Chapter Seven
Leighton
It seemed like the more I tried with Victoria, the more I fucked up. I doubted she would forgive me anytime soon after hitting her with the bag. For a moment, I'd thought Joey and I were going to come to blows over it because of his reaction. Even though it had been an accident, I still saw it as a learning opportunity for her. Our enemies weren't going to go easy on her, so really, I was doing her a favor with my fuck up. He couldn't protect her from everything, as much as I wished the five of us could. The manor had proven that much.
Shaking my head to clear away the strange thoughts like an etch-a-sketch, I grabbed Rinaldo's laptop from my shared room with Az. If they were going to act like assholes about me being involved in training, I could at least get started with Craig on cracking the stupid laptop. Craig was still in the kitchen, plating up breakfast for ma petit démon and the two stooges outside.
"What's up, L?" he asked, looking up from the counter.
"I bring presents." I grinned, waving the laptop in the air.
"Is that what you managed to steal from Rinaldo's place?"
"Yep. The paperwork I stole was bust. Nothing we can use to figure out who's pulling the strings, but I can't get into this hunk of junk to see if my little field trip was worthwhile."
"Just because you don't know how to use it properly doesn't mean it's junk," Craig said with a smirk.
"Yeah, yeah." I replied. "I tried to get into it last night, but apparently his password isn't his dead wife's name or his mistresses."
Az stomping past the kitchen drew our attention for just a moment. I couldn't help but grin at the irritated look on his face.
"Let's take this back to my room where we're less likely to be disturbed. I got the computer system Lacey brought for me all set up last night. I needed to check on our cameras at Temptat!on anyway."
I followed Craig into the room he shared with Joey, plopping down on Joey's bed. The temptation to mess up his perfectly made bed ripped through me, but I forced it aside to take care of business. As much as everyone thought I was a loose cannon, I could be serious when needed.
Craig pulled out some wires and hooked the laptop to his system. "This will take a bit for John to bust down the door for us, but we can check on the club while we wait."
"John?"
"Password cracking program called John the Ripper." Craig replied. "We just say ‘John' for short."
"Like how I call these bad boys, Killer and Leftie?" I asked, holding my fists up.
"No… not even remotely the same thing. But good try." Craig said, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't listen to him, Leftie," I whispered. "He just doesn't understand us."
"Should… I leave you guys alone?" He paused. "Actually, if you and Rightie need some alone time, go to your own room."
"How dare you insult Killer?" I gasped. "Don't worry, Killer, you're still one of my favorites."
"Jesus fucking Christ. Can we get to work or are you going to romance your fists the rest of the day?" He turned from me back to his setup that dominated his side of the room. "Even I know you're not this crazy. Psycho and schizophrenic aren't the same thing."
I shrugged, letting my hands drop. "Do your techy mojo, my good sir."
"It'll take Optiview a second to boot up, and we've got a lot of footage to go over." He mused as the application came alive on screen.
"Is there a reason we're not going over footage from the manor, and focusing on the club? Feels like one would be more pressing than the other." I mused.
"For starters, we killed everyone at the manor. It's not like we missed anyone we need to track down. But I also didn't have time to grab my backup drives for the manor security system. Everything we might have had was either left behind or, more likely, destroyed when you threw a fucking grenade in the mix."
"Well, how was I supposed to know blowing up our enemies was a bad idea?" I pouted.
"You win some, you lose some, L." Craig chuckled. "Temptat!on is our best bet to sniff out anybody poking around where they shouldn't be. At least until I get us set up to access Victoria's voicemail."
"Giddy up, then. I'm getting bored."
The security footage from the club loaded on Craig's monitors. Everything was normal to the point of being dull. Our men had a handle on things in our absence. As time dragged on, watching the footage play out in fast forward, I couldn't help letting out sighs of abject boredom, earning eye rolls and glares from Craig. I was standing to leave when I recognized Bitch Barbie on the screen showing the back entrance of the club, the timestamp on the video showing it was a couple hours before our guys would show up to open.
"Hey, run that back on normal mode my guy." I spoke. "With volume if you have it."
"Of course, I have sound, Leighton. Who do you think I am?" Craig scoffed.
I moved to his side and leaned closer to the screen as he replayed the section at normal speed.
"We shouldn't be doing this, Tiff." A woman I recognized as the lead enforcer for the Golden Devils said. "If this gets back to Barb, we're both in deep shit. She doesn't take acts of war lightly."
"Those bastards vanished into thin air with Victoria, Mel. What else am I supposed to do?" Tiffany shot back, her hands working the lock on the door in an apparent attempt to pick it. "The manor is blown to shit, but she wasn't there in the rubble."
"And you expect to find what here, Tiff?" Mel asked.
"Probably nothing, but since I can't get close to their home, this is the best shot I have at figuring out where they took her."
"Casadei might think he's cock of the walk, but he's not dumb enough to stash anything in their public club. You know that. You're not thinking with your head here. You can't let emotions take the lead like this."
"If you're not here to help me, Melissa, then just leave. No way in hell am I losing track of her when she's been set up as a honey." Tiffany hissed.
"Fine, move. You're not getting anywhere with those abysmal lock picking skills, and I should probably be first in the door to make sure you don't get your high-profile ass shot."
We watched as Melissa Byrne took over, expertly picking the lock to the club's back entrance. She pulled a gun from her waistband and moved inside, ensuring the coast was clear before motioning for Tiffany to follow her. Craig followed them on the cameras to Az's office. Tiffany immediately began tearing the place apart while Melissa guarded the door.
"Good thing we don't actually stash anything there," I said. "But Az is going to be pissed when he finds out about the mess Bimbo Barbie left."
"I'm more concerned about why she's referring to Victoria as a honey." Craig replied. "We all know what that means in our world."
We watched as she moved in and out of different rooms of the club and finally came to the booth that was reserved for us. She frantically searched all around the booth, presumably looking to open our panic room.
"What exactly are you hoping to find in a booth? She's not gonna be under the table." Melissa asked, crossing her arms impatiently.
"There's a panic room here. I just… don't remember how they opened it." Tiffany grumbled as she slid her hand along the seat.
"Well, if that's true, knowing those five the only way you're getting in there is with a bomb. And before you say anything, that isn't happening, Tiffany."
Tiffany floundered around the booth for a little while longer before giving up. Just as they began to make their way back toward the rear exit, John gave off a notification sound.
"John smashed down the doors on Rinaldo's laptop." Craig said, tearing his focus from Tiffany and Melissa leaving the club.
"Where are we supposed to start now that we have access?" I asked, eyes still pinned on the screen with the club security footage.
Craig's fingers tapped a fast tempo on the laptop's keys, his face pinched as his eyes bore into the screen.
"For such an ancient bastard, he was smart enough to keep this thing relatively empty from the looks of it. Best guess, if we're going to find anything, it's in his email."
"Well, don't keep me on edge here. Open that shit."
Craig pulled up his Outlook messages as well as the calendar and began to scan the emails he found.
"Nothing particularly helpful." He mumbled as he cross-checked different appointments with the calendar. I leaned over his shoulder and read the one he'd left off.
"Looks like he got around quite a bit for an old man… I think I'm going to need eye bleach for what I just read." I gagged and moved away from the computer. "Just tell me if you find anything useful, I'm not doing that again."
Craig just chuckled as he continued his work. I don't know how he had the stomach for it if there was more of Rinaldo's interests in the messages. After a few minutes, he waved me back over.
"Got a couple things here. They're older emails, so it took a bit to find. This first one is to what looks like a burner email. I tried to ping it back to its host but that's not going to be possible. The contents though…" Craig trailed off as I started to read over his shoulder.
…Honeys have been sold. Transaction went smooth and was uneventful. Looks like the younger Humphreys girl is finding her footing in the game. Something to be aware of…
"Is he talking about Tiffany?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"I would assume, there aren't too many Humphreys running around that Rinaldo would take the time to mention to whoever this is." Craig said. "That's twice now that she and Honeys have been connected… The question is, why?"
"I knew that bitch was suspicious from the jump. We got along too well for her not to be dirty." I replied. "The thing not adding up is the Devils. They don't normally traffic like this, so what the fuck are they up to?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. The Devils aren't really lining up to fill the street in on their business. All we have to go by with them is past experiences, and we both know, that's not something to bet on."
Craig struck a few keys, and the printer not far away came to life, spitting out the emails that we were currently looking at.
"And this is the other email that leaves me with more questions than answers." He scrolled a bit further down and brought up another email. "This one isn't a burner."
"[email protected] … He was the friendly one at Daddy-o's shitty dinner. What about it?"
"Read it, dumbass. You'll see." Craig said, without any malice.
Mr. Marino,
We appreciate your extremely generous donation to our charity fund and dedication to improving the cause. We've arranged a brunch with the young Ms. Bristol to finalize the details. You'll find the outing as a calendar attachment.
We're also arranging a special gift for you as a token of our appreciation. I do hope that you'll find it to your liking. You can expect it delivered within the week.
"Signed, Theodore Abrams…" I trailed off as I finished reading the email. "I don't see what's such a big deal about this one."
"Check the date." Craig said simply. I looked at it and wracked my brain, but nothing came to mind.
"What about it?"
"Think back, that was about a week before there was supposed to be another kidnapping attempt. We had that footage from Gary where they were planning it, and I was supposed to take the fall for it."
"Man, I miss Gary." I pondered. "But yeah. I remember now. You're welcome for my interference with that one, by the way."
"If this is what it reads like, why send one communication from a burner email, and another from an identifiable one?" Craig mused aloud.
"Fuck if I know. That's your area of expertise. It could just be a way to throw off anyone who got access to this, for all we know." I said, rubbing my temples. Trying to sort this shit out was starting to give me a headache. We should take this mess to the others and see if they have any ideas.
Craig printed off this email chain as well, then slid back over to his system and pulled back up the footage from Tiffany's break-in. He printed off a still of her face, clear as day, and then did some sort of tech wizardry to save the significant bits to a flash drive that could be plugged into the entertainment system in the den.
"I'll find Joey and fill him in so he can prepare la petite démone , you finish your magic, and we can reconvene after lunch."