Reckless Abandon

“Hey!” Stone shouted down the phone. “Don’t hang up on me!”

“He hung up?” Holly asked.

“He hung up; said he’d call me back.”

“So, he’ll call you back.”

“You heard me voice my concerns?”

“I heard. I don’t really see what the problem is. Vito said just to come down there.”

“So now you trust Vito? The guy who was going to put two in your head and bury you in his cellar?”

“I kind of like him.”

“He’s a fucking mafioso, and you kind of like him?”

“Well, your friend Eduardo is a fucking mafioso, and you like him.”

“First of all, he’s not a fucking mafioso, he’s more of… an elder statesman of Italian-American diplomacy.”

“He’s a fucking mafioso.”

“And I’ve had a lot more experience of Eduardo than you’ve had of Vito.”

“Granted. Why don’t we just wait to hear what Dino has to say?”

The phone rang, and Stone picked it up. “Hello?”

“Okay, listen…”

” Who is this?”

“Now you don’t recognize my voice?”

“What is it?”

“I talked to Vito, and it’s okay.”

“That’s your plan? You talked to Vito, and it’s okay?”

“That’s my plan.”

Stone sighed. “Okay, what do we do?”

“Vito suggested we come in my car, since yours is getting to be a little too well known in the neighborhood, so I’ll pick you up at ten-thirty.”

“Okay.” Stone hung up.

“He talked to Vito, and it’s okay?”

“Yeah.”

“And that’s the plan?”

“Yeah.”

56

STONE LED HOLLY upstairs to his safe and opened it. “I’m not comfortable going after this guy with your Sig- Sauer and my Walther,” he said, rooting around in the safe. “They’re both.380s, and we need more stopping power.”

“What did you have in mind?” Holly asked.

Stone handed her a gun. “This is a Sig P239,” he said. “It’s a little larger than your P232, and it’s nine millimeter.”

“I own one. What are we using for ammo?”

He rooted around some more and came up with a magazine. “This is loaded with MagSafe ammo. You know about it?”

“Sounds familiar; remind me.”

“Instead of a lead slug, it’s epoxy with fairly large buckshot encapsulated. It will penetrate soft body armor, but the great thing is that even if it goes all the way through a body, it won’t ricochet, and it won’t kill some bystander. Makes a big wound in the original recipient, though.”

“Why doesn’t everybody use it all the time?”

“Because it costs something like three bucks a round. It’s best saved for special occasions.”

“And what are you carrying?”

Stone handed her a pistol. “It’s a Sig Pro. Guy I know sent it to me. Got a fifteen-round magazine.”

“I want this one,” she said, tucking it into the belt of her jeans.

“Oh, all right, I’ll take the P239.” He handed her the Pro’s magazine and closed the safe. “Let’s go.”

“Okay,” Dino said as they headed downtown at mid-morning, “here’s what Vito told me. You ready?”

“We’re ready,” Stone said.

“He’s luring Trini down to the store with a really good story.”

“What’s the story?”

“The story is, a truck is going to make a delivery to Vito’s grocery store, and half of the truck is given over to a compartment rigged up as a room. It’s air-conditioned, it has a bed and a chair and lights and a chemical toilet and a lot of dirty magazines. The truck actually exists, according to Vito.”

“What’s the truck got to do with this?” Holly asked.

“Vito has told Trini that they’re going to take him to Florida in the truck, two guys driving nonstop. He’s got food and water and the magazines in the back, and they’re there in twenty-four hours.”

“Trini wants to go back to Florida?”

“He says he can get lost among his homeboys down there, and then he’ll get a ship out somewhere. Anybody stops the truck, the rear part is stacked to the ceiling with cartons of Italian foodstuffs. Pretty slick, huh?”

“Pretty slick,” Holly admitted.

“So that’s how Vito knows for sure Trini will be there today?”

“Right. He’s due at noon.”

“And Vito is just going to hand Trini to me?”

“That’s the idea.”

“I don’t get it,” she said.

“What?”

“What’s in it for Vito?”

“He makes Eduardo happy.”

“Eduardo is still in this?” Stone asked.

“Up to his ears, apparently, and Vito always likes to make Eduardo happy. In his business, you make Eduardo happy, good things happen to you.”

“This is just crazy enough to work,” Holly said.

“Wait a minute,” Stone said.

“What?”

“Trini was behind Vito’s kidnapping us, right?”

“Right, I guess,” Dino said.

“Well, I’d like to know what Vito told him.”

“Why can’t you just relax and let this happen?”

“Oh, all right, I suppose Vito could tell him something.”

“You bet your ass he could.”

“What’s the plan when we get there?”

“Vito will tell us then.”

57

THE THREE WALKED into Vito Galeano’s grocery store at eleven sharp. The place was not terribly big-four rows of shelving running up and down the space, a counter at the rear, and, up half a flight of stairs, a loft office