Romance Thriller

*Image by* Artistic Operations via Pixabay

When help began arriving, Jimmy briefed both the agents and police on weapons, as well as the layout of the building and the amount of people in the building. As they were devising a plan to raid the building and rescue Cassandra, Cohen, finally arrived to take charge or at least pretend to. Jimmy kept his mouth shut as he watched Einstein repeat what was said by the senior officers all while acting like it was his idea. Feeling the effects of the taser, Jimmy assumed the adrenaline was finally wearing off. His head hurt and his ribs ached every time he took a deep breath. Determined to see this mission through, he sucked it up, he wasn’t about to let Cohen screw any of this up. If he so much as saw him going left, Jimmy would be there to knock him back right.

Just as these thoughts entered his head he saw out of the corner of his eye, a white Kia. “Oh thank God,” Jimmy said out loud. Finally, he didn’t feel so alone. Seeing Amato’s face as he pulled up and park three cars down, Jimmy went up to meet him. As he got to the car he noticed the gentleman in the back. “I’ll fill you in later,” he said before Jimmy could even ask. Seeing Amato, Special Agent Cohen marched right toward him, “I thought I dismissed you, Agent,” he declared.

“Yeah, about that” Amato said closing the door to the Kia, “I ran into someone really interesting”. Walking right past Cohen, he went up to an old grizzly vet from the force, and asked him to keep an eye on the suspect in the backseat. “What are you doing?” Agent Cohen asked rather annoyed.

“I’m about to go into enemy territory,”

“No, you’re not!”

“We’re going to wait on SWAT to raid the building, capture Fenetti, and whatever else is crawling around in that cesspool.”

“It’ll take forever for SWAT to show, you know that, that’s why I have my little passport right here,” he said pointing to Devon, the man in the back seat.

“I don’t know what the hell you think you’re doing but you’re not going in there!”

“Cohen, the suspect has offered to assist in our investigation and can literally get us in the front door.” The sergeant in charge heard the argument between Amato and Cohen, and his interest was piqued.

“No! We’re doing it my way!” Cohen insisted. However, when the sergeant glared at him, Cohen had to change his tune. The police were the ones who would have to approach and breech, not the FBI. Cohen may have been in charge of the manhunt but he wasn’t in charge of anything else. This became abundantly clear when the Sergeant called all his officers together and began to ask for some spare vests. Handing them to Amato, he in turn offered his gratitude. Going back over to his car, he opened the back door and handed the other vest to Devon. As Amato uncuffed him, he instructed Devon to put it on under his shirt and to zip his hoodie. Amato in turn put his vest on and buttoned up his jacket then put his gun in his front pocket. While he dressed, Jimmy briefed him on the best place to enter and where exactly the basement was.

When he was done, Amato slapped Jimmy on the shoulder and saw him wince. “Get checked out, Jimbo.”

“Thanks mom, but I got some unfinished business first.”

Smiling, Amato turned around and signaled for Devon to step out of the car. He wasn’t afraid of Devon running away because he had over a dozen officers with guns waiting to pounce if he tried anything shady. Nobody was in the mood to screw around. “Come on Devon, time’s a wasting.” Amato said while several officers and agents began to circle the neighborhood to block off the bistro. Once Amato and Devon were in, they would block off the street and sidewalk. Beads of sweat began pouring down Devon’s face. Amato tried to calm him down and said, “You don’t have to do anything but get me through the front door, after that, you can walk away.”

“Aiiight.” Devon responded.

Knowing that the Alunnis would be guarding this place like a pack of wolves after Jimmy’s escape, Amato, knew he had to play it cool. Paranoia and gangster didn’t go well together. That’s why every cop car and law enforcement officer stayed out of sight forming a net around the block. Amato would have to approach the building without any protection outside of his vest. If he was having seconds thoughts, it was already too late because within two minutes they were right at the door of Matteo’s Bar & Bistro. When Devon hesitated, Amato nudged him with his shoulder. Slowly, Devon extended his hand and wrapped twice on the door. Immediately, the antique wooden door opened and an old man’s head popped out. Devon made up some story about needing to see Danny and before you knew it, the door swung wide open.

Stepping inside, Amato looked around and noticed the place was deserted. There was no indication that there was anything unusual going on, no goons, no guns, no nothing. Going over to a corner booth, Amato sat down with Devon and gave him his walking papers, “Okay Devon, you did your job, now beat it.” Without a word, Devon got up and left the bistro before anything jumped off. When the old guy finally disappeared, Amato got up and started snooping around. If caught, he would simply say he was looking for the men’s room. As Amato went towards the kitchen, he noticed a hallway to his left and so naturally, he followed it. The carpet was a taupe color and on it, was what appeared to be blood stains. Instinctively, he reached for his gun and knelt down to see the blood was fresh. “Jesus!” Amato said quietly. Following the trail, he was led to a door much like the one Jimmy described and when he opened it, he saw the stairs leading down. He had found the basement. Though he didn’t want to, he followed it all the way down and found it completely empty. No Cassie, and more importantly, no Danny. Getting on his phone, he called Cohen, “They’re gone” he said, disappointed.

As soon as he reported back, the cops did their job and swarmed the joint.

The police did a sweep of the building nonetheless as Amato, and Jimmy stood in the basement astonished that the Alunni moved so quickly. “They might be a small crew, but they’re good.” Amato said. “Too good,” Jimmy said, “I was gone for less than a half hour and they picked up and found another location, right under our noses.”

“Sounds like they had a plan B.” Amato answered.
Stomping down the stairs with his gray trench coat flapping in the wind, Cohen yelled, “How the hell did this happen?”

“They must’ve got the drop on us somehow,” Amato replied.

“I want answers and I want them on my desk before the end of the day.”

A police officer interrupted their discussion, “Excuse me Special Agent Cohen, what do you want us to do with the suspects we found on the property?”

“Take ‘em downtown and hold ‘em.”

Taking their cue, Amato and Jimmy followed the cops to their cruisers and saw there were about 4 men, all of them middle aged and unlikely to be of any help. These guys had been in the game too long, and both Jimmy and Amato knew they were hardcore gangsters. They wouldn’t give anything up even with the threat of prison. Nonetheless, they had to try and so off they went downtown to get answers.

Following behind, Amato resealed the apartment and began coming up with his story as to why he and Jimmy were here in the first place. While Jimmy left the building he saw a white van coming slowly down the street. Not thinking too much of it, he waited on the curb until the vehicle passed. Instead it came to a complete stop, hearing the door roll back, his heart stopped, as three masked men jumped out of the van and tasered him before he could even reach for his gun. Amato could only look on horror from the lobby as they dragged his unconscious partner into the van. “Son of a bitch!” Amato growled as he fumbled to get his gun. Running to the front door, he made it to the sidewalk and shot at the white van but it was all in vain. The patrolmen also stumbled to react quickly enough and before they could even start their car, the van had already turned the corner and were out of their sight. Angry, Amato threatened the patrolmen, “Find them or it’s your ass!”

Not one to sit back and twiddle his thumbs, Amato got in his Kia and followed the chaos. Sadly, there was no use, the van was gone, as was Jimmy. So much for walking away Amato thought. Immediately, Amato went into action and called headquarters to his old boss to advise him about the situation. “Track his phone, the GPS has got to still be on,” Amato pleaded. Within ten minutes the entire neighborhood was swarming with Feds and local law enforcement. As the flashing blue and red lights reflected off the shiny glass door, it magnified the intensity of the beams nearly blinding Amato. Right there on the spot, the investigators bombarded him with questions about the appearance of the men as well as the description of the van. Calmly he answered their questions in the hopes that it would help them find Jimmy. Regretting having ever gotten involved in this case, Amato started to question his motives. Why was it so important to find Stephano’s killer? Why did he care about where Cassandra had fled?

His answer appeared in the street, dressed in his street clothes, Special Agent Cohen walked towards Amato. He began firing off questions, “What the hell is going on? How did some street thugs outmaneuver two FBI agents?” Immediately Amato could feel every muscle in his body getting tense. Taking a deep breath, Amato answered Cohen’s questions and only those questions. He never mentioned the results of his own investigation nor did he speak of his methods. He didn’t trust Cohen, not with this investigation and certainly not with Jimmy’s life. Amato would not give what was not earned. When Cohen was done with Amato, he tried to put together what was going on, was this a ransom attempt or terrorism? There were parts of Jimmy’s personnel file that were still classified, it’s very possible he was working some pretty important case.

Seeing Cohen just sitting there, Amato grew agitated and took charge of the investigation going back to the apartment building where he found the manager and requested to see any and all security footage. Flashing his badge he was able to get the manager’s cooperation and was escorted to a small room next to the broom closet. Only one camera was facing the front of the building and it caught everything. Rewinding and replaying, Amato was able to finally pause the video and get a look at the kidnappers. There was one in particular who looked rather familiar but he couldn’t be sure since the man was wearing a ski-mask. Taking a zip file of the footage from the manager, he went back to the office to see if forensics could help him clear up the fuzziness of the image. So far, it wasn’t looking good for Jimmy.