South Mountain Pack Ch. 11

Joel swallowed his bite of hamburger before continuing while his brother ate, "Jerry called the inspectors and they'll be out tomorrow morning at 8 to inspect the trusses so we can shingle it. Oh, the roofing supplies were put them in the home owner's garage so they wouldn't be left out overnight and get stolen."

Frank looked at Joe and said, "Rose and Annie were right. Promoting them was the best thing to do, look at everything they did and we didn't even get a phone call."

"You're not going to let them know they were right, are you?" asked Joe with a smile as he finished his French fries.

"Hell no," replied Frank giving his brother an 'Are you crazy?' look. "Good job guys, you made a good decision to go to the Sharpsburg site and to thank you and the work crew, we'll pick up lunch."

"Thanks boss," said Jerry with a smile. He looked around the table and noticed the other men talking loudly amongst themselves and leaned in towards Frank and said, "Hey boss, I wanted to let you know how thankful we are that you trusted us enough to give us this promotion and we want you to know we won't let you down."

Frank smiled at the younger man and said, "I know you won't. You and your brother have been working for us since you turned sixteen by sweeping up job sites, hauling equipment and have earned the positions you have now, nobody gave them to you. We have complete confidence in the two of you and when you leave work today, stop by Vinnie's he has a new truck for each of you."

"Are you serious?" asked Joel and Jerry their eyes wide with excitement.

"We figured since you were site supervisors now, you would need a heavier duty truck, instead of the standard F-150," said Joe with a grin. "So we got you the 350-XLT with the extended truck beds. Leave your old trucks at Vinnie's, he's going to give them a once over and they'll go to the new foreman's."

"Who else are you promoting? Hold on a sec," asked Jerry as he glanced quickly at his watch before raising his voice to get the work crews attention. "Guys, hurry up and finish, we need to leave in ten minutes to get back to the site on time. Don't worry about lunch; the bosses are paying."

"Thanks boss" were heard from the work crews and Frank and Joe got up and walked over to where their crews were sitting and Joel and Jerry followed.

"I know Joe sent the email about Joel and Jerry's promotion, but it leaves us with two foreman positions open," said Frank looking at the men. "We're promoting Larry and Barry. Larry you'll be foreman of the hospital project and Barry you'll be foreman of the Sharpsburg project. You'll report directly to Joel and Jerry, we've got something else going on and won't be around the office much."

Larry and Barry shook hands with Frank and Joe as the men offered congratulations. Joe smiled and said, "You don't get new trucks, but you're getting Joel and Jerry's old ones, they should be ready for you to pick up on Wednesday. Vinnie's replacing the tires and doing general maintenance on them for you."

"Dante called, his plane should land in about 45 minutes," said Carlo to Frank, Joe and Carmelo.

"Okay, we're still at The Diner. Do you want to meet us at our office and follow us? We need to stop and get Annie's SUV," said Joe.

"I already have Rita's SUV," said Carmelo. "I'll follow Frank and Joe."

"That's fine, we'll meet at your office in 15 minutes," said Carlo.

Forty minutes later they were waiting on the tarmac in front of a private hangar at Hagerstown Regional Airport. As they watched the Gulfstream slowly taxi towards them Carmelo said, "I've got to get me one of those."

"You have a spare $50 mil layin around?" asked Carlo with a smile. "That's the base price and knowing my cousin, I'm sure Dante made upgrades." As they watched several men in official government uniforms followed the plane into the hangar and secured the doors with a guard standing outside. Carlo said, "Customs should take about thirty minutes, let's go inside and get a cup of coffee."

"How are the youngsters doing?" asked Frank once they were seated at the snack bar.

"Good. They're doing placement tests, and by tomorrow we should have their schedules. The last couple of drills went well, but we need to get the response time down to two minutes," said Carlo with a frown. "I'll need the three of you tomorrow, right now that's the most important thing to work on. Frank and Joe, I'll need your crew out there to install the plywood on the portico. I'd also like Paulo to look over the electronics again to see what upgrades we need to support all the new cameras."

Joe was quiet for several moments and said, "Paulo said he'll look over the system tomorrow after school. He'd like to have the school empty of students and he has some things he wants to test out."

Carlo looked out the window and was quiet for several minutes before he said, "We need to put someone in charge of preparing the safe rooms. I don't want it to be any of you, there's enough going on that the three of you will busy."

The men got quiet as they thought of who would be capable of doing it, and Joe said, "Why don't you put the women in charge of it? They could divide the work load between all of them and let's be honest, they are better then us at organizing and supervising things."

Carmelo nodded his head saying, "Joe's right, we can go in and check the mechanical aspects, but everything else they are more then capable of handling."

"It's settled, I'll tell Gina and they can discuss it at the Tuesday women's luncheon," said Carlo before he got quiet again. Frank, Joe and Carlo finished their coffee and sat quietly knowing Carlo was deep in thought and didn't want to disturb him. A little over fifteen minutes later, Carlo got up and without a word the three men followed him out onto the tarmac to wait for the Rossi Pack. Another ten minutes went by before the government officials pushed the sliding doors open and nodding to the four men went into the Airport Terminal. "They should be out soon," said Carlo as he rolled his neck, anxious to get moving.

Moments later, the Rossi Pack emerged from the shadows of the private hangar. Dante was at point and flanked by the Carlucci Cousins with the rest of the men lined up in a standard V formation as they strutted out of the hanger. They were dressed in identical black Armani suits, white shirts, black silk ties, handmade black Italian shoes and wearing Ray Ban Classic Wayfarers.

"I feel like I've stepped into a fucking Quentin Tarantino movie," said Frank unable to tear his eyes away. "But at least none of them looks like Steve Buscemi."

"I'm waiting for some of that retro music to start playing," added Carmelo as he glanced at Frank, Joe and Carlo.

"Like the 5-6-7-8's," said Joe with a laugh. "I can hear the wooh hoo wooh hoo hoo's in my head."

"You've got to admit, they've got style. Only Dante and his Pack could pull off that retro Mafioso gangster look and get away with it," said Carlo as he laughed. Dante stopped walking five feet in front of him and Carlo walked forward and the two cousins stared at each other for several moments before embracing. Their facial structure was similar, making it obvious they were related, but Dante was leaner and had striking blue eyes that were part of his mother's English heritage. "Thank you for coming," Carlo said quietly into Dante's ear. The two Alphas' stepped away from each other and stared at each other again.

"We're family, you would do the same for us," said Dante quietly. He glanced around at their surroundings as if gathering his thoughts before he continued in a normal tone, "For over two thousand years, the Rossi Pack has stood together through good times and bad. When one falls, we are there to help them stand. When one hurts, we are there to wash the pain away. When one grieves, we are there to lesson the pain. When there is joy, we are there to share in their happiness."

He got quiet again and looked at the members of South Mountain Pack before turning around and looking at the members of his Pack that travelled with him. He stood to his full height of 6'3" and said in a cold deadly voice, "But when somebody dares to hurt one of us, the full strength and power of the whole fucking Pack will descend down upon them. May Luna have mercy on them... because we won't."

"Dobbiamo proteggere la confezione e la famiglia sopra ogni cosa," both cousins recited before embracing again.

Frank and Joe stepped forward to embrace their cousins Ricardo and Rocco. They were obviously related to each other with their piercing emerald eyes, black hair and chiseled jaws, but they were much shorter being 6'1" and weighed 200 pounds to Frank and Joe's 6'5" and 240 pounds.

Carmelo embraced his cousin Gustavo; they had seen each other in June when he and Rita accompanied their parents and Gabriella to Italy. Carmelo and Rita had wanted to ensure Gabriella's security before they left her there for the summer and Carmelo had wanted to discuss with Gus and Dante the arrangements for Gabriella's schooling when she came to Italy to study.

After embracing his cousins, Ric stepped back and said "You've gotten old."

Frank started laughing as he said, "We're only six days older then you and you're the one that has gray hairs at your temple."

Ric said in an arrogant condescending tone, "They are a badge of honor to show my wisdom and strength of character."

Rocco rolled his eyes as he added, "Liar... we left in such a hurry, he didn't have time to go to the salon. He was going to pluck them out but Dante told him that ten more would come, so now he is embracing them and his old age."

"Old age my ass, I am reaching my prime and only getting better," Ric said as he hit his younger brother hard on the shoulder. "I'll deal with you later little one, when I whip your ass in the ring."

"Little one my ass," retorted Rocco. "You're two minutes older then me and I'd like to see you try and whip my ass, the last couple of times it's been a draw."

"I see the two of you still argue like a bunch of young ones fighting for the last piece of cake," said Joe as he saw Luciano Vitti walking towards them.

Luciano glared at Frank and Joe, looking at them from head to toe before saying, "I hope you two hotheads are treating my cousins well. Cause if I hear anything different, I won't hesitate to take you both in the ring and teach you a lesson."

"Luke, I don't think you could beat Salvatore or Victor, let alone Joe or I," said Frank as he shook his head his head at the much younger man.

"And you know Rose and Annie would kick their ass if these two treated them bad," added Carlo and the men started to laugh knowing it was true.

Dante looked at his Pack members and said, "Load the luggage in the vehicles; I am anxious to get to the best restaurant on earth." As he was walking to the car he said, "I hope they let me have a lot of the crispies, damn I love those."

The men laughed at Dante's obsession with Long John Silvers and particularly their chicken planks. It had started as a teenager when he was on vacation and they had gone to Valley Mall to see a movie. Since they had limited time before the movie started, they chose Long John Silvers and three hours later, Dante was still eating and they had missed the movie.

Twenty-five minutes later, Dante was rushing everyone inside Valley Mall. As they walked towards the register, the manager noticed them and said quietly to the cashier, "Go tell them Mr. Rossi from Italy is here, they'll know what to do." The new cashier looked perplexed but hurried to do what her manager told her. Amanda smiled as Dante stood in front of the register and said, "Good afternoon and welcome back Mr. Rossi, would you like a dedicated register?"

"Yes Amanda, and thank you, it's a pleasure to be back," said Dante with a smile. "I'll start with the twelve piece chicken plank meal with cole slaw, hushpuppies, fries, large drink, twenty of the add-a-piece shrimp and an order of popcorn shrimp."

"Sir, would you like extra crispies? I can have them give you a plateful," Amanda said with a smile as Dante eagerly nodded his head before sitting down as one by one each man ordered a massive amount of food. Dante's visits to LJS were so legendary that accounts of his visits were written about in the company newsletter along with whispers about the massive tips he left.

The fry cooks hustled back and forth between the fryers, the freezer and getting the items plated as the manager and cashier brought the seemingly endless amount of trays out. Two hours later, their bill was over $800 and Dante and his Pack members were finally full. He got up and paid whispering to Amanda, she nodded her head and went to the back as he sat down to finish his soda.

The exhausted crew came to where the men were sitting and Dante stood thanking them for their excellent cooking skills and wonderful service. As he shook each person's hand he gave them each a $500 tip knowing this was more then they would make in a week or probably two weeks. He thanked them again and told them he would see them again before he returned to Italy.

As they walked out of the restaurant, the cashier turned to Amanda and asked, "Okay, who was that?"

"That was Dante Rossi, CEO of Rossi International and one of the richest men in the world. Forbes has him listed at number 2 because most of his holdings are private so it's only an estimate. I'm not sure who the rest of the Men in Black were, but I'm assuming his bodyguards. The really tall guy was Carlo Rossi of Rossi Grocery Stores, the two in silver and navy were Frank and Joe Carlucci of Carlucci Construction, and the other guy was Carmelo Moretti, he owns the Carmelo's Pizza Parlor Restaurant chain," said Amanda with a shrug. "Come on, we've got a special order to put in, they about cleared out the freezer and if they're coming back, we'd better order extra." The workers were cheerfully cleaning up the mess, and their talk centered over what they would do with their tip.

"It was worth the trip just to eat there," Dante said with a smile. As they got into the vehicle he said, "If you don't mind Carlo, I'm going to go into a food coma, wake me when we get to your house." The drive to Carlo's was quiet as all the Rossi Pack members closed their eyes and rested on the thirty minute trip.

"Dante! I'm so happy to see you," Gina said as she ran and embraced him. Carlo gave a low growl and pulled her away from Dante who started to laugh and Gina shook her head. She looked at her mate as she said, "Carlo, he's my cousin as well as yours. In fact I'm a closer blood relation to Dante then you are or did you forget that my grandfather and his grandmother were brother and sister?"

"I don't care," growled Carlo as he scented her neck. "I don't like seeing you in another males arms, I don't care who it is."

"Whatever. Dante, your room is ready and the dorm room is ready for everybody else at least for now. Luke, Ric and Rocco, Rose and Annie said you would be staying with them, and Gus you are staying with Carmelo. I'm sure the rest of you gentlemen will be staying with your families once they realize you are here," said Gina with a smile. "But for now, go upstairs and rest before the men's meeting tonight. Anthony's at football practice until 5:30 so it'll be quiet." The Rossi Pack nodded their heads and went upstairs, eager for a nap and a shower later.

"We've got to go," said Frank to Carlo. "The girls are at my house and we want to find out how their first day of school went. It's not often we get to spend time alone with them without their brothers butting in all the time."

"We'll be back to help drive everyone to the meeting," said Joe as Carlo nodded.

Frank and Joe were walking in the door as Sophia and Maria were coming downstairs from changing out of their uniforms. After hugging and scenting their daughters to make sure they were okay, they followed them into the kitchen where Rose was making dinner while Annie was getting a snack for the girls. They scented their mates and leaned against the counter smiling at their daughters as they listened to them excitedly tell their moms about everything that happened at school. Two hours later, the boys walked into the kitchen as Rose was taking the garlic bread and four trays of lasagna out of the oven.

After greeting their parents, they loaded their plates and started to eat. "Hurry up," said Vin as he shoveled food into his mouth. "The little ones should be here in twenty minutes. Remember, no rough stuff with them, be careful how you pick them up and make sure their booster seats are fastened tight. And most of all make sure they don't cry... and if they do, I'll make you cry even harder."

"Yes, Dad," said Gianni sarcastically. "What do you think we'd be doing with them that we would be rough?"

"Hoops with Hope," said Marcus with a laugh as Vin scowled.

"Archery with Abby," said a grinning Paulo as he turned to his twin.

"Jiujitsu with Jackie," said Michael with a laugh as he high-fived Paulo.

"Boxing with Brooke," said Victor with a smirk, turning to Sal.

"Taekwondo with Toni," added Sal with a laugh as he looked at Victor.

"Enough with the smart ass answers," snapped Dom. "Just remember they are little girls and be gentle with them and don't make them cry."

"Lorenzo is the only one that makes girls cry," said Damian with a smirk as he looked at Lorenzo who was frowning.

"And why would I make them cry?" asked Lorenzo who glared at Vin and Dom before turning to glare at Damian. "And what do you mean I make girls cry?"

Maria rolled her eyes and said, "Well, you've known your girlfriend for less then a week and you've made her cry several times, you've hollered at her, you've sneezed on her, you've ignored her, you threatened to drop her on her ass and to top it all you snotted all over her face...so if anybody would make them cry, it would be you."

The Clan, except for Lorenzo burst out laughing. He slammed his cup down and hollered, "FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME, SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND."

Their parents looked up from where they sitting at the breakfast bar and Frank asked, "Is there a problem we should know about?" Fourteen youngsters shook their heads no and thirteen of them continued to laugh.

"Don't you want to know what Erin was asking Maria when you hollered at her?" asked Sophia with an innocent smile. "And I guess you don't want to know Patrick and Bob Reeder asked Caitlin and Erin out to dinner and bowling after the game?"

"WHAT?" hollered Lorenzo and Damian, both snapping their heads to look at Sophia and then to Vin who nodded his head in confirmation.

"Yup, they're going on their first date, actually a quadruple date with Sophia and me," said Maria with an evil smile as she looked at her oldest set of brothers. "They're really excited and Matt and Phil are taking them clothes shopping on Friday to get them new outfits so they look nice."

Lorenzo clamped his mouth tightly shut and he could feel his wolf pacing back and forth in agitation. Before he could stop himself he demanded, "Which one of those bastards is going out with Erin?" His hand was gripping the fork so tight he bent the handle and threw it on the table in disgust.

Before anything else could be said, Frank and Joe started walking to the front door, drawing their attention. Moments later they heard the doorbell ring and then Frank and Joe led the Costello's, the Whitmer's and Harold Poffenberger into the kitchen. Each man was holding their daughters hand and had an anxious look on their face.

"Wenzo," shouted Brooke running to him as he scooped her up and put her in his lap. His agitation instantly gone and a feeling of protectiveness took over instead as his wolf went on alert to guard the little one.