16. Dax
DAX
Three days after the envelope was dropped off on our doorstep, I was on a plane flying out to Massachusetts.
Wes had buried himself in his office and dug up every scrap of information on Tommaso that he could.
It seemed he took after his adopted father’s footsteps and became a lawyer who worked heavily for the Italian mafia.
Not that he advertised that publicly on a business card, but if you knew what to look for, it was clear.
Wes found he’d been looking for information on his birth parents at one point back in his high school years. Nothing was found, but it gave Wes the idea he needed to set up a meeting with the man so we could explain ourselves.
We had five days to get this man on board or finalize the plan B we’d been working on initially. I looked over the information we had on him and all the indications he was someone I wanted to work with.
On the outside, he might look like a lackey to the Italians, but I paid close attention to what deals and situations they put him in charge of.
He did both criminal cases as well as business ones, depending on how big of a deal it was.
Tommaso was a shark who found his opponents’ weakness and went for it, but there were some situations he could have taken advantage of that he didn’t.
When it came to wife and kids, he left them the hell alone.
The thing about family was everyone has someone who can be used as leverage.
The other thing I noticed was he was the first choice if there was a case that wasn’t an easy one to win.
A money house had been raided, and they got a few of their higher-up on the food chain people, but he managed to get them out, no time served on technicalities.
No matter how hard Wes searched, he couldn’t find bribe money being exchanged either.
This guy was criminal-minded to the core but had rules he played by as well.
Just how I liked to run my operation. Follow the law when you could, then when you had to break it—be smart.
“Do you think he’ll kick us out once he realizes we aren’t really there to talk about his family?” Cognac asked from the seat next to mine.
Somehow, Cam managed to talk the FBI into letting us use their jet to fly privately for the weekend.
He’d explained to them that we needed to keep my arrival and the conversations we were having on the down low.
Since this plane was owned and run by the FBI, no one would ever think it had anything to do with me.
While the jet was nice, it certainly wasn’t overly luxurious.
More practical to get work done as you traveled.
Turning away from the view of the early morning sky, I mulled over Cognac’s question.
“That depends on how we lay it out for him. My hope is he won’t be the only one in that meeting.
If he has his father or anyone else tied to the Italian mafia, then Tommaso might be overruled if he tried to give us the boot. ”
Cognac rubbed his chin before turning to Wes. “Remind me again who his mom was?”
“She was the daughter to the consigliere to one of the previous mob bosses whose since passed away. The family was still held in high regard, which is why there was so much backlash when she was found dead in their summer home in upstate New York. The baby had gone missing, but Diego wasn’t focused on finding him with how ‘grief stricken’ he was,” Wes answered, adding finger quotes to show how little he believed that bullshit.
“Do we know how he got in touch with Marco?” Sprocket asked. “Even with all the information we have from the FBI, he’s a fucking ghost. No one seems to know where it is he hides out, always moving from place to place.”
I glanced down at the picture of Diego and his first family. The happiness in this photo was legit, but how could he turn his back on his son? Was he really that affected by her death? They’d only been married two years… unless they knew each other from before.
“What do we know about his mother, Felicia? Like how in the world did the man who was trying to take control of the East Coast find himself with the daughter of someone who was once the advisor to the Italian mafia?” I questioned.
Wes shifted in his seat, frustration written all over his face.
“That’s what I’m having the hardest time figuring out.
They must have had someone wipe all that from every database they could manage because I only could find random mentions of her.
Even at the hospital, there is no record of her giving birth to Tommaso, and I know that’s where she went.
Diego’s finances match up to paying for it. ”
“So either they were protecting Tommaso from knowing, or whoever adopted him knew exactly who Tommaso was. Like it was a planned situation to get him out from Diego after his mother died,” I mused. “Fuck, this is like a mafia thriller movie that affects my life, and I don’t like it one bit.”
“Look,” Eagle said, grabbing our attention. “No matter what happens, we gave it a shot. Hell, if we can get the Italians on our side just by telling them we’re taking Marco out of power, then to hell with all this other shit. Tommaso is just our in for the situation, not the solution.”
Cognac let out an impressed-sounding whistle, then grinned. “Look at Eagle laying down the facts. Impressive, pres.” Eagle flipped Cognac the bird, sending the man into a fit of laughter.
“Do we have any other connection to the Italians?” Cam asked.
Then it hit me. “Yeah, we most certainly do,” I shared with a wide grin.
“Harper made nice with none other than Francois Barilla, one of the top mafia mobster families in Italy. We didn’t get a chance to talk for long, but in the speed version of what happened while she was out of the country, I did pick up that tidbit of information. ”
“It’s almost as if it was meant to be,” Void interjected, resting his hands behind his head. “Now we need to stop worrying and let the cards fall, so we know how to move forward.”
Each of us looked at the man like he’d lost his mind.
Ever since I said yes to being their wife and wearing the ring they had made for me, Void had been on cloud nine.
Nothing could take the pep out of his step and that shit needed to end before the fight this weekend.
We had two more days before we needed to fly into New York, the fight being Saturday night.
It was crunch time, and I couldn’t have Void off his game.
With all the training we’d been doing, I was back in shape, not top-tier shape but the best we could do in the time we had, which meant I needed Void to be on his A-game to keep me alive.
“Wow, look at the city,” Picasso commented as we broke through the clouds.
I’d never been to the upper East Coast, so I was excited to check out a new city.
Each one had a life of its own, a heartbeat that pulsed with life and crime, good and evil.
The trick was figuring it out fast so you survived.
Now we were about to go knock on the front door and see if anyone was home.
We landed, grabbed our bags, and headed for the hotel.
While I wasn’t one to dress up much, I knew this meeting needed to go well.
Part of that was looking like we weren’t bikers and gangsters.
So I went out with Dani and Tilly to go shopping, get my hair done, and pick out things for the guys as well.
Now each of them had two business casual outfits that looked sexy as fuck.
I might have gone overboard on mine, but who would I be if I didn’t take things to the extreme?
The hotel was downtown, nothing special with adjoining rooms but all of us would have to share rooms. This was becoming a theme in my life.
Never enough space for all eight of us to be together and I was starting to get sick of it.
I’d pushed to rent out the fucking penthouse, but everyone shot that down, saying we needed to keep a low profile.
“Dax, we have forty-five minutes for you to get ready. We’re heading down to the restaurant to get something to eat,” Wes called.
Yeah, well, when they were already dragging me out of bed at four in the morning to make our flight, I wasn’t getting up to take no damn shower.
Looking at myself in the fluorescent bathroom light, I grinned at the fresh, bright hair and much shorter shaggy style I preferred.
Not needing a full shower, I quickly washed my body and face so I could put on my makeup.
It was different doing this without Harper around, and I realized how much I missed my best friend, having been apart for almost two months now.
Good news was, she was back in the States, and I could see her when I got to New York.
We had so much to catch up on and hardly any time to do it before we needed to get down to business.
Her triplets were going to come in handy for this job since we needed stealth to get Elena out of their clutches.
We’d decided as a group no matter if she was blinded by love or something else, we were going to get her back.
Once this was all over, we’d deal with the fallout.
Seeing as it was still late morning, I kept the makeup light and professional.
Then when I looked at my clothes, I grinned, knowing they were going to get some looks.
The leather pants were soft and buttery on the skin with spikes on the knees in little rows.
They also lined the pockets and waistband.
My shirt was a black and white distressed band tee that was cut into a crop top.
Then to finish it all off was a fitted black blazer that, when buttoned, showed off some of my stomach.
Was this the most professional option? No, probably not.
Was this the best Dax-style option? Fuck yeah, it was.