair enough.” Hawk motioned for her to follow him.
They walked further into the warehouse and Willow could see it was set up as a temporary house. They had windows all around and she moved to stay out of sight.
Hawk told her, “You can see out but no one can see in through those windows. There tinted so even with the lights on, no one can see inside. Plus, we have a man upstairs on watch. We have cameras and if there is trouble, we have a steel safe room.”
Willow nodded slowly. “So, I’m just supposed to wait here for Calderone to come here to talk to me?”
“I put a call through to him already. He said he would meet us here as soon as it was safe for him to get away. He said he would bring his father, in case he had questions.”
Willow shook her head as she made her way over to the sofa and sat down. She was about to meet the top men in the East Coast Mafia in a safe house owned by an MC. This was all just too surreal. It was like she’d been caught up in a damn movie. Only in this reality, you could die for real. “But I told him everything I knew already.”
Zeus came to sit on one side of her and Molly sat on the other side as they could feel her agitation.
Hawk came over to squat down on his large legs in front of her. “Listen, I know you’re scared to death, anyone would be, but you had the courage to make the call. You put him on alert that someone out there wanted him and Leon unseated, then you told them we were next. Now I realize you didn’t have to do that but the fact remains you did. You aren’t in trouble here but they do want to talk to you.”
“I just don’t want to die for doing the right thing,” she finally admitted her fear. “I know that sounds selfish but I’m overwhelmed here. I just lived a normal life, okay? Just training dogs and living like anyone else.”
Hawk shook his head. “It isn’t selfish, it’s normal and anyone would feel like you do. But Calderone and Leon aren’t going to hurt you and neither will the Sinner’s. This is a necessary thing to relive and focus on what all you heard. Sometimes, you remember stuff that you don’t think is important but it could very well be to them.”
“Like what?”
“Like the sound of a voice, a cough or the scent of aftershave, anything really. You may not know but if they know who you’re talking about, then they can stop it before it goes too far.”
Willow nodded and felt a little better anyway. “Ok, I can see that.” She looked over at him. “I just never expected to get dragged into a street war. Because that’s what this is. War on the streets.”
“Well, that’s true but it’s not a war we started and not a war we want.” Hawk raised his brows. “We cannot have violence and people being killed by these people and that is what they intend to do. This is our city too, we live here, we send our kids to school here, and we work here. Enough said to say we will protect our city against those who would try to take us down.”
Willow nodded. “I get that… I-I just wish this was over.”
“Believe me I do too,” came a voice from the doorway.
The voice was smooth sounding but low in tone and it gave Willow the shivers as she turned to look.
Wow, she hadn’t expected this man at all.
Calderone stood there with his father. He saw her eye widen when she saw him but when he saw her, he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She was stunning. Her dark hair fell to the middle of her back and her green eyes almost glowed. She looked frightened but she had nothing to fear from him.
The two dogs at her feet were alerted to them and neither him or his father moved any further into the room.
“Control your animals,” his father called out before he strode into the room. He didn’t go too close to her yet, but he showed no fear.
When Calderone walked into the room, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“So, Ms. Willow Yates,” Leon began. “I believe you called my home tonight with a message that someone was planning to unseat me and run me and my son out of Boston in disgrace. Is that right?”
Willow swallowed hard and nodded slowly. “Yes, I did.”
“Can you tell us how you were in a position to overhear this threat?” Leon wanted to know as he walked over to the chair next to the sofa then sat down.
She took a deep breath and exhaled. She looked over at Leon and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Calderone and Hawk also sat down to listen to her story.
She sighed and then began, “Every morning and most nights, I go to the pier for a moment of reflection, well it’s for the sunsets and sunrises actually. Don’t ask me why but I’ve always used this time for my me time. It only lasts about twenty minutes but its part of my routine. Anyway, I was sitting under the pier just inches away from the water’s edge. Someone walked onto the pier and he stopped just above me. I never took notice of him as the sun was just coming up. I honestly intended to ignore it as it has happened a few times and was normal really. I did notice when another man came on the pier though, because the two men began to speak. One of the men had a whine to his voice that grated on my skin. But it was the other man that asked him if he was ready to report you for skimming off the top. The whiney man told him almost. He only had a small amount of work left to show you were keeping a great deal of the mob’s money for your own. Or something to that effect.”
Leon raised a brow at this, then nodded for her to continue.
“Well, then the first man reminded him he needed to hurry because his bosses were beginning to doubt the man could actually do what he’d promised. Then they talked about who would rule the streets when all was said and done. The whiney voice told him, once he was the seat of power that he was going to bring big changes and that they would start a protection racket to fund their own pocket. They said they had the goods on four of the main businessmen in the city but they also said they weren’t afraid to stain the streets with fresh blood if the other businesses didn’t go along with the protection racket.” She took a breath then continued, “The second man told him they were going to have to get rid of the Sinners to accomplish a complete takeover, so they could take over the streets, and the whiney voice had no problem with that.”
“What we need is a way to identify who these men are,” Calderone stated.
Gasping, she looked like she remembered something and she dug into her pocket, pulled out an object, then held it out to Leon. “The second man lit a cigar then dropped this over the edge of the pier. He said something about it being a gift from his grandfather.”
Leon took the lighter and turned it over in his hand.
Calderone leaned in to look. He knew this lighter. He knew who it belonged to as well and that man was supposed to be a friend of his father’s. At least, they knew one of the men now. They had a good idea who the second man was.
The whiney voiced man who was cooking his books was Donny Vascilli as she’d described his voice to a T. He knew that little weasel had been up to something for a long time now but he couldn’t find anything to call him on.
Until now… When they spoke to the Council earlier tonight, they were shocked and concerned until Gregori Canta told them all a secret. He was the man in charge of the money. It was him that recorded the deliveries and it was his office that sent out the couriers to collect the money from the different bosses. He’d been keeping track of Leon’s books but he had a reason for doing do. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the other man, instead it was because he was trying to find out why Leon’s deposits were always increasing. He constantly brought in more money than any other of the bosses. He had his courier snap pictures on the sly. He also had his couriers initial the pages they reviewed. Just in case something like this happened.
Leon was covered as far as the Council was concerned and if Donny were trying to unseat him, he wouldn’t get his way. In addition, if he tried to bring charges up to the rest of the family they would brand him a traitor and he would just disappear. No one would ever find his body. That was how the mob took care of their own.
