know what else to do.”
They looked at each other in the darkness, his own worry written all over her face, and they rode in silence through the labyrinth of warehouses and loading docks in Industry City.
He’d resisted bringing Giulia along, but she’d refused to hear of it.
“I’m coming with you,” she’d declared.
Danny’d hesitated. “But—”
“Don’t you argue with me.” She’d thumped the middle of his chest with a finger, hitting one of his many tender bruises. “Il Sacchi’s men killed Francis, and now they’ve got my brother. I’m not staying home and waiting for you to come back with him.”
“And your brother will have my head if he knows I brought you into—”
“My brother won’t have anything if we don’t get him out of there. He can say whatever he wants to both of us once he’s safe at home.”
Danny had backed down then, because if there was one thing he had understood from his very first encounter with a member of the Battaglia family, it was that he would never out-stubborn one of them. Especially not Giulia. Carmine would have his hide for it later, but at least that would mean Carmine was safely away from Salvatore il Sacchi, so Danny supposed he could deal with it when the time came. And if he was honest, he was grateful she’d come along. As much as he didn’t want anything to happen to her and give Carmine a reason to grieve, she was smart and fearless, and they needed all the help they could get tonight.
God, please, don’t make me tell Carmine I got his sister killed.
At last, the cars stopped, forming a row outside a particular warehouse. From the front car emerged several members of Masseria’s muscle. From the second came Masseria and Morello.
Danny glanced around, and he quickly spotted the rest of his crew, who’d come down here ahead of the caravan to get a look at the warehouse and see if there was any way in. He and Bernard exchanged nods. Then Bernard gestured at the building and made a gesture that meant “no way in.” Frowning, Danny nodded. He wasn’t ready to give up hope; the lads were skilled at weakening entry points, and since he could only see Bernard and Tommy, that meant Mathew, Paddy, Liam, and Peter were working on those entry points. Hopefully they were being more careful than usual; when they’d broken into Carmine’s warehouse, the guards hadn’t been on high alert the way Salvatore’s security no doubt was now.
Some voices and activity turned his head just as one of the security guards walked back into the warehouse. Two others stood poised by the door, shotguns in hand and postures stiff.
Under a streetlight a few paces from the door, Masseria glanced at Morello, who nodded slightly.
Giulia and Danny slipped out of the backseat of the car, leaving the door open since closing it would make too much noise. They crept alongside the cars toward where Bernard and Tommy waited behind a truck.
Still keeping an eye on the activity in front of the warehouse, Danny whispered, “What’ve you got?”
“The doors are all chained and padlocked,” Bernard said in a hushed voice. “Paddy and Mathew are going to weaken some chains, but there’s watches patrolling, and they don’t dare make noise, so…”
Danny nodded. Paddy and Mathew were both skilled at filing chain links to weaken them, but it was not a fast process, especially if they had to keep ducking into the shadows.
“There’s Salvatore,” Giulia said, and right then, the man himself stepped out into the glow of the streetlight to meet Masseria.
“Let’s go,” Danny whispered. He and Giulia stayed low and moved quickly and quietly through the darkness toward the corner of the warehouse. There, they stopped. He craned his neck to listen to the exchange while she watched his back.
“I don’t know where you heard that,” Salvatore was saying to Masseria. “There ain’t a piece of merchandise in this warehouse that belongs to anyone but me.”
“That right?” Masseria asked coolly. “Because word on the street is your boys have been stealing liquor from mine. And Salvatore.” He put a hand to his chest. “I don’t think I need to tell you how much I hate being disrespected.”
Salvatore laughed. “You’re being disrespected?” He stepped closer to Masseria, halting when every man suddenly had a hand on a gun. Showing his palms, he chuckled. “Listen. Joe. You’re coming to my property and accusing me of stealing from you. That is disrespect, my friend.”
“I ain’t your