39. Matti
Matti
I ’m sitting in a leather armchair by the floor-to-ceiling windows, my laptop balanced on my thighs, as I watch Dr. Rossi work on Siena. His movements are meticulous, respectful. He keeps her covered except for the area he’s stitching, maintaining a professional air.
Still, it doesn’t matter that he’s been a trusted surgeon for the family for years or how precise his care is. I won’t leave her alone with anyone. Not now. Not ever.
She’ll have my eyes on her for the rest of her life.
The flash drive is plugged into the side of my laptop, and my screen fills with folders. Most are empty or corrupt, the files unreadable.
Frustration prickles at the back of my neck. I slip an earbud in and pull out my phone, scrolling through my contacts until I land on Jacob Bennett’s name.
Jacob answers on the first ring. “What’s up, Dragovari.”
Jacob and his cousins have been on legal retainer for us for years. Their primary purpose is to handle our legal matters, but more than once, we’ve asked them for favors outside their job description. And more than once, they’ve called in payback.
“Hey,” I say, keeping my tone even. “Any chance you can get your tech guy on something for me? I’ve got a flash drive with corrupt files I need recovered.”
Jacob sighs. “I’d love to help, but our tech girl’s in Naples for the next week or two.” He pauses, thinking. Jacob never leaves me on ‘no.’ “I do know someone closer, a quick plane ride to Manhattan. She could be there in a week or so, but…”
I frown. “But what?”
Massimo gestures at me, asking if he should step out, but I wave him back to work on Siena.
Jacob hesitates. “It’s… Valentina.”
I roll my eyes. “Why would I care?”
Jacob chuckles. “Well, it’s none of my business, but it’s not exactly a secret what went down between you two.”
“Between me and her?” I scoff. “I don’t think fucking her one time over a decade ago is worth gossiping about. I promise you, it wasn’t that memorable.”
I tap the screen to open another file: a blueprint of One Pearl Park Plaza.
Another click reveals a second blueprint of the same building, but this one highlights two paths.
One is the route Vin and I were told to take through the building when we do the job.
The other is unfamiliar and seems to be in the walls, which doesn’t make sense.
Jacob’s voice cuts through my thoughts. “You don’t think her blowing up your car was memorable? What exactly does a woman have to do to get your attention?”
I glance at Siena, unconscious on the bed. Apparently, all a woman has to do to get my attention is attack federal employees, talk shit nonstop, look at me over her shoulder with those big brown eyes while she comes all over my cock, lie to me, then try to run from me.
“That wasn’t me. That was Vin. All of it was Vin,” I mutter, omitting the part where we all walked in on her choking on Aurelio’s dick. I click back to the first blueprint, comparing the two. “They dated for a while when we were about 20. She didn’t like getting dumped.”
“So she punished him by blowing up his car and fucking his best friend?” Jacob’s keyboard clatters in the background.
“That was her trying to win him back, believe it or not,” I mumble, opening another file, a video.
Muted, it shows Aurelio killing John Lumina, the guy who inherited Luminous & Co., then walking toward the camera. The angle is shaky and skewed, but it’s clear enough.
I pause the video when I see something flicker in the background, a man with his back to the camera holding open something large and white.
He’s only on screen for a moment before he turns, his face in profile.
For a split second, it’s possible to see what he’s holding and to see his face before he steps out of the frame.
I rewind a few seconds and pause again, zooming in.
Fuck. It’s who I think it is.
I rewind and replay twice, finding the perfect frame and blow it up as much as I can just to be sure. I glance at Siena and back at the screen. Not only is it who I think it is, but he’s holding the very same blueprints that I was just looking at.
Jacob lets out a low whistle. “I’m guessing it didn’t work, her attempts to get him back, huh?”
“No,” I agree as the video ends, and I click play to restart it.
I wasn’t there the day Aurelio took out John Lumina. In fact, I had no idea that was happening until after the fact when Aurelio made Lorenzo Marino, a longtime friend of the family, the new CEO.
Lorenzo is Giovanna Marino’s father, the girl that Tommy has been in love with since college. The girl that Aurelio is currently keeping prisoner at an undisclosed location.
I click play on the video again, trying to figure out who is holding the camera.
Jacob speaks again. “I can have her in Manhattan by next Thursday if you send a plane for her.”
I watch Massimo stitch up Siena’s shoulder. She’s pale, motionless, except for the steady rise and fall of her chest. Valentina might prove useful, not just with the flash drive, but also for making sure that Siena does what she’s told for fucking once in her life.
“Alright,” I say finally. “Let her know I’ll fly her to my building in Tribeca. But tell her she’s making a stop on the way. And remind her not to be the cunt I know she is.”
Jake snorts. “Sure, I’ll use those exact words.”
I hang up and transfer my earbud connection to the laptop, turning up the volume on the video.
Massimo finishes stitching Siena’s shoulder and gives me a thumbs-up.
“Did you complete the procedure I requested?” I ask.
He gives a short nod. “It should be live now. But she needs to be monitored in person constantly for a few days at least. She was hit on the head and stomach multiple times. I don’t think she has a concussion or any internal bleeding, but if she wakes up with a swelling, severe pain, headache, or vomiting, she’ll need emergency treatment. ”
“When will she wake up?”
“A few hours. ”
“Can you keep her sedated for a few days and give her a chance to heal?”
“I can, but we’ll need to hook her up with IVs and do regular scans to ensure that she’s not bleeding internally since she won’t be able to tell us if she’s experiencing symptoms.”
I nod, dismissing him to assemble what he needs, and return my attention to the video. John Lumina is alternately begging for his life and shouting threats.
Aurelio’s voice cuts through his pleas. “You’re wasting your time. I only want your company. With you gone, the business and your connections are mine. It’s the perfect front for laundering money.”
Lumina stammers. “I can help you! With me at the helm, you’re less likely to face scrutiny.”
The man holding the camera laughs. The sound nags at me. It’s scratchy and cutting in and out, but familiar. I can’t place it.
Aurelio steps into the frame. “You stole from me, Mr. Lumina. And you used my men against me. Either offense alone is enough to end you. Together? You’ve signed your death warrant.”
Aurelio raises his gun and fires.
The camera lingers on Lumina’s lifeless face before Aurelio steps in front of him, blocking him from view. “Clean this up,” Aurelio commands. “Find me at home when you’re done.”
Then, the voice of the camera man: “I’ll take care of it, old man.”
I freeze and play it back. Over and over.
That voice belongs to Vin.
Vin was the one recording the video, and from the shaky, odd angles it’s clear that Aurelio didn’t know he was being recorded.
Fuck. Why was Vin recording this? To blackmail Aurelio? To use it as leverage? Did he give the video to Mikey or did Mikey steal it?
My grip tightens on the flash drive. Whatever secrets it holds, they’re not falling into Valentina’s hands. Not when there’s a chance it incriminates Vin. There’s no way I can give this to her.
Vin and I have never fought the way we did today, but he’s still my brother. Valentina would give her left tit to hurt him, and I’m not putting any damaging evidence into her bloody claws.
As long as I have the flash drive, it won’t fall into the wrong hands.
I just have to make sure that Siena stays out of sight until Aurelio finds a new hobby, and I can’t keep her at my place in the city.
Though I own a whole building, it will be the first place Aurelio looks, and I don’t have the security measures I want in place to protect her—not yet.
Which means she has to stay far away from me until I can install the necessary safety protections, somewhere completely off the radar.
The bigger problem is not hiding her but making sure Siena keeps herself hidden and far away from me, stops making reckless choices that put her safety at risk.
She’s too defiant to listen to me if I tell her to stay away from me for her own protection.
Which means that if I can really get her to put the necessary distance between us for as long as it takes to neutralize Aurelio, I’m going to risk losing her permanently.
I may not need Valentina to fix the flash drive anymore, but I still need her to help me keep Siena safe. I know Valentina will play her role and play it well, without even knowing what it is .
Standing over Siena, I brush my fingers over her cheek, down her throat, and across her bandaged shoulder. It tears me apart to hurt her, but if I don’t do this now, Aurelio will slaughter her in front of me just to make a point. And I won’t let that happen.
Unclasping my Saint Michael’s pendant from around my neck, I move her hair and put the protective necklace my mother gave me around her neck.
The chain is long on her, the pendant falling between her breasts.
It’s dull and worn from 30 years of wear, but if it’s helped my mother to keep me safe all these years, then it will help her as well.
I drag my chair over next to her bed, settling in to keep watch over her. I’ll keep her here as long as I have to, watching her until the doc says she’s okay.
Savoring every moment I have left with her.