The Real Italian Alphas (12 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Rico told Gabriel the following day that he’d found out what Gabriel wanted to know about the amulet. It was still in the city, or more precisely somewhere beneath it. He’d made good use of a large sum of the money he’d been making to procure a map of the caves where the Alphas lived. Gabriel didn’t want to know who the man had to sleep with to discover the whereabouts of such a map.

But it was one thing to know the lay of the land, and quite another thing to figure out how to get inside. They couldn’t simply go in through the front door and inquire from the guards as to the whereabouts of their most sacred treasure.

“We can’t possibly try to do anything about it until later tonight, once we’ve finished the meeting with Lupo at the end of the day,” Betsy pointed out. “I’m just a bit worried about why he wants all of us, including the men in your crew, to meet there this evening.” She and Gabriel had not yet told Rico about her altercation with the man on the night before.

“Knowing Lupo, it can’t be good,” Rico commented. “At least there’s going to be nine of us there with the guys added in. If he is planning to wipe us out, they’ll at least provide some fighting power before we bite the dust.”

“Or at least a distraction, so we can get away,” Gabriel pointed out.

“Wow, boss, this job’s finally made you cold,” Rico said. “You never used to throw anybody under a the bus.”

“Well, if I don’t do it now the bus may run us all over, and then where will we be?” Gabriel said.

“I know, I know,” he agreed. “It’s just a side of you I seldom see.”

“I suppose Vito and Desmond can call the crew and tell them to head to Lupo’s around six. But right now we need to get him some more money,” said Gabriel with a sigh. “I hope this meeting doesn’t have anything to do with him having figured out what we did to get that money, Rico. If he knows how we’ve been paying him off, he’ll consider it an insult. He might even try to take the stash for himself.”

“Guys, I really don’t want you to leave me alone today,” Betsy said then. “If Lupo is upset with us and planning to retaliate in some manner, I don’t think I could survive an attack without anybody around for backup.”

“She may be right, Gabriel, I wouldn’t leave her alone,” Rico agreed.

“Is it safe to take her to the stash?” asked Gabriel uncertainly. “What if Lupo knows where it is and has a couple of goons waiting for you to return?”

“You two can stay in the car while I go inside,” he suggested. “If I don’t return within ten minutes, you must assume I’ve been taken and get yourselves out of there.”

“No, Rico, without you to read the map you drew, how are we supposed to find the amulet in the first place?” Betsy pointed out. “We must stick together the whole way. It’s the only solution.”

“Is she always this stubborn, boss?”

“You know she is,” Gabriel chuckled. “Let’s go.”

Rico’s stash was hidden inside a secret passage beyond the janitor’s closet of an old parking garage. Not only cash, but guns and ammunition, jewelry, and drugs were neatly piled on the shelves. He had bags of cocaine that seemed bigger than bags of flour sitting just as casually on one shelf, while tons of marijuana in huge bags were stored just below. Even crates filled with pill bottles lined the wall.

“Rico, are you trying to start your own pharmacy?” Betsy asked with a smirk as she looked the place over.

“Recent shipment,” he explained as he steadily packed money into a large bag. “Should be gone in a couple of days.”

“What’s with the stack of rolled joints?”

“Well, my boys sometimes like their payment in non-denominations,” he answered with a chuckle. “They must have been making sure the greenery was good.”

“Okay, you two, let’s grab some of the denominations and take them to Lupo already,” Gabriel said. “If he’s going to try something, I’d rather know it sooner than later.”

“What makes you think he’s going to do anything, boss?” Rico wanted to know.

Gabriel and Betsy exchanged a look, and he nodded to her.

“He pretty much told me so,” Betsy said. “Apparently he wants to kill Gabriel and his whole crew and keep me for himself. Oh, and have me touch the amulet so we can be together forever. Like I would want to spend one minute in his presence.”

“He told you about the amulet?” asked Rico worriedly.

“Yeah, I thought he might have been trying to find out what I know.”

“Or to find out where your loyalties lie,” Rico pointed out. “He knew you would tell us. But does that mean he’s on to me after I did all that checking to locate the thing? It may not even be where we think it is anymore. Damn it!”

“Come on, we have no choice but to go to the meeting,” Gabriel sighed. “If we don’t go, he’ll definitely try to have us killed. We won’t need to wonder anymore.”

“Rico, how come you’ve never taken this money and left?” Betsy asked. “We could easily just load it into some car and get out of here.”

“Until recently I have been content with my lifestyle,” he explained. “It’s how I acquired all of this money. If I took it and ran for the border, we’d end up spending it all and then actually have to work for a living.”

“Why? Can’t you still make your transactions from a different location?”

“If things go south down there, and Lupo does try to kill us, it may be the only option we have left, assuming we could get back here at all,” Rico said. “Boss, if I don’t make it and you two get out, you have my permission to take this stash. I want you to know that. Brothers?”

“Brothers,” said Gabriel with a nod, sidestepping his extended hand and hugging him briefly instead. Then the three of them wordlessly grabbed the money they had come for and exited the stash, heading quickly back to the car. No one was there to see them leave.

They headed back to Lupo’s. The tension was thick as they took the long elevator ride down into the depths. Gabriel grasped Betsy’s hand. Betsy gave Rico a reassuring pat on his arm, and he gave her arm a squeeze back. They exchanged a look as the elevator came to a stop, and stepped out as one into the long, dark passage that led to the caves beyond the main doorway where Lupo’s cavern awaited them.

If they could have, they would have simply kept walking, never entering the cavern to begin with. It would be a simple matter of continuing to move forward, except perhaps for the fact that the Alpha guards would be barring their path somewhere along the way.

“Too bad werewolves don’t have the ability to turn invisible,” Betsy joked humorlessly. “Otherwise, we’d have it made.”

“They’d still smell us,” Rico pointed out.

The other elevator opened, and Gabriel’s six crew members all stepped out. When they saw him, the men came to join him by the door.

“Boss, what’s going on around here?” Vito asked. “Lupo never wants to see all of us together.”

“Just watch your backs, everyone,” Gabriel warned them. “I don’t trust Lupo. I’m sure he’s up to something we’re not going to like.”

The door opened. The man who opened it said, “Lupo is ready for you now.”

They all filed in, and the door shut behind them again with an ominous clang. They were all certain they were stepping forward to their impending doom.

*

“Good evening, Lupo,” said Betsy sweetly as she stepped into the room, leveling her gaze right at him. She made her displeasure in seeing him again apparent with her eyes and the quirk of one brow.

Lupo smirked at her before he turned away to face the men instead. “So, here you all are,” he said. “No doubt, you’re all wondering what this little meeting is about, and I’ll not waste a whole lot of time explaining myself. It has come to my attention, Russo, that your leadership skills are somewhat less than effective.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Gabriel wanted to know. He didn’t bother to bow his head or act the part of the supplicant or any of the other expected niceties he knew Lupo was expecting.

Lupo’s brow went up at the slight, but he merely straightened his shoulders and glared at Gabriel for a brief moment. “It means, Russo, that somehow you’ve gotten the impression you can give me whatever money you want just to shut me up. It means that you think you can have your little chauffeur here make tens of thousands of dollars and then only give me the ten thousand you were meant to have earned yourself without even bothering to earn it. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out about your little scam? I know everything about every business in New York. I’m God around here, you little shit.”

“Oh really, you found out?” Gabriel sneered. “Forgive me for my presumptuousness, but I thought you might have been too busy trying to steal my wife behind my back to notice.”

“Stop pissing him off, boss,” Rico said in Gabriel’s ear.

“Sound advice, little driver man, but given much too late,” Lupo told him. “As you all may have noticed, I waited for the night of the full moon to call you here. Thought it might give you a fighting chance, not that it will do you much good against my Alphas, mind you. I’ve decided to set you and your crew loose into the labyrinth. And just so you know, no one has ever left the labyrinth once they went in, except inside a body bag. Have a nice night, boys.”

Gabriel’s men began to protest. They didn’t think they should be punished just because Rico and Gabriel had been double dealing, since they hadn’t even been involved. Of course Lupo ignored their protests as a large group of Alphas came in and dragged them all away.

Before they grabbed Betsy, Lupo held up a hand as he gazed at her and she glared at him. “What do you say, sweetheart? It’s me, or the pits. You decide.”

“I belong with my husband,” she told him.

“Your loss, then,” he said coldly. “Enjoy your death.”

As one of the Alphas grabbed her and pulled her along with the others, she shouted back, “I will!”

“Maybe you should have taken the deal,” Rico told her as she landed beside him in a dung heap inside a very deep hole. Betsy rolled her eyes at him and moved aside as a few more bodies fell in after her. Gabriel was the last one thrown in, and as soon as he landed Betsy joined him.

“I have a feeling we should probably not linger here for long,” she told him. “Something had to make this lovely crap pile, and whatever it was it can’t have been something pretty.”

“She’s right, boss,” Rico told him. “I have heard of the labyrinth. It’s occupied by the Alphas’ pet hell-hounds. If we stay by the entrance long, they’re sure to find us. Especially if the Alphas are told we’re in here.”

“Which I’m certain they will be,” Gabriel agreed. “Everyone up, let’s go.”

“Boss, I think I broke my leg,” said one of the men.

“We can’t carry you, Ormando,” Gabriel told him. “I’m sorry, you’ll just have to stay here. Hopefully you’ll manage to buy the rest of us some time.”

The man sucked back a few tears and nodded. “I understand, boss,” he said stoically. “I’ll do what I can.”

“Good man,” Gabriel told him, clapping him on the shoulder. “Go with God.”

Betsy looked back over her shoulder as the group began to run, wondering how long the man would have, but she soon turned her attention back to navigating her way through the small gap that allowed only one person at a time to pass through. Desmond went in first, followed by most of the others, but Gabriel insisted that Betsy enter before he did in case any trouble showed up from behind them.

It was a wise choice, for even as Betsy made it through to the other side, the shrieks of the man they’d left behind met her ears. Something was tearing him apart, and the fact that he was a werewolf didn’t seem to make any difference. The hell-hounds must have discovered their prize.

Gabriel’s hand touched Betsy’s as he rushed into the gap behind her. She moved as fast as she could to ensure both of them would get through, but the creatures arrived before Gabriel could pull in his left hand. One of them clamped onto it with their jaws, and Gabriel screamed in pain. He managed to pull free, leaving the larger animal behind. Thankfully, the hounds were much too big to fit through the gap, so they would be able to move on in relative safety.

“Gabe, are you okay?” Rico asked worriedly, as he tore off a piece of his shirt to bind the bleeding wound.

“I just got bit by a hell-hound, of course I’m not okay,” he pointed out irritably. “Is their saliva toxic to wolves?”

“I don’t think so,” Rico told him. “Once the moon rises and we transform, the wound should heal. Or at least I hope.”

“How very reassuring,” Gabriel told him. “Let’s go. We have no idea who—or what—else is down here with us, but with all the sounds of the dogs somebody is sure to come looking.”

“I’ve been looking at my map, boss,” Rico told him. “Trying to figure out where to go based on my knowledge of the passages above us. If we can manage to stay near the south walls and follow them, we may get out of here in one piece.”

“Assuming something doesn’t eat us first,” Vito interjected.

“That’s a lovely thought,” said Betsy with a biting tone.

“This way, then,” said Gabriel, indicating the wall Rico had designated. “Rico, you lead the way. And whatever you do, don’t get yourself killed. Vito and Desmond, you guard him with your lives. It just might be those lives he manages to save. You three take up the back. If anything moves in here besides us I want to know about it.”