A Blued Steel Wolfe (10 page)

“That’s Linda Wolfe,” Trina gasped. “She was also presumed dead when the police and FBI found the collapsed tunnel under the O’Hara mansion!”

“Yep!” Ray exclaimed. “Oh, and look at this.”

He brought up all of the records on Anthony and Linda Wolfe, and showed them all onscreen at the same time.

“What am I looking at, sweetie?” she asked as she leaned over him, confused at first.

“Perfectly forged documents,” Ray said, nodding with respect. “Whoever made these did a hell of a job. I’d like to shake the hand of the man or woman who crafted these masterpieces. No government agency would be able to crack these. Everything is, quite literally perfect.”

“There has to be something,” she said, shaking her head. “Nobody can forge perfect documents!”

“Whoever made these did,” Ray said. Then he explained. “Everything on these is perfect. I ran them through a program used by the Secret Service to detect forgeries in currency and documentation.” He pointed to the Social Security cards and hit a key to enlarge the images a hundred times.

“These cards are
real,
” he continued his explanation. “You can see that the formerly solid line now says, ‘Social Security Administration’ over, and over for the entire length of the signature line. Forgers don’t do that, so the cards are real. The Social Security numbers are real, too. They aren’t just taken from children who died young. The forger created these numbers, backdated them, and placed them in the Social Security database. The only way we know they’re forgeries is because we know the truth! Pure genius!”

“So, what do we do?” Trina asked, suddenly apprehensive. She knew of Anthony Wolfe by reputation before she started working for him.

“He has to know that we know,” Ray replied with a shrug. “He trusts us, so we have to trust him. I know you’re new here, Trina, but Mr. Wolfe
is
a good man. He doesn’t do anything drastic without an
extremely
good reason.”

Trina thought about it for a moment and sighed. She looked into his green eyes and nodded. “Ok, Ray. We’ll tell him when he returns from his meeting.”

***** ***** *****

Anthony opened the door for his wife and smiled as she took his hand so he could help her out of the SUV. The meeting was a success, and soon they would have another venture bringing in capital to replace the illegal businesses in which they were currently involved.

Soon,
Anthony thought.
Soon, we won’t have to deal with the bottom feeding scum anymore, and our family will be secure.

He thought about Justinian and Camille. The boy had a good head for business and security, and Camille knew almost as much about the Law as Jared did. He smiled as he thought about their burgeoning romance. They were already good friends, and now something more.

As he entered the mansion, holding hands with Linda, they spotted Ray and Trina heading towards them from one direction. Then they saw Justin coming towards them from another. All of them wore urgent expressions on their faces. As they approached, he held up his hand.

“My office,” he said simply. Then he turned to Linda. “Sweetheart, I’ll be back shortly.”

“Of course, Tony,” she said with a loving smile. They shared a sweet kiss, and then she went off to organize her next fundraiser for charity.

Once they were all in his office and Anthony was ensconced behind his desk, he looked at each of them in turn. First, he started with Justin. “What is it, Son?”

“This, Father,” Justin said, handing Anthony his BlackBerry with the picture on it.

In all the time that Ray worked for Anthony Wolfe, he’d never seen the man shaken before. Neither had Justin, for that matter. His father was always the calmest man in the room. Until now, that is.

Anthony stared at the picture of the ghost on the screen. “He’s dead,” he whispered.

“He’s dead. It can’t be him!” Anthony Wolfe shouted. Then he turned an accusing gaze at Ray Hammond. “What is this? Who decided to play this prank? Was it you, Ray?”

“No, sir!” Ray said emphatically. “This is from the security footage this morning, while you and Mrs. Wolfe were leaving for your breakfast meeting. He was sitting in that car and taking pictures of the mansion.”

Anthony looked into his tech expert’s gaze and saw the truth there. He closed his eyes and regained control of himself. “I… apologize for my outburst, Raylan. I owe you all an explanation, it seems.”

“What’s this all about, Father?” Justin asked, concern showing on his face.

“That man is Salvatore Lupo, Justinian. He was my brother, and your uncle,” Anthony said tiredly. He stared at the picture some more before he continued. “I thought he was dead, though. He
is
still dead to me. I shot him twice in the chest after I found out that he betrayed the Family to the Russians.

“Umm, sir?” Ray said. When Anthony looked at him and raised an eyebrow, he continued. “We figured it out. Well, Trina and I figured out who you really were, but we didn’t know everything that went down. We just wanted to let you know that your secret is safe with us.”

Trina and Ray shared a glance, and then they both nodded affirmation to their Boss.

“Thank you both for that,” Anthony said with a nod. Then he explained the situation and started giving orders.

“However, that point is now moot. I can’t refute the evidence. Salvatore Lupo is alive, and he presumably knows that Anthony Wolfe is really his long lost brother. I can’t keep this a secret any longer, at least amongst our own people. I know how my brother operated back in New York.” He paused, and then looked at each of them in turn. “Trina, I’m assigning you as Ray’s personal bodyguard. Keep him safe. Ray, no backtalk. Trina is your shadow, and you’re her shadow too. You stick together. Justinian, you will keep Camille and Nathan safe. That means you will have to spend every moment with them outside of the mansion. Also, assign at least one security team member to every non-combatant in our Family.”

“Yes, sir,” Justin replied. “What are we going to do about Salvatore, though?”

“Leave that to me, Son,” Anthony replied, his face a stone mask. “We don’t know exactly what he’s planning, but we need to find out and soon.”

Then he turned to Ray. “Ray, did any of the footage capture the license plate on his car?”

“Probably, sir,” Ray replied with a nod. “When I find it, I’ll track it and let you know.”

“Good,” Anthony said as he looked at each of them in turn. “See to your tasks, but don’t bother Royce and Tamara. They’re on their honeymoon.”

“I’ll set up schedules and assignments immediately,” Justin said with a nod. “With your permission, I’m going to lock down the mansion too.”

“Not yet, Justinian,” Anthony said, shaking his head. “Only if something happens, and then only on my order.”

“Understood, sir,” Justin replied professionally. He quickly formulated a plan to enact if the situation demanded, though.

“Ok, we’re on that footage,” Ray said, and nodded at Trina, who followed him back to the command center.

As Justin turned to leave, Anthony stopped him. “Justinian.”

“Yes, Father?” the younger Wolfe asked, turning to face Anthony.

“I’m sorry that you had to find out this way, Son,” said the elder Wolfe.

“I read about that massacre, and I understand why you kept our true name secret,” Justin replied with a nod.

“No, Justinian. You are a Wolfe, not a Lupo,” Anthony explained. “By the time you were born, your mother and I already had our new identities. Your legal name is Justinian Marcus Wolfe.”

“I understand, Father,” he replied. Then he turned and left his father’s office. He pushed those thoughts from his mind for the moment. He had to focus on the safety and security of his friends and family, first.

First, he made his way to Jared’s office. He had to see Cammie, and warn her and Jared about the imminent threat.

When he entered the office, she knew by his expression that something was wrong. “Justin? What is it?” Cammie asked with a feeling of dread.

“Where’s Jared?” Justin asked, ignoring her question for the moment.

“He went to get some coffee. Why? Justin, what’s going on?” Cammie said, her apprehension growing.

“Ok,” he replied, calming himself down and looking her in the eyes. “A man was watching the compound this morning…” He went on to explain the situation, as he knew it, including the fact that the man was his uncle by blood, but not true family. With each new revelation, Cammie’s face became more and more horrified.

As he finished speaking, Jared came back into the office with two steaming mugs of coffee. When the lawyer saw Justin, he knew immediately that something was wrong. He blinked twice as he saw the terrified expression on Cammie’s face as well. After two decades as Anthony Wolfe’s attorney, Jared became very astute at reading the situation at any given time.

“I know something is wrong, so I’m going to set these coffee mugs down and then you’re going to tell me what’s going on,” Jared said with a calmness he didn’t really feel. He handed one mug to Cammie, who thanked him graciously. Then he took a long pull from his own before he set it down on her desk.

“Take a seat, Jared,” Justin said, indicating the third chair in Cammie’s office.

“Don’t worry about me,” Jared replied. “Now, tell me what happened.”

Justin explained it all again, and Jared simply nodded as he closed his eyes.

“I was afraid that something like this would happen,” Jared sighed.

“Wait a minute! You knew?” Cammie asked with a shocked look at her boss. “Justin didn’t even know!”

“I’ve been Mr. Wolfe’s attorney since before Justinian was born, Cammie,” he explained to both of them. “I was the one who helped facilitate his and Linda’s identity changes.”

“Ray said that the forgeries would pass as real to anyone that cared to look closely enough,” Justin said as he narrowed his eyes. “How is that possible?”

Jared sighed. “A man named Cyrus Morgan, actually. He’s the best forger in the world, since he uses the system itself to make his forgeries. When Mr. Wolfe first came to me, I put him in contact with Cyrus. He’s expensive, but worth every penny.”

“How do you know him, then?” Cammie asked suspiciously.

“A friend of my father’s told me about him,” Jared said. “My father and his friend were part of First Ranger Battalion when they liberated a Nazi POW camp during World War II. Mr. Morgan was imprisoned there. That isn’t important now, though. If Salvatore Lupo is
alive
and
here
, then the crap is going to hit the rotating oscillator sooner, rather than later.”

“I gathered that from what my father said,” Justin nodded. “How much do
you
know about him?”

“Enough to be scared shitless,” Jared confessed with a shrug. “From what your father told me about him, he’s ruthless and careful. They could never pin that massacre on him, and he always denied it, but that was the reason why your grandfather was going to pick Anthony over Salvatore to lead the family after he passed. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen because your uncle betrayed the Lupo and O’Hara alliance to the Russians.”

“What massacre?” Cammie asked, wide eyed.

“A smaller, rival Italian family tried to make a move on the Lupo-O’Hara territory, and Salvatore was given the task of stopping their incursions,” Jared started to explain. Then he shuddered. “From what Anthony told me, the short version is that Salvatore and his men slaughtered not only the rival Mafiosi, but their families as well. That included the children, even an infant. Salvatore and the men under his command denied killing the families, but Anthony’s father Giovanni kept him on a
very
short leash after that.”

“Wasn’t there any evidence?” Justin asked.

“It was a different time back then, Justin,” Jared shrugged and shook his head. “They didn’t have DNA evidence back then, and no witnesses came forward. Nobody knew who hit the rival Family, because nobody from that Family was left alive. The perpetrators wore masks and didn’t speak at all as they slaughtered the men, women and children.”

He paused again and breathed deeply. Then he looked at Justin. “Please don’t tell your father that I told you this.”

“No problem, Jared,” Justin replied, now very apprehensive himself.
If what he says is true, Salvatore might try to do the same to us. Now I know why Father wants security guarding everyone!

“Attention, everyone.” Anthony Wolfe’s voice announced over the intercom system. “In twenty minutes, I would like all of you to meet me in the main theater for a briefing on a new and urgent situation. Justin, I want you with me onstage.”

“Ok, I have to go. I’ll see you there,” Justin said and leaned over to kiss Cammie. She kissed him back sweetly, and he smiled as he stood up and walked briskly out of the room. He broke into a jog as he moved towards the theater where he knew his father awaited him.

***** ***** *****

While the Wolfe household braced for war, Salvatore put his plans into motion. Later that day, he met the flight from JFK at LAX. He met his Russian comrades as they exited the terminal, and started assigning surveillance tasks for each of them.