Stuart Woods - Reckless Abandon

“I don’t like walking into that grocery store with no SWAT team and no backup.”

“Vito’s your backup.”

“The last time I saw Vito he was backing me into a freshly dug grave.”

“You don’t trust him?”

“Why should I trust him? Because he didn’t kill me?”

“That’s a start.”

“That was because he was afraid of Eduardo.”

“Because he respected Eduardo.”

“Whatever. He didn’t back off because he’d suddenly taken a liking to me.”

“Maybe he liked Holly.”

“He was going to kill her, too.”

“You got a point.”

“Of course I do. The point is, what’s going to happen when we walk in there? If we walk in there.”

“You’ll be with me.”

“You’re not big enough to hide behind.”

“He respects me.”

“Why, because he saved your skinny little ass from bullies when you were ten?”

“No, because I saved his fat ass from a long time upstate, and he appreciates that.”

“Okay, that takes care of you. What about Holly and me?”

“It’s transferable.”

“What?”

“The respect.”

“Look, these goombahs are murdering people they respect all the time, you know? The respect seems to kind of vary from day to day-one day you’re a prince of a guy, the next you’re in a fifty-five-gallon drum of lime in a New Jersey swamp, waiting for Judgment Day.”

“Stone, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so nervous.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever had more reason to be nervous. I’ve been threatened and shot at and dragged all over the country, and-”

Holly broke in. “I did not drag you all over the country,” she said. “You came voluntarily.”

“That was only because I wanted to get you in the sack.”

“You had already gotten me in the sack. How soon you forget!”

Dino broke in. “You wanted to get me in the sack?”

“Oh, shut up. You know I was talking to Holly.”

“How do I know who you’re talking to? I can only hear you.”

“We’ve got to have a plan, Dino.”

“What sort of plan?”

“The kind of plan where men in black suits and body armor with automatic weapons and stun grenades go in first and let us know when they’ve got Trini handcuffed.”

“You don’t understand. Vito has a certain standing in his community, you know? He would not respond well to assault teams running up and down the aisles of his grocery store, tossing stun grenades. It would not reflect well on him in his neighborhood.”

“Well, we need some kind of a plan,” Stone said.

“What kind of plan do you want?”

“Suggest something.”

“I don’t know what to suggest. I’m okay with just going in there and talking to Vito.”

“How about you send a few undercover people in there to do some shopping and reconnoiter?”

“Oh, sure, and they’re not going to stick out like tourists from Alabama? The whole neighborhood would know.”

“Well, think of something , Dino.”

“I’ll call you back,” Dino said, then hung up.

“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.”

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.”