27. ALESSIO
27
ALESSIO
My phone buzzes, and I’m instantly awake. Quietly, I slip out of bed, taking my phone with me into the bathroom and shutting the door so I don’t wake Sienna. Though, considering how she didn’t even stir when I got out of bed, I don’t think I have much to worry about. I see Lazaro’s name on screen and quickly swipe to take the call. “Yeah?”
“We got a problem. We’re meeting in Nico’s office.”
“On my way.” I hang up and head back into the bedroom, making my way into the walk-in closet, shutting the door, and quickly dressing. I leave the bedroom within five minutes, and nod at Mario, who is standing quietly outside the bedroom door. I don’t have to give him any warnings and instead I hurry down to Nico’s office. When I walk in, I find that I’m the last to arrive, but the tension in the room is palpable. “What’s the issue?” I ask briskly as I move to take a seat on the couch.
“I couldn’t figure out why Parisi hasn’t made any moves in the last couple weeks,” Lazaro answers, drawing my gaze. “It’s not like him. He’s not patient, and he’s not someone who just sits back and waits, even with sending men to try and grab Sienna before we got her to Sicily. The same with Leonardo and Marco. Marco only just struck out here, and Parisi only finally started making moves. So what’s the reason for the change?”
“Knowing Parisi, he probably got tired of waiting,” I remark. “But you’re right, it’s been far too quiet. And when he found out that Sienna and Gia were in Sicily, why didn’t he fly home? What’s changed?” Suddenly it clicks. “Shit, the other women.”
Lazaro and Alonzo nod. I glance over at a stone-faced Nico and a tense looking Dante. “It would also explain why none of them have been focusing their efforts on trying to take us out,” Dante interjects tightly. “Which means they’ve figured out there are more of them, and they are focusing their energies on getting to them first before we can again.”
“So why did Marco attack here then?” Alonzo wonders aloud.
“To distract us, probably,” Lazaro supplies. “It’s a standard diversion tactic.”
“Dario probably called home and told his father you have Sienna, and so they decided to spend their time finding the others,” Dante agrees.
“But how did they find out about the other women?” I ask, frowning. “Sure, we found Sienna, and she is a full blooded sibling to Gia, but what would make them think there are more?”
“There has to be something we’re missing,” Lazaro says in frustration, running a hand through his hair.
“Wait,” Dante says sharply, rounding his desk and tapping away furiously on his computer. “Shit, there was a report a week ago a couple of Leonardo’s staff were found beaten to death. Reports were that he was in a rage; it was assumed he was pissed that Sienna got away, but what if that’s not the reason?”
“You think he killed them because they had something to do with smuggling Sienna out,” Nico summarizes.
Dante nods. “It would make sense. But he’s always killing his staff, so it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. And he dumped them in the exact same spots that he usually does.”
“How many were there?” Alonzo asks.
“Four. Two men and two women,” Dante answers after a moment. “All of them were long-time employees.”
“Long enough that they would have worked there when his second wife was still alive?” I ask, leaning forward and bracing my elbows on my knees.
Dante nods. “One housekeeper, one guard, one maid, and one of his long-time gardeners. Fuck, why didn’t I make that connection sooner?”
“You said yourself this is a normal thing for him,” Alonzo points out. “How often does he kill staff?”
“Reports are that if he’s in a particularly angry mood it can range from a few to a dozen a week. The most has been twelve at once, but he spread their bodies throughout the city.”
“What about their families?” Nico asks tightly. “Anything on them? Are any of the four still alive?”
Dante taps away and he curses after a moment. “All of them are dead, including their families. One in a fire, two straight out execution style, and one was reported as a driving accident, but from the rate of speed and tire marks on the pavement, it looks like a high speed chase.”
“Probably trying to get out of town,” I say grimly. “Who was killed execution style?”
“That would be the maid’s family and the gardener’s,” he replies. “Makes me think that they were some of the masterminds.”
“Not necessarily,” I point out, standing to pace and think. Fuck, this was a mess. “If we’re handling betrayal, execution style is the last kind we go to. It’s too quick. No signs of torture mentioned?”
“Nothing in the police report. There are defensive wounds, but only from the wife of the gardener, and the eldest son of the maid.”
“How many kids were killed?”
“Since most of them were older, the only kids killed were the maid’s, who had a son late in life, and the gardener who had two younger kids. Both were killed in their beds. The kids never knew what happened. A small mercy. The maid’s son appears to have woken up and gone downstairs to see what was going on and ended up dead himself. He was fifteen.” Dante’s eyes are hard and his lips thin.
It’s different when children are involved, and a burning anger fills my gut at the thought of them all losing their lives far too soon. We’ll make them pay for it before this is all over. “So that leaves the housekeeper and the guard,” I summarize. “Whose family was killed what way?”
“Housekeeper’s was the fire and the guard’s family were running,” Dante answers before clicking a few more keys. “In the car was the guard’s wife only. They didn’t have any kids, but she had a couple haphazardly filled suitcases and a box of papers, but the box had bloody handprints on it when the cops got there, and only a few papers were left.”
“And they ran her off the road?”
“It looks like the woman lost control around a turn just outside the city limits,” he answers after a moment. “She crashed into a pole with enough speed that she was physically ejected from the car since she wasn’t wearing her seatbelt. Died on impact. Best I can guess is that they checked her pulse to make sure she was dead, saw she was, grabbed anything that could incriminate Leonardo, and took off.”
“Maybe those documents contained information on the girls,” Lazaro points out grimly. “Which, if that’s the case, could give away the details of the people who adopted or at least took charge of any additional girls.”
“The guard would have been fucking stupid to keep those around,” Nico argues darkly.
“Maybe he kept them as insurance to use in case someone got scared and wanted to blab? Or to keep in touch with the families?” Alonzo suggests.
“What about the housekeeper?” I ask. “Anything odd there, or maybe taken?”
“The husband and a sister of hers that lived with them, were tied up in the kitchen and left to burn alive,” Dante replies tightly.
“That’s a message if I’ve ever heard one,” Lazaro remarks. “Could be the sister and husband were involved. This kind of thing, you need a network of people.”
Something clicks in my mind at that. The conversation I overheard Sienna and her parents have in the cabin in Scotland before I let them know we were there. “Wait, Sienna’s parents, they said they were connected via Sienna’s mother’s half-sister. The sister hated Sienna’s mother, but she knew they wanted a child so she arranged this for them. We need to find the half-sister and figure out how she plays into this. If we can get in touch with her, we might be able to find out some more information before anyone gets a hold of her.”
“It’ll take our men time to get that information,” Dante replies.
Lazaro pulls out his phone. After a moment, Aurelio’s voice fills the room. “Son, your timing is shit,” Aurelio grumbles.
We hear a soft giggle in the background and I can’t help but smirk. Lazaro and Alonzo roll their eyes. “You can get back to jerking off your old cock later,” Lazaro tells him drily. “We both know that no woman wants to be anywhere near that thing.” The woman on the other end laughs while Aurelio curses. “We need information, and we need it as fast as you can get it.”
We hear rustling. “Spit it out,” Aurelio orders.
“We need the name of Sienna’s aunt, her mother’s half-sister,” I tell him. “She’s the one who got Sienna to them in the first place, and it looks like Leonardo found the ring leaders. Killed them and their families.”
“And you think they’re going to go after anyone else that helped them,” Aurelio summarizes, and we can hear a door shut and keys clicking. “Got her.” Then he curses. “But so did someone else. Priscilla Mulder was found dead in her apartment, strangled, raped, and beaten. Place was ransacked but because she lived alone, police didn’t know if anything was stolen. From the looks of things they concluded that nothing was taken.”
“Fuck,” I hiss. I pull out my own phone and make a call to my men watching Sienna’s parents. “Get them to a safe location,” I order the head guard as soon as he answers. “There’s a good possibility they’ve been found out and someone is heading their way.”
“On it,” he promises. “I’ll let you know our location once we get there.” He hangs up, and I fight back the urge to run up and check on Sienna. This whole situation is a fucking mess.
“Do you think it’s safe to say she probably gave up all the information she had?” Dante asks. “And do we think she handled all the babies, if there are more, or just the one?”
“The smart move would be to have more than one person,” Alonzo suggests. “Less chance of being discovered if it’s different people each time. Could also explain why they had four different people involved in this.”
“That we know of. There’s no way that they didn’t have help from someone on the medical side. Someone who would have pronounced the baby dead and wrote out a death certificate or something so that no one would suspect anything,” Dante agrees.
“The De Luca’s regular doctor died of a stroke ten years ago,” Nico interjects. “So if it was him, he'd be of no use. And I doubt he would have kept records of what he did, other than maybe fake certificates.”
“Would Gia have ever heard mention of another child dying, or another baby girl?” Lazaro wonders. “Even in passing.”
“No,” a sleepy voice says from the doorway, and we all turn to see Gia standing there, looking exhausted but concerned.
“ Topolina , what are you doing up?” Nico scolds gently, getting to his feet immediately and walking over to her. He scoops her up into his arms, and then carries her back over to his desk, sitting her on his lap once he sits back down.
“I woke up and you weren’t there, so I figured I should come and find you,” she says tiredly. “Probably good I did. Maybe I can help with this stuff.”
“ Topolina , this isn’t something you need to worry about,” Nico tells her with a frown. “You should be sleeping. You don’t need to wear yourself out.”
“I’m fine, Nico,” she says dismissively, then looks at Lazaro, who’s grinning at her. “To answer your question, there was never a discussion about other daughters or other babies. And honestly, if it was all girls, I don’t think they would anyway. Girls aren’t important to them.”
“But they would be for marriages,” Alonzo reasons. “And wouldn’t a couple of babies dying be suspicious?”
Gia frowns thoughtfully. I don’t miss the angry glare that Nico shoots Alonzo and Lazaro, but they both ignore it. If Gia can help us and help us figure out answers faster, I’m all for it. Finally, she says slowly, “You’re right, and I do remember when I was younger my mother being very cross at times, or him calling her worthless for being unable to give him more sons after Matteo. But I think that’s because she was secretly taking birth control. When I was five, not long before she died, I found her taking a pill in the bathroom, and she screamed at me to get out, but then I saw through the crack in the door that she hid it in a box of tampons, which my father and brothers definitely wouldn’t have looked twice at.”
“And she never seemingly got pregnant when you were younger that you can remember?” I ask her carefully, ignoring the fuming glare that Nico now aims my way.
“No. I always remember her being slender, so something like that would have been noticeable. I can remember her from the time I was about four on, but can’t say anything about before that.”
“Okay, so probably a good chance that there are no more babies on her side. But when this first came up, Aurelio, you said that there were possibly four names. We found Sienna, so that leaves three, right?”
“Yes, but on further examination, one of the names looks to be unrelated, so we’re down to two,” Aurelio calls out.
“Okay, so two more. That would leave Giovanni’s wife, right?” Alonzo asks.
“I only ever saw her once, maybe twice when she was alive,” Gia admits. “Giovanni wouldn’t let her out very often. I think she spent most of her time locked away, because my mother never spoke of her either. I don’t think they talked much, if at all.”
“Or, maybe they did that to keep people from being suspicious, in case whatever was happening with your mother ever was found out,” Lazaro suggests gently. “And someone who’s shut in for so long, and suffered constant abuse, she would be someone overlooked when doing something like this.”
“You think the aunt was the one who came up with this?” I ask, my mind spinning as it tries to make some kind of connection to that new information.
“It’s possible,” Lazaro shrugs. “Who was married first?”
“Leonardo married first, and Giovanni married a couple months later,” Nico answers. “As the oldest, Leonardo would have had to go first, and from what I know, the marriages were arranged.”
“I remember Father talking about how he only married my mother for the connection to her family in Italy,” Gia says sadly. “I don’t know about his first wife, but I have to think that it was the same.”
“The first wife was the only daughter of another connection based out of Chicago,” Aurelio explains. “But I don’t think much came out of that marriage since she died so young. Her family had her buried with her mother back in Chicago, from the records. The connections were broken.”
“Sounds to me like they knew that it wasn’t an accident or natural causes,” Dante remarks. “And Leonardo would have had to find another wife fast.”
“His father was Don at the time, so I imagine he pulled some strings and wove a story to ensure there wasn’t any backlash,” Nico suggests.
“Who did Giovanni marry?” Alonzo asks.
“He married Bianca Conti,” Nico answers. “She was the youngest of the three sisters, and the only one not married. The family is well known in California, with ties here and in Italy, but is a small player.”
I nod. “Yes, and since then the son has taken over, Bruno Conti. He’s far more cautious than his father, especially after an embarrassing defeat at our hands when he tried to be stupid when he was younger. Papa made an example of him.” I leave out the gory details for Gia’s sake, but my expression lets them know that he didn’t end up in one piece.
“Wait, isn’t the Conti fortune based on shipping and smuggling?” Alonzo asks, perking up. I nod. “It would make sense that Bianca would be the one who possibly organized this. And that means if she had female children, she would have had the knowledge of how to do it. It would make sense that she would tell Gia’s mother about it once she knew she could trust her.”
“Risky, considering who they were both married to, but you have to admire them,” Lazaro remarks. “Clearly it worked though, since Sienna, and possibly two more were able to be taken out.”
“I’m still unsure how they did that without them getting suspicious,” Dante frowns. “I mean, if it was always a girl, wouldn’t they have started to question why it was always girls?”
“No,” Gia says with a shake of her head. “They would have either figured good riddance, or maybe they thought the women killed them because they knew how mad they would get. At least, that’s what makes sense to me. The men in my family really hate women, including their wives.”
“But surely they would have realized the benefit of having daughters for marriages, considering their own,” Lazaro argues.
“Maybe as they got older, but they had sons,” Gia reminds him. “And my brothers and cousins would have been the ones to bring the women in and bind the people they wanted. And honestly, they would want the upper hand. They would have people coming to them for marriages or requests for power or whatever they wanted. Not them having to go to someone else to work something out that would benefit them.”
“And they probably wouldn’t have wanted to risk a daughter spilling secrets,” I add with a scowl. “Gia, I’m sorry, but your family really are pieces of shit.”
Gia gives me a dry smile. “Yeah, I know. Honestly, none of this surprises me. But it does make me wonder how I didn’t get smuggled out.” Her smile turns sad, and I see the pain in her eyes.
Nico holds her tight. “Do not think like that, topolina . Doing that will cause you unnecessary pain. Perhaps your mother desperately wanted to keep you around, or maybe they tried and somehow the plan went awry. But you’re here now, and you never have to worry about such a thing again.”
“I think it’s more the latter than the former,” she sighs. “My mother was always angry with me, and never had much to do with me. Maybe she was scared to, but honestly, I think she resented me. My father was very unhappy she had a girl, and he blamed her for sullying the line with me more than once. My brothers also made her life a nightmare about it, telling her she should have killed me when I was born. I was so little, but I remember it clearly. Honestly, when she died, it was very sad, but I didn’t grieve overly much. I didn’t know her well, and honestly, I think she gave up by the end. It’s probably how Marco was able to kill her without her knowing. Or maybe she didn’t care.”
“Marco killed her?” Nico asks, staring down at her. “It’s always been thought your father killed her.”
She nods. “Honestly, it was probably on Father’s orders that Marco killed her. My father didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was dead. I heard him praising Marco for doing it, and for doing it so cleanly. He was grooming him even then for the underboss position. He killed her by snapping her neck. Father didn’t want any of her dirty blood getting anything messed up,” she finishes bitterly. Nico murmurs something to her, stroking her side comfortingly.
The room feels heavy from a lot of information flying. “We need to get things back under control, and we need to distract them from their searches,” I say briskly. “After all, the more they have to fight against us, the less chance they can throw resources at finding the other women. Aurelio, we need your men to work double time on this.”
“I just got back a note from my guy,” Aurelio replies. “He’s been able to confirm one woman, but the other he’s still trying to figure out. These two girls were much better hidden than Sienna, which tracks if their mother is the aunt, because she would know more tricks than Gia and Sienna’s. Anyway, the other woman’s name is Amara Smith, but she’s recently changed her last name, which made her harder to find. She was abandoned as an infant at a fire station, so she went into the system. Smith was the typical last name given to infants who were abandoned. She’s recently changed it to Amara Stanley, and opened up a hair salon in a small town in Arizona. He has no other information other than that right now because most of her records were sealed or destroyed.”
“Destroyed?” I repeat.
“Fire in a records office in Arizona when she was about eighteen. Which is right when she would have aged out of the system,” Aurelio answers. “Her records don’t appear to be digitized, so when she aged out, it appears she disappeared off the map. She reappeared when she was twenty-five and registered for a driver’s license. After that, she disappeared again.”
“You think she’s living off the grid?” Alonzo wonders.
“Could be, but something tells me that it’s more she’s cautious,” Aurelio answers. “But again, my guy only just found her, so there’s more he’ll have to dig up. Once he gets going he’ll have plenty.”
“We need to get to her first,” Dante points out. “If your guy found her, then the others will too, if they haven’t already, and they’ve clearly been working on it. So we need to get to her, and we need to do it carefully and quickly.”
“Send me her details and I’ll go,” Lazaro offers. “I’ll bring her back as quickly as I can.”
“She’d see you from a mile away and run off,” Alonzo scoffs. “I’ll go.”
“No,” I say firmly. “Lazaro, you go. Alonzo, I need you here and helping to make sure that we’re not caught unaware, and also to help us figure out our next offensive. Because as I see it, they’re distracted and now is the time to strike.”
“They’ll be expecting it,” Dante warns.
I give him a sharp smile. “Even better. But we’re going to need all the strategies we can get so we don’t lose our upper hand. Alonzo is the best person we have for that. Lazaro can make sure we get her here undetected, despite him being a fucking giant.”
Lazaro flips me off. “Fuck off,” he admonishes without any heat. “I’ll be wheels up in less than a couple of hours. Papa, send me all the information you can, and we’ll be talking once I’m airborne.”
“Done,” Aurelio replies.
“Make sure you keep me updated,” Lazaro says to me expectantly.
I nod. “Any problems, let us know, and make sure you check in.” Lazaro nods, and then with a wave toward Nico and Alonzo, and a scowl at Dante, he leaves the room.
“Will he ever like you?” Gia asks Dante curiously.
“Probably not,” Dante replies with a careless shrug. Gia smirks and then lets out a sleepy yawn.
“ Topolina , you need to get back to bed,” Nico admonishes. “I’ll be up shortly.”
“Mmm, okay,” she says tiredly, smiling up at him. She gives him a quick kiss, gets to her feet, smiles at us, and then heads out of the room. I wonder absently if Sienna will ever be like that with me, but I suppose it doesn’t matter. She’s not a carbon copy of her sister, and I prefer it that way.
Once Gia is out of earshot and the door closes, Dante looks at us and says, “Alright, now that we know what the hell is going on, it’s time that we go on the offensive. I say we hit them all at once and make it hurt. They expect us to retaliate, but probably not so soon, and since they’re searching for the others, they probably have some of their men diverted, leaving other areas open.”
Nico and I glance at each other, and then I give a cool smile. “You’re not going to get an argument from me. What do you have in mind?”