"What's going on?" I said.
"I'll summarize the issue sheets, but you'll want to read them anyway", said Julie. "There are three issues – first, the case where Steve was fingered in the first place. Second, the case where Steve fingered the mob boss, Guido, and third, what is happening right now and an outline of the danger that Steve is in.
"So, first, the case where Steve was convicted in the first place. Steve is an accountant, and he got hired by the mob. They basically absorbed him into their fold, and Steve was riding the high of that for quite a while. He was making scads of money fixing the books for the mob and had enough non-mob people as clients to explain his lifestyle. The mob in California is quiet but large. You don't think of people running around California saying, 'hey Tony' like you do in New Jersey or in New York." I laughed. Her impression of a mobster saying 'hey Tony' with a New Jersey accent was, according to episodes of 'The Sopranos', spot on. "His father was an accountant for the mob in Trenton, and that was why Steve went to California in the first place. His father is now dead and died in a fire, and Steve said that was done by the California mob to ensure Steve's cooperation. I question the validity of that, especially because Steve had started with the mob prior to Steve's father's death.
"So, Steve did the books for the mob and was getting rich while doing it. The mob may not be nice guys, but they do pay well. Then the IRS started looking into one of the businesses that the mob owned and Steve tried to kill the taxman to make the issue go away. Steve is as crooked as the day is long, but he isn't a killer. He muffed it up, and when the case blew up, his links to extortion and blackmail came to light. He ended up taking the fall for it all and the issue went away. The Californian mob was happy as Guido stayed out of jail. The government was happy they had someone to pin the 'issue' on and punish. However, Steve was not happy. He thought that the mob guys should have protected him.
"After Steve had been in jail for nine years, he didn't want to be there any longer. Over the last nine years he had been getting angrier and more resentful, and he decided that he was going to find a way to be released from jail. He asked the Californian mob boss to step in and help, and the mob boss said no. In his eyes, the issue was over and Steve's incarceration was just the price of business. Steve fought back and worked out a deal – something the government had wanted him to do in the first place – and he agreed to finger the Californian mob boss in return for protection from the mob. However, when he refused to stay away from Val or change his identity or, basically, do anything that the government recommended to keep him safe, the government washed their hands of him and let him fend for himself.
"What came out of all that is that the Californian mob boss was put in jail, the members of the mob across the States are furious with Steve, and they are all gunning for him and want to make an example of him. An example that will make the papers and help to persuade other members of the mob from making similar deals with the government.
"Steve is a stupid man who has still not learned you don't mess with the mob. The mob now knows where Steve is. They tracked him down after he called Vito. Idiot. They set fire to Val's house. Luckily the neighbor living beside Val got out, but it was bad and could have been disastrous. They installed a car bomb, but luckily Steve forgot something in the house and wasn't in the car when the bomb went off. When the car bomb went off, Steve decided to get out of Dodge and join Val here in Scotland. I guess he figured that the mob's reach was long, but not long enough to get to Inverness.
"Guido is an interesting character. He is a mild-mannered, soft-spoken man with an illegal bent to him. He is family-oriented and adores his kids and his nieces and nephews. He is close to his Uncle Vito despite living on opposite sides of the country.
"Okay, Steph, this is where you need to take a deep breath."
"Oh boy. Okay, hit me."
"Steve got here two weeks ago. Since he arrived, so have three of the mobsters from California – I would assume to take care of their own business – and two from Trenton – I would assume for family support."
"Who are the mobsters from Trenton?"
Julie looked down at her notes. "Jimmy the Juicer and Harry the Hammer."
"Fuck. They're both enforcers."
"I thought Jimmy owned a Juice Bar and Harry was a construction worker."
I smiled slightly. "I don't know Jimmy well, but he is known as the Juicer as when he does his job, he turns his victim's limbs from solid bone to juice."
"Eww." Julie shivered.
"Similarly, Harry the Hammer was not named for his construction expertise. A hammer is his weapon of choice and breaking fingers and nailing spikes through hands and other limbs are his favorite things to do. Having said that, he owns the bond office that I used to work for, and your dad and I have a good relationship with him. When I was expecting the babies, Harry was incredibly sweet and bought the kids each a stuffed animal. He was so happy for us that he even came and visited us in the hospital after each birth. He is a grandfather who cares deeply about his family, and because I worked for the bonds office, he cares about Ranger and our family a lot. That will turn on a dime if we get in the way of him teaching Steve a lesson."
"Oh boy."
"Let's call a staff meeting."
Julie sent a message to Ranger, and a minute later we got the message that an all-staff meeting was starting in five minutes. Julie sent the issue sheets and the in-depth on Steve out to Ranger and Hal, and minutes later we were in the dining room.
As everyone filtered in, I looked at Ranger. "Where are the girls?"
He smiled. "Raphael and Garrison took your parents and the girls into town to buy some gifts for Val's kids." I put my hand on my diaphragm as I moderated my breath. "They're safe, babe. You don't have to worry. You know that Raphael and Garrison are great protectors."
I sighed. "We'll have to write them in afterwards."
"You look upset."
"Wait until you hear what Julie has to say. This is a very big pile of doo-doo, and for once it was Val landing in it rather than me."
Ranger smiled slightly and captured my hand in his. He kissed my palm and placed my hand on his thigh, then looked up at everyone. "Okay", he said. "Julie has been working almost around the clock to give us some answers and based on the preliminary work that she has done, the answers are chilling. Jules?"
She went over Steve's history, what he originally did and what he was caught for, and then what he did to get out of jail.
"Fuck", said Hal. "Is there a more stupid person on earth?"
Julie snorted. "I may only be twenty, but even I know that you don't piss off the mob."
"That's because you have the sense that God gave you", said Eduardo.
Julie laughed. She then detailed the tie-in to the Trenton mob, who was involved, and the people who had arrived in Inverness to take care of Steve.
"This is all bad", said Ranger, "but what is really bad for us personally is that Steph and I know Harry the Hammer and Jimmy the Juicer. We don't know Jimmy well, but we have a healthy respect for him. Harry, however, is the owner of Vinnie's bonds office. We have a professional relationship with him and he has always been supportive of us. With Research doing all the capture plans and our men doing the pickups for the bonds office, our capture rate has increased to over ninety-nine percent and Harry has been very pleased. He is actually a nice man, but he also is someone who isn't known for his patience and is someone that I don't want to cross. I like having a good relationship with him and I don't want to do something to jeopardize that."
"Fuck", said Hal.
Ranger turned to Julie and me. "Any chance that you can work with the other Gurus and try to get the rest of the in-depths done? There are in-depths to be done now on Harry and Jimmy, as well as Vito and Guido and the people in the Californian mob. The sooner you can get that information to me, the better."
