Instead, I stowed it once again in my coat pocket and stood up. I came at London more calmly this time. Her brothers stood by her side, in case I erupted again.
“You said you’ve been... following Tony?” I asked, avoiding the question I really wanted answered, which was, how long had she been fucking this mobster? That discussion would have to wait until we had Mariah back. After that, I had no idea if we’d be able to salvage our marriage, or if I’d even want to.
London didn’t speak. She looked to Junior, who answered for her.
“I got my boys on him now. Been following him since—” He stopped, and a glance passed between him and my cheating wife. London’s eyes welled with tears, but I felt not an ounce of sympathy for her.
“Now that we know who we’re lookin’ for, we’ll probably find our shipment too,” Orlando commented.
“Fuck the drugs. I know they’re important to you guys and whatnot, but I want my daughter. That’s all,” I said, reminding them where my priorities lay and where theirs should be as well.
“Oh yeah, we’re gonna get her back,” Junior assured me. “You don’t have to worry about that.”
“Then we need to get moving,” Orlando said. “’Cause if none of us have heard from them, that’s not a good thing.”
“True,” LC said. “I’ll contact Dash. Try to see what his game is. In the meantime, Junior, you stay on Tony. We’re going to get Mariah back. Alive. Then we take them motherfuckers down, but we have to do it together, as a unit.”
Junior nodded. “Don’t worry. We got this, Pop.”
“I’m going to help Junior,” London said, finally joining in the discussion.
“No. You’re not doing this. I forbid it,” I said.
“You don’t get that choice anymore,” she shot back. “Not when it comes to my daughter. I need to be there when we find her. I failed her once. Not again.” She looked so worn down, so damaged, and for a minute I realized that she had been there to witness Mariah’s terror during the kidnapping. She would live with that guilt forever. It almost made me pity London. I almost wanted to reach out and comfort her, but then I remembered that none of this would have happened if she hadn’t been a cheating whore.
Lucky for London, her mother still cared about her feelings. “Baby,” Chippy said, reaching out for London’s hand, “maybe you should stay out of this. You’ve already been through too much.”
“No, Momma,” my wife said. “Paris is not here. They... they need me. Mariah needs me. My family needs me.”
“Very well,” LC said, putting an end to the discussion and granting London the opportunity to atone.
He turned to Orlando. “I want you to make arrangements to get Rio and Paris back here to the house, safe. After that, I’ll need you somewhere coordinating things. Reach out to some of our friends. See if they can give us a hand with this. Although I didn’t like you going behind my back, in the end, you did good sending Paris to L.A. Now I guess we’ll get to see what you can do in this situation.”
Orlando stared at his father for a moment, processing the respect LC had just paid him. Then he nodded.
I was the only one left without an assignment—other than the one I’d received from Sal Dash. “What about me?” I asked LC.
“You’re my right-hand man, aren’t you?”
I nodded.
“Then stay by my side. I’ll have you there with me when I meet with Dash. It’ll show him I didn’t come to wage war.”
“’Cause we’ll be busy doing that,” Junior said.
I followed LC outside, with my mind on the decision I had to make: obey the family of ruthless criminals who held my daughter, or remain loyal to the family of killers I was a part of.
God help me if I made the wrong decision.
London
56
The motorcycle came around the corner, one helmeted man in black and bright blue leather revving it as it traveled down the tree-lined street toward us. He came to a halt beside us just as Junior lowered the driver’s window of the van.
“Any movement?” my brother asked.