39. Lil's Steamin

Everyone in the building was in absolute agreement, the first ever Rangeman Christmas celebration had been a complete success. The rest of their evening had been pleasant with delicious foods and plenty of fun. It seemed that no one could stop smiling. When Tilde explained her 'magical princess playground' to Lester and Tank, Ranger was giving all 200 watts. His men could have purchased an entire Disney Store, Ranger's gift was still her favorite. After supper and dessert were over, they relaxed and shared stories until Lil and Tilde were yawning. Ranger and Cal both offered to walk them upstairs, but Lil declined. She insisted they stay with the men and enjoy each other's company. And while that was her true intention, she was also in need of a little alone time. After opening all of Ranger's gift, they had almost kissed… again. She really needed to stop putting herself in those situations. She had no earthly idea why she needed to stop… but she did… ya… stopping was important… right? Lil was a whole lotta tired and even more confused.

She spent Sunday attempting to recoup from the madness and excitement of the holidays. She also put a solid two hours into learning the ins and outs of her new fancy shmancy espresso machine. She was in love with that sexy copper behemoth. Lester and Ella came by mid morning, asking if they could take Tilde to the roof. Lil truly believed Lester was reliving his childhood. She gladly agreed and watched as Ella laughed her way to the elevator with the two 'children'. At lunch Lil visited the control room, wanting to say hello to the men and peek at the monitors to check on her girl. She was surprised to see that the control room tree had already been taken down and the ornaments packed. Man, Rangeman was one efficient machine. Binkie switched screens for her and she let out a strangled laugh. Tilde was on the swings with Vince, both sailing peacefully. Zip and Zero were in the castle gazebo, with their feet up and their shades down. Hal was sitting near Cal in the dining area, reading his psychology book. Ella was placing sandwiches on a tray nearby. But best of all, Lester was in Cinderella's carriage, pretending to drive it. He was wearing a gaudy gold crown, in his own happy little world. Boys.

At the Monday morning meeting, life at Rangeman was back to business as usual. Lil worked with Cal and his team in the small conference room for a few hours, researching the newest FTAs and strategizing a few larger take-downs that were looming. She grabbed a light lunch from the break room and headed to her office. Checking her email while unwrapping an Ella sandwich, Lil spotted two return messages from her contacts out west. She read through both with a sinking suspicion that today was going downhill, quickly. Replying a polite thanks to each, she pulled up her search programs and started looking into the new names she had received, David Vitali and Luca Parisi. Vitali was third tier management for MSF Imports, a company that shipped Italian glass and pottery. Two hours of searching and Lil couldn't find anything useful on MSF. It was either a front, or the head of the company was next-level paranoid. In the international 'import' business, either was plausible. While she was waiting on the background for Luca Parisi to finish running, Lil read the one article she had found about Vitali and his brother, a man named Giovanni. It was only a blurb in the NY Times about their imports being delayed after a storm at the port, but it gave her another name to search. She added an additional query for Giovanni and waited. When the programs dinged at the same time, Lil got that bad feeling again. She scanned the results and fought the urge to throw her keyboard across the room. Shit.

Lil looked at the clock, crap, it was already almost 1500. She called Ella asking if the kind woman would mind watching Tilde for a while longer. Ella could tell by the tone of Lil's voice that something was wrong, she immediately agreed to keep the peanut until bedtime. Lil walked around to the front of her office and locked the door. She needed privacy to think, and pace. The more she walked the more pissed off she became. Lil needed to clear her head, approach this from a different direction. There was no way she could take this information to Carlos unless she was absolutely sure. Sitting back down, Lil began again, with all the names and places she had found so far. Pulling a sheet of paper from her printer and adding a few vector lines, a picture started to emerge. By 1900, Lil had finished her illustration, paced a hole in the carpet, and created a slew of creative new curse words. She sat down with her head in her hands, fighting a headache. Carlos was going to be beyond pissed. And if she was right, there was bigger trouble ahead than some stolen Rangeman money.

Ranger was working late, as usual. He hadn't seen Lil or Tilde all day, though he had spotted the little girl playing on the roof with Ella in the morning. No longer able to concentrate on his contract, which always happened when he thought of Lil, Ranger picked up his phone. "Good Evening Ella… I wanted to know how the roof set-up was working, do we need to add or change anything right now?… That's good… What?… No...No… I'm on it." He hung up and stood abruptly. Why was Lil still working at this hour? Ranger approached her door and knocked. He was surprised to hear the lock click open after a few beats. Instead of waiting for an invite, he entered on his own. It took exactly 2.3 seconds for Ranger to notice her desk was littered with papers and Lil was upset. "Dulce?" Lil didn't respond right away, but started printing more pages, her fingers forcefully flying over the keys. He made a mental note to replace her keyboard soon. "Is there a whiteboard or something I can use? I need more space than this." She waved her drawing with irritation. She pulled the newest papers from the printer, "Motherfucker!" Ranger tensed further. "Dulce, what's happened?" She rubbed her temples and sighed, "we need a whiteboard Carlos." He signaled for her to follow him. "You're gonna want the Core Team too. This involves all of us." Normally the secrecy and lack of control would have sent Ranger through the roof. He was so thrown by Lil's demeanor that he sent a text to Tank and the others without question.

Lil paced the last conference room on one, muttering to herself. Ranger watched her closely, she was even more attractive when she was angry. Her southern accent was more pronounced, though he couldn't make out most of what she was saying. The Core Team started to file into the room while Lil kept up her laps and curses. Every third or fourth turn she would rub her shoulder unconsciously with her free hand. The other had a death grip on her papers. Cal was the last to enter, he stopped in his tracks when he saw his big sister. "Oh Fuck." Bobby and Tank raised their eyebrows questioningly. "The last time I saw her like this, Jared Caldwell tried to put his hand up her skirt… she hit him with a baseball bat." Ram snickered. "Lilly-pad, what's happening sweetheart?" Lil snapped her head up, realizing they were all there. "Sugar-butt, I'm madder than a baptized cat! Take a seat, I'll show ya." His butt was in the chair before she was done speaking. When she sounded like that, just like their late mama, it was eerie.

Lil turned to the whiteboard and picked up the first available marker while the others took seats. "I made a few phone calls to some acquaintances out west last week, trying to find more information for Carlos on the Boston problem. I heard back from two of them today. Kelly Lopez is a small time thief I busted a few times at the Wynn, he's a nobody, but he keeps track of the underground movements in Vegas. Skeeter, a hacker who owed me a favor, enjoys trying to find answers that law enforcement and the feds miss… They gave me two names." She uncapped her marker and started to draw the lines of a flow chart, or organizational business tree. Starting at the bottom left, she began to fill in the names; Giovanni Vitali, David Vitali, Antonio Cortena. The person in the tree above them was one Lorenzo Maggio. Above him sat Antoni Maggio. Antoni's line tapered to the point of a triangle. Salvadore 'Sal' Frederico Maggio sat at the top. She looked at the men to see if they were following. Oh shit. "This is the legal side of the Sal Maggio's business, MSF Imports. Antoni is a son, Lorenzo his nephew."

Lil continued to draw lines from the right side of Sal's name to form the other half of the pyramid. Sal connected to Angelo Maggio and Jacopo Parisi, they led to Michael Maggio and Matteo Parisi. Finally, the buck stopped at Luca Parisi, Diego Bernelli, and Charles Erikson. Lil pushed forward, though the tension emitting from the men behind her was enough to choke on. "Angelo is Sal's other son. Jacopo is a son in law. Michael and Matteo are grandsons, so is Luca. They, along with Bernelli and Erikson, make up the larger players in Maggio's illegal businesses; gun running and money laundering." Cal and Ranger were looking really close to storming out with their guns drawn. "Cool it gentleman, it gets better." She didn't need her sarcasm sign, her voice was dripping with it. "From what I can tell, Antoni, Lorenzo, and David are really on the up and up. They even have tax records that don't look doctored. David's brother and partner, Giovanni, is married to a woman named Elena. She used to be Elena Bernelli. She's the cousin of Diego on the other side here, and she is in serious trouble with the Rodrigo Family in California. Fleeced the Don's son out of a shitload of money then turned him into the feds. Really, she's dead already, they just haven't caught up to her yet."

Lil stabbed her marker at the board. "Antonio Cortena is a fucking fed. I met him during the fall-out from the Wynn. So either he's dirty or he's undercover and the feds have known WAY more about this shit then they've let on for the last five years." Lil stretched her shoulder and moved to the other side of the board. "Angelo and his son Michael work with Luca on the gunrunning industry. Jacopo oversees his son Matteo, who oversees Charles Motherfucking Erikson on the money laundering operation. My best guess is that Diego Bernelli helps with both illegal enterprises. Problem is, Matteo has been wanting to branch out on his own. Make a name for himself outside of the Maggio Family. It seems he's roped Erikson in to help him. The unsuccessful heist at the Wynn was one of Erikson's dumbass attempts at staking their claim to the Las Vegas territory... Are you good and pissed off yet?... Cause there's more." There really might have been smoke coming out of Lil's ears, at the very least she was steaming. "Diego Bernelli is the brother of Rangeman Boston's Tim Bernelli. Tim has been taking money from Rangeman to give to Elena. But I think Diego has been trying to recruit his brother to work with the Maggio family full-time. And now that we know there is a direct connection between Charles Erikson and the Boston Rangeman office, I'd bet my life Erikson knows exactly who Tilde and I are and where to find us."

Lil plopped her papers down in front of the shocked Rangemen. "It's all here in black and white. I don't know what you want to do with it or who you need to call. But I'm gonna go collect my baby and eat a pint of ice cream for dinner." Ranger watched as Lil stomped out of the room, damn she was sexy when she was angry.