What Cal had to find was Hart’s Marco. Marco held Kenzie’s strings and yanked them when she got out of line. No man was an island. Not even the top of the heap in a crime syndicate. Hart had buyers, sellers, suppliers, employees – people he had to keep happy. Focusing on the mother of two daughters in Indiana when his focus should be on business, business that was all of a sudden getting a shakedown from the cops, would not make any of those people happy.

And then Sal could do his work which would make all those people really not happy and hopefully end in Daniel Hart being dead.

That was Cal’s plan. It was shit but at least it was a plan.

“Feds makin’ deals, cops on his ass, his attention is scattered, his operation goes into disarray someone’s gonna notice and he’s gonna have to make a choice. He chooses Vi, his operation falls apart, people get pissed, he’s fucked. He doesn’t choose Vi, shifts his attention away, gets with the program, she’s free. Either way, she wins,” Cal explained.

“You’re askin’ me to put a shitload of boys in danger. This guy does not like to be messed with,” Barry replied.

“I’m askin’ you to serve and protect. Tim did it and died doin’ it,” Cal reminded him.

Barry was silent and when he spoke his voice low and pissed.

“I met you, I liked you but don’t fuckin’ use the Tim card on me,” he warned. “You didn’t know him, you don’t get that card.”

“His daughters go to bed under the same roof as me. I know him, Barry,” Cal said quietly. “You’ve seen the waste Hart laid to those girls’ lives but I’m cleanin’ it up and you think I won’t use that card for them, you’re fuckin’ crazy.”

Barry was silent again, it lasted longer this time then he bit out, “We’ll do what we can.”

Cal didn’t respond.

Barry spoke again, “You tellin’ me you’re livin’ with Vi and the girls?”

“Yeah,” Cal answered.

Cal heard movement on the phone and he knew it was Barry seeking privacy when he said, “I checked you out.”

Cal pulled in breath and closed his eyes.

“Your line clean?” Barry asked.

Cal opened his eyes. “I’m on Colt’s phone at the Station.”

“You talk to him, you do it on a clean line,” Barry advised and Cal was surprised.

“He’s family,” Cal replied.

“You talk to him, you do it on a clean line,” Barry repeated.

“Barry –”

“I don’t wanna know,” Barry cut him off.

“You know,” Cal said again quietly and heard Barry sigh.

“Yeah, I know.”

“That shit doesn’t blow back on me,” Cal warned.

“We didn’t have this conversation,” Barry stated.

“Good,” Cal replied.

“Jesus. All the luck, Vi moves away from that fuckface and moves next door to a security specialist with mafia ties. Fuck me,” Barry muttered.

“She doesn’t seem real lucky to me,” Cal remarked.

“Maybe her luck has changed,” Barry returned. “I gotta go. I got a Captain to try to convince to commence operation shakedown on a guy who’s whacked one of his detectives and put two others in the hospital, one’s still a vegetable three years down the line. Lucky for you, Vi and those girls, he misses Tim’s shortstop on our softball team.”

“Tim good?” Cal asked.

“The best,” Barry answered.

“I’ll bet,” Cal murmured.

Barry was silent again. Then he whispered, “Keep her safe.”

“You got it,” Cal promised.

Barry disconnected and Cal put down the phone.

Colt rounded Cal’s chair and sat in his own.

“Pryor in line with your plan?” Colt asked and Cal looked at him.

“Yeah,” Cal answered.

Colt studied Cal then asked, “We good?”

Cal studied Colt then asked back, “I tried to take on Denny Lowe without keepin’ you in the loop, would you be good with me?”

Colt’s face went hard. “Not the same thing and you know it, Cal.”

“Explain to me how.”

“You were there when we had our conversation.”

Cal leaned into his friend. “Fuck, Colt, just you roundin’ my fuckin’ house to have that conversation meant you knew.”

Colt held Cal’s stare and then his jaw clenched.

“I stepped out for two and half months, leavin’ her alone,” Cal reminded him.

“You’re in that line of work, Cal. You knew what was goin’ down and where it was gonna go. You stepped out for a reason. You can’t tell me you weren’t workin’ through some shit,” Colt returned.

“I didn’t have the intel, Colt, you kept it from me. I was workin’ through some shit but I woulda worked through it next door to her fuckin’ house and in the know about the escalation of attention,” Cal shot back.

“We had our eye on her and the girls,” Colt informed him.

“That be good enough for you, someone was takin’ pictures of Feb and Jack?” Cal asked.

“Like I said, I made a call. You didn’t like it but nothin’ I can do to change it. We knew what was goin’ on and we kept our shit sharp and she’s good. Pryor knew all about it and her brother did too and they still did what they thought they had to do so that isn’t on me. You’re welcome to stay pissed at me, man, but it’s a waste of energy. It’s done.”

This was all true and it pissed him off.

Cal stood and looked down at Colt. “Now are you assured of my focus?”

Colt visibly bit back a smile. “Yeah.”

“Thrilled, man,” Cal growled and turned to the stairs.

“This is over, I’ll get Feb to make you one of her frittatas,” Colt called after him.

“Can’t wait,” Cal called back but didn’t turn as he took the stairs.

This was true too but he wasn’t giving Colt that. He’d heard about Feb’s frittatas. According to her brother Morrie they were heaven in the form of eggs.

They might be good but Cal would bet a thousand bucks that Vi’s seafood shit was better.

* * *

Cal was nearly home when his cell rang. He looked at the display and it said “unknown caller”.

He flipped it open and put it to his ear.

“Yo.”

“You’re gettin’ a call in ten minutes at your office,” a man’s voice said then disconnected.

Fucking Sal. Always the drama.

He turned away from home and toward his office. By the time he unlocked the door the phone on Lindy’s desk was ringing. He picked it up and put it to his ear.

“Yo.”

“Cal, figlio,” Sal said in his ear and Cal could hear the smile in his voice.

“Sal,” Cal greeted, not smiling.

“I hear you were in Chicago. Saw Vinnie, Theresa. No visit for me?”

“It wasn’t a social call,” Cal told him and Sal was quiet.

Then he said, “Yeah, bad business. Vinnie told me.”

Cal was impatient. “Listen, I got a woman at home, she’s got daughters and someone’s takin’ snapshots and sendin’ them to cops. I don’t wanna be in the office. I wanna be home. You have a good talk with Vinnie?”

“We talked but I think you need to come up to Chicago. We’ll have a sit down,” Sal said.

There it was. Sal was in the mood to be persuasive.

“Sal, respect, goes without saying,” Cal told him. “But I got a woman at home whose got daughters and someone’s takin’ snapshots, sendin’ gifts and puttin’ bullets in the brains of the men in her life. The man who’s ordering that shit is in Chicago. I don’t wanna be in Chicago, I don’t wanna be away from her and I don’t want her to be in Chicago. If you talked to Vinnie then we don’t need a sit down.”

“I can see why this would make you impatient but there are things to discuss,” Sal countered.

“You want to discuss, I go this alone,” Cal returned and Sal let out a very loud sigh.

“We’re talkin’ a cop’s wife here, figlio,” Sal noted.

“We’re talkin’ my woman here, Sal. Hart sent a picture. I’m next,” Cal told him.

“How ‘bout this? I send a message to Hart, explain you’re family and that he should move on,” Sal suggested.

“How ‘bout this?” Cal returned. “This guy isn’t family. This guy is a mean motherfucker who clawed his way to the top and took down everything that got in his way. He doesn’t get family. He doesn’t get respect. He doesn’t get anything but what he takes. He took from you. He took from me. He took from my family and your family and he took from my woman, who, Sal, cop’s widow or not, she’s mine now and that means she’s family and you can’t deny that and he’s still takin’ from her. Are you tellin’ me, he did all that, you’re gonna send this fucker a note?”

“I gotta get organized, Cal.”

“You gotta ask a soldier to put a bullet in a gun,” Cal replied.

“We’re talkin’ war,” Sal pointed out, “war requires organization.”

“That’s not what we’re talkin’ and you know it. The big man is out, you move in, you get back what you lost seven years ago and then some.”

“Takeover like that, like I said, needs organization.”

“You’re up for that challenge.”

“This is big what you’re askin’ me.”

“It was bigger what I gave to you.”

Sal was quiet again then he sighed loudly again. “The Bianchis. Always a pain in my ass.”

“The pain was in my shoulder, Sal. You had a situation, Frankie called me and I stood up for you. I put myself in its path and took that bullet for you. You’re breathin’. I’m askin’ you to make sure I keep doin’ it and Vi lives the rest of her life doin’ it easy.”

Cal listened to silence and this lasted awhile.

Finally Sal stated, “All right, figlio. I do this, we’re square.”

“You got it.”

“Fin,” Sal pressed.

“Fin,” Cal repeated.

“You come to Chicago, you sit at my table, we’re nothin’ but family.”