Mob Sorcery 2 - Ch16

Chapter 16

“So it’s back to the loving arms of your big lion girlfriend and I get a fat paycheck, right?” Nicki asked once the Yakuza vans peeled away into the night.

“Not exactly.” Vince refused to look at her as he pulled out his phone.

Fia had yet to say a word over his earpiece since he left Lionetti Tower, so he guessed that whatever mess had taken place scrambled the connection between her setup and his earpiece. She’d patched him into the Lionetti comms after all.

The depot remained in almost the exact state it had been when he’d left an hour or so ago to take care of the drug lab. A big hole in the wall and some rubble. Lights lit up the entire area, including the interior. Otherwise not a soul in sight. The defensive protections of the main building were inert and showed no signs of reactivating.

If anyone from Houou or Kaziern had turned up, the Yakuza had vaporized them without leaving a trace. Vince guessed they’d turned tail before any actual fights broke out.

Hell, after shaking hands with that strange unicorn woman—the wakagashira—he realized he’d brushed with death. Whatever reputation the Yakuza once had in Aulfair meant nothing. A new crew were in town.

He needed to check with Nina about who and what he’d run into. While they’d suggested they wanted to be allies if he worked with the Lionettis, there had been an implied threat that they’d happily murder him should he return to Immanuel’s clutches. Or, perhaps, something worse. He had no clue what those immortals thought of humans, after all.

“‘Not exactly?’” Nicki repeated sarcastically. “Talk to me, V. I can’t read your mind, even if I could tell that you got excited earlier from the tent you tried to pitch in your pants.”

Shooting her a look, he saw the grin stretched across her face. He tapped out a message to Fia to let her know that he’d seized the depot.

“Don’t pretend you didn’t feel the same thing when that unicorn laughed,” he said.

“Unicorn, huh?” Nicki scratched her cheek. “And, yeah, but I didn’t get a stiffy. I thought unicorns were pure? Didn’t seem that way to me.”

“She’s not actually a unicorn, I assume. Some Asian variation. I’ll have to ask around about her.”

Fia replied, That was fast. Did the lions really not take it back?

I’ll explain when I get back. Let’s just say they weren’t here, he said.

A pause. You’ll need to hang around for thirty minutes before the girls get there. Maybe a little longer if any blackshirts hassle them. They’ve been giving us grief outside the tower, although Alessia is screaming up a storm on the phone right now.

Lovely. Vince hoped that he wouldn’t have to deal with a friendly visit from the authorities while he waited.

Thinking on that, he shot Ronin a message to check.

Nicki leaned over his shoulder, her wings closing around his body almost absentmindedly as she skimmed his messages. “Man, I’d hoped to see some proper flirting. You and Fia so need to fuck.”

“Uh huh.” He ignored her.

“I’m serious. The two of you—”

His phone buzzed, interrupting her as Ronin called him. Vince happily picked up, keen to get away from Nicki’s attempt to intervene in his love life.

“Where the hell are you? How are you?” Ronin asked, a tad breathlessly. His voice sounded tinny and a little muffled, and was far less clear than usual. Vince guessed that his friend was on the move and that his phone was removing the environmental noise.

“Fine… ish,” Vince admitted. “Dealt with the problem at Lionetti Tower. Back on the job.”

“Back on…” Ronin let out a string of curses, and the noise of his motorcycle engine leaked through into the call. “I got word about the scale of the attack. Juliet was involved again, and my superiors are fucking pissed. Not to mention the burning wrecks of a bunch of Lionetti Benzes that are all over social media. What the fuck does ‘fine-ish’ mean, Vince?”

His friend was mad. Perhaps being glib had been a mistake.

“I’m in one piece and a little rundown,” Vince said. “I’ll be sleeping for a week after tonight thanks to all the infusions I’ve taken—both healing and magic-restoring. That’s not the reason I’m calling.”

No answer. The eerie silence on the other side of the line caused Vince to pull his phone away from his head, in case he’d been disconnected or Ronin had hung up on him. Neither was the case.

“Ronin?” he asked.

“Where are you?” his friend asked.

“Do you know where Kaziern’s main logistics hub is?”

“Yes. I’ll be there in 10 minutes. That way I can keep any assholes from taking their anger out on you before they find out about their paid leave.”

This time, Ronin did really hang up.

“Paid leave?” Vince asked aloud as he pocketed his phone.

“He sounded furious,” Nicki noted. “Seems like he cares.”

“We go way back. Used to cover for each other in scuffles, and I could take the heat for him as a teenager. Meant he had a clean enough record to get into the police academy, while I got blacklisted.” Vince shrugged. “He’s blue through and through, to the extent that I think he bleeds blue.”

“Which is why he’s helping you, a true upstanding citizen and hero of the mafia.”

He ignored the sarcasm dripping from Nicki’s voice, and continued, “I think Ronin’s biggest issue is that he can’t jump in and be part of the brawls with me like he used to. If he’s in trouble as a cop, I can blow shit up and he can cover for me. But the reverse is harder if it’s corporate shit. You saw how they all hung back when that necromancer was blowing up cars on the street, right?”

Nicki nodded. “Seemed like an obvious case of a public nuisance there.”

“It was also a massive gang war and, as it turned out, a corporate assassination attempt. Sure, it looks bad for the cops to hang around smoking cigarettes while this big conference is happening, but imagine the news if dozens of them get killed to save Alessia? One’s bad PR, and the other’s a disaster. It’s been a while since the police enforcers have striked.”

Long enough that Vince’s memories of the event were hazy. It’s not like the police enforcers let criminals go nuts, but they became a lot laxer about the corporate warfare that took place.

If Ronin was talking about his fellow enforcers getting put on paid leave, Vince would bet dollars to donuts that tensions between the police and the mayor were close to boiling over. How that shitshow would pan out remained to be seen.

True to his word, Ronin turned up 10 minutes later. He roared into the depot’s yard, comfortably slowing his BMW down so that it didn’t crash into any of the prefab structures nearby, then cruised toward Vince and Nicki. While the motorcycle wore the familiar blue markings of Aulfair’s police department, Ronin wore a set of casual if thick riding clothes.

He flicked the visor of his helmet up. “You have a hole in your shirt big enough to put both my arms through. This counts as fine-ish?”

“The hole’s only in my shirt, right?” Vince asked.

Ronin sighed and shook his head. “Unbelievable. Nobody else has turned up, right?”

“Nope. There’ll be some wolfgirls along within half an hour, but nobody else has been here.”

“Except the lions you kicked off of their property.”

“Yup.”

“And the herd of Yakuza vans that intel spotted here.”

“It’s their migratory period. I hear they drive south when it gets cold.”

Ronin glared at him. “I should fine you just for that.”

A laugh escaped Vince, while Nicki crept a few steps away. Ronin waved a hand at her, as if to make it clear he had been joking.

“So, can you actually tell me anything about what the hell happened tonight?” Ronin asked.

“I think that’s the question I should ask you. My job is self-explanatory. I captured the heart of Kaziern’s underworld operations, although I’m guessing they and the Lionettis will need to work out something for their legitimate transport business,” Vince said.

“Definitely. There will be lawyers already drafting up legal complaints in anticipation. The mafia can charge protection for the drug dealing, but if they hamper any of their regular operations they’re up shit creek.”

Which was absolutely ridiculous, in Vince’s mind. Kaziern used their transport depot to smuggle illegal catalysts and drugs, making it fair game in the underworld, so shouldn’t the legitimate business be collateral damage?

Then again, part of the reason the attack on Lionetti Tower was such a big deal was because it was an attack outside the scope of the underworld. The rules went both ways, and Alessia likely planned to use them against her enemies as well as they used them against her.

“Anyway, I captured this place and their drug lab. Juliet hit Lionetti Tower at the same time. I chased her away. The whole thing appears to have been arranged by Houou,” Vince explained.

“Any proof?” Ronin asked.

Vince shook his head. “The wolves are certain of it, though. Juliet never named her employer and didn’t seem to care about the lions. There was a simultaneous attempt on Pola’s life, which I think dredged up memories of Houou’s attacks years ago.”

“So that’s what the Benzes are about.” His friend stared into the distance. “Right. I can see why my boss is pissed. If Houou has chosen to dredge up unfinished business with the Lionettis, they couldn’t have chosen a worse time. Even without hard evidence, I’m guessing they can read the tea leaves.”

Ronin leaned against his bike and stared up at the depot, arms crossed. Years ago, the two of them would have lit up cigarettes on a night like this. They’d usually both be covered in blood, though.

Things really had changed. And not just because one of them rode in on a police motorcycle.

“Thinking of old times?” Ronin asked.

“How’d you guess?” Vince scratched the back of his neck.

“You get a funny look on your face from time to time when we’re together. Usually if one of us brings up school or the academy.”

Vince grunted. Figured that his friend had picked out one of his emotional tells. “Nights like this used to be different.”

Despite shooting him a glance, Ronin said nothing. A minute passed in silence.

A police SUV slowed down on the road outside, lights blaring but siren off. The blue lighting mixed with the stark white of the street lamps and washed over the trio standing in the yard.

Ronin shoved his hands in his jacket pockets but didn’t move. Maybe his silver dusters were in them, although Vince felt pretty sure his friend would already be wearing his focus beneath his riding gloves. They were too big to easily slide a pair of knuckle dusters over, after all.

Then the SUV took off, tires skidding.

“Didn’t like the look of us,” Vince said.

“Of me,” Ronin said. “There’s a reason I’m here. Vince, we didn’t have nights like this. We got in some brawls, maybe got flirted with—you especially”—Vince didn’t miss the tinge of jealousy in Ronin’s tone—“and then fucked off before anything nasty happened. This is the start of a corporate war. Possibly the largest since Houou took out the previous Lionetti mafia boss and turned Albion into a war zone. And you’re in the middle of it. I hope you’re getting paid well.”

Vince hoped so, too. His initial contract looked less and less rosy by the day.

Fia had been right to give him shit for not pushing Alessia for more money to deal with Juliet. While Alessia had sheepishly admitted to offering him more cash, he had a bad feeling that the mafia don might still be a little tightfisted with her cash. It was, after all, her job to do so.

His was to extract enough money to make risking his life against Houou’s corporate army and hired enforcers worth it.

“The scale’s different,” Vince admitted. “Still feels the same. Just that you’re here to help me, rather than the other way around.”

A low chuckle rumbled from Ronin.

Nicki made herself known, flapping her wings. “Hey, if you’re saying this is the same, are you suggesting something about me?”

“Absolutely not,” Vince said flatly.

“Cold,” Ronin said.

“Hey. I can leave you here if I want to,” Nicki said, placing a hand on one hip and flexing her wings. “Let you explain to Nina why you got home so late.”

“And you’ll leave your pay behind?” Vince asked.

The harpy narrowed her eyes at him and said nothing.

“Thought so. Anyway, I need to head back to Lionetti Tower to debrief once they take over here. Once I’m there, you can—”

“Wait, you’re not going back to Nina?” Nicki asked.

Ronin snorted. “Given the events of tonight, I doubt Alessia Lionetti wants to wait to hear about Yakuza involvement. Or is this about flirting?”

“A little of both,” Vince admitted.

“Nice to see that you haven’t changed even after getting serious with Nina.”

Nicki clicked her tongue. Her wings closed around herself but she remained silent.

But Ronin wasn’t done. “I didn’t explain my side of things earlier. This is all over the news, as you’d expect. At first, it wasn’t so bad. A company taking a swing at the Lionettis during the conference is trouble for the mayor, given the threats he’s made. But it doesn’t embarrass us.”

Vince nodded.

“Except then things got worse. Videos surfaced of the Lionetti convoy, burning and abandoned with not a single police officer in sight. Journalists found posts talking about your dragon being sighted in Albion. Then there was the gang war near the Charlingwood Arcade. Word spread that we spent a lot of time beating up wolfgirls, while ignoring the lions. Trippych himself posted an exclusive while I was riding over here, alleging we’re taking bribes.”

“That’s not a new accusation,” Vince said. “I’m pretty sure everyone accuses the other side of bribing the cops in the big corporate shitfights.”

“Yeah, but they don’t usually have a local media mogul in their corner.” Ronin clenched his fists. “If Garn Trippych himself is saying we’re corrupt, he has receipts. A bunch of folks are going to fall on their swords. They’re putting a lot of the precinct up here on paid leave and rotating in enforcers like me. But we’ll be thin on the ground. My bet is the next time anyone pulls a stunt like this, an elemental will shut it down.”

Great. Vince still needed to finish off his job.

He blinked. No, this helped him a lot.

“Hold on, isn’t this great news for me?” he asked.

“Is it?” Ronin’s expression darkened.

“I never fully explained what I’m doing here. This is the end of the offensive side of my job. Everything else is just helping the wolves keep Houou’s snout out of the trough, as they’re going to send the Golden Path in to clean up imminently.” Vince paused. “Uh, assuming this whole Yakuza business doesn’t mess everything up.”

“Yeah, big assumption.”

Vince realized he really needed to talk to Alessia about his encounter with the suited goons tonight.

“Anyway, don’t get too excited. In case you missed my point, the PR disaster tonight is that the police stood by and did nothing, and we’re perceived to have picked a side. Sure, the reality is that you bulldozed Kaziern and Houou’s assassination attempt failed, but that’s not what it looks like. Perception is everything. So when Houou blows enough shit up to attract an elemental, he’ll take out everyone,” Ronin said.

“And then he’ll fine me for good measure,” Vince drawled.

Ronin nodded.

“That’s your biggest concern?” Nicki asked.

“I’m guessing it’ll be a big fine if the cops are this pissed,” Vince said defensively.

“You can probably knock it down to something reasonable if you’re actually defending corporate turf,” Ronin said. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if you got hit with a half-million or so.”

Vince felt his heart stop. He clutched at his chest dramatically and held onto Ronin’s bike for support. Buying into his theatrics, Nicki gripped his shoulder while his friend simply laughed.

“Use that as leverage to get your boss to fund a trip to Hawaii. I’m sure Nina would love to get away in winter, given how cold it is here.” Ronin’s eyes glimmered with amusement.

“I’ll take your romance advice into consideration,” Vince said.

The next twenty minutes or so passed in a blur of small talk and chit chat. Vince checked up on the Kilpatrick clan, while Ronin made sure Vince hadn’t fallen back into any bad habits. Namely, Salome.

“Oh, she changed her name again?” Ronin asked, raising an eyebrow. He pulled his phone out and tapped something into it.

“The other day, yeah. Wanted my opinion on it.” Vince shrugged.

“’course she did. Did you spend the night cuddled up with her again?”

Vince bared his teeth at his friend. “No. The worst things got were some… unsavory suggestions about what she wanted me to do to Juliet in front of her. She has history with the vampire.”

“I don’t think I need to hear about those suggestions. But, yeah, I know about that. Salome’s taken a couple of potshots before. Part of the reason tonight is such a shitfest is that Juliet’s sponsor said she’d lie low for a while. This is the bare minimum, but too big of an event for our liking. The higher-ups and the mayor will be jawboning at the other vampires for a while over this. If the conglomerates get the impression crazies like Juliet can do whatever they want, then they’ll react in kind.”

A chill ran down Vince’s spine. “This is why you’re calling this a corporate war. The problem isn’t that Houou tried to take out the Lionettis—”

“It’s that they tried to do so against the express wishes of the police and the mayor,” Ronin finished, eyes dark. “And they’ve burned a lot of pieces in the process. A corrupt precinct, an unstable assassin, their corporate pawn in the region, and potentially even their goodwill with the mayor. No matter how much money Kochhar has tied up with Houou, he has to know that his reelection chances are dead if he doesn’t turn on them.”

All that to take out Alessia and Pola.

How the fuck had Vince ended up in this mess? For that matter, how big of a target had he painted on his own back? This was supposed to be a bog standard job.

“I didn’t get the impression this was some all out war,” Vince said cautiously.

Ronin shrugged. “I don’t think it’s that bad. Not yet. But the fact the Yakuza openly stepped in with their new enforcers? Take the money and get out, Vince. Or at least avoid getting your shit kicked in for a song.”

New enforcers? Vince opened his mouth to ask.

A rumbling interrupted him and several black sedans pulled into the yard. All Benzes and clearly Lionetti cars. Unlike the fancy SUVs, these were obviously older and lacked the same protections. One matched the make and model of Fia’s. He guessed they were older cars in the Lionetti fleet. Maybe even personal cars of the enforcers.

All four pulled up and disgorged almost clown car-sized loads of wolfgirls. Many of whom bore their fair share of scrapes and burns. Vince recognized a few from the tower. Not that many, though. There were a lot of Lionetti enforcers, despite the relatively small size of the organization in the underworld.

Two capos led them. He recognized one from drinks at the shopping mall the previous week, and she strode over with a confident step. The rest of the wolves eyed Ronin suspiciously. Even if they should recognize him, perhaps his clothes made it harder to pick him out.

“Been a few days since I saw you three,” the capo said. “Leave this place to me. Any other black…” She bit her lip. “Any other cops turn up, I’ll chase ‘em away.”

“It’s fine,” Ronin said. “I’m used to the names.”

The capo shrugged and scratched the back of her neck, her ears flicking up and down nervously. Evidently, calling the police a charged epithet around a friendly enforcer bothered her.

“Anyway, I’ll stick around. My orders are to keep the peace. The best way I can manage that is to ensure that one of tonight’s flash points doesn’t become a new one.” Ronin raised his eyebrows. “Understand what I mean?”

The capo nodded slowly. “Absolutely. It’ll be a slow night for us, but we’ve been told we can order some drinks on the company dime so long as we don’t get plastered. You can join in.”

“I shouldn’t…” Ronin wavered.

“Oh, fuck off,” Vince drawled. “You accepted their drinks the other night.”

“Technically, you bought them.”

“If it makes you feel better, just say that I bought them for you.”

The wolfgirls cackled as they watched Ronin argue with Vince about the difference between accepting drinks from the mafia when they were laundered through Vince.

But all good things came to an end, and the time to leave arrived. Vince slapped his friend on the shoulder and Ronin gave him a nod.

“Remember what I said,” Ronin said.

Nicki took to the air, Vince in her claws. She beelined to Lionetti Tower.

Police birdfolk glittered across the skies by now, accompanied by drones strobing with police lights as the cops responded in force, if over an hour late. Ronin had been right. Somebody had lit a fire under their ass.

A couple of birdfolk pestered them. But each time they had barely even begun to ask Vince his name and why he was in the sky at this time before recognizing him and leaving. Whatever and whoever they were looking for, he wasn’t it.

So who was? Juliet?

“So, do you want me to stick around at the tower?” Nicki asked as they approached the glowing beacon.

Alessia still hadn’t deactivated the defenses. Presumably because Houou might mount another attempt tonight. The police presence around it had reduced, although the cordon of birdfolk remained in place.

Ambulances replaced the police vehicles, accompanied by a small army of black vehicles. The bodies that Vince had seen earlier were now outside, being treated by paramedics or pushed along on stretchers while a couple dozen enforcers in casual clothing milled about.

“Up to you,” Vince said. “I’m guessing they’ll let you in on the drinks, but it might be a while before I need a lift back. I promised Pola a drink.”

“Uh huh. A drink.” Nicki made a strange noise, which was lost in the winds.

“What?”

“Are you seriously going to pretend you’re not going to rail the shit out of Fia and Pola tonight?”

If Vince had been drinking something, he’d have spat it out and rained liquid all over the roof of some apartment complex below them. Instead, he just sputtered.

“What?” he asked again, with an entirely different inflection.

“You heard me. Pola’s obvious. She wants to fuck, and you just rode in like a knight in shining armor. So now she wants to do the riding,” Nicki said. “And I’m talking with Fia enough to recognize a girl that wants a good fuck. Her game is better and she’s got chill, but she’s horny too.”

“I don’t think I’m having a threesome tonight.”

“Oh, so you’re fucking Pola.”

He wisely said nothing. That was a distinct possibility.

Nicki brought them in for a landing. A few wolfgirls trotted up to confirm who they were and hung around afterward, as if hopeful Vince would return their interest.

Stretching her wings out, Nicki said, “I remember your teddy bear of a girlfriend saying you should invite her to any orgies. Sure you don’t want to let her know about tonight?”

The wolves perked up at the mention of an orgy, tails wagging violently.

“I think that would be a bad idea for a lot of reasons,” he said. “Especially as I don’t plan on an orgy.”

The tails slowed down a lot.

“Plans go awry. These girls want to fuck like the mutts they are, and you know it,” Nicki said.

“Hey!” one of the wolfgirls snapped. “We’re not mutts.”

“Do you want me to compare you to rabbits?”

The assembled enforcers glared at her.

“How about hounds?” one suggested. “I can go with that comparison.”

“Fine. You all want to fuck Vince like a pack of hellhounds,” Nicki suggested.

They gave her the thumbs up. Vince made a note to take it easy on the liquor tonight and not leave his drink unattended. Not that he seriously thought they’d roofie him.

On the other hand, if he got blind drunk, the odds that he’d say no to a couple dozen hot wolfgirls interested in having sex all night plummeted. For some odd reason.

“It’ll be fine,” he said. “I let Nina know I’d be home late. If you don’t want to stay, I’ll fix you up for the night and—”

“Nah, pay me later.” Nicki shook her head. “It feels wrong to be shaking you down for cash after all this. Especially as I bet you need to do the same to your boss.”

So Nicki’s decision wasn’t entirely driven by altruism. If Vince received a big windfall from Alessia, he might be a little more generous to his getaway flier. Smart girl. Especially as Nicki had played an integral role in getting him around tonight despite the danger involved. Even inside Lionetti Tower.

“If you do need a lift later, shoot me a message. With all this excitement, I bet I’ll be up for hours,” the harpy said. “Maybe I’ll mess with those dyes I bought. Depends how worn out I feel when I get home.”

“Maybe save those for when you’re rested. They weren’t cheap.”

“True.” She nodded a few times, wings flapping. “Message me when you need me or I’ll shake you down for my cash.”

Nicki darted in and landed a peck on his cheek, before jumping backward and shooting into the sky. Within seconds she was little more than some black feathers barely visible in the night sky.

He watched her leave alongside the wolves by his side.

Then he turned and looked at an enforcer. “Do you know where Pola and the others are?”

She nodded. “They’re spread out over the tower. The attack only hit the boss’s floor, so the sottocapo and everyone else have moved to operations.”

“Which is?”

“Oh, right. I forget you’re still new. It’s where the bar is. Do you need me to show you there or…?” She shifted from foot to foot.

Vince shook his head. “I’ll be fine.” If others were there, somebody could lead him to the bar, through the maze of corridors.

Although he found it odd that this enforcer acted as though he was just another Lionetti. Surely it should have been obvious that he wasn’t. Every other Lionetti enforcer was a wolfgirl, after all.

He made his way to the elevators and made small talk with an enforcer while waiting for it to arrive. On his way up, he let Fia know he was coming.

Naturally, she waited for him in the foyer when the doors opened.

“Alessia wants to see us,” Fia said. “Let’s go.”

- - - - -

Commentary: We're back. Fun with Ronin and his struggles ignoring free drinks and cute wolfgirls, just like Vince. As a sidenote, Patreon seems to have broken italics with its UI update (along with breaking lots of other stuff).

This is one of those chapters that spawned itself once Ronin got involved, as it covers some of the political fallout from Houou's actions that will otherwise be difficult to convey but also gives Ronin a chance to be a bro, despite the difficulties he has in his position. There's an ongoing tension there.