Chapter 43
“The Governor?” I bark a laugh, then quickly rein it in. The look on Sera’s face tells me this isn’t a laughing matter, but after Luca told me how she was about to dismember Greco’s jewels with a smile on her face, I’m getting a little giddy. “You want to take out D’Angelo?”
“Once we’ve got Gabriella back, yes.” Sera nods towards Nico Rocco.
I rub the headache that’s been pounding at my brain like a hammer. The explosion that took out Haze also took me and Luca out. Though he denies it, he’s walking with more of a limp today than yesterday. Luckily, that’s all we walked away with. It could have been so much worse than just a headache and sore leg.
Sera has a bandaid on her forehead from where Nico patched her up last night. Enzo has a bandage over his hand, only sustaining superficial burns that will heal. Overall, we survived something that could have been fatal. Even Alfredo Bianchi managed to get out of a flipped out, burnt car with just a broken leg and bruised ribs. If there’s anything to take away from this, it’s that this was definitely an attempt to take us all out this time—not leaving anyone alive to retaliate. Unfortunately, Greco failed, and judging from the look on Sera’s face, she’s gone into full revenge mode.
After Luca updated me on what happened last night, I’m still left a little curious as to what Nico’s role in all of this is. All I know is he handed Greco to Sera on a platter. Since the security footage has been wiped, we have to trust Nico that they were behind this.
That’s also why we’re all sitting in Sera’s den currently. Nowhere outside of these walls is safe. Sera is still a target, so anywhere she goes, her life is at risk.
“How are we going to do that?” Luca asks the group.
“There’s a gala this weekend,” Nico answers, eyes flickering to Sera seeking permission.
She nods in response, weighing the information in her head as she leans back in her chair. “We could use that to get to him.”
“What if that’s too late?” Enzo huffs from beside her.
Nico shakes his head. “I doubt it. There are no auction invitations.” As soon as the words are in the air, he grimaces.
“Auctions!?” Luca gapes, like that piece of information wasn’t how he saw this going.
Nico’s attention snaps to him and he raises a brow in reply. “How else do you think this happens, Fontana?”
A sick knot embeds itself in my stomach at the thought of how transactional all this is. The thought of those girls being held captive with no hope of getting out infuriates me. All I can think about is what Luisa went through and how I wasn’t there for her when she needed me the most. I won’t let that happen again, though. Any way that I can help Sera get Gabriella back, I’ll do it.
“Greco has been calling the shots, bringing in the cargo with Verdi,” Nico continues to explain. “The auctions are anonymous, though, and now that they’re both out of the picture, I’m not sure who is taking over.”
“Maybe you should have led with that,” Enzo grunts. “Before we tossed them to the pigs.”
“What do you get out of this?” I find myself asking. I’m still not fully convinced that Nico doesn’t have an ulterior motive. He refused to help Bianchi when we needed his backup and his arsenal, but now he’s decided to change teams. Something about that doesn’t sit right with me.
“I want to take them down,” Nico replies with a dark undertone. “I want to take them all down. It’s what I’ve been working on all along, and I couldn’t keep it up if I was helping Sera.”
“Who’s them?” I interject.
“My father. The Carlucci family. The Verdis were on my list too, but…” he trails off, locking eyes with Enzo. “You guys saw to that problem.”
“You took out your father?” My eyes widen with surprise.
“Carlucci, too,” Nico smirks. “And now, I want D’Angelo’s head.”
My skepticism diminishes at his honesty. He’s just taken out the major players of the flesh trade and he doesn’t even show an ounce of remorse for it.
Luca, on the other hand, needs a little more convincing. “How do we know we can trust you?” His eyes narrow on Nico, who sits confidently in his chair opposite Sera’s desk like it’s his own interrogation—minus the violence. “You’ve been working with Greco this whole time.”
I don’t miss the knowing glance Nico sends Enzo like they’re sharing some secret conversation. Whatever it is, Enzo trusts Nico enough to bring him here, enough for Sera to hear him out.
“I traded weapons with them to get inside, yes. But I was never a part of the flesh trade. Not directly anyway.” Nico’s words sound sincere. As much as I hate it, I believe him, but it’s not me he needs to reassure.
Sera furrows her brow, folding her arms. “What does that mean?”
“They had Mila, my wife.” Nico clears his throat, shifting in his seat as he drops his gaze to his hands that are fidgeting nervously. Whatever is running through his head, whatever he’s trying to vocalize, it’s obviously difficult.
When he finally lifts his gaze, the painful regret is written all over his face. “They had her little sister. The shit…” He cuts himself off, shaking his head. “What they did to those girls… no one should live through that. Some didn’t. Which is why I was trading with them, trying to take the assholes down from the inside out.”
“I thought your father only married you off to higher families.” My focus bounces to the fact he has a wife, one that isn’t from one of the families.
“The old ways,” Nico scoffs. “I was meant to marry Carlucci’s daughter. My father gifted me Mila as some sick bachelor’s gift he thought I’d appreciate.” The harshness of his voice softens for a moment, then turns sharper. “It was his way of reminding me what our family stood for, that Mila was only good for one thing. I got her out of the ring, but…” he trails off, not finishing his sentence.
“But what?” Luca pushes.
“I couldn’t save her little sister,” Nico murmurs, his words laced with guilt. Then he lifts his head to Sera, defiance blazing in his eyes. “But I can save the rest of them. I can help you get Gabriella back.”
Sera sighs, rubbing her brow. “Is that the reason you killed your father?”
“One of many,” Nico retorts.
Satisfied with his answer, Sera turns her attention to the rest of us. Her gaze is set with the threat of violence blazing in it. “If we’re going to do this, we need to be discreet.”
“I can get us an invitation.”
Sera smirks, eyes set on Nico. “Cute,” she remarks. “And you think I can’t?”
I choke on a laugh, remembering the gala a few months ago. “Sera’s got the Governor by the balls,” I tell him. And she literally did. He tried to persuade her to be closer than allies, and she pretty much told him what she thought of that idea. Suffice to say, she could probably get the closest to the Governor undetected and end his sorry little life without even drawing attention to herself.
Scratch that. People will definitely be watching her. I don’t know one person who can take their eyes off Sera right now. Even Nico is wearing a look of admiration in his expression.
“Of course you do,” Nico smiles, clearly impressed. He turns to Enzo. “We can draw up a plan, a way to get close to the Governor.”
“D’Angelo’s mine,” Sera interrupts before the question can even be raised.
“Sera—” Before Enzo can question her, she cuts him off with a wave of her hand.
“He’s mine,” she repeats. “We had a deal, like Greco, and he reneged on that. He’s mine to deal with now.”
Despite Nico’s reasons to help, he doesn’t fight her on this. Everyone has something to gain from taking the Governor down, but since Sera is the one in charge, the decision is in her hands. Nobody in the room questions her. Not even Giovanni, who has been standing quietly in the corner with an impassive look on his face. But I can see the emotions he’s trying to hold back; fury, pain, loss.
With a nod, Nico stands, accepting that there’s nothing more to say.
“Before you go,” Sera announces, gesturing to Enzo with a dip of her head. He produces the playing card he found in Verdi’s pocket; the Queen of Hearts. “What do you know about this?”
Taking it from Enzo, Nico inspects the card, flipping it over back and forth. But his expression is unreadable, completely blank. There’s no flare of recognition, no tell that he might know what it is, and that tells us all we need to know.
“Enzo found it on Verdi,” Raf explains. “I found a chip in it, but so far it’s unhackable.”
“Encrypted?” Nico frowns.
“To the max.”
Enzo hovers over Nico’s shoulder, taking the whole ‘seeing it from a different perspective’ to a whole new level. “We think it’s a calling card, but could this be linked to the trafficking ring?”
“No.” Nico shakes his head. “The whole point of the trafficking ring is to stay hidden, untraceable. They wouldn’t create something that could be traced back to the ring or the organizer.”
I release a long breath, sinking into my seat. The entire situation is leaving me tired and uneasy. At least we know that the Governor is involved and he has Gabriella. Other than that, we’re no wiser as to who is calling the shots within this ring, which means Nico’s list of names might be a little longer than he anticipated.
“The Governor hasn’t made an attempt to take you out,” Enzo states to Sera. “If this is a calling card, he has nothing to do with it.” His words are scored with certainty, like he knows the Governor on a personal level. Then again, the man tried to bribe Sera into bed, so I wouldn’t dismiss his capabilities just yet.
Sera nods her head in affirmation before returning her attention to Nico. “So, how are the auctions communicated, then?”
“It’s pretty pathetic really,” he laughs, shaking his head. “They send out letters. Coded letters that can never be traced back to one person. Trust me, I’ve tried. I’ve never attended the auctions, though, so it could be a way in, but…” Nico pauses, his words cutting off while his fingers trace the black shiny emblem on the back of the card. “This emblem.”
“You’ve seen it before?” I ask.
Nico sighs, his breath caught up in his thoughts until he finally replies, “It’s the same one on the letters.”
Confusion sets in with all of us, but it’s Sera who reacts first. She pushes up from her desk, storming past us in silence. Her face is stoic, her thoughts are muted, she just leaves us all in the den with no clue as to what’s going on.
“I’ll go check on her,” I say, pushing off the wall and heading for the door. It doesn’t take me long to find her pacing the kitchen, twisting her hair between her fingers as she loses herself to her thoughts. “Sera?”
Her gaze snaps to mine.
“You want to tell me what just happened?” I ask, taking careful steps towards her.
Her eyes soften, worry flaring in them as I approach. She stops me with a palm to my chest before I can pull in close, and the action alone is gut-wrenching. “Things aren’t adding up,” she says apprehensively.
“I know,” I sigh, because there’s nothing else I can say to that. It’s true; nothing is adding up and the fact that both Nico and Alfredo recognized the symbol sets me on edge.
“You think my father knew what D’Angelo was up to?” She turns to press her palms to the counter, dropping her head between her shoulders. “What if my father is involved in trafficking those poor girls?”
“Bellissima,” I coo, moving around her body to cage her between myself and the kitchen island. “I wish I could tell you what you want to hear. Your father is a good man. I don’t think for one moment he knew what D’Angelo, or Greco, or even Verdi were up to.”
“But that’s not to say he isn’t involved, right?”
“Right…” Though, I doubt Alfredo has any knowledge of this happening right under his nose, or it would have been something he mentioned to his daughter.
Sera turns in my arms, sliding her palms over my chest as she lets out a long sigh. “I really hope you’re right, Levi.” The turmoil she’s feeling is palpable. She’s only just made amends with her father, and then this happens. We’re all jumping to conclusions at this point, trying to make heads or tails of who’s behind the calling card and who’s running the trafficking ring. We can’t completely rule out her father, but my gut tells me that he’s an innocent bystander in all of this.
Gripping her hips, I tug her to me. “We can go visit your father, if you want? Ask him about The Governor.”
“Tomorrow,” she agrees softly, pushing up on her toes to press a kiss to my lips. “For now, I just want to call it a day.”
I couldn’t agree more.Last night took it out of all of us. We’re all suffering battle wounds in some way, and the best decision for all of us now is to rest and regroup.
“That, I can help with.” I run my thumb over the scar on her cheek. It’s something that most people would shy away from or attempt to cover up, but she wears her scar like a medal, looking badass while she does so.
“Thank you,” she smiles.
“For what?”
“For saying exactly what I needed to hear.”
Leaning down, I kiss her lips tenderly. Her body melts against mine, her arms snaking around my neck to pull me closer. Our mouths move together, reacquainting themselves like long lost friends. Damn, I forgot how good it feels kissing her, the way she whimpers as I delve my tongue into her mouth. Refraining from letting the kiss get too heated—despite my throbbing cock aching to be inside her—I pull away.
“Anything for you, Sera. I told you before and I’ll tell you again. I’m right beside you, I always will be.” I cement those words with another kiss, this one laced with my promise. “I love you, Sera. I always have.”
She smiles at those words, a little gasp parting those plump lips. For a moment, she doesn’t say anything. Her eyes tour my sincere expression, leaving me to wonder if this was the wrong moment to tell her how I fell. But then she cups my face and brings it to hers. “I love you too, Levi. More than you realize.”