It was part of being a good Capo.
Luca chuckled blandly. “He did know—that’s why I am here, and well …” He trailed off, waving at the now-crying man. “So is he, hmm.”
Ah.
Now Mac understood.
“You think they made him obvious for a reason, to keep your eye on someone else while they did work elsewhere,” Mac said.
Luca waved a finger at Mac. “Sometimes you take too long to figure these things out, you know.”
“It’s early as hell—give me a break.”
“Nonetheless, I assume they believed I would not touch their garbage because he was so obvious. I feel like now I need to send them a message.” Luca gestured at the man again, adding, “My message will be ready later in the morning, of course.”
Nobody could ever say Luca was not good at his job.
Or serious about it, for that matter.
It was a little dangerous—like sticking your hand in the fire—when it came to hurting cops so blatantly. Luca was asking for an arrest of some sort.
Mac decided not to point that out.
“Well, get on with it,” Luca said after a moment. “You wanted a meeting—what is it?”
The time was now or never.
Mac forced back the concern he felt over what he was about to ask his boss.
“I need a sit down with Enzo,” Mac said, continuing on, before Luca could ask why he was demanding a seat with the family’s underboss and the only close friend the boss had left. “The bomb that was put on my wife’s car had to have been set up to the car’s locking system, and when it was unlocked by the fob, it blew. The car would have locked when Melina got in it to drive to the club—mechanically, of course. Because that’s what it does when someone drives off. We know the bomb couldn’t have been set at the club, it had to be somewhere else.”
Luca was still staring at Mac, silent.
He didn’t look pleased.
“Fact is, Enzo is the only man I know in this state with the ability to make a bomb like that with the skill it would take to work the electronics on the car,” Mac finished.
It took an entire three minutes before Luca spoke again, and two of those were spent by him whipping his captive until the man passed out.
Mac was grateful Luca’s sudden aggression, likely caused by him, had gone elsewhere.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Luca muttered heavily, “but you’re wrong, Mac.”
It wasn’t often the boss called him by his nickname. It was almost always “Maccari” to Luca.
“I’m not thinking anything,” Mac replied respectfully.
As respectfully as he could manage, that was.
He was thinking something—that Enzo either had something to do with the bomb, or knew who did. And while Mac was fit to kill, especially any fucker that messed with his wife, he had to go about this the right way.
A way that wouldn’t get him a bullet and a makeshift grave.
He needed Luca’s permission.
“Deny it, boss, but those skills are passed down. If not Enzo, then someone he knows. People don’t wake up one day, knowing how to make bombs like this one,” Mac argued.
Luca sighed heavily, scrubbing a hand down his face and looking more tired by the second. “Give me some time—I want to look into this.”
“You take care of the rat issue—I take care of the other issue. That was our deal, boss.”
“Be that as it may, this is …” Luca trailed off, glancing at the enforcer who still wasn’t paying them much attention. He still lowered his voice when he added, “This is my friend—my very last friend—and you will give me that respect before I allow you a single fucking step toward him. Understood?”
How was Mac supposed to argue with that?
“I’ll wait on your call, boss.”
As much as it killed him to say those words, Mac knew he didn’t have a choice. He would have to check his rage at least until he could do something about it.
Luca dismissed him with a wave.
Mac heard a splash of water and mumbled groans as he was leaving, the sound of whipping starting up once more.
Mac strolled into his living room to find Enric seemingly passed out on the couch and the apartment quiet.
Sleep when he’s dead my ass, Mac thought.
He grabbed the tumbler glass full of water on the coffee table, holding it over Enric’s head and ready to pour it over the young man.
Enric stopped him with a quiet, “Do that, and you’ll owe me a new jacket.”
Mac laughed, willing to give the kid his dues. “You’ve got too smart of a mouth.”
“Yeah, you keep telling me that, and it’s still working just fine.”
Enric pushed off the couch, opening his eyes at the same time.
“Head out,” Mac told him. “Today is an off day, Enric. I want quiet time, which means I’ll be here, with my wife. No one needs to be here. Take a day.”
“Sure,” Enric said, already heading for the front door.