10. ~Caterina~
10
~Caterina~
“How are you doing?”
“I’m fine,” I bit back.
I grimaced as that came far more petulant than I’d intended.
I’d always been mature for my age, a result of my fucked upbringing, and I’d carried that with me into everything that I did. Except when it came to Joseph Stover.
There was just something about him, or about our dynamic, where it brought something else out in me. Something that I didn’t care for.
“You’re mad at me.”
“Whatever gave you that idea?”
And there it was again. What was that?
“You’ve barely spoken to me in the last few days that we’ve been cooped up in this safehouse.”
I finally looked up from my plate of grilled cheese and eyed him across the small two-seater table that was situated in the corner of the miniscule kitchen.
“I thanked you for bringing in those trays of food when I was recuperating from the miscarriage over the first little while.”
“I don’t need your thanks. But, to be clear, those were more along the lines of grunts, rather than actual words.” He put down his knife and fork—that’s right, he ate his grilled cheese with utensils—and regarded me shrewdly. “This is about me neglecting to tell you that I’d ensured your marriage to Nico Marchetti was a falsity?”
“As you can imagine, I don’t exactly relish being a puppet in your fucked-up masterpiece theatre.”
“That’s not how I view you, nor what I intended, Caterina.”
“And yet,” I said, rubbing my finger, the place where my ring had been. Until I’d had to leave it behind, so we couldn’t be tracked. Until I’d had to leave the symbol of my connection to my men behind.
“I knew you didn’t want to be forced into that marriage. I was in a position to ensure that wasn’t the case. You weren’t at the time. So I did what was needed.”
“You also made us all believe that it was real. Because you wanted me at the Manor. You skewed our perception. You manipulated a whole fucking lot.” I shook my head at him. “You’ve spent so long in the shadows, making moves, taking out ruthless pieces of shit, that you’ve lost a lot of your humanity along the way. People are just pawns to move around on a board for you. Even me.”
“Others, yes,” he admitted in that usual matter-of-fact way of his. “But not you. Never you.”
“Then why interfere at all where the marriage was concerned? That was a personal move. Why would you go that route?”
“Because your mother would have wanted me to.”
I scoffed. “Come on.”
“Come on what? That’s not a good enough reason?”
“I don’t believe it’s a viable one, not when it comes to you taking action. Extremely dangerous, multifaceted, and complicated action, to ensure the marriage was bullshit.”
He stared at me. “You don’t think you can trust me. Hence all this focus on the marriage, something I know you’re actually relieved about.”
“Of course.”
“Look, I did manipulate things. I admit that. It was to put you in that house with Nico and your boyfriends. Because he was considered off-limits at the time. Due to Marco’s insistence that he not be harmed, nor that those he cared for be harmed. And I was aware that it had come to include you.”
“Marco’s insistence to who? Santino? That seems more than just a little unlikely.”
“Santino was the least of it. There was much more at play. There is much more at play.”
“You’re referring to the black ops creeps who Angelo has involved, who he seems to have lent out to Leo Marchetti now as well?”
“It’s worse than that.” He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Your mother reached out to me when she discovered that Santino was delving into human trafficking. She rightly concluded that he’d taken a much darker turn, and she was afraid. For herself, for you, and for the family as a whole. So I looked into it. That was when I also discovered Marco trying to make that arms deal with Malcolm Lynch’s Osiris. The timing of them both venturing down those dangerous roads was more than a little suspicious to me. So I investigated. I discovered that the initial human trafficking buyers, and Lynch, even Price, were connected. Santino and Marco had allied with a specific entity that controlled all of that, that provided those opportunities and connections for them.”
“What? How did I miss this?”
“Because they’re ghosts, Caterina. The best of the absolute best.” He pushed out of his chair and started pacing back and forth as he went on, “They call themselves Erebus. Their goal was to gain control and influence in the city. Between the Marchetti Syndicate and the Leone Family, they could provide access to key infrastructure for them, like the Marchetti Holdings ports and smuggling systems, drug trafficking routes and systems, along with influence over key city officials, politicians, judges. They could also offer them safe zones for their operations on Marchetti and Leone territories, something they’ve wanted for a while, so they don’t have to continue to be constantly on the move. And on the families’ end, they wanted access to Erebus’ connections, military-grade equipment, along with their technological and hacking expertise that rivals even yours.”
As I took his words in, it all began to fall into place.
He went on, “Angelo didn’t kidnap you that night to send you off to a sex slave buyer like he’d claimed. That was the cover to protect Erebus’ existence. The goal was to bring you to their HQ and have you turned to become an asset. And failing that, to kill you. They’d identified you as a threat. A significant one because of your skills.”
“So this hit isn’t just Angelo seeking vengeance for me killing my father?”
“That’s what he’s using it as, but from Erebus’ perspective, it’s to eliminate a threat.”
I cursed under my breath.
“Santino being killed this early has now led to Angelo being tapped as Boss. Erebus is also currently bolstering Leo Marchetti because he doesn’t have support, as Nico has everyone’s loyalty in the Family now. But then their next move, after killing you, is to officially install Angelo as head of the Leone Family. I’ve intercepted communications between Leo and Angelo recently, wherein they’ve pledged to work together going forward. Soon, the two families and Erebus will be irreversibly intertwined. They’ll run right over the city, and then they’ll even expand from there.”
“Hold on. Knowing this, specifically about the hit not just being a case of Angelo using these assholes to carry it out, means that having the boys search for him to put him down while you keep me here off the grid makes no fucking sense. It wouldn’t stop the hit at all.”
“Correct.”
Adrenaline thrummed through me at his admission.
I rose from my seat, noting that the nasty ache and pain that had been there a few days ago with any sudden movement had now lessened a great deal.
At least bringing me out here had enabled that to happen, basically forcing me to take the time to work on my physical recovery.
“What the hell are you playing at, Joe?” I demanded. “Why do this, then? Why create this layered charade? Why take me from my men?” I slammed my fist down on the table. “You used my less-than-stellar state and my grief to manipulate me, to make it much easier than it ever would have normally been to convince me to actually leave with you.”
“All true. I did take advantage of your weakness at the time. I had to. You wouldn’t have allowed yourself to be parted from them otherwise. Even in spite of the guilt you were feeling toward them regarding losing your child.”
“You’re shameless. You know that?”
“What I am is equipped to do what needs to be done for this mission and for your wellbeing.”
“The first part we were handling ourselves. And the latter, you have no right to.”
“You were operating with merely pieces of the overall puzzle. Because you needed me and what I know, what I can do.”
“I’ll find another way. Me and my men will.”
I went to walk out of the room, but he called out, “I know who controls Erebus!”
“What? I thought they were ghosts?”
“They are, but their leader no longer is. Not to me. His name is Nathan Donahue. We served together years ago. It’s why he’s targeting Tolhurst, because of my connection to it. We had a falling out when I exposed him for the disgusting side deals he was making while we were deployed overseas. Since then, he’s grown this vast network. Now he wants to settle with Erebus, instead of staying in the shadows. And, as a fuck-you to me, he’s chosen that first place as Tolhurst.”
“Shit, Joe.”
“I need your help to track him. But that can’t happen safely until the herd is thinned, so that the contract on your life is no longer a main priority, until they can no longer afford it to be.”
“Thin the herd? How? What have you done?”
“I have an asset in place back in the city. He’d just required a little more time to gather what we needed in order to see to this phase of the plan. Something he now has. He’ll be making contact with Nico any time now.”
“If you’re putting my men in danger to pull this off—”
“I wouldn’t do that to you. I know how much they mean to you.”
“How can I trust that? How can I trust any of this?”
“I’ve looked out for you with the hit and—”
“You just admitted you had other reasons for doing that. You need me as a resource. You need my skills to find Donahue.”
“I trained you for months to protect you, to give you the means to survive, to become an exceptional combatant.”
“A killer, you mean?”
“It served to protect you either way.”
“And you did that at my mom’s behest, because you were still emotionally involved with her at the time.”
“I didn’t just train you, or care about you, because of Bianca.”
“Give me a reason, a concrete fucking reason to trust you, or I walk right now.”