13. Siena
Siena
Leaning against the cool brick facade, I watch the city come to life around me.
Cars hum past, people bustle along the sidewalks, and the faint aroma of coffee wafts from a nearby café.
I shove my hands into the pockets of my jean jacket, the flash drive pressing against my palm, a physical reminder of why I’m here.
She gives me a polite, curious smile as she unlocks the door. “Are you waiting for me? ”
“If you’re Alexandra Hayes, I am.” I know who she is, but I don’t want her to think I’m a stalker. Just because I remember her doesn’t mean that she remembers me.
Plus, I’m trying to lie low, so I’m wearing a short dress with a jean jacket on top and running shoes.
I have a ball cap pulled low over my eyes, my ponytail sticking out the hole in the back, and large sunglasses that cover half my face.
Definitely not how I would have been dressed when I met her at the Victim Advocacy Center.
“I am. Do you have an appointment?” She frowns, looking at her watch. I know she’s busy, and I don’t care.
“I don’t, but I do have an emergency. Something I think you’ll want to see.”
Inside her office, a tidy space with desks, shelves crammed with legal texts, and filing cabinets lining the walls, I follow her to her desk.
The air smells faintly of coffee grounds and copier paper.
As she settles into her chair, I pull the flash drive from my pocket and place it on the desk in front of her.
“This belonged to my sister,” I say, my voice steady despite the knot tightening in my chest. I recount Emily’s story as briefly as possible, keeping my tone clinical, biting back the acidic bile that rises in my throat.
“She and her husband were killed by someone who bombed her plane. This was found in the wreckage.”
Alexandra inserts the flash drive into her computer. “The police let you keep this?”
“Not exactly,” I admit.
She glances over her shoulder at me, raising an eyebrow before clicking on the file. “Not admissible in court unless you’d like a tampering with evidence charge. Unless, of course, you found it at her house instead of… anywhere else? ”
I hesitate. “I—“
“Think about it,” she says firmly, giving me a pointed look. “Maybe you were mistaken.”
The video loads, and together we watch the horrifying footage: a man tied to a chair, a gunshot ringing out, and the killer’s face caught briefly on camera. Alexandra rewinds and replays it twice more, pausing to zoom in on the shooter’s face.
“Hmm.” She taps the screen with a manicured nail. “So, we’ve got evidence of a murder implicating this man here,” another tap, “and a suspected murder that killed at least two people—your sister and her husband. Correct?”
I nod. The details, boiled down so clinically, still hit me like a punch to the gut. I don’t mention Matti. So far, it doesn’t seem relevant, and I can barely stomach talking about Emily without adding that emotional tornado of complications.
“How do you know it was a bomb?” she asks, her eyes on the screen again, rewatching the video.
“I was on the phone with her when… when it happened.”
She turns to me intently. “You heard an explosion?”
I nod.
“May or may not have been a bomb. May have been an engine malfunction that you heard. Not saying it wasn’t a murder. Just that we don’t know the details for sure.”
I guess that’s possible. Anything could have caused the explosion.
I just assumed it was a bomb. But Emily herself told me that people were trying to kill Mikey, and the flash drive says to me that it was a murder, no matter what the method of execution.
She and Mikey had this flash drive, and someone wanted it.
Or wanted to make sure they didn’t give it to the authorities.
Matti’s presence at the wreck and then at One Pearl Park Plaza is proof of that. But I keep my mouth shut.
“This man,” Alexandra says, pointing to the man holding the gun on the screen, “do you recognize him?”
“I don’t.”
“I do.” She frowns. “That’s Aurelio Demonio. He runs one of the most powerful organized crime syndicates in New York, the Demonio family. He’s elbow deep in every single illicit moneymaking industry in the city. Murder, bribery, extortion—he’s ruthless.
“I’m telling you this because you need to be aware of what kind of man you are up against. Murdering people is standard practice for him, and let me tell you, he does not discriminate.
He’ll take out a cop’s wife just to get rid of a speeding ticket.
He’ll murder a witness to keep them from testifying. Or bringing a case.”
I swallow hard, nodding. “I hear you,” I whisper.
Alexandra pauses, watching me, then leans in, lowering her voice.
“It is my guess that he ordered the deaths of your sister and her husband in order to get rid of this evidence. If he’d do that to one of his own guys, I doubt seriously that he would bat an eye at doing the same to you for the same purpose. ”
I feel like I missed something because I don’t know who she means when she says “one of his own guys,” but I nod again, anyway. I get what she’s trying to say: if Matti is Satan’s spawn, then this Aurelio Demonio is the devil himself.
Alexandra leans back in her chair and taps the screen again, this time pointing to the dead guy in the chair. “And him? That’s John Lumina, heir to Luminous & Co. Ever heard of them?”
I nod vaguely. They sound familiar, and I remember seeing their name on the sign inside One Pearl Park Plaza.
“They design one-of-a-kind luxury jewelry for the ultra-wealthy. It was an open secret that Aurelio worked closely with John’s father for years, but evidently, the son didn’t follow the same playbook when he took over after his dad died.
John was found dead in a dumpster outside his office about a decade or so ago. Case went cold.”
My stomach lurches, and my mind flashes back to yesterday, to Matti dragging me behind the dumpsters in the alley. The ones outside the building that housed the Luminous & Co. office.
Alexandra pulls up the building blueprints for One Pearl Park Plaza, scrutinizing them with a frown. “Nothing obvious here, but it might connect to something.” She removes the flash drive and leans across the desk, her sharp eyes locking onto mine.
“These people are no joke, Siena. The FBI has been after Aurelio for years, but every time they get close, something goes wrong—people die, evidence vanishes. This could be a game-changer for them. Handing this over to them could save countless lives.”
But it wouldn’t save Emily. And if everything Alexandra says about him is true, then it wouldn’t help bring him to justice for her murder, either.
I shake my head. “I don’t want the FBI. I want you. I don’t want this to disappear into the abyss, get caught up in some decades-long case. Can’t we file a civil case?”
Alexandra sighs, leaning back. “We have no evidence connecting Aurelio to your sister and her husband’s deaths, even though this was found in their belongings, so the case would just be about the murder on this video. The murder of a man to whom you have no connection.”
When I don’t say anything, she continues.
“You also don’t want to make an enemy of the FBI and Aurelio.
When there’s an active federal investigation, even if we had a valid case, anything we try could backfire, snuffed out on the back end without any reason given.
I’m guessing your sister or her husband were aware of that and were planning on using this as leverage.
I don’t need to remind you how that ended. Aurelio doesn’t tolerate attacks.”
I shake my head. “My sister isn’t involved in that world. No way would she—”
“Her husband was,” Alexandra interrupts, her brows knitting together sternly.
I stare at her blankly. Mikey? Connected to a monster like Aurelio?
Alexandra leans down and opens a drawer in her desk. She rifles through it for a moment, then pulls out a file, placing it on the desk and opening it.
“Michael Anthony Briarone. Married to Emily Bellamorte Briarone. Known Demonio family soldier, made guy. Works on the crew of Vincenzo Demonio, a capo in the Demonio family and Aurelio’s son.”
My blood runs cold as she turns the folder around so I can see the photos in the file.
There are multiple shots, one of Mikey walking on the street wearing sunglasses while talking to the guy that was with Matti.
Another of him and Emily dressed up and smiling at the camera, standing next to a man in a tux that I now know to be Aurelio Demonio.
Another of Mikey at that same event chatting with someone I don’t recognize. My blood runs cold when I see Matti in the background, a beautiful blonde on his arm wearing a skintight green dress that barely contains her cleavage and looking up at him laughing.
I want to vomit as her words sink in and my thoughts spiral.
Demonio family soldier. Using the video as leverage.
My sister, married to the mob. Then memories start to flood in: Mikey’s vague “business trips,” his lavish parties, Emily’s nonchalant deflections whenever I would ask what they did when they went out or what he was doing for work.
“You didn’t know,” Alexandra says quietly.
I shake my head, my throat tightening. What else was Emily keeping from me?
More and more people are filtering into the office. Alexandra nods at them and smiles as they come in. Other lawyers dressed professionally find their desks. A couple of people waiting for appointments sit by the front door in the waiting area, cluttered with padded metal chairs.
Alexandra’s voice pulls me back. She hands me the flash drive. “Go grab a coffee. Take a minute to process. There’s a food truck out back—amazing cold brew. It’ll help.”
Numb, I nod and make my way out the back door of the office to the food truck in the court yard, shoving the flash drive into my jacket pocket. The line snakes down the alley, and I fall in at the back, my mind racing.
Mikey worked for Aurelio. Matti’s friend is Aurelio’s son. I cringe and shake my head, remembering landing a punch on that Vincenzo guy’s jaw, the son of a mafia boss. Oh, Jesus. I’m lucky to be alive.
Then Matti. My stomach churns, again feeling his hands roaming over my body, his stare penetrating my soul. A murderer for the mob. Potentially my sister’s murderer.
I get to the head of the line and order, barely able to nod a thank you as I pay and take the coffee. Heading back to Alexandra’s office, a cold chill shoots through me. If Matti killed Emily for the flash drive, he’ll kill me, too.
As I step through the back door of Alexandra’s office, everything goes black.