“Fucking SEALs and that Mancini guy outta New York.”
“Who, The Guardian? Ho-ho-ho.”
“What, you know this guy?”
“If he’s in that mix, whoa.”
“Who is he? He didn’t say much but it was obvious he was digesting every word while pretending to play with the kid.”
“Let uncle Al or my dad tell you. Oh this is gonna be good. So which of them was his wife?”
“His kid looked like she just came out the oven.”
“Cierra, the FED. I heard he did that shit, wow, this guy.”
“Would you stop talking about this motherfucker with that tone in your voice?” She rolled her damn eyes at me. “And what the fuck is The Guardian?”
“He is! At least he’s one of them. What the hell is he doing all the way over here?”
“Mouth start talking!”
“He belongs to this…. oh I get it. Let me see that thing with the notes Lily was taking.” I passed her my handheld and she scrolled through the shit she’d downloaded off our daughter’s computer.
“You see this is why I thought she was working on a history project for school. Hellfire is an old secret society for the elite’s elite. The Guardians are another secret group that goes back centuries but these two are like night and day. No wonder he’s here. Human trafficking huh!”
“You still haven’t told me shit, who is this guy?”
“He’s the heir to The Guardians, the next in line to lead them or whatever the hell it is they do.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I told you, ask dad and uncle Al. They know them better than I do. Don’t sulk geez, I don’t know him like that.”
“You seem to know plenty.”
“Look, I never met them okay, and it’s not that easy to get close. The only reason I even know they exist is because when that whole thing went down with my mom, the guy in charge now reached out. Apparently he knew dad and uncle Al’s dad from before in the old country. He is or was part of their thing.”
“I think uncle Al was supposed to take over from him, that’s how it works, like a hereditary type deal, but uncle Al didn’t want no part of it.”
“Or they had enough sense not to want any part of his murdering ass.”
“You can look at me anyway you want. Now what the fuck do they want with my kid?”
“You forgot, your kid’s the one who went sticking her nose in.”
“I wonder where she gets that shit. So what’s the plan? I know you got one.”
“No plan, Lily wants to meet her little friend, I think she should. Seems okay to me.” Her murdering ass is up to some shit.
LYON
“So Travis, how do you know him?”
“We took over some of his turf when he went legit a few years ago. He’s good people, they all are.”
“What’s the deal with the wife? You seemed triggered when I mentioned that she was going to be here.”
He sat forward in his chair. “You guys are like me, you don’t let your wives get into anything. His trouble is she was into shit before they met. Her father’s Roberto Rossi…”
“Did you say Rossi?” Mancini came awake.
“Yeah.”
“Alphonso Rossi.”
“That’s her uncle.”
“His wife is Arianna Rossi?”
“That’s her.”
“Gimme a minute, I need to make a call.”
“What’s that about?” I asked Travis.
“Who knows? Like I was saying, they’re good people, but she’s a bit of a wildcard. Word among our circles is that she’s good with a bow and arrow.”
“No one’s been able to prove that Trav, don’t go spreading rumors about my girl.”
“Quiet pop, no one’s spreading shit, they’ll hear about it soon enough.”
“Shit, that’s all I need, is for Dana Sue to get hooked up with a rogue female. We got our hands full already here Lyon.”
“I don’t know what to tell you because their kid and mine are headed for a meet, so she’s going to be around.” These idiots spent the next half an hour trying to figure out how to keep their women from being influenced by a five-foot tall female.
“Y’all ready to hear what I got? Or you need more time to sort out your women?” I’d all but forgotten old man Mallory was in the room. Mancini came back in the room and took his seat without a word.
“What you got uncle Mal?”
“Okay so this stuff you guys are running around behind you know you’re dealing with two different fronts yeah.”
“That’s right.”
“So you got the trafficking and then you got the pedos; not to be confused with each other. If I’m following along correctly, sounds to me like those little ones figured out that though the groups are splintered, they all work under one umbrella.”
“I’m with you so far.” The others nodded.
“Okay, so, I got a guy, he’s deep undercover, like you Hank, but he’s a fucking ghost. A few years back this outfit tried to take his niece in law or some shit, it was a whole lotta mess.”