Chapter 28
“You’ve lost your fucking mind, Sienna!” Kara yells through the phone at me as I park my car half a block down from Tony’s house.
“If you think yelling at her is going to stop her, you’re the one who’s lost her mind,” Rosa snaps.
This three-way call seemed like a good idea when I answered it and had I not clued them into what I’m about to do, it probably would have been.
“Okay, okay, no yelling.” Kara blows into the phone. “Sienna. Sneaking into Tony’s house and digging around is a horrible, dangerous idea.”
“How else am I supposed to find what I’m looking for?” I unhook my phone from the car’s system and climb out.
“I don’t know, but doing this yourself isn’t smart.”
“Can’t you call his sisters-in-law? They sound like they’d be up for this,” Rosa says.
“Too much risk that they’ll slip up and tell their husbands. And besides, I have the code. I’ll just get in and get out before anyone even knows I was there.”
“Do you have a gun with you?” Kara sounds exasperated, but we both know she’s only envious that she isn’t here with me.
“No, I don’t have a gun. Where would I get a gun?”
“Seriously.” She scoffs. “You’re married to the Russian mafia, and you don’t think you have access to a gun?”
“Okay, you have a point, but I actually don’t know where he keeps his guns.”
“You haven’t searched the house?” Rosa pipes in. “I would have been in every closet and room the first night. Especially since you had all that time alone in the house.”
“I wasn’t going to search his house.”
“But you’re going to search your dead brother’s house?” Kara butts in.
“I thought you’d be more supportive of my adventurous side. You always said I needed to take more risks.”
“Yeah, with men, not your life!” Kara shouts. “What if your cousin or your uncle finds out.”
“I already explained this.” I open the pedestrian gate of the property fence easily with the key I still had. “If someone does catch me, it’s me—Tony’s bereaved sister. If someone catches Kaz or his brothers, then it’s a whole thing.”
“It’s already a whole thing.” Rosa supplies. “Crap. I’m sorry, I have to go—promise you’ll be careful and you’ll text as soon as you get out of there.”
“Rosa! We need to talk some sense into her.”
“I’m already at the back door,” I inform them. “I will talk to you right after. I promise I’ll be safe.”
“I don’t like this. Be careful. One sign of anything going wrong and you get out of there!” Kara sounds ready to jump on a plane and come out here to shake me.
“I promise. I’m hanging up now.” Before she can berate me anymore, I end the call and tuck my phone into the side pocket of my fleece lined leggings.
Finger poised over the keypad lock, I say a small prayer that no one has bothered to change the passkey.
A pause then the little green light flashes and the locks disengage. I heave a sigh mingled with relief and excitement and shove the door open before anyone walking by has a chance to see me.
The place is eerily silent. It’s clean, though, with no dust or grime build-up. He’s been gone two months now. If the staff wasn’t working anymore there’d be signs.
“Hello? Maria? Theresa?” I call out for the housekeepers Tony kept on staff.
No one calls back and there’re no footsteps falling anywhere. With the quiet of the afternoon, and all the hard wood floors in this place, if anyone were walking around somewhere, I should be able to hear it.
“Nico?” I wince, unsure if I got his name right. He was always hanging around the house when I visited, but it could have been Nick not Nico.
Either way, only silence answers me. I relax my stance.
Tony’s office is at the back of the house, looking out at the in-ground pool in the backyard. The room is kept up as the rest of the house, no dust or papers strewn about.
After searching the desk drawers and finding nothing, I set my sights on the safe in the wall behind the books of the only bookcase in the room. Quickly, I stack the books on the floor and scour my memory for the code to the safe.
First I try the passkey that opened the front door. Two short beeps tell me I’m wrong. Next, I try his birthday—he loved his birthday. Every year he threw himself a huge party so everyone could pay him the attention and respect he told himself he deserved.
Two more beeps.
I try our father’s birthday, then our mother’s. Nothing.
Maybe he was dumb enough to write the code down somewhere. There’s nothing in the top desk drawer, under the desk blotter, or in any of the notebooks he stashed in the desk.
My phone buzzes in my pocket, and realizing it’s been close to an hour since I’ve been here, I grab it. Kara’s probably halfway to JFK by now to get on a plane.
“Sienna.” Uncle Vicente’s way of snapping my name, startles me.
“Uncle Vicente.” I spin around toward the door, afraid he’s actually here with me in the room.
The doorway is empty.
“What do you think you’re doing, playing these games with the boy?”
“You shouldn’t have sent Dante here. You should have kept to the agreement you made with the Volkovs.”
“Are you telling me how to run this family?” I don’t need to be in the room with him, to see the snarl fixed on his paper-thin lips. It’s etched into my memory.
“I’m telling you to leave my nephew alone. Leave him out of all this. He’s only six years old.”
“He’s not your concern. Your brother didn’t want you involved in his upbringing. But, if you do what you’re told I’ll let you be a part of his life. How much is up to you.”
My eyes fall to the stack of books on the floor. Titles Tony never would have read but kept because he thought it made him look smart.
“You’re going to get that husband of yours to back off our business plans. You’re going to put that boy back at his own house with his caretakers. No more meddling. And you’re going to report back to me every week with any information you get on what your husbands plans are.”
He continues on, listing things that I would never do for him. All of them reek of betrayal to Kaz.
My gaze falls to the first book on the floor. It’s the thinnest book. A hardcover book with the title Moby Dick itched into the spine with golf foiling.
I don’t know a lot about the classics. In fact, I haven’t even read Moby Dick, but I don’t think the book was short. Even with the smaller print used in the past editions, this book is unrealistically thin.
“Are you listening to me!” If I were standing in front of my uncle, I suspect a bit of his spit would be on my cheek right now. The man is working himself into a rage.
“I hear you.” I kick the books away and pick up the suspicious volume. Flipping over the front cover, my heart sings.
It’s a ledger.
I don’t understand any of it, but I do understand the note stuck to the first page. A six-digit number is scribbled across the yellow scrap of paper.
“I have to go.” I click off the call and shove the phone into my pocket.
Wiggling my fingers, I stare at the buttons on the keypad. This has to work. It just has to.
I punch in the code.
Two short beeps.
“No.” I groan. I look back at the note, focusing on the four.
I try again, this time punching in a nine instead of four.
A pause.
One long beep and the locking mechanism triggers. The door pops open.
“Thank god! Yes!” I yank the door open and file folders slide out, landing at my feet.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” A dark, angry voice cuts through the air of victory filling the room.
Dante’s face twists into fury when he notices the mess around my feet and the safe door propped open.
“What do you think you’re doing?” It only takes him three strides to get to me, snatching the ledger book from my hands.
He glances at it then tosses it to the floor.
“Dante.” I take a small step back but slip on the papers spilling from the folders.
He takes a threatening step at me, grabbing me.
“I told Uncle Vicente you’d be a fucking problem. I told him we should have just gotten rid of you.” He shakes me hard then shoves me.
I hit the wall.
“You’re staying here.” I don’t know why I try to be civil, maybe I hit my head when he shoved me.
“This is my place now. All of this is mine. What are you looking for?”
“This is Tony’s place. I was just going to sort through things, you know look for any family pictures. That sort of thing. That’s all.”
His black eyes narrow.
“You kidnapped that fucking idiot boy of Tony’s. Now you’re in here trying to steal from the family.”
Red blocks my vision as soon as the words register. What he said about Tommy.
I pull my hand back and slap him, as hard as I can across his face.
He doesn’t even flinch.
But his jaw tightens. His eyes get colder.
Before I can turn to run, he has me by my hair and throws a fist into my stomach. Air rushes out of my lungs, and a fit of coughing takes over as I crumple to the floor at his feet.
“Dante.” I groan.
His answer is a kick to my side. I roll away, trying to get to my feet but I’m barely up to my knees when his boot lands in my side again, and I’m thrown back to the floor.
“Once you’re gone, I can take care of that fucking kid. Then there won’t be anyone in my fucking way.”
Pain shoots through my middle. It’s hot and sharp and it feels like electricity bouncing from one bone to the other. I manage to get up to my knees, but he strikes me across my face.
Stars blast off in my vision.
“Fucking bitch,” Dante pulls his foot back again. I close my eyes.
Maybe this blow will knock me out completely.