I sighed with relief. I knew if anything had happened I would have been told well before now but it was still good to hear it be confirmed.
It never meant, however, that the worry was over. Last night highlighted that we had a mountain load of shit to think about.
“Good, but Ethan last night was bad man.” I frowned.
“Look,” Wes cut in. “I know I’m not part of your secret tribe but this screams of shit to me. We need to know more.” He directed the comment to Ethan.
“We do need to know more, Ethan,” I added.
Ethan tensed. “We’re working on it.”
“That gives me fuck all man. If The Chameleon was there last night it suggests some important meeting should have taken place. It could have been the initiation to get the blueprints, or if not it could have been at the very least a meeting to touch base.” I truly doubted that The Chameleon would have just been there to play poker. “Ethan, the problem in this is that I don’t know what’s supposed to happen next. I don’t know what time I have.”
“Neither do we.” He sighed with exasperation opening out his palms . “I know that sounds quite unlike us but we don’t know any more than what I’ve said.
What worries me is that we never picked up on The Chameleon’s presence last night. No one saw him going into the hotel or leaving.”
That was absolutely something to be worried about. There would have been a conversation with Giovanni or something to make the arrangement for him to be there.
It was The Chameleon though. I was used to hearing about his stealth abilities and covert actions. The worry of that was what made this so screwed up.
“Okay, let’s think pick apart the situation and get back on track. I think Giovanni still has the prints,” Wes said. “Intel says he was on the streets with his guys checking things out. And, I’m looking at everything in a logical manner. I take it The Chameleon gets gone after a job like this. I don’t think he would go to a poker game if he was there to pick up the prints. I feel more like he was there to touch base.”
I nodded agreeing. “I think you’re right. So… let’s brainstorm over what we do know. Last night these other people came into the casino. Putting The Chameleon aside, we’ve also got them to worry about.”
We could speculate on the other stuff, but the shootout was a rude awakening of the shit.
Wes nodded firmly. “Yes, we absolutely fucking do. How’d they get in? And with guns?”
“Exactly.” I straightened up and looked at them both. “All I know is that on my first meeting with Giovanni I was a search short of being stripped. Yet these guys came in and sat there, mingling like they were part of the crew. The only way they could have done that was if someone let them believe that.”
“A rat,” Ethan surmised.
“A fucking rat,” I corrected. It was one of the things I’d thought of but wasn’t sure about. I still wasn’t a hundred percent, but I thought I needed to factor in that it could be a possibility.
If there was one thing I knew, it was that in situations like my present debacle people had prices and could be bought if the price was right. In this set up I didn’t know who the rat could be.
Wes chuckled. “Fuck, this just keeps getting better and better. Now we have to determine who the rat is.”
I shook my head. “The rat will reveal him or herself eventually.” That was the point of trusting no one. If you were always mindful that people had prices, you had that part covered. “The focus is who those other guys were and why they were there.”
“Well they obviously must have come to kill Giovanni,” Ethan answered.
I looked at him because I wasn’t so sure. The bullets flew and I didn’t see much after I grabbed Jia but what got me was the issue of timing.
I looked to Wes and knew he could tell what I was thinking.
“If they were there for Giovanni why didn’t they kill him the minute he entered the room. There was a delay,” he surmised.
“There was a delay indeed.” I nodded. “They took that shot moments after The Chameleon came in. The meeting started, Giovanni asked where Armand was and the shooter made himself known. What if they came for him - The Chameleon specifically?”
I thought the order of what had happened was significant. Ethan however did not seem to think so.
“It’s too speculative, Xander. There’s no way of knowing that. You know how that man operates. The only person who would have known he was going to be at the meeting would have been Giovanni himself.”
“What if it wasn’t? What if someone else found out? The rat.” I raised my brows.
“Sure, that could have happened but I’m not sure our thoughts should be directed to that.”
“Ethan, if these people want the prints and no one knows where Giovanni is keeping them, why would they want him dead?” Wes asked. His words were an echo of my thoughts.
“Exactly.” I raised my palms. “But if they’d got The Chameleon, they would have cut off whatever plan is brewing in the bigger picture. He’s the link to the big picture. Get rid of him and you get rid of the middle man.”
The Chameleon was probably more than the middle man because he had his fingers in so many pies. The even bigger thing about him was that he kept secrets.
Getting rid of him would sever the link to the bigger fish and anyone of that level associated with them.
“I hear you, I do and I don’t think we should cast off the idea but I just think it’s too airy. It’s like starting with A and jumping to W.”
“Isn’t that what we do?” I cut in.
“No, it’s what you do, Xander. It’s fine to do that when you’re in the moment and you need to make a decision, but not when it comes to shit like this. We need to keep focus and be sure. Whatever their mission was last night failed, so the focus is still on Giovanni. Find out where he’s keeping the prints. That’s what we need to do.”
I didn’t like being side-stepped when I was onto something. It pissed me off and in this case there was so much going on.
I nodded agreement, seeing that Wes looked uneasy too, but I only agreed because I had an idea.
The door had opened for me last night when I saved Jia.
The act meant a lot to Giovanni. Maybe he’d be a little more trusting of me.
Maybe he’d be willing to talk to me a little more, tell me a little more.
Like if the prints really were being kept at the Marchesi.
Chapter Seventeen
Jia
I was so glad to see the back of Armand.
God…
Having him in my house just added to the shit. I’d never wanted him to have keys to my place even when we were together. It was just a thing I had about myself, where I wanted to know I was the only person with keys and I knew that if I heard my door opening it wouldn’t be Armand, Frankie, Vinny, Freddo, or even Pa.
Just me. Like any normal person, I’d wanted to answer the door when the bell rang or someone knocked.
Instead he had this all-access pass and this morning couldn’t have pissed me off any more because Armand actually came up to my bedroom and sat on the edge of my bed watching me sleep.