Enforcer: A Prequel Novella to the New Mafia Trilogy by E. J. Fechenda Page B

supports their reasons why women shouldn’t be part of the
organization.”
              “I won’t say anything and don’t worry, you’re
doing a great job and I’m not saying that to kiss your ass. You won’t get fired.
We found out who did it, that’s what I came in here to tell you.”
              “You did? Who?”
    When I told her it was her cousin, Mike, she didn’t seem too
surprised. Leaning back against her desk with her arms crossed over her chest
she sighed. “He’s always had this weird competitive thing with me that I never
understood. So this makes sense.”
              “We’ll find out why he did it. Trust me, he’ll
talk.”
    Miranda’s eyes met mine. “Good.”
    I was shaking my head when I left the office because her
reaction was hard as nails, just like her father. I could see Miranda doing
just fine as a capo, hell, even boss one day and it was shame the opportunity
wasn’t available.
    Joey was waiting for me out in the parking lot where he was
leaning against my car.
              “What took so long?” he asked.
              “I was just telling Miranda about her cousin.
She’s pretty pissed about all of this shit.”
              “Well let’s go find Mike and have a nice little
chat.”
    I drove while Joey made calls. He first tried Mike directly,
but it went straight to voicemail. I headed toward Mike’s apartment on
Catherine Street. Within ten minutes we were idling in front of his building,
looking up at a dark second floor. Since it wasn’t even ten o’clock on a
Saturday night, I didn’t think he was inside sleeping.
    Pulling up a few cars ahead, I parked in a commercial
loading zone and turned the car off. This way we could sit and wait to see if
Mike showed up as we decided our next move and waited for people to call Joey
back. My phone rang, the ringing piercing the silence and immediately reached
for it. I didn’t recognize the number, but since it had a ‘215’ area code, I
answered and heard familiar sobbing mixed in with hiccups on the other end.
              “Natalie, where are you and are you okay?”
              “Gra-hic-ant, somebody st-uh-ole bags!”
    I could barely make out what she said because of all of the noise
in background. Someone was yelling, but the rest of the voices created a
distracting hum.
              “What Nat? Say that again,” I ordered, hoping my
barking tone caused her to focus.
              “Our bags, someone stole our bags and we don’t
have any money! Our phones are gone too.” She started hiccup sobbing again and
then there was loud rustling right before Chelsea came on the line.
              “Grant, can you help us?”
    I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. “Fine, where are
you? Where are you calling from?”
    She told me she was calling from a pay phone outside of a sketch
bar, one I was familiar with from my days at Drexel. It was well known with
college students because no one ever got carded, I wouldn’t be surprised if
they served twelve year olds.
              “Who was that?” Joey asked when I hung up the
phone.
              “My sister, she’s in trouble and I need to go get
her. Chances are Mike is out somewhere and won’t be back for a while. You want
to come with me? Hopefully someone will have called you back with his
whereabouts by the time we’re done.”
              “Your sister, huh? I didn’t know you have a
sister.”
              “Yeah, she just moved here for school.”
              “Cool. Trust me, I know all about how sisters can
be a pain in the fucking ass. Let’s go get yours.”
    Joey D. had two sisters and I only met one them. Cici was a
handful and little bit of a ho, not that we talked about her like that around
Joey. The first time I met her, she was climbing on board Marco’s boat at the
shore with Dominic. She came into Crimson on occasion to