Chapter 25 Stan #3
“Why go through Dead To Me when she has the Bratva on speed dial?
“Rory thinks it’s personal.”
“Nothing like a woman scorned?”
“Precisely. Years of a sham marriage with her husband having hookers on speed dial and no payout at the end?” Luciu tsked.
“What you’re suggesting… You think Brackton’s death was a trigger?”
“More power vacuums… It’s funny how chaos has come to the city since his death, wouldn’t you say?”
“Correlation isn’t causation.”
“Agreed. Still, something to think about, no?”
“This mess has clearly been building for a lot longer than either of us are comfortable admitting,” he observed. “If the men who availed of the Albanian stable, and I’m including the president and Korhonen in that group, don’t know who sanctioned the hit…”
“They’re not going to know Brackton’s wife was behind it. They’ll think someone’s making a move to out them.”
“So they made their move first.”
“They probably only knew about Dead To Me’s involvement because of those damn calling cards she leaves behind.”
O’Donnelly pinned Luciu with a look. “We’ll reconvene at the Summit. You didn’t have to tell me this, Luciu, so I appreciate it.”
“We’re family, Aidan.”
That earned him a grunt. “Tell Custanzu I expect to see him sooner rather than later with an apology.”
Luciu smirked. “Will do.”
When O’Donnelly jumped into his SUV, and while Luciu crossed the parking lot, I hissed in annoyance. Only, when I saw Rory’s matching smirk—fucking twins—I snapped, “What was with the squirming whenever they mentioned the ledger?”
“Stop being so tetchy.”
Immediately sus at the misdirection, I countered, “You were fidgeting, Rory. That’s my job. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” She huffed.
“Bullshit.”
“That went well.” Luciu climbed into the car, sparing her the need for a response. When neither of us replied, he tapped on the ceiling and Chad set off. “What’s going on?”
“Rory’s keeping something from us.”
“I keep plenty from both of you. If you want full access to my brain, you can have it when I die. I’ll make sure the funeral home puts it in a nice jar for you and everything.”
“That isn’t funny, soru,” Luc bit off, but he’d turned to her as well. “You’re right, Stan. She only gets crotchety when she’s hiding something.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
“We talked about this, Aurora,” my brother growled. “Trust can be a one-way street, but not if we ever want to achieve anything.
“While I know your knowledge base spans the seven goddamn seas, and that I couldn’t possibly process the information that you do with my puny cerebral cortex, what aren’t you telling us?”
Her jaw worked as she reached into the small refrigerator and retrieved a bottle of water. Failing to crack the lid, she muttered, “I have a handle on it.”
I snatched the bottle from her and broke the seal. “On what?”
She held out a hand for the water, and once I passed it over, she deliberated, “I Told You So—”
“Now isn’t the time for childish—”
“Listen, would you?” she spat at Luc. “I’m talking about the blog! The one you were discussing with Aidan! Though, if you can’t handle this conversation, I’ll be the first to goddamn say I told you so! It takes a woman.” Her chin jutted out as she corrected, “Women.”
“And what, dear sister, are women doing?”
“More than you think or want to know.” When he made to argue, she railroaded him.
“As DA, I was in a perfect position to utilize the mass of information and intel in my possession.
Not so much as the Consigliere of the Cosa Nostra and the Camorra.
Worse still, I possess more intel than before. Especially with my homeless network.
“A couple or so years ago, Lucinda Black approached me—”
“Dead To Me approached you? What the fuck for?” Luc demanded.
“She wanted to form a… friendship.” Rory tapped her nails on the leather seat. “I think it started in the vain hopes of reconnecting with Chad.”
“Chad?” Luc questioned with a frown.
“What do you know of his past?”
“That he served…” His voice broke off. “They served together?”
“They did. Taube, it would seem, is very much in love with him. At least, that’s me reading between the lines. When he started working for me, I became of interest to her. Specifically, the homeless network I’ve cultivated—”
“Tell me you didn’t, Rory.” I groaned, recognizing her smug expression from the many times she’d whooped me at backgammon when we were kids.
“What aren’t you saying, soru?”
“She’s, they’ve, been feeding I Told You So intel.”
Which meant Taube knew I Told You So’s identity!
“That’s how she got access to those goddamn pictures at Brackton’s apartment!”
A smile danced on Rory’s lips. “I only share the juiciest of gossip, I can assure you.”
Luc tugged on his hair like he wanted to rip it out. I couldn’t blame him. Fuck only knew how Hunter coped with her on the daily.
“Why?” I grouched.
“Someone has to leak the truth. Why not us? The blog is very useful for that. She gets over fifteen million hits a month and that’s growing. It’s a tool for disseminating the truth under the guise of gossip.”
Me: You heard of a blogger called I Told You So?
Star: 'Course. She’s mostly an annoyance, but whatever source of intel she has is impressive.
Star: Why?
Me: Any idea how Taube might be involved? Could I Told You So BE Taube?
“Is Dead To—fuck. Taube. Is Taube I Told You So?” Luc questioned, both of us obviously on the same track.
“No. But she knows her. Well.”
Star: Doubtful. Taube’s interest in pop culture is as big as my interest in cockroaches.
Star: Why do you ask?
How did I answer that?
Me: We think she’s connected to I Told You So
Star: Leave it with me. I’ll worm it out of her.
Me: And share the intel?
Star: So suspicious. Of course I will
Star: Later
“How does she know her?”
Rory took a sip of water. “I haven’t uncovered that.”
“So you’re perfectly fine disseminating valuable intel to someone unknown? I guess you’re the reason she posted about Clarice overhearing the conversation between Brackton and Devere before the fucker died!”
At Luc’s sneer, her expression turned mulish. “Taube is trustworthy and her links are too.”
“She’s an assassin! A frankly deranged killer for hire who set her sights on your husband—”
“This is different! Anyway, Hunter knows about this—”
Into their argument, I tacked on softly, “How do you know it’s different, soru?”
“I just do.” She threw her water bottle at Luc. “Clarice deserved some form of justice, even if the best I could do meant revealing the truth to some people that it wasn’t an accident. That she was murdered.”
“That’s no answer. Porca troia, Aurora, you should have come to me with this. We should have convened on the information you shared—on whether you should or shouldn’t have been passing it on to a third party.”
Rory folded her arms on top of her belly. “I don’t need you to hold my hand, Luciu.”
“Apparently you do because this conversation should have happened after that first meeting with her.”
I tucked my cell into my jacket pocket. “What does I Told You So want? What’s her endgame?”
For the first time, Rory appeared uncertain. “Havoc, I think.”
“You think?” Luc sputtered.
“It’s come in handy for us,” she snarled back. “Like I said—it’s an easy way to sow dissent! Her reach is unparalleled in an age of social media.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “And an easier way to leak our intel to the enemy.”
“You’ll have to trust me!”
“It’s not you we don— didn’t trust.” Luc’s correction had her eyes turning stormy. “It’s this unknown factor. We’ll discuss this later. After the Summit. Until then, we present a united front. Capisci?”