Empire of Blood

IX

Dinner with Luca Andiamo had gone by uneventfully. So had the two dinner dates after the first. Milan could not tell whether Luca was beginning to see her as a companion of some sort or if he was just messing around with her. Although their dinner dates consisted of lots of flirting, Luca did not make mention of sleeping with Milan again. Instead, he acted like a complete gentleman which Milan knew very well was far from his true nature.

It had been the end of their third dinner date and Milan was going to tell Alia that they needed to think of a new plan because their current one was not working out.

But then, it finally happened. Her phone buzzed and displayed the one message she had been waiting for for the pass couple of weeks.

"Party at my place, 4PM. Dress comfortably."

The message was from none other than Luca. Milan felt heart heart-beat pick up in excitement. She felt as if the mission was finally going well.

"Get good news?" Alia asked as she watched the young girl step inside her office with a wide grin.

"Luca Andiamo just invited me to a house party!"

"That's great!" Alia smiled. "Call the girls, we need to make sure everything goes well tonight."

Milan quickly called the girls and they all gathered in the meeting room.

"I looked into it," Summer began, getting ready to spew her facts, "and Luca Andiamo's parties are no ordinary party."

"What do you mean?" Stella asked.

"What I mean is that these parties are simply to test out their new drugs."

"They test out their own drugs?" Milan asked. "That sounds stupid, especially considering they could die from it."

"No," Summer sighed, "it's how they punish the women who broke the rules."

She didn't have to elaborate, everyone knew the mafia were responsible for the human trafficking that went on in the country. They would illegally transport people, in particular young women, for the purpose of s****l exploitation. Lately, more and more foreign women were being found dead from an overdose. The practice of "punishing" them with their new drugs explained why so many more women were being found dead.

"Disgusting," Stella spat, her voice filled with venom. "They deserve to rot in the depths of Hell."

"In this case, wouldn't saving them be better than trying to find evidence? They can technically be charged with human trafficking, drug possession, attempted murder and possibly even murder from this, right?"

"They can be charged with all of that but the victims involved in these cases never speak. They know that if they do, not only will they possibly be murdered but their families are at risk too."

"So we just leave them to die?" Stella seethed.

"There's nothing we can do for them," Alia said, feeling guilty. "We're underhanded and we have no evidence to prove our claims. In order to get help from the federals, we need to have reasonable evidence that proves our claims."

Stella hit her hand on the table and stood up angrily.

"We can't do nothing about it! People will die!"

"Stella please calm down. I understand your point but we need to put get our priorities straight and think reasonably. There is no way we will be able to save the women that are being tested on today without getting ourselves in trouble in the process. On the other hand, we can find evidence that Andiamo is the supplier and save hundreds of people in the process. The Reaper is spreading like wildfire in colleges and even high schools." 

"You're suggesting that we leave the women to die?"

Alia sighed, "If that is how you want to take it, yes, I am suggesting we leave them up for their fate. There really isn't anything we can do for them."

Stella stormed out of the room, so angry that she was itching for a physical fight right at that moment. Leilani stood to follow her but Alia stopped her.

"Let her be. I'll talk to her later." 

Leilani nodded before she sat back down on to her seat.

"Ask him if you can take a friend with you," Alia told Milan. "I don't think you should go in alone today."

Milan quickly sent him a text and received a response within minutes.

"The more the merrier."  Was all the message said.

"Great," Alia said, "Stella would have been the ideal candidate since she's our best fighter but I don't think she's in the right head space for this mission. Leilani, do you think you can handle it?"

"Yes, boss," Leilani nodded.

"Alright, the plan is fairly simple. All you need to do is find his bedroom and obtain his documents."

"I doubt he will keep it on his desk though," Milan said. "He probably has a safe or something. How will we access it?"

Summer handed Milan a USB, "All digital safes these days have a USB port. Once you find it, just stick this in and I'll do the rest. You just need to make sure you don't remove it until I finish hacking the system."

"That's all?"

"Yes, it should take a few minutes though so you need to make sure you don't get caught."

"Sounds too simple to be real," Leilani said.

"In theory it is simple, but remember, you won't be getting to that room without a fight. They'll have men scattered all over the house."

"That's right," Summer nodded, "there's a higher chance of you dying than succeeding tonight."

"Thanks, b***h," Leilani rolled her eyes causing Summer to laugh.

"One more thing," Alia called for their attention before she dismissed them, "don't unnecessarily put yourselves in danger. If it's not possible to obtain the documents tonight, then leave it for another day."

"Yes, boss," both girls promised before they prepared for the night.

Luca ended up sending someone to pick the girls up at exactly half past three and they managed to get to the party at exactly four.

"Mio angelo," Luca greeted Milan with a light kiss on her cheek, "you look as beautiful as usual."

Milan smiled at the host before introducing Leilani.

"This is my friend, Leila."

"Leila," Luca repeated as he looked the curvy brunette up and down, "what a lovely name. Please make yourselves comfortable, the main show will begin soon."

The two girls walked in the direction Luca pointed and stopped dead in their tracks once their eyes landed on the stage setup.

There were  four girls standing on all fours with a leash around their neck. People around the room were simply talking and chatting like this was some normal occurrence. Occasionally someone would go up to the girls and say degrading words to them, even slapping them across the face.

Milan felt her blood boil at the sight. How could anyone be so cruel as to treat fellow human beings worse than an animal. These women were brought to the country with hopes of a better life but now they were being humiliated and treated as a guinea pig.

"I feel like vomiting," Leilani said as she turned away from the sight. Milan nodded and turned away too.

"We're lucky Stella isn't seeing this. She would have killed everyone in this room otherwise."

"I kind of wish she had," Leilani spat. "Let's get this over with because I don't want to be here for another second."

Milan nodded and began to look for an exit that wasn't the same as the exit.

"There's a door over there," she told Leilani who nodded before both girls walked out, making sure no one was paying attention.

"Which floor do you think his bedroom is on?" Leilani asked.

Luca's house was more of a mansion than a house. It was huge and consisted of four whole floors.

"Can you act drunk?" Milan asked, suddenly thinking of a plan.

Leilani nodded and Milan pointed to a house maid. "Act drunk."

"Excuse me," Milan called to the young maid, sounding exasperated. "My friend here had a little too much to drink and Luca told me I should let her rest in one of the guest rooms. I tried looking for them, but I got lost," Milan feigned a shy laugh. "Do you mind pointing us in the correct direction, please?"

The young girl smiled at the guests, "Of course! The guest bedrooms are all on the second floor. You can pick any room you like."

"Which room is Luca's? My friend is a dirty drunk so I wouldn't want to mess up his room."

"You don't have to worry!" The young maid giggled at Milan, "Mr. Andiamo's room is on the third floor whereas the guest rooms are on the second."

"Excellent," Milan grinned. "Thank you so much for your help!"

The maid smiled before she went back to her work. Milan dragged Leilani away until they were out of the maid's line of sight. Then they tried to find a way to Luca's room without getting caught.

"It's awfully empty," Leilani observed. "I would have expected there to be at least some men in the hallway but it's completely quiet."

Milan silently agreed with Leilani. Everything was going way too smoothly. It didn't make sense that someone as paranoid and untrustworthy as Luca Andiamo didn't have any guards situated around the house. It also made him an easy target for his enemies.

"I feel like this might be a trap," Milan told Leilani, who nodded.

"I was just thinking the same thing. There's a room full of people that could potentially kill Andiamo but not a single guard around. I'm not sure if this trap is set for you, but I think we should head back before we get caught."

Milan simply nodded and the two girls were about to walk back when suddenly there was an angry scream heard from within one of the rooms.

"I will kill you!" the first voice growled. Milan recognized the voice to belong to none other than Luca Andiamo.

"You can try," the second voice laughed, "but you know very well what that would mean for you." There was no emotion in his voice. It was as if he was relaying the hard cold truth.

"Are you threatening me?" Andiamo spat.

"Take it however you like, Andiamo, but you have two days to pull your men back. If I see them distributing my product again, I will make sure you pay!"

There was a sudden shuffling of footsteps coming towards the door. The two girls quickly ran away from the scene, making sure not to get caught.

They sighed in relief as soon as they made it out into the yard again.

"It sounds like Andiamo is distributing a competing organizations drugs."

Milan nodded, "I wonder who it is. If it was a small organization, there would have been a war already. If Andiamo hasn't done anything yet, it's because the organization is bigger than him. Aside from the rest of the mafia, I can't think of another organization that would be bigger than Andiamo."

"There's one," Leilani said as her eyes landed on a tall figure emerging from the crowd. Milan followed her gaze and froze upon making eye contact with the figure.

"Leonidas Alexiou," Milan gasped upon realization of who the second voice belonged to. "He's the leader of the world's biggest crime syndicate!"