Alfredo shrugged. “Please remember I was only a kid when all of this went down. What the hell did I know of the mob back then? My dad never spoke to me about his business until I was older and even then, he didn’t tell me that much. My mom walked out when I was little, as she just couldn’t take his funny business anymore. She told me he was dangerous and I thought I knew what she was saying but I really had no idea. All I knew was that he was my father and I loved him. Unfortunately, the older I got the more I saw the reasons why she left. I stayed with dad because he demanded it.” He shook his head. “Even when my mom died, he didn’t care. Sometimes, I wondered why he wanted me with him instead of her. Lucky was the one that told me she died. My dad couldn’t even do that. I guess he never forgave her for leaving him.”
“Any idea where he put the bodies?” Memphis wanted to know.
Alfredo shrugged. “You mentioned that you only found one of my dad’s storage rooms, maybe he stored them in one of his other two? I don’t know for sure.”
“He had three storage rooms?” Zeus growled.
Alfredo nodded. “There’s another one right under this room. The doorway leading to it is on the left side of the fireplace. There’s a door there.”
They all shook their heads.
“The man liked his damn fireplace, didn’t he?” Lindy stated sarcastically.
Marty walked over to it and studied the left side. It took her a while but suddenly, she turned to look at Zeus. “I found it.”
Zeus nodded at her then glared at Alfredo and snapped, “How do we open the door?”
Delaney growled. “Watch it hotshot, Grandpa didn’t have to tell you anything but he did.”
Zeus turned his head to glare at her now. “You know something? A couple of years ago this place was our home and had been for five years back then. We were living the good life and it was pretty damn peaceful. We were living here, we owned a bar and were making a good life for ourselves. Your brother was a pain in the ass but nothing we couldn’t handle. I had a wife and a kid, then he brought a woman named Sam on board and she made it her mission in life to turn our lives upside down. Raggo sent her in as a mole and she did her job. He must have known about the tunnels this place had and he began causing trouble. Sam murdered my woman in front of my kid and stole her voice. Then he ramped up the attacks on us. One of them was to kill my little girl by stabbing her. Marty…” He motioned to her. “Saved her, but it didn’t stop there. No. Then with Marty’s help, we found the tunnels and we stepped up our protection but again we didn’t know why he was so focused on this place. And we only just recently found out the reasons Raggo was coming after us.” He paused while glaring at her. “I truly don’t give a shit about your family’s secrets. If Raggo wanted them so bad, he never should have sold this place. He should have kept it in the family. Now we own it and we protect our own.”
Alfredo nodded as he looked troubled by all that Zeus had just described. “We didn’t know all the secrets of this place either. My father talked a lot of bullshit later in his life. And this place was mine to sell not Vincent’s or anyone else’s. But you are right in your thinking that no one in the family wanted to retain this old house.” Shaking his head he added, “I don’t know what rumors he heard that told him that there might be more to this old house than the eye could see but something did. Maybe they found Lucky’s book, I don’t know.”
“Yeah?” Zeus retorted. “Well, guess what? I don’t give a shit why anymore. Hell, I am so far past that, because it doesn’t matter anymore. The Dragon’s started this war and by god, we’re gonna finish it. The gold doesn’t belong to us and we don’t want it, the mob apparently doesn’t want it either but I’ll be damned if I give it to the Marshals or your other brothers.”
Alfredo sighed hard. “Then we have to hope Leon will come for the gold before my grandsons do.”
Delaney shrugged. “Even if he does come before they do, they won’t believe the MC just turned over the gold, maybe they think they didn’t get it all. Or, they will just come in here, guns blazing because they believe the gold should have stayed in the family, rather than go back to the actual owners.”
“Are your brothers really that stupid?” Memphis asked.
Delaney nodded sadly. “Yeah, they really are.”
“That money is Family money, not just Raggetti money,” Memphis told her.
“I know that and you know that,” Delaney replied. “And in all reality, they know that too.” She shrugged. “But it’s been in the hands of the Raggetti family all this time. And to them… that fact makes it theirs to just take. Besides, my dad is going to need a stake when he gets out of prison and this would set him up good.”
“It’s still not your family’s money.” Diabolus growled.
“No, it’s not,” she admitted. “And believe me, I don’t even like being this close to it either. I have made it a point to not get close to any of the Raggetti bullshit for most of my life. But it’s been here for so long that who it actually belongs to doesn’t make any difference to them. They don’t think the Family will mind.”
Alfredo snorted. “Then they don’t know Leon Vincinti. He’s old school along with the rest of the council. They will mind.”
Click joined them and handed Zeus a piece of paper.
Zeus glanced at him then looked down at the paper in his hand… it had a list of names, about two dozen of them, but some of those names were checked or crossed off. He looked up at Click. “What the fuck is this?”
Click nodded his head at it. “That is the Dragon’s Breath MC Membership list. Or what I could find even on the dark web. The checked names are the ones that the Marshals busted or that we turned over to them. The crossed out names are the ones who have died under Raggo’s watch.”
Zeus looked at it again and there were only about ten names left on the list.
Clearing his throat, Click handed him another list of names.
Zeus paused to look at that one too. This list had about ten to twelve names on it. The first two names were Alijala and Romano Raggetti. “And just what the fuck is this?”
“This is the brother’s list of men,” Click explained. “I checked on their police files and they go from bad to criminally gruesome. It looks like this second group has more of a chance to get through than the Dragon’s but that’s just my opinion.”
Zeus now studied the Dragon’s list and there he found the name Rucker Hayes. He raised his angry gaze to Alfredo. “Do you know the name Zucker Hayes?”
Alfredo shook his head. “I don’t know the man but the Hayes’ name could be part of Lucky’s family. He’s the one that could have given Vincent the second book.”
“Well, either way,” Memphis spoke up. “We have to figure out where your dad buried those two dealers’ bodies, before anything else happens.” Looking over at the fireplace he asked, “How do we find the door?”
Alfredo shuffled over to it and studied it for a moment then moved his foot toward the baseboard. He pressed it with his boot.
They all heard a click as the catch was released.
A crack appeared in the stone wall and a draft of stale air hit the room.
Zeus moved toward the small opening and pushed it open wider. There seemed to be a dark hole beyond. “We need some light down there,” he called out.
Diabolus went over to the table and got the flashlight, handing it to him.
When Zeus turned it on and aimed it downward, they could all see the dark hole. Under the light, it became a room no one had seen in a very long time. They could all see the steps leading down but no one knew if they would hold the weight of a man or a woman.
Memphis glanced at his brother and said, “Maybe we should get a ladder, rather than depend on the steps. They don’t look too steady.”
“They would be like a eighty years old is why,” Alfredo stated.
Zeus nodded. “Go get the ladder.”
Memphis left and when he returned, he put the ladder down into the hole.
Grave Digger and Click brought some camping lanterns over.
Zeus, Memphis, and Diabolus went down the ladder, taking the lanterns with them.
When they got down there, they looked around.
Memphis shook his head. “Fucking creepy, man.”
The room was mostly empty and the air was very dry. A row of shelves lined one wall and a huge box sat in front of it.
All three men walked over to the box.
Diabolus pushed the cover off of it.
A huge puff of dust boomed out.
They all stepped back as they tugged their shirts up over their noses and mouths.
After a couple of minutes when the dust settled, Zeus stepped back over to look down into the box. “Well, fuck me,” he swore.
Memphis and Diabolus peered into it as well and both men paused
”What the fuck?” Diabolus exclaimed.
All three men found themselves looking down at the well preserved bodies of two men who had been shot in the head. Could these two men be the ones Alfonzo killed so many years ago?
Zeus squatted down and got a better look. A white dust seemed to cover their bodies but he didn’t know what it was, so he didn’t touch it. Instead, he moved their jackets open with his flashlight and saw their wallets in the inside pockets. He tore a strip off his t-shirt and wrapped his fingers with it. Carefully, he reached inside the jacket pockets of the two men and removed their wallets.
Diabolus snapped a few pictures of the men with his phone but no one disturbed their bodies in any other way.
Zeus cautiously wrapped the wallets in his t-shirt material and stood. Taking one of the lanterns, he explored the rest of the room. He found an opening and disappeared down the hall.
Memphis and Diabolus looked at each other then back at the opening as they waited for him to return.
Zeus appeared again from the opening and shook his head. “The tunnel has collapsed not too far down. We can’t get out but more importantly, no one else can get in that way.”
Memphis looked down at the two men and shook his head. “Dead bodies right beneath us this whole time. Gruesome as fuck, man.”
“Whoever they were, no one was ever meant to find them,” Diabolus commented. “Ragetti wanted to make sure of that much.”
Memphis looked around the room but didn’t see anything that sparked his interest. He wandered over to the shelves and began looking at the items stored there. He opened one of the boxes and frowned at what was in there. It looked like old newspaper articles. Checking the dates, he noted they read 1934. Then one of the headlines caught his attention, U.S. Marshals caught in a Mob Shootout, both sides have casualties.
“What did you find, brother?” Zeus asked as he joined him.
Memphis snorted. “It seems Alfonzo was a newspaper headline clipper.” He tipped the box to show Zeus. “These go back to 1934.”
Zeus snorted. “Bring them along and let’s see if we can figure out why he saved them.”
Memphis nodded as he picked the box up.
Diabolus moved the lid back to cover the bodies they found and when he was done, they moved toward the ladder.
When they got back up to the main room, they found everyone waiting for them.
Tension filled the space and Zeus could feel it. He looked around the room. “Did we miss something?”
Click nodded. “Yeah boss, you did.”
“Well, don’t keep it to yourfuckingselves, what the hell is going on?” Zeus growled.
“I just got an email from Boston,” Click informed him. “Mr. Vincinti is on his way with a security team to take possession of the gold.”
Zeus looked surprised. “Well damn, he’s gonna do the right thing.”
Alfredo shook his head. “The one thing you can always count on is that Leon will do what’s right for the Family and the Council. Whether that’s the right thing for you and yours may be a whole other story. He will remember everything my father did and he’ll probably demand a quid pro quo. What that might be, I have no idea.”
“A quid pro quo? Zeus shook his head. “He’s coming for the gold and that’s all I care about. And I don’t see how he can expect you to set everything right either.”
”What did you find down there, boss?” Grave Digger finally asked.
Zeus looked disgusted. “We didn’t find any treasure this time. We found the bodies and I got their wallets, so we at least got their names. There was another tunnel out of the room but it had collapsed a little ways out. So no one can ever use it to get out of here, but the good news is no one can use it to get in here either.”
“Well, at least there’s good news.” Click nodded.
“We need all of that we can get,” Memphis agreed.
Zeus walked over to the table and unfolded the material he’d wrapped the wallets in. He carefully opened the first one and looked inside. There was some cash but he’d look at that later. He searched for some sort of identification and he found it. “This guy was Marko Braso.”
“And the other one?” Memphis asked.
“Just a damned second, these fuckers are old as shit.” Zeus opened the second wallet that seemed to disintegrate onto the table and found the man’s ID. He squinted down at it and read it aloud, “Bernard Lucca.”
“Oh, fucking hell,” Alfredo whispered softly.
Everyone in the room swung their gazes over to him.
The older man had gone white in the face, as he muttered, “No. No, he didn’t…”
