35. Vincenzo
Vincenzo
My arms go around my fearless princessa. If I could make everything bad that’s ever happened to her go away I would. “You’re mine to protect now, princess, nothing bad is going to happen to you on my watch. I love you, Anna.”
My jaw is clenched tight as I leave Anna tucked in to rest. This whole situation is stressing her out to the point that I’m worried she may try to run right into the danger that we’re trying to protect her from, again.
I check on Lanah, but at that time Saint walks through the door. I shake hands with him. “Stay with Lanah. I need to connect with Nicolo.” I close the door to a small makeshift office and get my brother on the line. “I spoke with Massimo not long ago, he’s taking Sophia underground.”
Nicolo exhales a breath. “What happened? He’s not going into hiding unless something went wrong. He’s got great security and drone systems all over the Jersey Shore.”
“Apparently, Addie has inside information. Denato, her connected client, told her Bastian is planning to take someone to exchange for Anna, but the bastard didn’t give her a name.”
“Fucker.”
“I’m trying my hardest to understand if there’s another angle, something we’ve missed, Nicolo. Anna told me that she simply can’t bear children, no fault of Barcelo’s. How does having Anna in his life or under his control help Bastian Gallini?”
My eyes close trying to recall all the details that we know, something we may have missed.
Maybe we’ve been thinking about this all wrong.
He has to want something more than a vendetta of ruin.
I know he can be vicious, but his father also still sits at the helm, Bastian isn’t running the shots.
What does Anna have that the elder Gallinis want, because it’s no longer a child.
What reason would be so sound that it would give the Gallini elders justification to back his obsession with getting her back to the level of going to war?
In our world it comes down to three things.
Money, power, or love and the third is off the table.
Money and power would only come from the estate that she now owns but old man Cassone had sold off so much of his businesses already, the frailer he got the more he sold.
I put in a call to a guy I’ve known for a long time. “I need a favor, and I need it fast.”
“Whatever you need.”
“I need you to look into the records of the Cassone estate. Send me a list of everything that was willed to his daughters, or anyone else for that matter. All his assets, how they got transferred upon death, everything, and Cipher, I need this one asap.”
“I’ve got you, boss. I’ll get back to you soon.”