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“The food, water and other stuff stored here are on metal shelves,” Sel remembered. “Even if the backdoor somehow crushed it, it might be enough time to get out. If all of us don’t, the ones left drag Brooks in here, after disarming him, and hold him until he tells those left the code.”
“Code…” Dex whispered, staring off.
“What, Dex?” Marius asked. “Do you know it?”
“My beautiful fucking boyfriend is a computer genius, remember?” Dex let his head fall back on the wall. “Fuck. Okay,” he said, turning to Avery and Jim to his left. “This cannot go any further than this fucking room, or I’ll kill you both, and I’m not exaggerating.”
As Avery’s eyes widened comically, Jim laughed a little and said, “Mafia shit.”
“Yeah. Mafia shit. Swear, no further than this room.”
“I swear,” Jim said. “I don’t want concrete cowboy boots.”
“I…I ain’t sayin’ nothin’,” Avery stammered.
Dex turned to the rest of the men and said, “We went on that trip to Italy. It was part vacation, part, well, like a honeymoon, you know? But there was a bit of business too. The Carrillo’s from the time they left Italy, had an enemy there. They, well, started a war that the Carrillos couldn’t win at the time. That other family made a ton of money, grabbing up all the Carrillo businesses when they left Italy. It’s been a sore spot for generations with them.”
“The Martinellis,” Sel whispered. “It’s legend in our family. Dante wanted to regain the territory in Southern Italy from them someday, but there was always so much going on here.”
“Well, someday was this winter. While we were there, we not only got ahold of encrypted files given to us by a very well-paid insider to the Martinelli family, but it was also a test for my Prince. He decrypted them in three days, something most computer nerds couldn’t do in a month. It was from software he developed as a hobby when he was bored at school,” Dex bragged.
Sel knew he loved Prince. “So, he might be able to decrypt the code for the doors.”
“These guys chased y’all out of Italy and it took you this long to fight back?” Jim asked, but when all the family men in the room glared at him, he shut up and mumbled, “Sorry.”
“What if he can’t?” Indio offered and Sel was ready to strangle him.
“Why don’t you shut up? If you can’t offer anything but negativity, shut the fuck up!”
Indio was in his face in a second, pushing him to the wall, hand grabbing a fistful of Sel’s hair. “Your uncle ain’t in here to protect you, punk.”
Bennie flew to him and pushed Indio off, causing Indio to pull out some of Sel’s hair. “Don’t fucking touch him.”
Sel suddenly felt like total shit for hating on Bennie so much. “Thanks, Bennie.”
“No problem, Mr. Carrillo.”
“I’m Sel. In here, no one’s above anyone else. We must work together,” he said, and pointedly glared at Indio. “Everyone.”
“Oh? I thought I was so far below you,” Indio spat at him, then turned to Marius. “Let’s me and you go get one of those shelves.”
“Right,” Marius said, like he was anxious to get away from the tension between the two.
As they left, Sel asked Bennie to go with him to what he thought must be the armory. “If we can get that open, we’d have more than one gun, and there might be tools in there to get these guys loose.”
Bennie looked at the three on the floor. “We’re gonna get you loose if I have to bite through those fucking wires.”
“I just believe you might, big fella,” Jim said with a wink.
Sel got down the hall in time to see Indio and Marius coming out of the storage room with the shelves. Ignoring Indio, he showed Bennie the door. “It’s locked tight, and it’s metal too.”
Bennie tried the knob and pushed hard, seeing it didn’t give at all. “Not even enough to slide something through.”
“There’s no way,” Sel groaned. “Dammit.”
“Sel,” he said in a low voice, checking over his shoulder to make sure no one heard him. “We have to get you out of here. If there is any chance, you leave the rest of us. You need to promise me.”
“I can’t do that, Bennie.”
