Book Excerpt

The Chicago FBI operative Sam Willis, known as The Dart, had the most dangerous job of all. He was a Milwaukee cop-turned-agent who had infiltrated the mob underworld. His father had been a bar owner who managed to piss off a loan shark he needed during a lean time. He ended up burdened with escalating vigorish on the loan, plus the shark was muscling in on his business and chasing away all his regular customers.


In his frustration the already stressed-out bar owner talked a little too much precipitating some broken bones on his left hand and the signing of a document relinquishing ownership of his bar to the thug. On top of that he was still expected to work off his loan by continuing to run the bar that he no longer owned. After a period of hopelessness Sam’s father killed himself, leaving Sam and his mother and two sisters alone with nothing except for a note revealing details of the thug’s misdeeds. The Chicago PD had a long list of complaints and needed this piece of evidence to put the loan shark away. The courts awarded Sam’s mother the establishment where patronage resumed and it continued on as a successful business.


During that time Sam’s mother had made friends with one of the detectives on the force. At seventeen years old, the teen was about to head down the wrong life-path. But the detective took Sam under his wing and groomed him to be a first-rate policeman who worked quickly up the ranks to become a young detective. Then Sam was recruited by the FBI to work in the gang-related task force. He had been chasing loan sharks, pimps, and organized bad guys ever since.


Sam The Dart had been working a deal in Chicago, attempting to bring down a notorious gang. It wasn’t one of the big, famous outfits, but it was a strong, integrated gang with pull in the CPD and D.A.’s office. It also had Russian and Irish gangs answering to it. Rumor had it that this was the same gang responsible for the deaths of the D.A., Joseph Kazinski, and his wife (although their deaths had been ruled an accidental house fire) and several other high-profi le murders, along with vice, gambling, prostitution, and other offenses.


Dart had never worked in Illinois or Wisconsin as an agent. It was his first-ever undercover exposure so close to his home. After a month or so of showing up at The Scene on Grand Avenue ostensibly looking for work, Dart approached Lou with a deal, “Lou, you want to buy some furniture?”


Lou said, “I got furniture, Dart.” Sam had gotten the name, The Dart, because he could hit any spot on the dartboard on a bet and then hit that dart. Nobody could beat him. He still remained unbeaten.


“No. I mean truck-loads of furniture.”