Memphis – Brothers At Arms MC, #3

At Lindy’s comment, Delaney threw her head back and laughed.

Zeus and Memphis turned their heads to glare at her.

“What the fuck is so damn funny, woman?” Memphis snarled.

 Waving her finger at them, she admonished, “Why are you acting like nervous kids? Why didn’t you just wait for him to make up his own mind? Vincinti is only one man. “

“One man? He’s the head of the mob,” Zeus exclaimed. “And you just heard the damn conversation, he wasn’t going to help. So what would you have done differently?”

“Well, I sure as hell wouldn’t have threatened the man then hung up on him.” She scoffed. “What? Did your parents not teach you any manners growing up?”

Alfredo nodded his head as he agreed with her, “Leon Vincinti demands respect because he’s earned it and you, young man, showed him very little of that commodity.”

“He showed me very little of it either,” Zeus griped. “In my world, you give what you get.”

“Well, with that guy in his world…you might get dead,” Delaney retorted. “You can’t tell him what to do. I just can’t believe you acted like you were selling insurance or some crap. Then not liking it when he wouldn’t buy, you hung up in his face?” She shook her head, then she paused and seemed to contemplate something. “But I think there’s still something we’re missing about this gold,” she said to no one in particular, as she looked puzzled. She glanced over at her grandfather and asked, “Did great grandpa ever tell you any other secrets about the gold?”

Alfredo shook his head as he stared at the small locked box he’d uncovered from the fireplace. “No, he didn’t but he might have left a message about it in his papers.”

“Well, let’s find out.” Zeus grabbed the box and hit the lock onto the table. It sprung and the box was opened. He dumped the entire contents out on the table.

The others there, all gathered around to see what Alfonzo had kept hidden for such a long time.

 Alfredo picked up an old account book with initials and amounts owed or paid but no one sitting there knew what any of the initials meant, so it was tossed to the side. He then reached for a book he recognized…his father’s diary. He opened it and had to pause as he recognized the writing inside. With a grunt, he pushed himself to read what his dad wrote. The first few pages talked about the life he was leading and what he hoped to do one day. Alfredo quickly skimmed through those parts. Close to half way through the written pages, he found an incident dealing with the Marshals and Milo Kent in particular. He paused to read the words,

‘Today, Milo came to see me, he broke down my door and rushed inside with four of his officers. I demanded to know what the hell he wanted and why he couldn’t knock like a normal person and Milo backhanded me. He bloodied my lip in front of my son and I damn near hit him back but his officers all had their hands on their weapons and I didn’t want my son to see me killed in cold blood.

I asked him what he was looking for this time and he told me he would let me know when he found it. Then he and his officers tore my home apart. Of course, they didn’t find a damn thing but Milo said he would be back. Of that, I had no doubt.

The damn fool, if he was really after something solid, he should have looked in the basement. He would have found the shine I had hidden there waiting to be picked up. But he had no clue there even was a basement. That boy needs to do his homework before he busts into my house again and I need to armor the front door.’

Alfredo shook his head. He remembered that day and the look in his father’s eyes, as well as the look in Milo Kent’s eyes. Milo was ready to shoot his dad in cold blood just like his father had written here.

One thing his dad did after that was enforce the front door, so Milo Kent didn’t find it so easy to bust it down again. He also complained to the Marshal’s office that Milo had no right to tear up his home when his family was in residence.

Then he took it one step further and had a reporter come out and do a piece on the Marshals that put them into a bad light. That whole experience left a bad memory for Alfredo at such a young age. But now Alfredo saw it as just another head game his father seemed to enjoy so much. He was just as responsible for stoking the fires of war between him and the law. Alfredo realized this when he got older that his dad was just as bad as Milo seemed to be.

He knew the hatred between the two men was very real. One of the things Alfredo learned over the years growing up was that he hated playing his father’s games. His dad tried to get him into more than one of his plans to confound the authorities and Alfredo always denied him. Then when his dad was on his deathbed, he looked at Alfredo and told him he was proud of him. He stayed true to himself and he didn’t always fall into line with what others had wanted. In the end, he had earned his respect for not getting into the fray.

Alfredo felt that made him stronger and when he buried his father, he drew his first free breath. Now, ever since that biker busted in on him making his shine hours ago, he felt like he was under his father’s thumb again. He gazed up at Delaney and saw her looking back at him. “What do you think of all this, Laney?” he asked her softly. He often sought her opinion, as the girl was straight up smart, keen on her surroundings, a great judge of character and quick on her feet.

“Great grandpa left a mess for us to figure out. His games went further than his life did. I’ll bet he is off to the side right now somewhere, watching us while snickering. But I do have a feeling this is gonna get worse before it ever gets better.”

Alfredo nodded. “Better buckle in then. Cause we also got some unknowns in this whole shitshow too. Your brothers and your dad, to be specific.”

Delaney snorted. “Unknowns? Heck, Gramps. We know all about those useless troublemakers and what they will most probably do. They will come in here guns blasting and people are going to die before this is over.”

Alfredo nodded. “And the sad part about that is Leon Vincinti could stop it all with one act.”

“Well, can you really blame him?” She shook her head. “Great grandpa was a pain in his family’s butts and the other people’s a long time ago. You followed the rules and all that did was get you kicked in the teeth. Yeah, you paid your dues and did all the bullshit he asked of you but then along came dad and my brothers and they fucked things over too, over the years. I imagine this Vincinti guy has seen enough of our family for one lifetime.”

Alfredo shook his head sadly. “Laney Girl, can’t you see that this doesn’t only affect us?” He waved a hand at the MC brothers standing there. “These men got pulled into this hot mess too. And from what I know of the man, I can’t see Leon letting innocent men die because he didn’t do the right thing.”

Boston after the phone call…

Leon growled as he tossed the phone across the room.

Calderone looked up from reading his newspaper and asked, “What’s wrong, Dad?”

Leon glared at his son for a moment then commented, “Somehow, from beyond the grave that is stone fucking cold, that bastard Alfonzo Raggetti is still playing his head games.”

Calderone frowned in confusion. “Hasn’t that man been dead for over twenty years or so?”

Leon nodded. “They say only the good die young and Alfonzo proved that right. He lived to be nearly a hundred years old and he played his games until the day he died.”

“What’s going on now?”

“Back in the days of Capone and the Family, it was a new world for the mob and wild as laws changed and the world was modernized. Prohibition sort of started all that trouble as the feds were doing their best to bust us once and for all. Well, to combat that, our leaders all got together and decided to pool their main resources then hid it in case the worst came to pass. We gathered our gold and gave it to Alfonzo to hide because he had his place in Missouri. Far from Boston, Chicago and New York. His compound had more secrets locked away than Fort Knox. The Feds did their best to bust us but they couldn’t. They took down Capone and his cronies, then the laws changed again, allowing booze. After that, it was illegal gambling, running guns and such. So, the families reformed a time or three as did the authorities. So after all of that played out in history, the gold stayed where it was and eventually, it was forgotten.”

“Until now.” Calderone raised a brow at him.

“Until now.” Leon nodded. “Apparently, the Raggetti family finally sold the old place and an MC moved in. The MC found some of the gold and Alfredo, Ragetti’s son, told them who it belonged to. They don’t want it but the third generation of Raggetti might and they don’t want them to claim it. Also, back in the day, old Alfonzo had a feud of his own going on with one of the Marshals and this Marshal was just looking for a reason to bust him. In fact, Raggetti was his main concern but he could never find the right weapon to use to bust him with. He passed that mission down to his son and his grandson and from what I know, even his great grandson. It became a family thing. Now according to what I was just told, the MC found some of the gold. They want to return it to the Family rather than let the Raggettis get their hands on it. It could become a blood bath if the Raggettis come for it.”

“And you told them to keep it?” Calderone repeated his father’s own words.

“The man I was speaking to pissed me the hell off.” Leon scoffed. “I don’t like being dedicated to, as you well know. He thought I would jump on the idea of getting the gold back. I mean I think we should get it back but the damn fool hung up before I could tell him that.” He growled.

“So, where is this place?” Calderone asked.

Leon shrugged. “All I heard was Festus, Missouri.”

Calderone got onto his laptop, where he kept records on anyone who was trouble or possible trouble for the Family. He stared at the screen for a few minutes. “Yeah, that’s what I remember about that whole Ragetti family. From what I understand, they are nothing but loose cannons. Barrett is due to get out of prison soon and he has three sons that are running wild. Vincent is in an MC himself and he thinks the law can’t touch him, but his older brothers Alijala and Romano are wannabes. They could be good foot soldiers but they lack the discipline to take orders and follow through with those orders. They think because their last name is Raggetti that they still belong to us.”

“I know.” Leon nodded. “But I don’t think that’s the picture we want to show the world. The days of Capone died a long time ago. We don’t rule by violence alone anymore. We’re still as strong as we once were but we’re a little more sophisticated these days.”

“So we’re going to this Festus, Missouri?” Calderone asked his father.

“We’re going to retrieve the gold in Festus, Missouri and we might have to take some soldiers with us. Despite the rest of the world growing up, violence seems to be the only thing the Raggetti family respects.” Leon looked over at Calderone with a slight smirk on his lips. “But as you know, when the situation calls for it, I can play it that way.”

Calderone chuckled.

Back in the Brothers at Arms MC clubhouse…

Zeus was still reading the paperwork they found when he muttered, “Fuck,” under his breath and turned his head to glare at Alfredo. “Just what the hell did you get us into, old man?”

Alfredo frowned and glanced at Delaney then turned to look back at Zeus. “What do you mean? What did you find?”

“What other secrets did your dad hide within these walls?” Zeus demanded.

Alfredo shook his head. “I’m not sure I follow you.”

Zeus looked around and shook his head. “Your dad was not only messing with the Family gold, he was knee deep into a faction of the Family, running drugs through this area in the 1970’s and 80’s,” Zeus announced. “He wrote here that this faction wasn’t supposed to bring the drugs in but they were doing it without sanction of the mafia heads and they knew that if they got caught it could mean their lives.”

“God damnit, he didn’t?” Alfredo began to sweat. He was almost stunned…almost. Then he remembered all the late night visits by some rogue tough looking men and all the shouts and arguments that woke him up. He never went out to see it, because he knew better. Later, he asked his dad what all the noise was about and he told him to just forget it. He was dealing with some lowlife types and he didn’t like it but he had to go along with it or they would do some real damage to his family.

It happened more than once and now, he knew what it had all been about. He rested his elbows on the table and lowered his head to his hands. “What does it say there about this… exactly?” He then gestured at the diary.

“According to this,” Zeus explained what he’d just read. “He stiffed the drug runners and shot two men in this very house. Then he buried the men. He wrote that the others in that group were suspicious but they had no real proof or any evidence that he got rid of those two who were running the scheme, and he was glad in the end that he never gave them his real name.”

Alfredo shook his head. “He told me that a few extended members of the Families wanted in on the drug trade back in those days. They came to him and forced him into it. He’d said they would have hurt us if he said no. And he was right about the Family, if he’d been caught doing it, they would have executed him and probably us as well.”

“So, we got dead bodies buried here too?” Memphis asked as he blinked his eyes in shock. “And old drugs?”

The room went silent as this new twist in the tale of the wiley Alfonzo Ragetti sunk in.