Chapter Ten

Enzo

 

Enzo couldn’t stop wondering if he had made the right decision about Madelyn. She had seemed all right when she had left his house, but he had to make sure that she felt a bond toward him. He wanted to bring about a desire in her to help him, and he wasn’t complete sure he had clinched it. Still, there were things he could do to help his future.

 

The back room at Sterling looked like a typical stockroom for a men’s clothing store. There were racks and shelves of the extra stock that hadn’t been put out on the floor yet. The file drawers held timecards and order forms for custom suits. Anybody who walked in wouldn’t think anything of it.

 

But up a set of metal stairs and behind a rusty door was a boardroom like any that could be found in one of the office complexes downtown. The massive table was currently ringed with men in suits, each of them looking expectantly at Enzo. The scent of gourmet coffee was thick in the air, and one of the assistants had provided a big platter of pastries. They seemed too sugary for the current situation, but he wasn’t going to argue if someone wanted to stuff their face while he figured out if he was going to spend the rest of his life in jail.

 

He pulled Carlo aside. “How are things going with your special project?”

 

A slim-shouldered man with curly hair that couldn’t quite be tamed, Carlo was the best mafioso in the family when it came to surveillance. Enzo had assigned him to watch Madelyn. He mostly wanted to make sure that nobody else was watching her, but it didn’t hurt to check that she wasn’t going behind his back. “Things are pretty quiet. She spends a lot of time at work, and she goes to bed early. The most suspicious thing is that she had breakfast with a woman by the name of Stacy Jordan, a reporter for the paper.”

 

Enzo didn’t like the sound of that. The case was a high-profile one, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if a journalist tried to get a quote from her, but he had never trusted the media. “Just keep your eyes and ears open, and let me know of even the tiniest concern.”

 

“Yes, boss.”

 

Enzo looked around the room, meeting the eyes of each man before he began. “As I’m sure you all know by now, there’s a real possibility that my upcoming trial won’t go very well. The city has found plenty of evidence against me, and they’re very determined to make sure they don’t have to deal with me anymore. The first thing we need to do is address what will happen if I trade out my suits for jumpsuits.”

 

Most of the men glanced at Johnny. A few of them did so expectantly, but others held a grudge in their eyes.

 

“Johnny, you’ve been my second for a long time. You’ve always been loyal, respectful, and you know just what this family needs. If the judge bangs the hammer in the city’s favor, then I expect you to be my representative on the outside. I still plan to run things as much as I can, so I’d damn well better see your ass on the other side of the glass on a regular basis.” Enzo smiled, but he didn’t really feel it. Johnny would do a good job, but Enzo couldn’t kid himself into thinking he would be much of a leader while he was sitting in a jail cell.

 

“You got it, boss,” Johnny said with a nod. He at least had the decency to look upset about the possibility.

 

“As for the rest of you, I expect you to carry out my wishes no matter what happens. Johnny as the lead man is the contingency plan for pretty much anything. If I’m in jail, you go to him. If I die, you go to him. Whatever. But I also expect you to help me make sure none of that happens.”

 

“What can we do that your pretty little lawyer can’t?” Rico asked.

 

“Plenty.” Enzo had asked Madelyn to give him a copy of everything she had, and of course, she had complied. It included a little diagram she had made that included how all the witnesses and evidence were linked, and she had even written in notes about what the witnesses would probably see. Enzo noticed for the first time what nice handwriting she had. He shook his head to make himself focus.

 

“Whoa, this is quite the little display,” Johnny said appreciatively as he looked it over. “And I hate to say it, Enzo, but it doesn’t look good. Still, I think we can take care of a few things.”

 

Enzo smiled to himself, pleased to see that he had judged Johnny correctly. He already knew what needed to happen. “My thoughts exactly. A few hits there, a little bit of stolen or ruined evidence there, and the district attorney will be operating only on hearsay.”

 

Johnny tapped the paper, his tongue between his teeth. “You know, we could make this even better by pinning the murder on someone else.”

 

“Oh no, you don’t, Johnny!” Rico pointed an accusing finger at his older cousin. “I’m not taking the fall again!”

 

“Not you, you nitwit! I’m talking about Benny Scarvo. His organization has just enough overlap with our territory that we could arrange everything to point at him. That way, you’re not just proving that you didn’t do it, but that someone else did.”

 

Enzo clapped his cousin on the shoulder. “There’s a reason I keep you around! It’s pure genius. Let’s get to work.”

 

The men immediately began divvying up the work, figuring out who had the better connections in which parts of town to make this as quick and efficient as possible. No man would do more than one job, which decreased the risk of any of them getting caught. The Marino family ran like a well-oiled machine, and he was proud of it.

 

“Now that we’ve got that figured out, what do we do with your sexy attorney if she still fails you?” Rico rubbed his hands together and licked his lips. “I think we can make good use of her.”

 

Anger burst inside Enzo’s chest. He slammed his hand down on the table as he bent down, right in Rico’s face. “You keep your fucking hands off of her.”

 

“Whoa, hey!” Rico scooted his chair back and held out his hands. “I’m just going off of what we’ve done in the past. If someone doesn’t make their payments, they bleed a little. Same thing goes if they don’t do they job they were paid to do.”

 

“This one is a little different, and I would advise you not to question it or go against my orders unless you want to find yourself on the wrong side of the grass.” Enzo expected the other men to hoot and holler at Rico for getting chewed out, but he must have done a good job of intimidating them. They sat quietly, watching him.

 

“Hey, don’t worry, Enzo. I’ve got this all taken care of,” Johnny assured him. “We’ll get the hits and the heists taken care of, you’ll be acquitted, and then none of this will matter.”

 

“I sure hope you’re right. Now everybody get out of here. I need some time to think.” Enzo swept out of the conference room and to his office downstairs. It would take some time for the other men to leave, spacing it out so they didn’t look suspicious as a long line of finely-suited men strutting out onto the street, and he couldn’t deal with them anymore. He needed time alone, to gather his thoughts and see if there was anything he was missing.

 

His office was similar to the stockroom. The desk was a decent one, but nothing like the furniture he had in his study at home. The linoleum floor and white walls kept a somewhat industrial look to the place, something that would help convince anyone who was interested that they were nothing more than a retail shop.

 

Enzo cleared the invoices and folders off his desk and spread out Madelyn’s diagram, looking over it once again. The woman had been thorough, that was for sure. She’d said the other attorneys had offered their help, but so far Enzo hadn’t seen any evidence of it. Either they had backed out and left her in the lurch, or she had decided she could do it just fine on her own. Enzo had a good feeling it was the latter.

 

As he studied each witness and made a mental note of who would be getting bumped off and who could be paid to silently skip town, Enzo realized there was one key factor that he hadn’t quite sealed yet. Madelyn was a smart, professional woman. She wouldn’t have risen to her position at Morber and Barnard if she wasn’t. And while she seemed like she was attracted to him and acted sympathetic toward his situation, he wasn’t sure she would cooperate with Enzo’s actions on behalf of the case. What if she squealed about getting rid of witnesses? What if she was giving that reporter some sort of exclusive interview, saying things about him? It had been a mistake not to sleep with her when he had the chance.

 

But that was all right. He could fix that. He picked up the phone and dialed his lawyer.