Chapter 31
31
AMARA
The room feels empty to me without Lazaro, despite all the people around, but I throw myself into going through all the documents I can with the other girls while the men talk around us. Most of it is discussing next steps if they find any of the men they’re looking for are at those locations.
I force myself to tune it out as I go through things. I don’t know exactly what I’m looking for, but I’m hoping it will stand out so I don’t miss it.
“Damn, Nico’s mother was shrewd,” Rori mutters. She turns the papers in her hand to show us. “See these? These are profits and losses and suggestions on ways to make things faster and more efficient. There is no way that Seamus or anyone else was running this with all of this. She was in full control.”
“It’s hard to picture her as being a drunk or on pills with all this,” Sienna asserts thoughtfully. “I mean, you’d need to have your full faculties with this much detail.” She holds up another sheet that looks like an accounting record of some kind. “This is only a few months before she died, and it was still super detailed.”
“Maybe she was the one running it but it wasn’t her idea and she felt guilty?” Gia suggests. “So she drank and did the pills after she finished whatever she was doing that day so she could do it right, but then blank it out after?”
“It’s possible,” Sofia agrees. “But who would have ordered this? I doubt this would be Nico’s father. From what I understand, he didn’t think women were good for anything, and there is no way that he would trust his wife with something this monumental.”
“I don’t think anyone ordered her. Nico said that she and her husband didn’t like each other, so maybe she felt this was a chance to stick it to him,” Rori offers. “I mean, I don’t like what she was doing, but I can also respect that she wanted a way to have control and money while also proving that she was far smarter than him.”
“It’s kind of like how our mother and Amara’s mother worked to get the other girls out,” Gia murmurs. “They managed to make baby girls disappear without the men in their lives finding out until almost three decades later. That was all about their own need to control how their daughters’ lives would turn out. They had a network. Men in this life really do underestimate women.”
“Because they only think with their dicks and believe it’s a magical appendage that gives them all the smarts in the world,” Rori says with a derisive scoff. “Which is exactly why women can get away with these things. Really, think about this. Nico’s mother was smart to approach Gallo first. If she went to Leonardo, it would have gotten out immediately, and Leonardo would have made sure to tell her husband, to hold it over his head. Gallo had a way into the territory, and they probably thought they would eventually be able to overthrow Nico’s father when they were ready.”
“I wonder why she didn’t approach the Russians?” Sienna asks with a frown.
“Maybe she did, but it didn’t work out?” Gia suggests.
“But wouldn’t that have been the same as if she had gone to Leonardo and the Russians would have told her husband what she was up to?” I point out gently.
“Yeah, that’s a good point,” Gia agrees, shoulders slumping sadly.
“Darling, no suggestion is wrong,” Sofia reminds her. “We’re just tossing around ideas. But you bring up a good point, Gia, that maybe she did try to approach a Russian. Maybe it wasn’t Ivan though. Maybe she went to someone else to test the waters and she realized it wouldn’t work out, so Seamus was the next best thing.”
Gia nods, seemingly mollified. “I’m just surprised that no one would have caught on before now,” she admits. “I mean, those kinds of things can’t stay secret forever. My father had so many mistresses, and it was always found out. One time, when I was young, he was feuding with Nico’s father over something. Nico’s father figured out who his mistress was at the time and had her and her infant son killed. My father was pissed, and he killed some of the guards that he felt let it slip who she was, or who didn’t hide his tracks enough. And then there were the times he would mention any of the other families and the women they were caught with. I think it was Ivan who once had a mistress that was obviously nothing more than a glorified escort who wanted the glitz and glamour of being with the head of the Bratva.”
“Did they have a lot of mistresses over the years that you heard about?” Sienna asks curiously.
“They all did. It’s accepted that all men will have an affair at one time or another,” she admits. “And the closer they are to the top, the more mistresses they’ll have. Faithfulness is not something that’s normal in my family. I’d like to think it is in other families, but maybe not.” She worries her lip, and I freeze at her implication.
My stomach sinks like lead at the thought of Lazaro going to another woman. I don’t think I could survive that. It would definitely break me.
“Nico would never do that, Gia,” Sofia tells her firmly. “He loves you, and any woman that might have had his attention at one time was before you. The same goes with Alessio and Lazaro. Both of them are loyal to a fault. They saw what their mother’s affair did to their father. Pietro was faithful to his wife, of that I’m certain. He was besotted with her from day one, and he spent as much time with her as he could, that I remember. That’s why it was so horrible to learn that she had betrayed him. Our father, he never once cheated on our mother. Not even when things were hard. I found my mother’s diary when I was a teenager and I read it, wanting to get to know her. They had some very tough times, but she said even then that she knew he wouldn’t step out on her. They had something strong, and any of my brothers will be the same.”
Her confidence in their loyalty allows me to relax. “Nico does look at you like you hung the moon,” I tell Gia. “I’d be shocked if he’d risk you for that. From what I can see, our family is a mess, but we can change that. I don’t know much about the mafia life yet, but I feel like out of all the scenarios, this is the very best we could have ended up with.”
“I agree with that completely,” Sienna declares. “Alessio might be a pain in my ass, but he’s loyal, and we have far more freedom here. I mean, look at this. We’re being trusted to look through all of this, and not kept away based on some stupid idea that we shouldn’t know. We’re women, and we can see into the minds of other women more easily than they can.”
“And from the look of things, this woman was one fucked up bitch,” Rori says drily. “Listen to this. I sent through another shipment today. I have a buyer lined up that will take them overseas to some country no one has ever heard of for the rich to play with. My love will be so pleased. A large payday for a bunch of brats. ”
My stomach turns at the thought of those children who were sent away to what I’m sure was their version of hell. Of the ones that either died or killed themselves, rather than suffer any more for what those sick fucks would have done.
“Well, I’m glad the bitch is dead,” Sienna says tightly. “I’d love to know the details of how he killed her. Hopefully, it was slow and very painful.”
“It was,” Nico adds almost absently, drawing our attention. “I spent hours torturing her for information. Obviously, it wasn’t enough.” He gestures at the papers spread out in front of us.
“It was something,” Sienna reassures him. “For the record, I hate your mother.”
Nico arches a brow. “Most did. She was an annoying woman that couldn’t hold her tongue.”
“I’m getting the feeling that was an act,” Rori tells him. She waves the stack of papers in her hand. “These are the workings of a very smart woman. One that knew how to run a business that is probably worth billions, and did so for many years without ever being discovered. Everything we’ve found shows that she was a calculating manipulator who knew how to put on a show. She acted like she had to be strung out to tolerate being married to a man that everyone knew she didn’t love, and they saw her as an inconvenience. She pretended to be a blathering drunk, and they were so annoyed by her that they eventually tuned her out completely. By portraying herself as an over-the-top hot mess, she was able to hide in plain sight. It was the perfect ruse.”
Nico tips his head in agreement. “Yes, I’m starting to see that now.”
A phone rings, and we all freeze. Aurelio answers, putting it on speaker. “Go ahead, Lazaro,” he orders. “You’re on speaker.”
“The first location is an empty lot,” Lazaro begins briskly. “Had Urso pull the records, and this used to be a warehouse everyone thought was abandoned. It’s in Seamus’s territory, and it burnt down not long after Nico’s mother was buried.”
“Gallo must have worried that she spilled their secrets,” Pietro says thoughtfully. “Burn it down, erase all evidence. Especially if it’s where they used to meet up.”
“There is evidence the whole site was dug up and asphalted over,” Lazaro continues. “Urso pulled pictures from old newspapers, and they dug down a good ten feet. They said it had to do with underground pipes that needed repair.”
“More like that was where the secret hideout was, and they didn’t want to chance anyone finding it,” Alonzo grumbles.
“What about the others?” Pietro asks.
“The one in Russian territory, it’s about two blocks from Ivan’s home,” Lazaro answers. “It’s a restaurant the Russians frequent. Urso pulled the details, and Ivan’s sister-in-law runs it. They mostly serve traditional Russian dishes. The public stays away from it for the most part.”
“How long has it been running?” Aurelio asks.
“Business records show for well over forty years,” he replies. “There is another building behind it, though, that looks like equipment storage. Perfect spot for an entrance into another area. I got up on another building for an aerial view, and there are guards on watch. They’re not obvious, but they’re there.”
“That could be where Ivan does business that he doesn’t want to have in the main house,” Dante offers. “They’re always cagey bastards.”
“Urso, see if you can find anything on that,” Pietro orders. “It could come in handy if the bastard gets away from us.”
“What about the one in our territory?” Nico demands impatiently.
“That one is directly behind you, at a house that is directly opposite the trees you have there. It’s nothing to look at, just a small bungalow house. We checked it out, and it looks like it hasn’t been used in a while, but it’s been kept up. The grass is cut, and only a light layer of dust.”
“Who owns it?” Nico snaps.
“It’s listed in the name of one Draco Carta,” Lazaro replies.
Nico goes still. “That conniving bitch.” He seethes.
“You know who that is, I take it,” Pietro says mildly.
“It’s not a person. It’s a fuck you to me and everyone else. My mother used to call me her little dragon when I was young, and Carta is her mother’s maiden name. She chose that name on purpose.” He whips his head to Dante. “Take trusted men and search it. I don’t care if you have to tear it down in the process. I want to know what she was hiding in there.”
“Done,” Dante says, moving for the door without another word. I stare after him, my head spinning with all this information.
“What about the last one?” Aurelio prompts. “Leonardo’s?”
“That one is another warehouse, and it’s crawling with Leonardo’s men. I almost didn’t manage to get close enough to scope it out. From what I can tell it’s one of their major packaging spots. It looks like a shipping business, and there are trucks in and out of there constantly.”
“Was it always that way, I wonder?” Aurelio wonders.
“According to the records it was, but from what I can see online it’s only been very active in the last decade,” Urso answers. “Information says it’s cargo supplies, home improvement supplies, and a delivery service to businesses only. No residential.”
“And I bet they don’t deliver outside of their own territory, or to the ports,” Pietro says drily. “Keep digging. There has to be a reason that place was marked, and if it’s used that much, there is no way they were meeting there without there being a private area somewhere.”
“Will do,” Lazaro says before the call goes dead.
I turn back to the papers in front of me as the men talk about why those specific places would have been chosen as meet up locations. This whole business is confusing and fascinating at the same time. There are so many little things to consider, and clearly a lot of deception. How do people have the time or brain power for that? And to keep it going for that long? That takes a lot of time and skill.
Rori’s theory of Nico’s mom’s life being mostly an act makes sense.
I keep thumbing through the papers, finding nothing but accounting records, random scribbles that don’t mean anything, and a few notes that talk about orders and inventory. They turn my stomach, but I force myself to keep reading. How can people be this cruel? This vile?
I set the stack I finish aside and grab the last of it out of the trunk. Most of the papers are the same, dated back to a few different years, with certain dates and dollar amounts circled in red ink. “I think she was keeping track of the good years,” I remark, showing the others what I’ve found. “At least in the beginning.” I look at a couple more pages, and I can start to see the patterns. “Okay, yeah, that’s what she was doing,” I say confidently. “If you look at the numbers she circled in the beginning, then the ones in the following months, she was honing her strategy.”
“Again, she was one sick bitch,” Sienna grunts. On that we can agree.
It’s quiet for a while until we’re finally through the stacks of the papers. There’s no bank account numbers, and nothing identifying anything more about the pinholes on the map.
“That’s it, other than Gia finishing the diary,” Sofia announces. “I didn’t see anything that looked like banking information, but maybe once they scan everything they can find something we missed.”
“It seems odd that she wouldn’t have included the numbers,” Sienna remarks. “I mean, she kept everything else important in here.” She glances at me. “Did you look at the other side of the trunk or the others to see if there were any other hidden compartments?”
I nod. “I checked, but I didn’t see anything. Feel free to check again, though. I might have missed something.”
“I doubt it, but sure, I’ll have another look,” Sienna says, moving to look at the other trunk and the suitcase.
“Wait,” Gia says suddenly, sounding confused. She looks up from the diary in her hands. “I-I think I found something.” Nico moves over to her, standing behind the chair she’s sitting in. “I was reading through one of the passages, and at one point she mentions meeting up with someone, someone that Seamus doesn’t know about. But…listen to this part. Seamus will be so angry with me if he finds out I met with him, but I learned a long time ago to never put everything in one place. A woman must know how to diversify. He has no idea that this isn’t our first meeting. We’ve met so many times. Seamus is wonderful in bed, but there’s something primal about Leo. He’s wild, unpredictable, and it’s nice to surrender once in awhile. I don’t appreciate some of the things he does, but one must do what they have to to get what they need. Namely his shipping routes. ”
“Leo?” Sienna repeats in shock. “You mean Leonardo? Our father?”
Gia nods, stunned, and maybe a little shaken. “But that’s not all. I think I just figured out how she got into meetings with my father without anyone knowing.”
“How, topolina ?” Nico asks patiently, though the look on his face says he’s feeling anything but.
“This part in her next entry. Leo took me in his office today. He was so pent up, so full of rage and the need to release it. I’m still sore, but it was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. ” Gia pauses and scrunches up her nose. “Uh, I’m going to skip the rest of that. She goes into detail about my father that I don’t need to know.” Some of us chuckle with amusement and agreement. “ He sent me back out with the flick of the little black horse, and I closed off the other end with a quick turn of the sconce. Why do men do things so obviously? One wrong move by the wrong person and that little secret will make them vulnerable. Not like our home. No, it will be as grand and impenetrable as I can make it. I may hate Vito, but his walls are the protection I need to build my own empire, one that will eventually surpass them all. First, though, I need to keep Seamus from noticing that we’re missing a good portion of our latest sale. I may have to make another sooner than planned to make up the difference. I’ll figure it out like I always do. ”
“Is she talking about the passages you mentioned before, Gia?” Nico asks, taking the journal and handing it to Sofia before wrapping his arms around her again.
Gia shakes her head. “No. I know all those passageways, and Father only had one that went into his office. It came out behind a large painting of our grandfather. It’s raised off the floor so you have to step into it. Father wouldn’t have wanted it to be visible or easily accessible. Everyone thinks of a passage entrance being a full-sized door, not one halfway up the wall.”
“So what did she mean about the black horse?” I ask.
Gia flinches, and her eyes look haunted. Nico instantly picks her up, placing her in his lap as he quietly soothes her. I feel awful that I’ve caused her some kind of pain, but Rori takes my hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze. Finally, Gia says, “I’m alright, Nico. It’s just, when I was young, about six or seven, I was called into my father’s office and he yelled at me for daring to spill my drink on the carpet that morning at breakfast. He conveniently forgot that the only reason I spilled it was because Marco hit me so hard I went flying. He was a bully even then. Anyway, after Father finished yelling at me, he told me to stand in the corner near the window and wait for him to finish while he decided on my punishment. I was shaking. I remember standing there, trying not to cry, and hurting from Marco beating on me not long before. I don’t know how long I stood there, but after about fifteen minutes, I got bored, so I was looking at all the things on my father’s little table near the window. It had papers, a crystal decanter, and a few glasses, but it also had a black horse sculpture that fascinated me. I knew I wasn’t supposed to touch it, but I reached out anyway, and Father saw me. He beat me so badly that my nanny had to come and carry me to get a few bones reset. I never looked at it again.”
My eyes widen in horror, and I see the same on Sienna’s face, while Rori and Sofia both look very angry.
“It’s alright, topolina ,” Nico soothes her, rocking her. “He will pay for everything he’s put you through, I’ll ensure it.”
Gia shudders out a breath. “I know. It’s just hard to think about, but it makes sense now why he didn’t want me to touch it. If I had, I might have revealed the passage that your mother mentions, and he wouldn’t want that secret revealed to anyone. If my brothers knew about it, they would have bragged about it at some point.”
“So where would the entrance from the outside be if it’s not something internal?” Sienna wonders.
“That would have to be at a hidden part of the house,” Alonzo remarks. “I mean, you’re not going to just walk out the side of a house where anyone can see. He would have to know it’s at a blind spot in the cameras, as well as not visible from anywhere else in the house.”
“There’s only one spot like that,” Gia replies. “Father’s office is in the middle of the lower floor, but toward the back. At the back of the house is a small alcove; it has a bench that sometimes people will sit on, but we always thought it was only there for looks. It has a little statue dedicated to his first wife. We assumed that he had it made to appease her family, but he never wanted to see it. No one really goes back there. Oh, and there’s a little path that leads into the woods that the guards would use. I think it leads to a road behind the property that’s not well travelled.”
“That would explain how Nico’s mother got in without being seen. Do you remember if there was anything there that resembles a sconce, Gia?” Pietro asks her gently.
Gia nods. “There’s one above the bench. You can squeeze behind the bench to get to it, but it’s about a head taller than me.”
“Is there a chance your father would have locked that off?” Nico asks her.
Gia shrugs. “It’s possible, but if he doesn’t want to use the passages because Marco and Sebastian know how to get into them, then that would be the way he would get out.”
“You lot have so many passages in your houses,” Aurelio says in annoyance. “Have to worry about random walls opening. You watch too many Hollywood movies.”
I laugh, because that is exactly my thought too.
“Hold on,” Sofia interrupts. Her eyes lift from the diary and she says simply, “She wasn’t just fucking Leonardo, she was fucking Giovanni too. And according to her journal, she met up with him at a place that no one but the two of them knew about.”
The mood instantly shifts. “Any locations?” Aurelio demands.
Sofia holds up a finger for him to wait, and I can practically hear Alonzo growling in annoyance and impatience. I’m so invested right now. This is like a movie. Finally, she nods. “She mentions an apartment that Giovanni had built in secret. He took her to it from his office through a tunnel underneath his house. He found out about her and Leonardo and wanted in on the action, and she paid him off to keep him quiet.”
“Looks like the rat was right,” Alonzo huffs. “We need to figure out where that house is.”
Sofia keeps reading and then she laughs. “Oh, your mother was planning in case this was ever found, Nico. She wrote down coordinates in the corner of the page.” She reads them out, and I look to see Aurelio and Urso both on their phones.
“Son of a fucking bitch,” Urso bites out. He looks up at us. “That fucker has been right under our noses all along.” He reads off an address. “It’s just over the border of your territory, Nico, in one of the apartment buildings there, but the actual house is on the other side. He built that fucking thing right on the line and then burrowed into your territory like a fucking rat.”
“It must be hidden in a way that no one can find it or hear anyone in there,” Sienna agrees. “Behind a false wall or something. But he wouldn’t have only one way in and out through his house. He’d want an escape route, right?”
“You mean another secret exit,” Aurelio grumbles. “Mother of God, I hope after this I never have to deal with this again. Secret agent bullshit.”
“What’s on the other side of the apartment?” I ask. “Going into the territory?”
“That whole block is apartments,” Urso answers.
“Then he probably has a way to get to the other apartments, or another way to get back over the line that doesn’t go through his home, so that no one can catch him,” I point out.
“Giovanni won’t risk being seen here,” Nico says firmly. “My men would be all over that. I have every part of my territory under surveillance. What’s on the other side?”
“Giovanni’s area is a mix of businesses that surround the house,” Urso replies after a moment. “It could be any of them.”
“We need to get into that house, handle this now,” Nico says fiercely. “He doesn’t know that we know where it is, and the rat said it’s not guarded. We get in and see what we find.”
“We also need to get into Leonardo’s place,” Pietro adds. “The more information we can get, the better. Get on the phone with the others and let them know the developments. We’re going on the offensive.”
Fear grips me, knowing that Lazaro is about to run headlong into danger. He better come back to me in one piece.