Chapter 15 #2
Ellie opened and closed her mouth.
“Baby sis, what happened with Johnny? Why the sudden wedding?” Allie’s tone was much quieter. Without moving, she’d created a calm space for her sister to trust her and let down her guard.
Ellie glanced at Ringo first. Interesting.
I caught his attention and lifted a brow at him. Did you know? I asked with that gesture.
He shook his head sharply once.
“Ellie?” my wife prompted.
“It’s about the money.”
“Grandfather’s money?” Allie prompted.
Ellie hung her head and with that movement, her shoulders slumped. “No, mine. I won the lottery.”
Allie crossed to her sister and knelt on the floor in front of her. “Talk to me.”
Ellie licked her lips, nervously. “Remember when we got the first settlement? On his house in Chicago?”
Allie nodded. “I remember.” She slid her hand onto Ellie’s knee.
Her sister latched onto her hand like a lifeline.
“I did something stupid.”
The pause after her statement was long enough Loppa and Firenze shifted around the room to gain better vantage points to watch the exterior.
“What did you do?” Allie laid another hand on her sister’s death grip.
“You know how you were worried the Feds would seize it and stuffed your half into the bank? Well, I took all my money and bought scratch offs. I lost half of it. Then took the half that I didn’t lose on and tried to lose it, too. Because they couldn’t take it if I didn’t have it, right? But I won.”
Allie didn’t say anything, opting instead to lightly rub her sister’s hands between hers.
“And then I took half of that money and kept playing.” Allie swallowed. “I didn’t even care at that point. It was going to be gone with the lawsuits so I thought, fuck it.”
Allie nodded. “I put mine in an interest-bearing account and keep moving the interest to my savings so they can’t touch it.”
Her sister grimaced. “At that point, I was playing the numbers games. And that’s when I…”
Ringo shifted his attention from the window, now fully invested with Ellie’s tale.
“I won big. Not mega-millions big, but big, Allie. I bought the bar where I work, and…uh… a landscaping firm, my condo, and even a few shares of stock.”
Ellie looked up to see everyone staring at her. Loppa and Firenze quickly looked away but Ringo’s gaze bored into her as if he was seeing her in a different light. I didn’t like it at all.
But Allie kept working her quiet magic. I recognized that move. She’d disarmed me that first night by simply offering me a glass of champagne. This time, it was tea.
Ellie took a sip and continued. “I was set for life. And I still kept playing.”
Her hands were shaking.
“How?” Allie’s question was my own.
“Betting.”
Ah.
Ringo must have had the same revelation as I did.
Gambling in general was a major source of income for the family.
We’d been involved in it for so long, it was all legitimate, but if Ellie had run across some of the newer players in the game, she would likely have run into issues, if not full-blown problems.
My eyes locked with my friend.
He shook his head again, this time very carefully and slowly.
“Johnny set me up with his…friend.” Ellie swallowed.
“Name,” I growled. This would be solved with perhaps one phone call.
Ellie looked up to stare at me. “I paid him off.”
She pulled her sister’s hands in close. “Allie, I paid everyone off. But Johnny was… I mean, he knew. And I had to keep some money flowing through that so he wouldn’t get—”
Her words cut off sharply. She studied the room as if frightened of all of us. Which she likely was. When she finally spoke again, her voice was barely a whisper.
“They were going to kill him, Allie. I was only trying to help.”
My wife did not look as empathetic as before. In fact, if I read the expression on her face, it said she didn’t give two shits whether Johnny was dead or not. “By marriage?”
“I know, I should have called it off then, but I won again. And Johnny said if we got married I’d never have to—”
“Oh for the love of—Ellie, you know better than this.”
Allie’s admonition caused her sister to move back into her defensive position. Both arms crossed tightly against her body, her legs practically double-crossed. That didn’t stop her from aiming true. “Tell me again, who actually married a mobster? Huh?”
“Enough!” Ellie’s teeth were out, and my wife didn’t realize the danger she was in.
“Fuck you.” Ellie whipped a middle finger at me, and shifted it to a vulgar arm gesture for punctuation on the insult.
Ringo coughed to cover a laugh.
Allie sighed. “Yes, I married a man with a dubious past.” She stood and brushed at the dress she wore to smooth the wrinkles from the hem. “And he’s done nothing but protect me since. Johnny didn’t do that for you. I hope you see the difference.”
Her sister looked mutinous. “At least Johnny didn’t get me shot at.”
Allie opened and closed her mouth. I crossed the room to wrap an arm over my wife’s shoulders. “How did you obtain the pictures of this event?” I motioned toward the table between the couch and the fireplace.
“Our family lawyer,” Allie supplied.
“The one I hired to follow Johnny. I thought he was cheating on me.” Ellie stared at the floor.
“So, blackmail and cheating?” Allie’s voice was much softer now, but held a hard edge.
“Yeah. Ya happy about that?”
“No. Worried.”
Ellie straightened in her chair. Her eyes drifted from Allie to me. “What are you going to do about this?”
I gritted my teeth. It is one thing to plot murder in your mind, another to mention it out loud. “First, eliminate the price on my head. These photos prove I didn’t kill Adelmo Conti.”
“You sure about that?” Ellie’s tone was familiar. I slid my gaze to Ringo, narrowing my eyes.
He raised his eyebrows at me. “She’s got a point. Her lawyer didn’t catch photos of Mr. Pornstach actually doing the deed.”
“It is his car, no?” I pulled a wide angle of the accident scene from the pile. The grainy photograph had been secured from a traffic camera at the intersection. A man and an accomplice exited the car that had hit Adelmo’s vehicle. “It is him in the pictures, correct?”
The close-up of Johnny standing next to Adelmo’s car was too grainy to positively identify the face accurately, but it was most definitely not me. With Ellie’s confirmation that she’d had Johnny followed, I was cleared.
“There’s still the fact that you snubbed Don Conti’s daughter.”
Ringo was not helping.
“You know I’m right. Don Conti would have put a hit on your head for that alone.” He held out his empty hands.
Ellie’s jaw tensed. “Why did you marry my sister?”
Allie went rigid under my arm.
The unvarnished truth was terrible, and very unromantic. But everyone needed to hear this—even my bodyguards.
“I was injured.”
“Fuck! You and your damned bleeding heart. Allie!”
Now it was my bride’s jaw that tensed. “I wasn’t getting a refund from the venue because there was a justice of the peace there forcing the ceremony through. Why?”
Ellie slumped. “That was my fault.”
“What?” Both Ringo and Allie’s voices rose.
They stared at Ellie with utter shock, and perhaps a bit of disgust on their expressions.
“Tell me why?” I’d taken a page out of Allie’s text book and softened my tone.
Ellie glared at me. “If you must know, I thought Johnny was going to get cold feet after I showed him the prenup.” Her jaw stuck out.
“A prenup?”
Ellie shifted to her sister’s question. “Yeah, one that said that Johnny could touch none of my money, legal or not. And, he had to stop hanging around with those friends of his or else the wedding would be instantly annulled with only my signature needed.”
Allie’s tension slacked, and she wavered on her feet. I guided her back to the couch.
“What? Do you think you’re the only one who can plan ahead? I protected my money and made sure he couldn’t blackmail me anymore.”
My wife processed that.
“Where is this prenup?” I asked.
Ellie scooted off her chair and dug into the binder of travel plans. She tugged it out and handed it over. “Did you sign a prenup, Mr. Valentini?”
I did not. My wife was entitled to my entire fortune should I die. As it should be.
This time it was Ringo sending me a glare. “He didn’t. It’s against the code.” His cheek twisted up into a sarcastic grin.
Allie’s hand shook.
“Cara?”
“My net worth is currently four-hundred and eighty-six thousand.” She glanced at me with fear in her eyes.
I smiled down at her. “Multiply that by one hundred and you have mine. And the family fortune is likely another twenty thousand times that.”
Her face went pale. “No wonder someone is trying to kill me.”
Yes. “Which brings us back to the Conti agreement. Ringo?”
He scoffed. “Don Conti’s holdings are currently valued at seven hundred million in soft assets, and another five hundred million in the American holdings.
But his bank owes one point eight billion in fines for money laundering.
They’re broke.” He grinned and leaned into his chair, one arm draped over the ornate chair back.
Ellie stared at him. “What are you worth?”
“Me? Nothing. All my shit is tied to his. All the businesses, everything. Now that he’s married, I’m shit out of luck.”
“You own the estate.” I reminded him.
“And the bills for it.” He shot back.
“We’ll adjust the agreement.”
Firenze and Loppa squirmed. I needed to address that as well. “It was a clean shot, no?”
Firenze’s jaw shifted. “One in a million.”
I glanced at Loppa. “What is your objective assessment?”
His face searched mine. “If I weren’t your grandfather’s nephew and know exactly when he joined the family, I’d say he was born as one of ours. Yet, he stabbed you.”
Allie followed the dual conversation closely. Her mouth tightened, and she glanced at Ringo.
My friend shrugged. “Occupational hazard.”
“What are you guys talking about behind our backs?” Ellie mimicked Ringo’s casual posture, but was much more on edge than he was.
I explained, “Signorina Jacobs, we mean no disrespect. It is merely business.”
“My sister was shot at because of that business, dude.”
“Yes, and her husband was stabbed, by that traitor.” Loppa glared at Ringo.
“You stabbed him?” The conversation played across her face. She looked at Ringo, then Allie in horror. “And you married him for that?”
“Not for that.”
“But… get it annulled. Duh.”
Discreetly, I tilted my head to watch Allie’s expression.
“We can’t,” Allie said, her cheeks pinked slightly.
Ellie’s mouth fell open. Her gaze shifted to me. “You… dog.”
She rounded on her sister. “And you…”
“Careful,” I warned as Ellie stepped closer.
My wife’s sister stared at me. Her expression shifted from surprise to scheming. “Allie? Remember what I said on the phone?”
Allie searched her memories, “We said a few things.”
“Yeah, but, here’s the deal. I can accept that your…
ugh… husband has mad perks, but he’s still just…
well…not as scary as you think.” She studied me with her eyes narrowed.
Then blurted out, “It’s-a-me-Mario! There.
I said it to his face. Boo-yah.” Ellie dropped an invisible microphone, then spun on her heel and strutted from the room.
Ringo’s shoulders shook.
Firenze pretended to wipe his nose and stared outside to keep from laughing but the wrinkles near the corners of his eyes betrayed his amusement.
Joppa looked confused. Firenze quietly explained the reference.
Deep inside, I smiled. I’d count ridicule as acceptance.