Chapter Forty-Nine Harriet
Chapter Forty-Nine
Harriet
I pull out a file folder from my bag and set it on the coffee table next to our forgotten bagels.
“What is that?” Nic asks warily. The fact that he’s still sitting next to me gives me hope that maybe he’ll be open to what I’m about to suggest.
I start talking fast. “The day we went to George’s office, I managed to knock a bunch of files off his desk on my way out the door.
I wasn’t exactly in the mood to clean them up, so I shoved them in my bag.
In one of them, I found an email exchange between Dominic and George. Martin was right. Dominic is Mafia.”
Nic flips open the folder and starts reading.
Encouraged, I scoot closer to him. “As you can also see, Dominic’s last name is Russo.
His family owns a company called Big Load Excavating.
I found a bunch of articles about the Russos.
Associates of theirs arrested for assault, bribery, racketeering—you name it.
And every single one of those articles mention their ties to organized crime. ”
“Organized—” Nic’s jaw drops. “You’re serious.”
“Dead. I also found the address for Big Load. It’s up in Elizabeth. I say we go talk to them. In person.”
He sets the paper back in the folder. “In person? Absolutely not. Unless your goal is to end up at the bottom of the Hudson River. Is that what you want?”
“We need to find Dominic for my plan to work!”
“You’ve lost your fucking mind, Baker. Do you really think we can just show up there and say we need to talk to Dominic Russo? Are you sure you don’t want to die? Because it sure as shit sounds you do.”
“They’re not going to kill us in their place of business.
That would be an incredibly stupid move on their end.
But they might be willing to make a deal.
See the thing is, I have Dominic on video.
It ties him to George, Luke, to the shooting.
I’m sure he has priors. If the cops saw it, he’d be in deep shit. ”
Nic’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead. “You have him on video?”
I smile. “Yeah. After Luke shot Mindy, I started filming. I figured it might come in handy.”
“You are…” He trails off without finishing that sentence, and my brain spirals filling in the blank. I’m—what?
Annoying? Amazing? Absurd? All of the above?
“Christ,” he says, shaking his head. “The fact that I’m even considering this is—I’ve lost my fucking mind, clearly. What is it about you that…”
I study him. The muscle jumping in his jaw. His clenched fists, the way he’s avoiding my gaze.
I need to apologize. I should have as soon as I walked through the front door.
I clear my throat. “I need to say something. I called my editor.”
Nic’s head turns.
“I told her I’m not writing the article for her.
What I’m doing—it’s not about getting my career back.
” I bite my bottom lip. “Or maybe it was at first. But then I got to know you again. You think I don’t remember you from back then, but I do.
I do. This is about helping you, your sister, your family.
Because I…because I care about you. So, so much—”
I cut short, my cheeks wet with tears, throat tight with emotion.
Nic’s face softens. For a beat, he shuts his eyes. When he reopens them, he looks me in the eyes for the first time since I walked in here. I wince, reminded of those long moments after I found him on the floor of the office. Before I knew he was okay. When I thought I’d lost him for good.
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this,” he says. “But fine. Let’s try it your way.”
Nic’s sitting in the passenger seat, wearing a serious expression and a dark green T-shirt that matches his eyes.
The drive up to Elizabeth was quiet. I don’t know about him, but I’ve spent most of the time sending silent pleas into the universe for it all to go smoothly. For Dominic not to shoot us on sight.
“Take a right at the next street,” he says. “Are you sure you want to do this? I understand why you say you do, but we could be walking into a hell of a lot of trouble, Harriet.”
I turn at the next street. We have a plan, and we have to stick to it. It’ll work.
It has to.
“It’ll be fine. We have a plan. Plus, Dominic seemed like a reasonable guy, didn’t he?”
Nic laughs with no humor. “Not even a little. You might remember he kicked my head in? I spent two nights in the hospital?”
I wince. “Okay, fine. He’s a little violent. But he let us go instead of shooting us! That has to count for something, right?”
“Uh-huh, sure,” Nic says. He points to the street up ahead. “That’s it! Turn there. When he let us go, I’m assuming he didn’t know about your video?”
I flick on my turn signal. “I mean, no.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Even so! He has no reason to hurt us! We’re just asking for a simple exchange. We have something he’ll want. He can do us a favor we need. Easy-peasy.”
“I think most people call that blackmail.”
I scowl at him. “Semantics.”
“There it is!” he says. “See the sign?”
I squint through the dirty windshield. Sure enough, looming up ahead is a large, rusted metal sign that reads Big Load Excavating. The place takes up the whole block.
Now that we’re here, my bluster has faded.
“Do we just walk inside?” I ask once we’re parked and out of the car.
I’m peering through the links of the fence surrounding the property.
It’s tall, topped with sharp coils of barbed wire.
In the center of the lot sits a squat, one-story office building, a parking lot full of heavy machinery beside it.
Two huge warehouses loom in the background.
A couple guys mill around out front of one, but otherwise, the place looks quiet.
Nic shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “If we want to talk to them, yes. Going in there is pretty much a necessity.”
I swallow. “Okay.”
I don’t move.
“We can leave if you want,” Nic says quietly. “We can drive back, go to the cops, tell them what Vicky did and—”
The mention of my aunt shakes me out of my stupor. “No. No. We’re going inside.”
I take a deep breath and start walking toward the entrance.