Chapter 004
Bears Out Here
He gestured me to the couch with a wave of his EDG. Beggared for alternatives, I complied. The handle of the axe still protruded into the seat he indicated. Pulling it out on my own seemed like an instant death sentence, so I deferred to my captor.
“Do you want me to…” I looked from him to the axe and back again.
“Oh. Right. Let me get that.”
He jammed the Ratifier back into a low-slung holster and grabbed the axe handle with both hands. He tugged at the axe twice with no success. He tried bracing with one foot on the lower portion of the couch but still could not get it to budge. I stood and watched, wondering if I was expected to offer assistance.
“Fuck it,” he spat, throwing his hands up and turning away. “Luca, you mind?”
“No problem, Marco.”
The giant cleared the rest of the room in three long strides and stopped next to me to take stock of the situation. He didn’t seem particularly concerned that moments ago I fully intended to shoot him. He extended one frying pan of a hand out and grabbed hold of the axe handle. It looked like a child’s toy in his monstrous grasp. With an imperceptible tilt of his elbow, he lifted the entire couch, still attached to the axe, off the ground. He shook it gently until the blade slid free and the furniture dropped back to the floor. He grinned, pleased with himself, and offered me my improvised weapon back. I held both hands up to politely decline.
“Really?” Marco chastised him. “You giant doofus. It’s a good thing that didn’t wind up in your skull. It’s so thick we’d have never gotten it back outta there. Now drop that and go check on Matteo.”
Luca gently laid the axe on the corner seat of the sofa, well within my reach, and headed toward the front of the cabin.
“Sorry about that,” Marco said so quietly that I had to lean in to make out his words. “Big as a house and half as smart. Good kid though, most of the time.”
Marco watched Luca drag Matteo out from under the wreckage of the door and the strands of cords. A shiner had already started to puff up from where I had driven the doorknob into his face.
“Lookin’ good, Matty-O,” Marco catcalled.
Matteo responded with a middle finger.
Marco plopped down on the couch and motioned for me to join him. If he wanted me dead I already would be. I might as well hear him out.
“So what I’m guessing is that you didn’t get our message, huh?” The shift in his tone and behavior was remarkable. He’d gone from a stone-cold assassin to a concerned pal in the time it took that ogre to jerk an axe out of my sofa. You know, that old story.
“I wasn’t aware that I was expecting one.”
“Fuckin’ Frankie. I knew it.” Marco buried his face in his hands in exasperation. “I’m sorry. He’s always pullin’ this shit. Don’t get me wrong; he’s a very important guy and takes real good care of us. It’s just that he forgets not everybody is on his same wavelength, capiche?”
I started to put the pieces together. “Frankie. As in Frankie Denaro?”
Marco nodded. “The one and only. He said he’d make sure you knew to expect us when you got back from the city.”
Oh, great. He’s been tailing me.
“Even said he’d make the call himself,” Marco continued. “Of course things happen, he gets busy, sometimes a call isn’t made. I tried to get in touch with you too just in case. No dice.”
Curious, I pulled out my comex. I didn’t even consider the danger of reaching into my pocket amidst my present company until I’d already finished doing it. None of them seemed to care. Matteo was busy inspecting his reflection in the window to assess the damage to his face while Luca tried to wedge the door back into its frame.
The comex was still set to silent. Of course. I’d muted all notifications before heading into the courtroom and hadn’t had any reason to check it since. Technology really was not my strong suit.
“It does look like I have some missed messages,” I told him. “But to save me the effort, would you mind telling me who the hell you are and what you’re doing in my house?”
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A crooked grin flashed across Marco’s face. “Fair questions, Mr. Miller. I’m Captain Marco Russo, and these are my brothers Luca and Matteo.”
The other Russos had wrapped up their respective projects and were now paying attention to our conversation. I looked from one to the other. Matteo tipped his head back in a quick greeting. Luca waved.
“Max Miller,” I stated plainly. I returned my attention to Marco, clearly the brains behind the operation. “You said you’re a captain?” I surveyed his tactical gear but did not notice any insignias. “Are you military? Special forces?”
“Nothing like that, no.” He chuckled. “I’m the captain of our ship, the Tiburcio. Denaro’s the only general we serve.”
“Ship as in…spaceship?” For the second time that evening, my destiny seemed pointed directly at the stars. The last place I wanted to be.
“Mr. Denaro’s empire might be based on Luna, but his business interests extend to all corners of the system. I’m sure you know a little something about that yourself. Lady Denaro sends her regards, by the way.”
I swallowed hard. There was nothing sinister in the way he delivered the message, and for all I knew Gabriella did in fact pass along her well-wishes. It just wasn’t particularly comforting coming from her husband’s hired guns.
“Tell her I said hello,” I replied, thinking it seemed like the most appropriate response. “So I’m guessing this means that Frankie would like to schedule a meeting.”
“The sooner the better.”
“I’ll have to consult my schedule,” I lied. “Did he give you any idea of his availability?”
“Mr. Denaro was thinking about sometime closer to now.”
“It’s a bit late, don’t you think?” I was exhausted from dealing with the trial and Vance Wilder, nauseated from the unexpected adrenaline dump, and not looking forward to fixing the front door. All I wanted was to curl up on my obliterated sofa and get some shuteye.
“Mr. Denaro runs on lunar time. He’s come a long way to see you and his day’s just getting started. Don’t worry, our ship’s parked out back.” That explained why I didn’t see it on the way in. “We’ll have you back in time to watch the sunrise, if you’re into that kind of shit.”
Back? “Wait, you’re telling me Denaro came all the way to Earth from Luna but couldn’t be bothered to meet me at the cabin?”
Marco shook his head. “Nope, says he doesn’t trust anyone that would live outside of the city on purpose. Not you, of course. The neighbors and whatnot. And the bears.”
“Alright,” I said, eager to get this meeting over with. I’d learned my lesson about trying to tell a Denaro ‘no’ without hearing them out first. “Where are we meeting him?”
“Your office.”
I had officially run out of the ability to be surprised by anything that this damnable day could throw at me.
“That makes sense, I suppose. And he’s there now?”
“We dropped him off before we headed here,” Luca chimed in. “Had to perform a security sweep.”
The biggest deterrent to crime in the neighborhood where I hung my shingle was the lack of anything worth stealing. The rent was cheap but tenants got exactly what they paid for. A chill ran through me as I envisioned what might happen if we got back to my office and found out something had happened to Frankie Denaro. I obviously would have had nothing to do with it, but something told me that the Russo Brothers wouldn’t be willing to head back to Luna and shoulder the blame for mishandling one of the solar system’s most prominent figures. I’d make the perfect scapegoat. It wasn’t like there was anyone left around to miss me.
“Welp,” Marco said, standing from the couch and clapping his hands against the front of his thighs. “We’d better hurry up and get a move on. Lord knows Frankie doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
The door leaned cockeyed across the entryway.
“Mind giving me a second to patch this up?” I asked, scooping up a stray hammer and a box of nails. “I know it doesn’t look like much in here but I finally had it all the way I wanted it.”
“Of course. Let us know if we can give you a hand.”
The thought of anyone else laying a finger on the cabin triggered an involuntary spasm of rage. I snatched up an armload of spare tarps to limit my hammering capacity until it subsided.
On Marco’s signal, Luca and Matteo headed out to the front porch. He followed right behind them, leaving me alone in the cabin. Out of habit I scanned my surroundings, looking for any unconsidered avenue of escape. Even if I needed one, which I didn’t, my options were slim. Any windows big enough for me to fit through were nailed shut while waiting for replacement. I’d be sliced to ribbons if I tried to dive through the old-fashioned double thick panes.
There was also the option of grabbing the bug-out kit. If things turned sideways, the 686 sported six chambers of hollow-point persuasion.
I shook off the notion. There was no sense in complicating the matter. Bullshit hour or not, this was the kind of nonsense I could expect for getting wrapped up with the Denaros. It was my own fault. All I could do now was ride it out and see where it took me. I might not be in the habit of making friends, but I sure as shit wasn’t setting out to make any new enemies.
I dragged the tarps and hardware out to the porch and set about making my stopgap barrier. I nailed one tarp to the wall inside the door, crawled out from beneath it, and slid the door into place. I pinned it down with another tarp and nailed that one in as well. It was far from a perfect seal but it would have to do.
As I worked, a thought dawned on me.
“Hey Marco, you never explained what you all were doing in my cabin.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. Someone needed to use the little boy’s room.”
Luca conspicuously stared off into the distance.
“You’re telling me you don’t have one on your ship? Don’t you guys need one for multi-day travel?”
“Trust me,” Marco said, “I was doing you a favor. It’s close quarters on board. Guests ride in the far back right next to the facilities.”
I never thought I’d be so appreciative of a home invasion.
“And you couldn’t just go in the woods?” I asked Luca as I pounded in the final nail.
“There’s bears out there.”
There was no arguing with that logic.