The Venetian and the Rum Runner - L.A. Witt Page 0,64
a dead man.
And Lord help me if anything happens to her…
Danny joined the lads that night at Daisy’s to celebrate their most recent score. After he’d divvied up the money, he lit a cigarette and looked at his crew. “Before we get to drinking…” He cleared his throat as he brought the cigarette to his lips. “There’s someone that wants to join us.”
“For drinking?” Paddy asked.
“No, dingbat.” Danny smacked his arm. “Running.”
The whole crew sobered, everyone straightening a little.
“You told someone what we’re doing?” Bernard demanded. “What are you—”
“I didn’t tell a soul,” Danny snapped. “No, this was someone who knows already.”
Peter cocked his head. “Who? Battaglia himself?”
Something about that suggestion made Danny’s spine tingle. The thought of running with Carmine was weirdly exhilarating, but he didn’t let it linger. “Battaglia’s sister.”
“His—” Tommy’s jaw fell open. “His sister? Are you mad?”
Mathew eyed Danny. “Ain’t she the one that was in the suite with you and Bernard on New Year’s?”
“Aye,” Danny said. “And she says she ran with the crew before us.” He told them the story of cleaning out Dwyer’s stash, and when he was done, he brought his cigarette to his lips. “She knows ways to hijack and places to hide we’ve probably not even thought of.”
“So you agreed to it, then,” Bernard said pointedly, jamming his own spent cigarette into the ashtray.
“Not yet. I told her I’d speak with the lot of you first.”
“And what do you think we should do?” Francis asked. “Take her on?”
“I don’t know.” Danny shrugged. “It’s dangerous taking on Carmine’s own kin this way, but she’s a bearcat with more brains than the lot of us. We saw that on New Year’s.”
“We did,” Mathew said with a nod. “And Danny’s right—she’s smart and she’s fearless.”
“She’s also Battaglia’s sister,” Bernard said. “I’m not arguing that she ain’t smart, and that she didn’t think fast and get us out of that suite, but…”
Paddy nodded. “He’s got a point. If Battaglia finds out, he’ll have us all floating in the Hudson.”
Danny inhaled some smoke and blew it out. They were right, of course, and hadn’t he thought the same things?
“How is Battaglia going to know?” Liam asked. “Apart from New Year’s, he ain’t ever seen any of us but Danny. All he ever sees is the liquor and the money.” He shrugged as he lit his own cigarette. “For all Battaglia knows, Danny’s paying a crew of Germans to go out there for him.”
The lads exchanged glances, and there were some shrugs.
“Hmm, he’s right,” Bernard said. “But if we’re ever caught? If the Coast Guard or the police arrest us?” He shook his head. “How do we explain that away? Ain’t as if we can tell Battaglia we didn’t know who she was.”
“That’s what bribing’s for,” Mathew said. “We offer a man enough money, he’ll let her go.”
“Then why don’t we just bribe him to let us all go?” Liam asked.
Mathew rolled his eyes. “You have to negotiate, lad. If he won’t let us go, we at least persuade him to let the lady go, and then Battaglia gets us out like he promised. Without finding out his sister was ever with us.”
Danny could see the skepticism in not just Bernard’s eyes, but Francis’s and Paddy’s. “Listen, it’s a risk. It is, and we all know it. But I think Giulia might be just what this crew needs to make even more than we’re making now.” He brought up his cigarette. “And if we get caught, then I’ll tell Battaglia it was me who brought her aboard, and none of you know who she is.” He had no idea if he had more leeway now with Carmine than he had in the beginning, or if Carmine would shoot him just the same tonight as he would have at the start if he’d known Danny would be taking Giulia on runs like that. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to find out.
“So Danny’ll deal with Battaglia if he finds out,” Tommy mused. “And we’ll have another pair of hands along with some brains that’ve done this before. I think we can all agree we need all the hands and brains we can get with the Coast Guard and other rum runners getting as aggressive as they are.”
Danny nodded. The memory of his too-close encounter with Bugsy Siegel still had him uneasy; there were some incredibly dangerous men working on Rum Row. He and his crew were little more than street thieves. Men like Bugs and Meyer were hardened thugs