Page 64 of More Tricks

Chapter twenty-three

Dax

The prep room was clearly the code word for war room because everything he’d given us was in its raw form all over the space. It was behind a fingerprint-locked door that must have been constructed to be a panic room of sorts. It was under the garage, leaving the rest of the space open to be used as a child’s play area.

“When you said base of operations, you meant your own home?” I asked once the door was shut, keeping what we said to just his room. “Your wife didn’t seem to know that we’d be coming over today.”

“Look, I get why you feel this is a slap in the face, but it’s the best way to keep her safe. My men are always around to look after her and Diego is too prideful to even consider that I might be right under his nose without him knowing. I wasn’t planning on falling in love or her getting pregnant, but I loved her too much to let her go. So, instead, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her and my son safe, like being the new ruler of the East Coast criminal empire,” Tommaso explained as he leaned against the massive wooden conference table.

“Any other tidbits of information you haven’t shared with us we might want to know about?” Eagle asked, crossing his arms and giving him a look that a lesser man would have crumbled under.

“No, that was the last thing I’ve been holding to myself for good reason,” Tommaso snapped back. “None of us really trust each other, and I get that, but you can’t take every slight as a sign I’m going to fuck you over. That being said, are you still willing to share your plans?”

Everyone looked at me, even Tommaso’s five guys who were seated at the table. “Let’s get started. We have a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in. First off, how many men do you have on hand to help us with this takeover?”

“Trusted men, a thousand, men who will help pull this off so they don’t die… altogether fifteen hundred,” Tommaso announced.

My jaw hit the floor. I knew he said he had guys at the ready, but for him to have pulled that many and know where they stood on the matter was fucking crazy. “So we have fifteen hundred men, including us, here to pull this off?”

“Dax, I don’t think you’re understanding that I’ve been planning this for two years,” Tommaso pointed out. “The moment I found out Cynthia was pregnant, I knew I had to find a way to be top dog. Nothing would be safe if I was at the whim of others. Family is collateral to everyone in our world, and I won't ever let that happen to my wife and child.”

Pulling back a chair, I took a seat. “Now that’s some shit I can get behind, and with that many, we can count on this being a cakewalk compared to me thinking we only had a few hundred max.” I pointed at one of the lackeys. “Let me see what maps you have of the city, the areas surrounding Diego’s New York house, and his son’s. I’ll also need to know what kind of firepower we have at our disposal. I’ve got a few ways to get some but the less we have to tip off our hand, the better. Wait, where’s Betta?” I asked, looking around the room.

Tommaso looked at me curiously. “Why would she be part of this?”

“Isn’t she your right hand?” I asked. “If that’s changed, then fine, leave her be. Otherwise, she better get her ass in here. She’s got her own part to play in all this.”

He left the room without another word, and the rest of us got to planning. The five guys were leaders of different areas where his men were integrated. Some were just in the city, keeping an eye on activity, while others were inside the De León Cartel. They’d been able to manage so many people by having them report to one contact person. Any real-time information we needed, they were the ones to give it.

Our biggest part of this plan was hitting multiple locations all at the same time, causing so much chaos they couldn’t react to it all at the same time. We knew the location of money houses, drug storage, and cartel hangouts. They were going to have so much blow up in their face, they wouldn’t know what hit them.

“I don’t get it. Why take out perfectly good operations? Then we’ll need to start all over,” one of Tommaso’s men questioned.

“It was like when you wanted to make a hit but didn’t want anyone to figure out it was pinpointed, so you took out a bunch of random others to mask your intended target,” Jaxson explained, shocking the others.

Leave it to the assassin to come up with an example that made perfect sense but was completely fucked up at the same time.

Harper just punched him in the arm with a glare. “What was that for? It’s a perfectly good explanation and totally works.”

“I know you kill people for a living, but can we try not to make it sound like you don’t give a shit about human life as you kill off those random people to cover up your work?” Harper muttered.

“Gorgeous,” Jaxon’s tone was kind but had a hint of a warning. “We’ve talked about this.”

She opened her mouth to argue, then noticed all of us watching and shut it. Crossing her arms, Harper grunted and leaned back in her chair, clearly not happy about being told to keep her thoughts to herself. The door opened, and Tommaso returned with Betta right behind him, neither of them looked happy, and it had taken far longer than it should have to get back down here.

“I’m here,” Betta announced as she flopped into a seat.

Magnus took a breath like he was going to start his explanation again, but I held up a hand to stop him. Pinning Betta with a look, I cocked my head, trying to figure out what exactly it was that pissed her the fuck off.

“Hey, you,” I snapped.

Her gaze flicked up to meet mine.

“You in or out?” I demanded. “If you’re in, then you better fucking act like it because this isn’t some game. People are going to die no matter how well we plan this, but a shitty attitude like that is gonna get even more people dead.”

I knew I was being an asshole, but she needed to understand the stakes. “You don’t want to be his right hand anymore, fine, get the fuck out. Just to be clear, when I say get out, I don’t mean this room. I mean, pack a bag, pick a location, and get the hell out of dodge because having you around is only going to fuck us over.”

Betta looked at me like I just punched her right in the tit by how shocked she was. I was betting no one had talked to her like that in a long time, but I wasn’t going to go soft on her. Women in this world needed to be tougher than the men, and right now, it was time to nut up or get out.