Grave Digger – Brothers At Arms #4
Grave Digger: Chapter 14

John and a few of his men took off.

Those who were left in the clubhouse began watching the clock. Every minute that passed seemed like an hour long as tension began building in the main room.

When they heard gunshots in the distance, everyone jumped. They all waited for some kind of word from John but no call came.

Leon ran his hand over the back of his head and swore under his breath at the delay, “Dio dannazione.”

Delaney sat there waiting while shaking her head. Then she looked over at Emily and Anthony. She couldn’t help her curiosity as she studied the little boy again. She could see little bits of her brother in Anthony when he was a kid. She felt glad he had his mother and his father would never be in the picture. Romano and her brothers never stood a chance to be decent people. No, her father made sure of it. He used to pit them against each other in what he called the spirit of competition. In reality, he was grooming them to be ruthless and selfish. Just like him. She never understood how Barrett was nothing like Alfredo, his own father. No, he only really listened to Alfonzo. Then Barrett passed on what he’d learn when raising his own sons. She thought about her great grandfather. He was a piece of work and she knew he had told her father nothing but a bunch of lies all his life. He saw something in her dad that reminded him of himself when he was young and wild. Then he filled her dad’s head with dreams and stories of how the Family had been back in his day. Delaney hung her head in shame at how gullible her dad had been while listening to the old man spouting his own brand of nonsense.

The Family was still doing business today but they were doing things so differently than they did back in the day of Al Capone and Lucky Luciano. They didn’t go around shooting up businesses or robbing banks like they did when there were such people as Bonnie and Clyde. Today, the Family liked to stay under the radar and at least appear legitimate. Her dad always banked on the fact that his grandfather had left his fortune behind for him to have a startup fund. He was proud of the fact that most of what Alfonzo left behind was stolen and hidden for a reason.

She had been glad that it all had been returned to Leon, then she remembered the ten million Alfonzo stole from the Family itself. That was a bold move on his part, then thinking he’d gotten away with it for so long was a brass move for him to smirk over for so many years.

All they had to do was replace it now before her dad and brother came through the front door. What had grandpa’s words been? She thought about this. “My father always had a saying that most people don’t know what they had under their own roof, sometimes it’s a shitload of money and sometimes it’s nothing but dust and lost dreams. My Barrett always repeated those words and every time he did, he laughed like he was crazy.”

What that meant she didn’t know but she looked upward again and stared at the ceiling. “Under their own roof…” In most houses that meant an attic, but did this place even have an attic?

Just then, Memphis sat down next to her and she jumped.

“Are you okay?” he asked at her nervousness.

“Not really. I was just thinking about something and it’s driving me a bit nuts.”

Memphis stared at her. “Another one of Alfonzo’s puzzles?” He seemed to guess at her line of thought easily.

“Yeah, and something my grandpa said earlier.” She sighed hard.

“He’s said a lot, Babe and he’s found a lot in that old journal. So which thing is this about?” Memphis wanted to know.

“About Alfonzo having that saying. Most people don’t know what’s under their own roofs, sometimes it’s a shitload of money and other times it’s just lost dreams and dust.”

Memphis paused and shook his head at her. “Well, our MC sure as hell had more than we thought under our fucking roof. I mean fuck…Hidden bodies, gold, stills, and tunnels everywhere. A tank full of art? He could have meant all of that with his saying.”

Delaney turned to him. “Yes, but the part about when my dad said it, he would laugh, like he was the only one in on that secret joke. I have a question for you though.”

He stared back at her. “Ok, ask it.”

“Most roofs have peaks right? Like the space between the roof and the ceiling.’

Memphis nodded. “Sure.”

“Does this place have an attic?” Delaney asked.

“I’m sure it does but I’ve never seen it. I do know there’s a steel enforced ceiling in this room. And it sure as hell saved us today. Why it’s enforced, I have no idea but I saw that in the original building blueprints. When we bought this place, we got a copy of them. We just never knew why this ceiling was enforced. The realtor never said why either.” He paused to scratch his head. “I know Zeus asked him about that but he didn’t seem to know.” Then he snorted, “Then again, that fucking realtor never told us about the escape tunnels either.”

Delaney shook her head. “No, I don’t imagine he did. He never knew enough about the crazy original owner. Or, about all of Alfonzo’s secrets of the ages.”

Memphis snorted then shook his head. “I’ve known of family secrets and heard of them. But your family’s are real doozies. They seem to keep popping up, one after another. Like some game that never ends.”

Delaney shrugged. “Yeah, one thing we can say is that he was creative. A genius in a way but it ruined his entire legacy if you think about it. Look what it has done to my dad and brothers. And all for what? They are all going to end up dead. Broke and dead.” She paused and let out a sigh, then shook that thought away. “So back to my earlier question, does this place have an attic?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. I never saw that in the blueprints.”

Frustrated, Delaney dragged her hand down over the length of her hair and growled, “Ugg, well can you replace out somehow?”

Memphis gave her a nod, then turned to the brothers around him to ask, “Does anybody know if this place has an attic?”

Diabolus frowned and looked around, as did everyone else.

“You think they could get in there?” Leon questioned.

Memphis pointed at Delaney and said, “She wants to know.”

Leon turned to Delaney. “Why is that so important to know, especially at this very moment?”

Delaney looked over at her grandpa and said, “He reminded me of something great grandpa always used to say.”

“He has told us all he knew and I believe he has looked through that journal too,” Leon reminded her.

Delaney sat forward and clasped her hands together on the table. “He said that Barrett repeated what Great Grandpa told him. ‘Most people don’t know what they have under their own roof, sometimes it’s a shitload of money and sometimes it’s nothing but dust and lost dreams.’ The under their own roof part got me wondering if the money is in reality, under their own roof. Now I know this roof is flat but most houses have an attic. I was just wondering if this place had some kind of an attic.” She glanced over at Memphis, “Then he said this room had a steel enforced ceiling and I was wondering why.”

Leon’s eyes narrowed at her. “I see what you are referring to. But with the way this crazy Alfonzo was, would he really mean it, literally? And this is a steel enforced roof that is flat. I am unsure if that would be where he hid that money.”

Delaney looked at him and calmed herself before she asked him, “How heavy do you think ten million dollars really is?”

Leon paused then tilted his head back to contemplate the ceiling of the very room they were all in. He dropped his gaze back to look at her. “You think the money is in the attic? Or even above our heads?”

Delaney shrugged. “Why not? We are talking about Alfonzo Raggetti here, aren’t we? He kept saying most people don’t know what they had under their own roof. Well, an attic would be right under your own roof. And how many people really check out their attics?”

Leon turned to look at Zeus and raised a brow. “That makes sense. Does this place have an attic?”

Zeus nodded slowly. “Yeah, but it’s not really anything more than a very small crawl space as the roof is flat. But yeah, we can check it out.”

Leon shrugged. “It’s worth a try, if there is nothing there, there’s nothing there but at least we checked. Besides it will give us something to do while we wait for some kind of word on Barrett and his son. Other than sitting here waiting for… these stupidi pezzi di merda. ”

“Boss,” Click spoke up as he stared at Zeus. “There’s an attic access in my office.”

Zeus shrugged. “Ok, let’s check it out. The worst thing we can replace is nothing at all.”

Everyone gathered in Click’s office as Diabolus and Memphis got up on ladders to remove the panels covering the opening leading to the attic.

Memphis stuck his head through the opening and had a look around. Then he turned to look down at Zeus. “This is nothing more than a crawl space with limited room. Not very big at all, so not everyone is going to fit up here.” He looked back into the space and added, “Maybe only two or three men.”

“What do you see up there?” Zeus asked.

Memphis looked down at his brother and said, “Mostly, just insulation between the studs, dust and spider webs.”

Zeus frowned. “That’s all you see?”

Memphis nodded. “I really don’t see anything else.”

“Then it’s a bust.” Zeus growled.

“No, look again, please,” Delaney pleaded.

Zeus shook his head. “There’s nothing there. I’m not sending one of my men to check under the insulation when I know damn well they won’t replace anything. It just isn’t worth it. We have a battle to attend at the moment and we don’t have time for this.” He turned, walking out of the room.

The others followed him out.

Diabolus climbed the ladder again and replaced the panels they had just taken down.

Delaney leaned back against the desk feeling disappointed. She knew there was something there even if they didn’t believe her.

Memphis went over to her. “Are you ok baby?” he asked her softly.

Delaney shook her head. “I know there’s something there. I know it in my gut but your brother is just do damned stubborn… he won’t even listen.”

“You want me to go have a little looksee?” Memphis asked her.

She snapped her head up and stared at him. “You would do that for me?”

Memphis shrugged. “Sure, I would. I’m not scared of a little dust, but if a big ole spider comes down, I’m outta there. I hate spiders.” He shivered. “Like they got these slimy looking legs and I swear if one gets into my hair, you might hear me screaming like a girl,” he joked.

Diabolus snorted.

Memphis looked over at him. “And no comments are needed from you Mr. Opinionated.”

Diabolus shrugged. “You mean like when that same thing happened down in the first tunnel we ever discovered?” He looked over at Delaney as he nodded. “He speaks the gospel. He screamed like a girl.” He chuckled.

Delaney laughed now, then she looked back over at Memphis. “Please look? I need to know if there is something under that insulation.” She reached up, grabbed him by the neck, and pulled him down to her level to kiss him deeply.

Memphis kissed her wildly and only paused when he heard Diabolus clear his throat. He broke the kiss and cleared his own throat then gave her an intense look. Turning, he almost ran up the ladder and disappeared into the hole.

Delaney climbed up and peeked inside, watching as Memphis lifted the edge of the several pieces of the insulation to look underneath it. Time after time, he searched under the fluffy itchy insulation and time after time, he shook his head when there was nothing there. As he got closer to the middle of the room though he lifted one corner and just stopped and peered at the area closely. Then he looked back at Delaney and just stared at her. He dropped the piece of insulation and moved. Again, he lifted the insulation and stared for a moment, then dropped it. Next, he went over one row and peeked under the yellow stuff. Finally, he came back to the hole.

Delaney moved off the ladder.

Memphis got on it and climbed down.

Diabolus gasped while staring at him with wide eyes.

Memphis paused at his stare. “What?”

“Dude, there’s— Oh damn!”

Memphis shook his head as Diabolus was staring at his hair. “Man, not a spider! God damnit!” He bent over and shook his hair out.

Diabolus was laughing now.

Memphis slowly rose up to glare at him.

His friend chuckled.

“You fucker,” Memphis growled at him.

Delaney giggled.

Releasing a disgusted breath, Memphis motioned at the panels. “Since you are so damn clever, go up and nail that shut.”

Diabolus kept snickering as he climbed up to do so. He nailed the panels back on and stepped down onto the floor. “So, what did you replace, fraidy cat?” He smirked.

Memphis shook his head. “Well, I sure didn’t see you crawling around up there, did I.” He scoffed. Turning, he took Delaney’s hand in his and stared at her face as he spoke quietly, “I found about 16 small cases and it wouldn’t surprise me if they all were stuffed with cash. About ten million dollars I’d say.”

“Holy shit!” Diabolus swore softly.

Delaney laughed and clapped. “I swear, sometimes I think men have no common sense!” She grinned at him. “But we found it!”

Diabolus ran his hands over the back of his head and looked over at Memphis then at Delaney. “This is going to make Leon happy. But Zeus is more than sick of all this shit and he will NOT be happy at all.”