37. Obi
OBI
The next day, after Volpe’s soak in an ice bath and some rest for all of us, we ate lunch together and then reconvened in the living room to discuss next steps. I’d made Nsala soup, a dish from my country that gave the body a medicinal boost. I hoped it would fortify us for the journey ahead.
Greco had shaken us. He’d made a bold move by setting us up—a move I should have seen coming. He’d clearly been at work cultivating his contacts in the States—even manipulating the FBI to come after us. Who else had he ensnared in his trap? And how would he use them against us?
I’d spent the last two nights retooling our strategy against the Camorra. The chessboard was overturned, and a new game had begun. I had to rearrange my own pieces.
“That soup was delicious, Obi,” Leona said as she folded her legs under her on the couch next to me and sipped a cup of tea. “Thank you.”
“I will cook for you always.”
“So how does it feel to be public enemy number one?” Ryuji asked her. “You’re a real criminal now.”
She snorted into the mug. “The FBI was terrified of me, and I relished their fear.”
“Attagirl,” Ryu said, grinning with pride.
“You’re a terrifying figure, baby girl.” Ciel had brought his tablets and laptop into the living room so he could give us updates on the new system.
He sat on the ground next to Wynn, backs leaning against the couch.
Last night, he’d walked me through the changes, and it was much stronger now, but we couldn’t stay on defense forever.
“Now we need the Camorra to think the same.”
How could I use the RICO case against them? How could I undermine Greco and the power he was already amassing?
“So, now what?” Max asked, sitting down next to Caspian. His face was still bruised, but he looked and felt lighter than I’d ever seen him. “Greco has lots of friends in high places. We need friends of our own.”
“I agree,” I said. “He was able to get connected faster than I had prepared. We need to shift our efforts to getting more allies on our side than he has on his. If he’s going to use the FBI to trap us, we need an equally powerful ally to hamstring him.”
“I have a full report on where I’ve been able to track him,” Ciel said. “It’s been difficult, likely because Lucia is obfuscating his trail and kept him off the radar, but one area where he’s been seen is at Max’s old house.”
Max stretched out one arm across the back of the couch. “Fucker stole my house. I’m sure he’s using it as a kind of base, but he can’t be living there full time. It’s too obvious. He has to be staying somewhere more secure.”
“Any ideas?” Wynn asked.
Max looked at me. “Greco needs enough space where his closest capos can be nearby at all times to protect him. But he’s also used to luxury, and won’t stay anywhere less than high-end. Obi, what do you think?”
“I agree with that assessment,” I said. “He will want his needs catered to because he’s used to having staff, but he also needs professionalism and secrecy. He won’t want many people to know he’s there.”
Ciel nodded. “I’ll cross-reference locations that could fit his needs—luxury, security, discretion—with the areas where I’ve already tracked him. Hopefully, I can find a couple of options for where he’s living.”
“We can pay him a bloody visit,” Ryu said. “Maybe assassination is in our future after all.”
“Maybe.” Previously, I hadn’t liked the strategy of assassinating him because of his extensive security. But even if we could get close, the problem would be getting clear once we’d killed him. “But I doubt he’s exposed enough to leave an opening where he could both kill him and escape cleanly.”
“We need to set a trap instead,” Max said. “If he can catch us in one, we can catch him in one.”
“It’ll be difficult to trap him with Lucia on our backs,” Caspian said. “Is she still trying to infiltrate us?”
Ciel sighed. “Yes. Our systems are stronger, so she’s not been able to penetrate our additional security, but I know she’s probing around.”
Leona chewed her lip. “Hmm. What if we could get in touch with her?”
Ciel raised an eyebrow and leaned forward. “With Lucia?”
“Yeah.”
“How do you think you’re going to do that? And also, why?”
Leona took another drink of tea and crossed her legs underneath her.
“When I called her back at Max’s house a couple of weeks ago, Chiara told me she’d talked to her before.
That was how she got in touch with us to tell us about the VCI board meeting where we surprised Max.
She texted me because Lucia gave her my new number. ”
Max chuckled. “Oh, so that’s how you seemed to know where I was. I had a snake in my midst.”
“Chiara would never sit quietly and do nothing while I was at risk,” she shot back. Her face turned a little smug. “You should have known that.”
He watched her affectionately. “Yeah, I should have. You two are exactly alike.”
Leona cocked her head to the side. “Chiara also told me you told her you had no intention of marrying her.”
Max shrugged. “I didn’t.”
“And why was that?” Leona asked.
Max rolled his eyes. “Because I have loved you every day I’ve lived since I was a boy, and if I couldn’t marry you, I’d marry no one. There. Is that a good enough answer?”
She grinned. “I guess it is acceptable.”
“So you think Chiara can get us in touch with Lucia?” Caspian asked. “Or Max can? He worked with her, too.”
“I saw you talking to her once,” Ciel chimed in. “I overheard you two on the phone.”
“You did?” Max tilted his head to the side. “On surveillance?”
Ciel shook his head and smiled slightly. “No, it was in person. You just didn’t know I was there.”
“Damn.” Max huffed a breath. “Guess I got lucky to keep my life then. Well, regardless, I lost my phone. I can’t get in touch with Lucia anymore.”
“Chiara told me before that she felt like Lucia didn’t care too much about this fight,” Leona said. “She still has Lucia’s number. I think they’ve even been chatting here and there. I wonder if we can at least get her to back off a little bit. Give us the upper hand.”
Max shook his head. “She’d never betray her grandfather. She’s loyal to Greco. That’s the only reason he let her work for me. She was helping me, but she was also monitoring me.”
I was inclined to agree with his assessment of her loyalty. I didn’t know much about Lucia personally, but as part of the Head’s family, I expected her to be loyal. Greco wouldn’t have involved her so much in the Camorra organization if there were a question of her commitment.
“I’m not so sure,” Leona argued.
“I don’t think she’d help us unless we had some kind of leverage over her,” Ciel mused. His fingers typed on his keyboard, filling the room with a quiet clacking.
“If she’s still trying to attack us, can we somehow attack her?” Wynn asked. “Hold her hostage unless she helps us?”
Ciel began nodding slowly. “There is a digital breadcrumb trail she left behind, and I’ve been building a virus to scramble and poison her data if I can get inside her systems.”
“So use that,” Caspian said. “If she doesn’t help us, then you’ll blow up her network instead.”
“But we can’t guarantee she won’t just rat to Greco,” Max said.
“So what if she does?” Leona said. “It’s not surprising that we’d try to hit her back. He’d expect us to retaliate for their breach of our systems. But if we can get her on our side, at least for a while, that would be an enormous advantage.”
I rubbed my chin. “It’s worth exploring. Ciel?”
“I’ll see what I can do,” he answered, typing away.
“We can follow Lucia’s left-behind traces, but Chiara can also help us get in touch with her. If she refuses to help, we spring the virus on her. Plus, wherever Chiara is, I want her back here where we can protect her. If Greco finds out about her and what she means to me, he will target her.”
Max shook his head. “I think she’s safe where she is. Going to get her might expose us.”
“Or leaving her there might,” Leona shot back. “You don’t have the men to protect her anymore. Greco could order them to bring her to him at any moment. We can’t take that risk.”
“He would use her as a hostage against us,” I said. He’d done it before. Whatever weaknesses he could expose, he would. “I agree. She needs to be back under our protection.”
We were looking for Greco’s weaknesses. We couldn’t have any of our own.
“Fine, I see your point.” Max ran his hand through his hair. “She’s in Connecticut, by the coast. We can get her. Assuming, of course, she’s even still there. I haven’t spoken to my men there since the day the Camorra came after me.”
Leona looked up at me, her eyebrows furrowing with anxiety. “Can we go tonight? When it’s dark?”
“Not you,” Max said quickly. “Not when the FBI has been watching you.”
“Not you either, then,” she responded. “If they wanted me to snitch on you, then they’re targeting you. You have to lie low.”
He scoffed. “I’m not going to stay here at the house while the rest of you go.”
“Yes, you are—”
“No, I’m not.”
“Do you want to be arrested?”
“Obviously not—”
“Then you’re staying here,” Leona said smugly.
“Then so are you—”
“Okay!” Caspian cut Max off, hands outstretched toward each of them, to the relief of all of us. “Shush, children. You’re both in time-out. No talking for sixty seconds.”
Their bickering would take some getting used to. It was worse than Ryuji’s.
Leona opened her mouth, but I held up a hand, and it snapped closed. “Thank you, Caspian. Both Max and Leona will stay here at the house. The rest of us will retrieve Chiara and bring her back here.”
Leona’s nose flared. “I want to go.”
“You will stay.” My voice brokered no dissent. “I will not hear any other arguments.”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
My palm found her thigh, and I squeezed. Her breath hitched, and her pupils dilated slightly. I pulled her forward, gripping her chin and leaning close.