A Blued Steel Wolfe (11 page)

He had a safe house set up for them, which would act as a base of operations during their campaign. When they reached the house, Salvatore showed them the pictures he’d already taken. He explained each one as they went.

“Now that you’re here, we can begin in earnest,” Salvatore said with a nod as his men gathered around the large table. He turned to the board and pointed to a photo taped up there.

“This man goes by the name of Anthony Wolfe,” he started. He noted that he had their full attention, so he continued. “Beside him is his wife, Linda. Besides me, they are the last of the Lupo bloodline. After we finish, I will be the last.”

“Da, Brigadier,” said Ivan Polokov, a big burly former Spetsnaz shooter. “Do we strike at them first?”

“No, Ivan,” Salvatore said with a cruel smirk. “I want my brother to watch as we destroy his organization, first. I want him to watch, as we slaughter everyone he loves. I want him to watch as I put a bullet in his son’s head! I want him to watch as I take his wife in front of him, and then make him watch as I slit her throat when I’m done! He needs to watch helplessly as we destroy everything he’s built over the years! His company! His family! Then he will die for what he did to our Bratva brothers, twenty eight years ago!”

Salvatore thought back to that day. His intent was never to ally himself with the Russians on a permanent basis. However, plans change as the situation dictates. As cruel as he was, Sal knew that he would need help after the debacle ended with Dmitri and all of his men dead. He didn’t account for the sheer determination of the Irish mobsters and his own family in the face of overwhelming odds. If not for them, he would have been able to betray the Russians and lead his family as he’d planned. His mother might still be alive, if his plan had worked.

Unfortunately, Gianna took a stray bullet while being ushered to safety, and it killed her instantly. At least she didn’t suffer.

Sal loved his mother, as she’d been the only one to show him the love and respect that he knew he deserved. He also hadn’t counted on his brother simply shooting him instead of listening to his explanation.

He knew that it was a miracle, that he was still alive after being shot and buried alive. His brother put two bullets into his chest, but they’d missed his heart and lungs. He knew that Antonio was an expert marksman, so he attributed his good fortune to Divine intervention. God was on his side, and he would not squander the chance.

Escaping the collapsing tunnel was also the work of God, in Salvatore’s mind. He regained consciousness, a few minutes after Antonio shot him, and he struggled to rise as the rage engulfed his mind. That pure, unadulterated hate fueled him, and he staggered in the direction that his brother and the others had gone.

The bleeding from his wounds would’ve sapped his strength except for that burning anger inside him. Then the explosions hit from where he’d entered the tunnel, back at the O’Hara estate. Several closer explosions hit him from behind as the charges did their work. The shockwaves from the detonations knocked him out cold again for a few moments.

He came to, even angrier than he’d been before. His hatred for his brother burned within him as he once more staggered towards the exit. He looked down and realized that he was holding the gun again. He didn’t remember picking it up, but he smiled cruelly. He wouldn’t explain anything this time. He would just kill Antonio and be done with him!

He exited from the tunnel and into the basement of a house. He climbed the stairs to the ground floor and saw two men talking as they gathered up two suitcases. Enraged, he lifted the pistol and fired twice, hitting both men in the back. He walked up to them and saw that one was still alive.

He saw the terror in the man’s eyes just before he squeezed the trigger, blowing the man’s brains out. Then he heard a woman scream as she opened the car door. He didn’t even think, but raised the gun and shot her between the eyes.

“Fuckin’ bitch!” he muttered as he walked to the car and took the dead woman’s keys. The drive back to Manhattan and into Russian territory cooled his temper slightly. He knew what he had to do. He had to consolidate what little power he had left and add to it. Then he’d find those who’d ruined his plans, and make them all pay with their lives!

First, he drove himself to an Alliance hospital for treatment, hoping that they hadn’t abandoned it yet. He caught a doctor and nurse there, still packing up to leave. At gunpoint, they stitched up the through-and-through wounds on his chest and back. In gratitude, he shot them both in the head. Then he decided to take over the only major crime organization left in the wake of the Alliance’s destruction. That would be his first step in consolidating his assets.

He started by going back to the Bratva headquarters. When Dmitri’s only surviving lieutenant disputed Salvatore’s assumption of command, the Italian renegade shot him dead. The rest of the Russian expats swore their allegiance to him. They made him a Brigadier, comparable to a Capo in the Mafia.

He discovered that they had all escaped Russia together, when the KGB and Spetsnaz worked a joint operation in Czechoslovakia. They knew that with their skills and cunning, they could do what the Italians and Irish did in America. They brought cold brutality with them from their homeland, though. They brought a calm precision to dealing with their enemies. They would change the face of organized crime and rule through fear, rather than respect.

With Salvatore as their leader, they did just that. Once he consolidated his power with his new allies, he started his search for the remnants of the O’Hara and Lupo Families.

When he found Siobhan O’Hara, Kevin’s widow in Boston, though, he had to leave her alone. The O’Hara clan in Boston was much more powerful than they’d been in New York. Even with all of the Russian expats immigrating to the United States after the Cold War ended, he still didn’t have enough men to invade Southey and wipe out the O’Hara clan once and for all.

Instead, he turned his attention to finding the remnants of the Lupo Family. After years of searching and combing through rumors, he
finally
happened upon the name Anthony Wolfe. Having gained quite a vast amount of wealth, he decided to drive his Maserati across the country, rather than fly. He arrived in Los Angeles with binoculars and a camera with a zoom lens in hand. After calling his lieutenant and letting him know he’d arrived, he found the Wolfe Estate and parked out front to see if it was really the right place…

Chapter 4

Prepare for War

Earlier that day, before Salvatore’s Bratva thugs arrived from New York, Mr. Wolfe gave his briefing on the situation, as they knew it at the time. Justin listened to his father give everyone the briefing on Antonio’s erstwhile brother Salvatore Lupo, and what little information they’d learned about him so far. He couldn’t help thinking about what Jared said, regarding his father’s flight from New York City in the wake of the “Red Reception.”

Justin listened intently as his father spoke with calm and reassuring authority. He’d already worked out a preliminary plan in his head to keep everyone as safe as possible. That wouldn’t be easy, though. Salvatore commanded almost two hundred Russian mobsters, and they didn’t know how many he’d bring with him.

The first order of business would be to remove the non-combatants and their families from the area. To that end, Justin had a plan in mind.

When Mr. Wolfe finally stopped speaking, he motioned Justin up to the mic.

“I have a plan,” Justin said by way of preamble. “First, we have to ensure the safety of all civilians and their families. This will be difficult on some of you, but until this situation is resolved, we’ll be moving most of you out of the city. Those who live in the compound here should be safe, but those who live in the city will receive enough money to find a place outside of Los Angeles to hide.

“As my father told you, Salvatore Lupo is ruthless and brutal,” he continued. “We don’t want what happened to the Mancini civilians to happen to you. Until we get everything set up, look out for anyone who might be watching you between here and your homes. If you think someone is following you, go to the closest police station and report it.

“I know that very few of you are trained for this, but still try and be as safe as you can. We’ll have something ready within a couple of days to keep you all safe. Thank you for your loyalty in this time of crisis,” Justin finished. He smiled reassuringly at everyone in the theater, and then looked at his father.

Mr. Wolfe nodded in approval, and gave his son a smile. “Well done, Justinian.”

“Don’t say that yet, Father,” his son replied with a little shake of his head. “Thank me after this is all over.”

***** ***** *****

Justin knew that assigning his security teams to protect the non-combatants wouldn’t work. It would spread their forces too thin. They only had fifty-five security personnel, which meant that most of their employees and their families would have to go into hiding. The gentlemen’s clubs would close down to the public for “inspection and possible renovation.” Then they could evacuate the dancers and other civilians to a resort near Ventura.

Justin remembered the Wolfe owned resort from his childhood and teen years. He hoped that it was out-of-the-way enough to keep everyone safe from attack. He looked up as Cammie entered his office and closed and locked the door behind her. She looked frightened, and he couldn’t blame her.

“Is Nate in danger?” she asked without preamble.

“All of us are in danger, sweetheart,” he replied. “I have a plan to get all civilians and their families out of the A/O, though. That includes you, Nathan and your parents.”

“I’m not going anywhere, and neither are my folks or Nate,” Cammie said, her expression turning to one of defiance. “How do I explain to them that I work for a mobster from way back, and the man I love is the heir to a criminal empire?”

Justin took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh as he bowed his head. “That came as much of a surprise to me as it did to you and everyone else. Father never told me where he and mother lived, before moving to L.A. Hell, I thought they always lived here, before today’s revelations.

“But that isn’t the problem. The problem is that I want you and your family safe, sweetheart, but you say that you won’t evacuate with every other non-combatant,” he continued. “No, ‘want’ isn’t the right word, Cammie. I
need
you all to be safe while we deal with this situation.”

“Is Jared leaving too?” she asked, raising one eyebrow.

“I believe so, yes,” he replied with a nod. “I know that my father gave some of our people permission to stay if they wanted to, but you and Jared aren’t essential to defense.
Your
safety is essential to me, though. I’m falling in love with you, Cammie.”

“I’ve been falling in love with you since you helped me move, baby!” She exclaimed. “I just wouldn’t admit it, even to myself! Dammit, Justin! Let me stay with
you
!”

“Cammie, please listen to me,” Justin responded calmly. “From all accounts, my erstwhile uncle is one of the deadliest men in organized crime. He has hundreds of Russian mobsters at his command. Most of them are ex-KGB and ex-Spetsnaz. Even with all of the security upgrades that Royce advised us to install, we might not be able to hold out if Salvatore launches a full scale assault against the mansion.”

“What about the cops? Detective Raines might be able to help, you know!” Cammie pleaded.

“And what happens if the police capture Salvatore alive?” he asked, clenching his jaw. “If they interrogate him and he gives them up, my parents could go to prison for identity fraud, at the very least.”

His logic made her realize the stakes in this deadly game. To protect his Family, they had to go to war. The goal was nothing less than total destruction of the enemy. That most likely went for both sides, from what little information they knew about Salvatore Lupo.

“You know what, baby? I think we can work something out,” Cammie purred. “First of all, Nate can stay with Mom and Papa for a few days, right? Then I can bunk with you at your place and you can have me all to yourself until this mess is all over. How does that sound?”

Justin thought about it for a few moments. Apparently, he was taking too long, though. He felt his heart race as he watched Cammie move around his desk slowly and lean up against it. Her skirt rode up a little, showing him a tantalizing morsel of her milk chocolate thighs. His cock hardened quickly as he remembered the sex with her, yesterday and the night before that. She noticed the bulge in his pants and reached down to trace her fingers slowly over his throbbing manhood.

“
Someone
likes that idea,
big
boy,” she whispered seductively in his ear. Justin felt his temperature rising as he looked at her with lust filled eyes.

He couldn’t think. He couldn’t speak. All he could do was act on his need for her. All of his discipline flew out the window as he arose quickly from his chair. Justin pressed his hard muscular body against her supple and curvy form as his lips found hers.

She moaned into his mouth as he growled into hers. Their tongues danced passionately while she reached up to the back of his neck and held his head in place. He kissed her hungrily, and she returned his kiss with a feverish need and intensity of her own. Her other hand reached down between them and rubbed his rock hard erection through his pants.

Cammie’s deft fingers undid his belt and pants, unzipped him and shoved his boxers down. She broke the kiss and stroked him as her lust filled gaze met his. Without a word, she sank to her knees in front of him and stretched her full lips around the head of his cock. He groaned as she moaned, his length disappearing little by little inside her warm, wet mouth.

She sucked him slowly, her tongue playing over his glans and along the underside of his long, hard shaft. She looked up into his blue-green eyes with her own dark brown orbs, licking and sucking him as far down her throat as she could take him.

“Mmmmm,” she moaned around him as she sucked his hard throbbing cock. She reached down under her skirt and pulled her panties to one side. Her pussy was wet, dripping with her desire as she slipped two fingers inside herself. Cammie’s eyes never left Justin’s as he watched with lust. He heard the light, wet sounds as her fingers went in and out of her drenched vagina.

“Oh my God, Cammie,” Justin whispered as he shuddered. He felt his pleasure intensify with Cammie’s every new ministration to his manhood. Her tongue, her mouth, her throat all gave him intense pleasure as she sucked him deep. Their eyes remain locked on each other, even when she took him all the way in.

She felt him swell in her mouth and quickly removed him as she grabbed the base of his cock. “Nuh uh,” she whispered with a smirk. “Not yet, baby. I need something more than just my fingers in my pussy. I need
you
inside my pussy! Fuck this pussy, baby!”

With those words, she hopped up on his desk, pulled her skirt up and pulled her panties aside again for him.

“Your desire is my duty, Beautiful,” Justin replied thickly, moving between her thighs and setting the tip of his manhood between her lower lips. He pushed gently into her soaking pussy, the wetness and her swollen lips welcoming him inside. She moaned in appreciation as he penetrated her, gasping as he slowly thrust his full length into her.

Justin stopped then, holding himself inside of her as he reached down and undid the buttons on her blouse. He pulled the two halves open, and undid the front clasp on her bra to expose her large breasts with the dark chocolate nipples. Then he quickly shed his jacket and shirt, tossing them aside as he leaned down and captured one large nipple between his lips.

He moaned as she did when he started thrusting. Cammie’s hands found purchase on his shoulders as they moved together. She timed her thrusts with his, and soon he was fucking her hard and deep. His cock pounded into her as he feasted on her nipples, and she bit her knuckles to stifle the scream as an orgasm tore through her.

“Ooooh, GOD!” Cammie’s muffled exclamation came through around her fist. “Oh my fucking GOD!”

“Mmm, yes!” Justin said as he let her nipple loose. Then he snarled, “Come for me, baby! Come for me!”

His primal growls of encouragement, timed with his deep rotating thrusts kept her on the edge. When he thrust harder and deeper, Cammie screamed again.

“OH MY GOD!” She shouted, forgetting to stifle it this time. Her eyes rolled back in her head as another titanic orgasm shot through her shaking body. Her inner muscles gripped and massaged Justin’s cock, and soon he felt the need within him as well.

“Gonna come,” he managed as he slowed his thrusting. He didn’t want to come yet, but he knew he couldn’t stave off his own climax forever.

“Do it, baby!” Cammie demanded. Her heaving breasts, coated with a thin sheen of perspiration, pushed him even closer to the edge. Her encouragement pushed him over. “Come for me, honey! Come inside me, Justin!
GIVE IT TO MEEEEE NOW!”

“Oh God!” Justin exclaimed with a gasp, as he pushed forward into her, burying himself inside as he started coming. His powerful body shook as he thrust forward with each ejaculation, firing volley after volley of hot cum inside this ebony beauty.

Cammie shuddered again as she felt the hot rush of his seed deep inside her. She shook as his hard cock throbbed and pulsed with each warm volley of sperm. She cried out as another climax rocked her and she locked her ankles together behind his waist. She reached up and pulled him into a passionate kiss, and they quaked together in mutual ecstasy!

Justin reluctantly broke the kiss and looked into Cammie’s pleasure-glazed eyes. She smiled and sighed in satisfaction as her eyes cleared and she looked up at his turquoise gaze. She saw it, then. She saw the love he had for her, and she found herself letting go of the last vestiges of her doubt.

Cammie knew she was falling in love with him, but until now, she didn’t want to let herself go completely. Now, she knew she couldn’t stop herself. Justin was her total package. He was strong, sweet, caring, loving, and he could make her feel again. She didn’t want him to blame himself for Juan’s death. She knew that he did, but she knew he would’ve saved his friend if it’d been at all possible.

“Could you be any more wonderful, baby?” she asked with a playful giggle. “You are everything I ever wanted in a man!”

Justin smiled and kissed her in reply. He helped her up from her spot on the desk, and she quickly pulled her panties back over her leaking pussy. She wanted to keep him inside her all day. She pressed herself against him again and stroked his softening cock as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. Then she grinned evilly and sank to her knees, taking his flaccid cock into her mouth again.

“Mmmmm,” she moaned again as she licked and sucked him clean of their combined nectar. She licked her lips, swallowed the last of it, and then rose to her feet. She gave Justin a sweet peck on the lips as she fixed her bra and blouse.

“Wow!” he exclaimed breathlessly. Then he hugged her from behind. “I love you, Cammie.”

“I love you too, Justinian,” she purred, reaching back and turning her head upwards as she brought his lips down to meet hers. “Don’t ever forget that.”

“I won’t, and don’t ever forget that I love you too,” he said. “It’s because I love you, that I want you to go with the others. I need you to be safe, and out of the line of fire. Please, Cammie. Please go with the others to the resort. It shouldn’t take more than a week to resolve the situation with Salvatore and his Russian punks.”

Cammie got a worried look on her face as she turned to face him again. “Honey, please don’t make me go. Is your mother going?”

“Of course she is,” he nodded in confirmation. “She knows about Salvatore, and she’s right to be afraid. After what the bastard did at their reception,
after
standing as my father’s Best Man during the wedding, she knows
exactly
how much of a snake he is!”

Cammie breathed deeply and sighed. She felt it, then. He was willing to sacrifice himself to keep her safe. He would kill or die to protect her and keep her out of harm’s way.

“Ok, Justinian, I’ll go,” she said quietly. Then she threw her arms around his neck and held onto him tightly. “Please, be safe.”

“I will,” he replied with a wry smirk. “You aren’t getting rid of me
that
easily, sweetheart. You know, I don’t usually like the full version of my first name. Coming from you though, I do.”

“Good,
Justinian
. I
like
your full name.”

***** ***** *****

Ray sifted through the footage of the Maserati from every camera angle available. Normally, he hated it when someone looked over his shoulder while he worked. In this case, though, with Trina looking over his shoulder, he found himself proudly showing off his skills with the new system. It took him and Tam eight hours to get it up and running. The thing would put some supercomputers to shame! He was proud of that, as was Tam.

As he cycled through each camera, he finally found the footage he sought. He zoomed in and cleaned up the image, and there was the license plate onscreen. Without even thinking, he brought up the New York State DMV database and began a search for the license plate number.

He smiled in self-satisfaction at his forethought. He knew that hacking into every DMV database in the country would pay off someday.

“That’s it!” Trina said as she pointed to the DMV information as it popped up.

“It most assuredly is, my dear,” Ray said with a smirk. “No surprise that he’s using an alias. The guy’s a douchebag from way back. The FBI thinks he’s dead. Now…”

He typed into another database and hit enter. “Now, the FBI knows that ‘Saul Falcone’ is a known alias for the alive-and-well Salvatore Lupo.”

“Why did you do that?” Trina asked. “Doesn’t Mr. Wolfe want this kept on the down-low?”

“This is me preparing for a worst case scenario, Trina,” Ray replied gravely. “
Now
I’m still being a cop at heart. If this whole mess goes south and we end up dead, at least the FBI will know that Salvatore Lupo is still alive.”

“Good thinking, Raylan,” Trina said with a smile and nod of approval.
He’s cute and he thinks of everything. Damn! Where have you been all my life, Raylan?
She thought. Trina didn’t care about the color of skin when dating, as she’d dated some in the Corps.

“Trina, why didn’t you get married?” Ray asked. “I mean, I know some Marines who have families.”

“Honey, if the Corps wanted me to have a husband, they would’ve issued me one,” she replied with a smirk. Then she shrugged. “Seriously, though. I just never met the right guy.”

“Well, the right guy might be closer than you think,” Ray replied with a smile.
There I go again, flirting with a lady that could tear me in half. Oh, hell. I’d let her!

Trina looked at him quizzically for a moment. “You’re right, Ray. You never know.”
If we survive this shit, I might just see if you have what it takes, “Mr. Right.”