Chapter 24
COSIMO
The engine idled beneath me as I typed out a message to one of the capos. Alvarez’s shipment was coming in tonight, and moving that much product without a hitch took coordination.
THUD. THUD.
I glanced up. Rom stood outside the car, gesturing for me to unlock it.
“Good thing I caught you,” he said as he climbed in. “I went up to your office, but your secretary said you’d just left. Been calling you for the past hour.”
“Sorry,” I muttered, finishing the message. “Busy day. Give me a second.”
He glanced down at the floor mats. “Why are there a bunch of plastic dicks on the floor of your car?”
I tossed the phone into the center console with an irritated flick of my hand. “Long story.”
“I think I’ve got time for this one.”
“I don’t.” I wasn’t going to revisit the memory of that night for Rom’s sake.
“You’re cranky. Trouble in marital paradise? It’s been less than a week—how’d you manage to fuck things up so fast?”
I hadn’t. In fact, I’d done exactly what I told myself I would do after the wedding—bury myself in work.
But every free moment, when my mind wasn’t actively occupied with something else, Nettle was right there, just beneath the surface.
I was curious to know how she was doing.
How she was settling into her new life, her new house, her new routine.
I’d assigned her a driver and a bodyguard, two of my very best, but besides getting daily reports on her comings and goings, I refused to ask the house staff for more details. It would only feed the obsession.
Which was exactly what this was starting to feel like.
When I was at home, I found it easy to not cross paths with her. Too easy. Almost like my new wife was just as committed to avoiding me as I was to avoiding her.
Again, what I should’ve been feeling about that, and what I actually felt, were diametrically opposed.
Instead of relief at having not seen her in days, I was irritated.
Instead of being able to forget her, I was reminded of her by the mug on my desk.
I could’ve put it away, but I hadn’t. I told myself that was because it was useful—the handle was surprisingly ergonomic, and I used it nearly every day.
But the truth was that I hadn’t shoved it into a drawer because I liked seeing it there.
I leveled Rom with an impatient look. “What was so important that you chased after me as I was about to pull out of the parking lot?”
His expression turned serious. “I’ve got some bad news. You know how we bugged Mother’s office? We got something this morning. George met with her.”
I frowned. George was one of our capos, a good man, loyal to Dad for over a decade.
“She offered to give him a stake in Ferraro Holdings. Positioning it not as a bribe, but as a reward for his service. About ten thousand shares, a board seat, and voting rights.”
Anger zipped up my spine. “She’s just gonna try and buy the fucking votes?”
“Looks like it. Why overcomplicate things when the simple option will do?”
“She can’t grant the shares unilaterally. The board will have to approve it.”
“I think there’s a good chance she’ll be able to get the majority to vote it through. You know, I spent years getting her dirt on all the board members. If they don’t agree willingly, she’ll force it.”
I rubbed my palm over my chin. I could try to put my own pressure on the board. But if word got out that I’d blocked the vote to give him shares and a seat—and I was certain it would get out—I’d lose George anyway.
Fighting her on this was a no-win scenario for me.
“George’s got a long record,” I muttered. “Some of it recent. Putting him on the board of a legitimate business would damage us long term.”
“Yeah, well, Mother’s not thinking long term. She’s thinking about the next—let’s see—twenty-five days.”
“Fuck. Has Dad been gone that long?” I rubbed my chin, wondering where the fuck the time had gone.
“Over a month now.” Rom blew out a breath.
“I think it’s all going to come down to who manages to find Dad’s killers.
The capos might want money and power, the same as any man does, but they were loyal to Dad.
They would’ve died for him. More than anything, they crave vengeance against the Santoros. ”
“I’m working on it,” I muttered.
“We’re running out of time.” Rom sniffed. “All we’ve got are cold leads, Cos. What’s the plan?”
I picked my phone back up and scrolled through my unread messages. There it was. I thought I’d seen something come in from Rosa when I was finishing the message earlier.
“I might have something, but I need a bit of time to look into it. I’ll let you know.”
“All right.” He slapped my shoulder. “Call me if you need anything.”
I waited for him to get out of the car before I dialed Rosa. Her latest text said she had good news. I really fucking hoped so, because Rom was right. We were running out of time.
She picked up. “You know that raise we discussed? I want you to keep that at the top of your mind for the duration of this call.”
I tapped my fingers against the wheel. “I’m listening.”
“This Friday, there’s a charity auction benefiting the Guggenheim’s conservation and acquisitions program.
The identities of the donors are meant to be anonymous, but someone fucked up.
The event organizers uploaded the full catalogue to a page on their site, and apparently, someone pushed a test update live by mistake.
So for about five minutes, the donor names were visible.
You know how my hacker dude set up alerts for any mentions of the Santoros on the internet?
Well, he got a hit.” She paused for dramatic effect.
“Rena Santoro is listed as one of the donors for this auction.”
I frowned. It was something, but it wasn’t immediately obvious what I could do with this information. “What did she donate?”
“It’s some kind of a vase. But that’s not what’s most interesting. Once we got the lead, I had our hacker dude dig deeper. We managed to track down the RSVP list via an intern’s laptop. He’d connected it to a public Wi-Fi network. Guess who RSVP’d?”
My gaze narrowed. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. Rena Santoro is going to be there.”
Oh, this was fucking excellent. “Did you get a photo?”
Rosa scoffed. “Trust me, getting the RSVP list was hard enough. And not cheap.”
“I don’t know what she looks like.” How was I going to identify her even if she did come to the event? There’d be hundreds of people there.
“We still have access to the intern’s laptop. If he happens to use it to check people in, we should be able to tell you once she arrives.”
Good enough. This was the most promising lead we’d gotten since the explosion. “When’s the gala?”
“Two days from now. The thing’s completely sold out, but I’m guessing you can pull some strings to get yourself a ticket.”
“Yeah.” I was fairly sure Messero had donated to the museum in the past. He would be able to get me in.
Although he’d want to know if I was taking Fabiana.
I had no good excuse not to bring her with me.
And with Mother making moves with the capos, I needed to remind everyone that the Messero alliance would be at risk if they turned on me.
I wasn’t concerned about Fabiana’s safety. Nothing would happen at the actual event even if I found Rena Santoro. All I’d do is get her photo so we could run it through facial recognition. Maybe have a conversation.
But having Fabiana on my arm all night would test me.
I cracked my neck. I could handle it.
“So about that raise?” Rosa brought me back to the conversation.
“I’ll see what I can do. Good work.”
It was only five o’clock, far earlier than when I usually returned home, but I’d gotten so much done in the last few days, there was nothing pressing to handle anymore.
I’d drive home and use the sauna. Clear my head.
Then I’d find Fabiana and tell her about the gala.
Twenty minutes later, a towel wrapped around my waist, I pulled open the sauna door.
And stopped dead.
Because my half-naked wife was already there.