Dom
This is probably going to end badly for me. I’ll either be arrested or ousted from La Corona.
Hell, maybe they’ll kill me.
But if I want justice for Rocco and to get Blackwood or whoever is fucking with us off our backs, I need to work with Olivia.
I help her up and feed her again. While she looks tired and the bruise on her temple is darker, her color and her vim and vigor is back.
“I brought everything I could find," I tell her, pushing a stack of manila folders toward her. "Your laptop too. You'll need to use my secure router though. It bounces the signal through multiple locations. If the FBI starts looking, they won't trace you here."
Olivia's fingers hover over the files. “You broke into my apartment.”
I give her a look. “Really?” I laugh. “Well, if you arrest me, I’ll argue that I own the building and your lease gives me permission to enter your residence.”
“I won’t arrest you.”
“While I’m at it, I want assurances that nothing I tell you gets used to arrest me later?"
She meets my gaze with that steel I admire even as it frustrated me. "Just these cases. I'm not giving you a lifetime pass, Vitale."
"Wouldn't expect one." I almost smile.
As we start organizing the information, sorting through evidence of Rocco's kidnapping and Mrs. Ferraza's murder, I feel like we’re close to figuring this out.
But I’m unsettled by some of the information I need to share with Olivia as it could definitely be used against us, which means my actions could be considered a betrayal by La Corona.
Marco would call me a fool. Roman would question my judgment.
I think Luca and Elena would understand.
I’m doing this for Rocco.
We review the photos of the vehicle that took Rocco, and its route through the city to Brooklyn.
Olivia studies the image again. "How did you get this?"
I remain silent, unwilling to explain our network of assets in government, law enforcement, judicial system, and public works. Some walls need to stay intact, even with her.
"Did you try to find out who called you about Rocco's location?" I ask instead.
She looks up. "The call was blocked. I tried tracing it through our tech department, but hit dead ends." Her voice softens. "I wanted to look into this before you suggested it, Dom. Something about that case never sat right with me. Especially when I was told not to write a report."
I nod, feeling an unexpected warmth at the confirmation she'd been questioning things on her own.
Maybe we're not so different after all.
"What about your informants?" she asks suddenly. "La Corona must have eyes and ears everywhere. Did none of them see anything?"
I shift uncomfortably. "We found Santa.”
For a moment she looks confused, but then she nods. “Right. He lured Rocco out to the kidnapper.”
“Yes. He said he was paid $5,000 dollars to bring Rocco to the kidnapper. Apparently the kidnapper said he was saving Rocco.”
“Saving?”
“From Luca, I guess. Maybe me. I don’t know. Santa was a little nervous to discover Rocco was in a special family.”
“Special. Is that code for mafia?”
“Could be.”
Her brow furrows. “Where is Santa? If we’re going to do this legally, I’ll need to interview him. Arrest him for assisting in the kidnapping.”
I shift. “He suffered a heart attack.” It’s the truth. Of course, it’s possible the fear we put in him led to it.
“Is that code for—”
I hold up my right hand. “I swear to God, he dropped dead of a heart attack. The guy drank like a fish and admittedly was nervous. We’re not stupid Olivia. We knew he was the key to finding Rocco and who was behind his kidnapping.”
She watches me for a moment, and I begin to regret my honesty. Every confession brings me closer to a cell.
“You need to look at how Blackwood has his fingers in all of this,” I say, hoping she’ll let the issue of Santa go.
“He is the supervisor of organized crime.”
Jesus. I thought she was seeing what I saw, and now she’s backpedaling again. "No," I tap the files spread between us. "It's more than that. He's not just supervising, he's directly involved. And I’m convinced he doesn’t just want to put us in jail. He wants to ruin us. This is personal somehow."
I slide Ernie Abruzzo's file toward her, deciding to walk her through it all again. "Blackwood was Ernie's handler. The official report says Ernie died of an overdose, but that's bullshit. And Leo didn't kill him either, though I'm sure that's what Blackwood wanted everyone to believe."
"You think Blackwood killed him?" Her voice is quiet but tense.
"I do think he killed him. The question is why. What did Ernie know? Or was he just getting rid of loose ends after Leo’s wife’s murder?"
Olivia's eyes narrow. "That's a serious accusation. Are you going to say we did the same to his brother?"
I shake my head, knowing that Roman dispatched Sal Abruzzo, though I don't have the details. Knowing Roman, it wasn’t pretty.
I pull out another file. "Mrs. Ferraza was killed right after she discovered that Ernie’s goal was to bring down La Corona so his brother could take over. She was planning to tell La Corona everything."
Olivia's brow furrows. "Blackwood's deal was to get her daughter out of the life. Why would she then tell La Corona?"
“She probably figured out she was being duped. Blackwood hasn’t once provided what he agreed to. And while she wanted Isabella free, it doesn’t mean she was against her husband or La Corona.”
I watch Olivia's face as she processes this.
"Speaking of Isabella Ferraza," I continue. "Blackwood became her handler when she sought answers to her mother's death. He manipulated her with doctored evidence suggesting Marco's family killed her mother—"
"How do you know it's doctored?"
"Because I know it's not true. We all knew it wasn’t true. Leo was desperate for Isabella to drop her crusade. She was put under protective custody of Roman—"
She arches a brow. "Forced marriage is protective custody?"
I shrug. "Your boss didn't care. She asked for Blackwood to pull her and he didn't. He ordered her to stay with Roman and continue gathering information, even believing it could be dangerous for her."
"Was it?"
This is one area I don't want to get into. "It only matters what Blackwood thought, and he believed she was in danger."
"That doesn't make sense," Olivia mutters. "Why would he put an informant at risk like that?"
"Because he doesn't care about his informants. Just ask Ernie. Lucky for Isabella, Roman is a sucker for family. They actually fell in love."
“How nice for her.” Olivia’s words have a bite to them. Like she doesn’t believe me.
“You’ve met her. Does she look unhappy?”
“I don’t know her, but I’ll take your word for it.”
Moving on. "Then there's Gabriella Monti. Blackwood approached her with 'evidence' that Marco Calabresi was planning to take over her father's territory. It wasn't true. Marco was actually trying to protect Antonio because he was showing early signs of dementia."
Olivia's face pales slightly. "How do you know all this?"
I roll my eyes. "La Corona doesn't keep secrets." Well not normally. I'm keeping a huge one by not telling them I have Olivia and am working with her.
But that's not because I won't tell them.
It's just that I haven't had time yet.
"We talk to each other. That's how La Corona works. We compare notes." I pause. "Blackwood even went after my cousin Elena, trying to get information about me and Luca."
I hesitate before adding the final piece. "Sometimes he even sent you to make the approach, didn't he? You approached Isabella and Elena."
Her eyes snap to mine. "You still think I'm a part of this?"
I study her hoping I can gauge the truth in her eyes. "I think you might be a pawn. He's been using all of us, Olivia. Including you. The question is, what's his endgame? Because I don't think it's justice. Why does he have such a hardon for us?"
"You're organized crime—"
"So he kidnaps a child?"
She shakes her head. "I've seen nothing to suggest he was behind that."
I jab my finger on the photo of the FBI car that took Rocco.
"Blackwood didn't check it out though."
I laugh. "Well, he wouldn't, would he? Didn’t you say someone who was dying is registered to the car? A car that had your plate? Who has the ability to do that? Could you?"
“No.” Her sigh of resignation tells me Blackwood would have the sort of tech access needed to manipulate data.
“Who called you about Rocco?"
"I don't know. The caller was blocked."
"But this," I tap the photo of the car with Rocco's head in the window at a stoplight just after it left the Winter Festival. "This suggests one of yours. Whoever called you about Rocco knew where he was because he took him."
She scrapes her hands over her face and then sighs. I sit back when I see the toll this is taking on her.
She looks utterly defeated.
Like everything she knew about the world has been turned upside down.
Emotions wash over her face. Disbelief, anger, betrayal.
"Hey," I say. "I know this is a lot."
She looks up at me, and for the first time since I've known her, I see vulnerability beneath that tough FBI exterior.
"Monsters are everywhere, Olivia. They don't just exist in my world. Sometimes they wear badges. Sometimes they use and distort, and then hide behind the law."
She swallows hard. "I know that. I'm not naive. But I never..." She pauses, collecting herself. "I never considered anyone in the FBI would become the very thing they seek to protect from. We're supposed to be better than that."
I can't help the small, bitter laugh that escapes. "Better than what? Than me?"
"That's not what I meant."
"Isn't it?" I lean forward, feeling a flare of defensiveness. "Look, I get it. In your eyes, I'm the bad guy. La Corona is everything wrong with society. But maybe you should reconsider those black and white labels."
I gesture at the evidence spread between us. "Maybe my world bends a few laws, but we don't kill women or kidnap children as a matter of doing business. We have a code. We have lines we don't cross."