3. ~Caterina~
3
~Caterina~
I was a loner at heart.
It had become who I was and who I was comfortable being after being brought on by necessity from the way that I’d spent my childhood.
Alone. Isolated. Feared.
All of that had been caused by my father.
Because of who he was.
Because of what he did.
Santino Leone was feared by many. Foolishly respected by others. And reviled by the rest.
And due to that, it had proven impossible to make friends during my school years. People hadn’t wanted to get close to me because of him, afraid of being connected to the mob through me. The bright side of it was that I’d never been bullied. Not in conventional ways, at least. But I had basically been shunned.
Sure, some of his colleagues’ children had been ordered to try to make friends with me, but it had been so obviously fake from the get-go so I’d stayed away from that. How could I have ever trusted those who were ordered to be my friends by a man like my father? They might as well have been spies for him. I’d had enough of that as it was with being assigned guards to watch my every move whenever I’d stepped out of the Leone Estate.
Then I’d gone away to college, finally getting away from it all.
And now I was free from it entirely.
I was living my own life.
Making my mark in the business world.
Building my own empire.
It didn’t matter that I was friendless, because I was chock-a-block busy and I had been for the last few years. I didn’t have time for fun or leisure, or relationships.
That was how I liked it.
Simple. No complications.
The one exception being Nico Marchetti’s weird war with me.
It had been going on for three long years.
Sure, at first I’d welcomed the challenge. And, honestly, it had given me a sick thrill, striking against him and engaging in a battle of wits and all that.
But I couldn’t entertain it any longer.
It had been a week since he’d pulled that flower mess at Luster and I hadn’t struck back. Nor would I.
I needed to focus on business.
I was embarking on the next stage of my plans.
Luster had been a huge success. My gross profit margin was consistently above eighty percent and it had even hit ninety during my evaluation of the books a couple of days ago. I also had my two all-female lounges, Mystique and Mirage, that had become fixtures in the city and valued spaces and resources for young female entrepreneurs to come together and network, chill, and also learn from the seminars that we held.
I now had the capital, the experience, and the reputation to expand beyond that.
I had my eye on Brimbank Waterfront in the south end of the city, a place that had been neglected for years and fallen into pretty much a hellhole state. It was also a hub for smalltime criminals, all of that combined making it a place that the general public avoided like the plague.
But the intel I’d covertly acquired cited plans by city officials to develop the entire area, revitalizing it, drawing businesses and jobs there, making it a tourist attraction too. It was going to be a huge overhaul and undertaking. A development of this magnitude was something I needed to be a part of. And I would be. My company, Camlann Corporation, would be front and center.
I was already in the process of putting together the design concepts for a proposal, so I’d be right at the forefront once it was officially announced. With my plan to diversify beyond the entertainment sector through using this massive development opportunity to build a condominium complex, a four-star hotel, and to restore the current dilapidated pier and turn it into an amusement and leisure venue that would prove accessible and affordable to everyone, I would be stepping on the toes of those already established in those areas.
One such person was my father, a real estate king here in the City of Tolhurst with Leone Realty. As if he didn’t already have a big enough piece of the pie as it was. And beyond his real estate operations, there were also the illegitimate aspects that involved a whole lot of extortion, blackmail, and collusion that enabled him to control a third of the city. His backroom gambling dens spread all fucking over, racketeering, stolen goods trafficking, his sleazy strip clubs, countless embezzlement schemes, using politicians, stockbrokers, and city officials the Leone Family had in its pocket to do a whole lot more than that too.
But I was done playing it safe and worrying so much about staying off his radar and not crossing him, or infringing upon his business intentions in any way. I was more confident now and established, too. I was even being given an award for my success in business. This was the direction I wanted—and needed—to take the company in, to expand and remain relevant, and to make Camlann Corporation one of the major players in the city, rather than remaining on the sidelines of the greats.
My speakerphone buzzed on my desktop, pulling me from working on the design concepts. I tapped it to answer, and my assistant’s voice sounded out into my office a moment later.
“I have an unscheduled visitor insisting on seeing you, Caterina.”
I frowned. Normally, she was sublime with keeping my schedule and ensuring there were no unscheduled interruptions.
Before I could ask why she thought this would be considered an exception to our usual protocol, I heard muffled discourse in the background, a moment before her voice sounded back down the line, telling me, “It’s your mother.”
My mom? Here? At Luster? While I was neck-deep in work?
We had our scheduled bi-weekly luncheon for catching up and staying connected. Her coming here, especially without so much as a warning, really didn’t bode well.
“Send her in, Hazel.”
I braced myself. A moment later, my door opened and Bianca Leone walked on in.
Her long auburn hair, just like mine, was pulled up into a messy bun, some strands falling loose and brushing the shoulders of her demure Chanel blazer that gave way to a modest beige pencil skirt.
She took in my office, taking her time studying every little detail.
My sleek silver U-shaped desk, Camlann Corp branding and the photos of my properties on the dark-gray walls, the white leather sectional with the frosted glass coffee table over on the far end of the room.
I wasn’t surprised she was taking everything in, given that this was her first time ever stepping in here.
I’d expected her guard to be right behind her, but the door closed thanks to Hazel, and my mom remained here alone.
“Where’s your guard?”
“I made him wait outside in the town car.”
“So this is about Santino then,” I determined with her need for privacy giving it away. Although the guy in question was her guard, he worked for my father at the end of the day.
“Before we get to that, aren’t you going to give your mom a hug?”
“Sorry,” I said, rising from my chair. “I’m just swamped right now.”
I rounded the desk, and she met me halfway, throwing her arms around me and holding me to her.
I tensed up at first from the contact—I didn’t like to be touched as a rule. But I managed to sink into it and not offend her after a couple of moments, and I returned her embrace.
As we eased back, she held onto my hands and looked me over in my black and gold Versace pantsuit, my hair in a chic half-up, half-down do.
“You’re always so busy. You need to take a break every now and then, my sweetheart.”
“I can’t build an empire by taking breaks.”
“But you don’t want to burn out either.”
I smiled. “Touché.”
I gestured to one of the two chairs in front of my desk. As she took a seat, I settled back in mine, too.
Clasping my hands on my desk, I took her in, noting how tired she looked, worn down really. “So, what’s he done this time?”
She sighed heavily. “I debated whether to tell you about this. But the fact is, you’re the only person I can come to with it. If your father had any idea I knew about it, let alone that I was going against him on this—”
“Mom, I know,” I said, reaching out and laying my hand on hers on the desktop. “I know exactly how he is, how controlling, and how unhinged he can be sometimes. Especially when he feels there’s a threat to the Family.”
She scoffed. “It’s not a family anymore. It hasn’t been ever since he pushed you out with his bad decisions and then subsequently shoved me away too in favor of his whores. All he cares about is grabbing power any way he can get it and maintaining his rule over his territory in the city.” She shook her head, worry spilling forth. “But this… what he’s trying to do here… it’s moving beyond his territory… it’s a threat to the Marchettis and the Benzinos, and they won’t take that lightly.” That worry gave way to true terror as she uttered in a conspiratorial whisper, “It could mean war.”
“What is it? Is he planning to open a rival casino to the Benzinos? Get into the drug trade and thereby piss off both them and the Marchettis? Put up one of his luxury apartment buildings on their territory because he’s run out of space within his?”
“Trafficking.”
“That’s nothing new.”
“Of young women and men.”
I started. “No. I stopped something similar when he brought in unwilling participants to work at one of his strip clubs.”
After she’d tipped me off back then too, I’d hacked into the security cameras they’d had all over the place to keep an eye on their strippers and to ensure their clientele didn’t rip them off by not paying for certain despicable services in the back rooms. I’d sent the footage to my father anonymously under the guise of being a potential rival of his, ensuring he didn’t suspect members of the other two families, so that war didn’t break out. And the threat had worked. He’d closed down that up-and-coming aspect of his business before it could really get off the ground.
But this… this was another level altogether.
“You’re certain, Mom?”
She nodded. “He sent Angelo to pick me up after my shift at the children’s hospital, citing an urgent matter. That demented Capo took me to an empty condo in one of his Luxe Condos buildings and there was a young woman there with a stab wound. Your father was there also and asked me to treat her discreetly. When I had them leave the room so I could do so without them hovering over me, she told me she was in danger—from them. She was so scared, she wouldn’t tell me the whole story. But that was enough for me to worry. And to know that your father was violating the truce and the sanctity of the Leone Family—women and children aren’t to be harmed. Ever. So, I convinced them that the wound needed major medical intervention—surgery—or the woman would die. I got her out to Tolhurst General, where she only really needed a few stitches, and then I gave her some cash and helped her get out of the city that night. Your father believed that she escaped.”
“You mean, you hope he believed it?”
She grimaced. “Perhaps it’s wishful thinking. He hasn’t said a word to me about it. If he didn’t believe me—”
“He could be biding his time, Mom.”
“I’m a public figure. A revered pediatric surgeon, for one thing, and I’m also a recognizable figure in society circles. He can’t hurt me or it would destroy his reputation as a reputable businessman.”
“He could find a way. You’re not untouchable. You need to take a vacation, Mom. A couple of weeks. Now.”
“Drop this on my daughter’s plate and run off? I think not. Besides, I have my patients and I’m needed at the hospital.”
“We both know you’ve banked enough vacation time. You’re due. As for me, don’t worry. I’m not a helpless little girl.”
She smiled proudly. “No, you’re certainly not.”
“Thanks to you.”
“You did the work, Caterina.”
“And you covered for me that year I was away training to protect myself.”
Well, it had become quite a bit more than just protecting myself. I may have taken to the training a little too well. All the anger, resentment, and frustration at being denied power for so long, or a real say in my life back then, had been fueled into what I’d learned from a certain someone—an old contact of my mom’s—and it had brought forth another side to me, a much darker side.
I blinked out of that impromptu trip down memory lane and focused up, asking my mom, “I need more to go on. The girl’s name? Where she was being transported to that night? What if they’d had her for another purpose and it’s not what we think?”
“I know. It wasn’t much. So I didn’t stop there. I used that bug you gave me and uploaded the data to the Cloud you set up for me a while back when we first thought your father was cheating on me again. I put it in his office.”
“You did what?”
“I took it out once I got what I needed.”
“Shit, Mom, that was a hell of a risk.”
She lifted a shoulder. “I managed it, regardless.” She reached into her purse and took out a memory stick, handing it to me. “Everything it picked up is on here.”
I could’ve just taken it directly from the Cloud, but I didn’t bother telling her that, because she’d gone to the effort to do this instead.
“Thanks.”
“It turns out this operation is in the infancy stage. Only he and Angelo know about it, and obviously, Angelo’s soldiers. It’s been kept from Dante and Matteo, along with the other Capo, Elia.”
The Underboss and my father’s Consigliere were being kept out of the loop? This was something else.
“That young woman was part of what they’re calling a test shipment. Apparently, she was injured that night by one of Angelo’s soldiers when she resisted, as she was being forced into one of their shipping containers. That’s right, shipping containers. That’s how disgusting this whole thing is. The asshole tried to subdue her and ended up stabbing her in the struggle. After I got her out, they still went ahead with their shipment. From what I could gather, they’re keeping these victims somewhere ahead of selling them in a few weeks. I just don’t know where. They used codes when they were discussing the locations—warehouses, maybe? Empty units of God knows which one of Santino’s real estate developments?”
I put the memory stick down beside my laptop. “It’s all right. I’ll take it from here.”
She scrubbed her hand over her face. “Maybe I should have taken this to the Feds.”
“No, if you’d done that, you would have signed your death sentence. You were there treating that woman that night. This is being kept hush-hush. Angelo Simone is up Father’s ass, eager to prove himself because he wants to supplant Dante as Underboss. With him calling you in instead of one of his other doctors on the payroll shows how desperate he was to keep this quiet. With that in play, the finger would have pointed right at you.” I rose from my chair. “So, this is what we’ll do. You’re going to take that vacation I suggested so I know you’re safe and also so you’re far away from the chaos that they’re gonna have coming to them. I’ll get the location of these victims of theirs and extract them, and I’ll give them another target to focus on, creating a trail that will lead far away from you.”
“Not a trail back to you. Tell me that’s not what you’re thinking.”
“It’s not. I promise. I’ll be careful.”
I walked to her, and she rose from her seat as I told her, “I’ll make it look like the hospital forced you to take your vacation finally, so this doesn’t come across as being out of the blue. I need the weekend, then by the time you go to work on Monday, it will be in place, then you can notify Father.”
She reached out and took my hands. “I’m sorry to put this on you. I just—”
“It’s fine, Mom. Really. Like I said, I’ll take care of it.”
“You shouldn’t have to.”
“It is what it is.”
And as much as I’d tried to deny it, the brutal truth was that it would always be like this. There would always be something coming back on me because of my father.
Unless the Leone operations came to an end.
But achieving that would be a whole other story.
And as sure as I was in myself and my abilities, I wasn’t fool enough to think that I could bring that about—at least not on my own.
Unfortunately, that was exactly what I was.
On my own.
Both by choice and necessity.
Emotion welled in her eyes as realization hit her. “I won’t even be here for your award now.”
“It’s okay. You’ve always been my biggest supporter. I know you’ll be there in spirit.” I gave her hands a squeeze. “What’s important to me is that you’re safe. Please do this for me. I couldn’t live with it otherwise.”
She sucked in a breath. “I will, my sweetheart.” She threw her arms around me then, holding me tightly to her. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Mom.”
I let her hold me for as long as she needed, despite my body buzzing with the need to get down to dealing with all of this right away, adrenaline starting to thrum through me, and putting me on edge.
Truthfully, it couldn’t have come at a worst time with my business expansion plans.
But I also couldn’t allow it to continue.
My father had to be stopped from doing something this despicable.
The problem was, beyond the obvious anyway, the fact that he’d already gone this far and delved into something so fucked-up very likely meant this wouldn’t be the end of him going down this sort of path.
It was also a violation of the truce between the three families.
The tide was turning.
A tipping point was coming.
And if they weren’t all very careful, war would reign.