Chapter 6Ari
Chapter Six
ARI
Getting a text from Lucas that Franklin was back in town wasn’t expected. I’d rolled out of bed, gotten dressed, and called Lex on my way out the door of my tenth-story penthouse.
I had no idea what Lucas was going to do, but I was going to give him my opinion on it. It was my job to protect him. To be the voice of reason.
“This is Lex.”
“I need you to stay on Anna. I’m headed to the office. Franklin’s back in town, and I’m not sure what’s going on. Plus, Lorenzo Moretti is sniffing around her, and the reason is a mystery. He faked a meet-cute yesterday, and then last night, one of his guys dropped her on the curb.”
“Does she know that?”
“She knows about Lorenzo, not about the driver. I didn’t want to scare her.”
He grunted. “Maybe she needs to be scared. It’d make my job easier.”
“Maybe, but she’s dress shopping with Aunt Helen and our cousins later today. I want them to remain blissfully unaware that anything is going on. I suspect Thea is already with Lucas at the office.”
“All right. I’ll grab a few guys and stick with them.”
I reached the ground floor, stepped out into the garage, and crossed the small expanse to my DB9. Slipping inside, I said, “I’ve got a side project for you too.” I cranked the engine and waited for a beat. My next request was going to take him off guard. “I need information on Anna’s brother.”
Lex hemmed. “Is there something you’re not telling me? ”
“No, but we’ve got a chessboard, pieces are moving, and we can’t play smart unless we know where everyone else’s pieces are sitting.”
“Do you have a suspicion?”
When I’d agreed to marry Anna, I’d done my research into her family, but there’d been a lot going on and plenty on my mind. Perhaps I’d missed something. “Maybe. Find out what you can on his father, Michael, too. He retired right as dad died, and then Jason took over. I… I want more information. Can you do that?” I would have done it myself, but my current focus was my big brother and this thing going on with Franklin. If he knew we were the ones hitting his business, there was a good chance this was all some big play to take us out.
He inhaled. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“Thanks. I’ll see you later.”
I ended the call, and ten minutes later I was walking into Lucas’s office. As I expected, Thea was already there.
Crossing the room, I took a seat in the chair across from Lucas. “Fill me in?”
Thea launched into a recount of the events of the previous night. Franklin and Claire met? Lacing my fingers behind my head, I exhaled. “Call the wedding off, Lucas. She’s working with her father.”
“No, she isn’t,” Thea growled.
“You don’t know that,” I growled back.
Thea came out of her chair. “Yes, I do. I know what I saw in her eyes.”
I was fully aware of Thea’s history, and how Lucas found her. She’d been living on the streets, and a man had pulled her into an alleyway. Lucas had stepped in before anything could happen. Even with Thea’s experience, that didn’t mean she was an expert on Claire and her father. “You told Lucas about her old man being in the bathroom with her.”
I continued, “Why did Franklin return to Chicago early and not let Lucas know he was in town? If you had a daughter, would you let a man take her and keep her?”
“I’m not Franklin Benoit.” She held my gaze for a minute. “Something isn’t right,” she said through her teeth.
“Enough! I—” Lucas’s sentence died as his office door was thrown open.
Lucas and I came out of our seats.
Dimitris and two of his guys were helping Marco Moretti’s twin brother, Gabriele Moretti, into Lucas’s office. Gabriele had been beaten pretty good, and he was limping. Blood stains stood out on his white dress shirt. It was clear to me that he’d been in one hell of a fight.
Marco had taken his birthright away during a card game. How Gabriele managed to get baited into that was lost on me. It was stupid. Had that been me and Lucas, I would never have taken it from him. To me, it would have been theft.
Their father died from a heart attack when Marco was in his twenties over fifty years ago. Rumors floated that the family wasn’t united on several things, but that’s all they were, rumors. Since Gianna’s death, my—our—focus had been on Benoit. We only hit a few of the other families so that it didn’t look like he was the only one being targeted.
“Put him on the couch,” I yelled over the commotion.
Thea backed up, making herself small. There was so much going on, it was a good position to take. She’d see what we didn’t.
“What happened?” I asked as Lucas made a call. I assumed it was our doctor because Gabriele needed medical attention from someone who would be discreet. “And why did you bring him here?”
Dimitris looked at me. “I’ll let him tell you.”
The guys got him on the couch, and it was clear Gabriele was in pain with the way he was grunting and groaning.
Lucas ended his call and slipped his phone into his pocket. “Okay, so tell me.”
“Marco’s lost his mind.” Gabriele groaned. He was in his seventies with salt and pepper hair, but to look at him, well, when he wasn’t beaten to a pulp, aside from the hair, you’d never guess it. He’d taken care of himself throughout his life, and it showed.
“That’s not new information,” I said.
His face twisted. “I caught him with my granddaughter, and the only reason that piece of scum isn’t dead is that his guys got the drop on me. They were letting him do it.” He began muttering in Italian. I didn’t have to understand the language to get what he was saying. Marco wasn’t long for this world if Gabriele had anything to do with it.
Lucas caught my eye and my stomach turned. I was speechless. It was obvious I wasn’t the only one when no one responded.
Grabbing a chair, Lucas pulled it over in front of Gabriele and sat. “You’ve got my attention.”
Mine too.
Gabriele’s lips twisted in disgust. “He’s bringing in little girls. Girls that are my granddaughter’s age. Morettis ain’t nice people, but we don’t diddle little girls. Our father, God rest his soul, is turning over in his grave.”
“You’re his brother. You didn’t know this was going on?” Lucas asked.
The man gave him a hard look. “He’d already be dead if I did. I knew he was getting deeper into stripping and prostitution. My daughter called and said that Marco picked up Annalisa, my granddaughter.” He paused and groaned. “I thought that’s strange. What’s my brother doing picking up my granddaughter from school? There’s nothing special going on.”
He snarled. “I call Rocco, and when he calls me back, I find out that bastard has her at that club that Benoit owns. I head straight there with Rocco and a few of his guys. I can hear her, Kalantzis. Screaming. I don’t wait for no invitation.” The man lowered his gaze. “I find her…” Tears glistened in Gabriele’s eyes. I couldn’t say I wasn’t moved either. It was disgusting. Rocco was th e Moretti family enforcer. It was interesting that he’d helped Gabriele.
Moretti continued, “Marco’s on top of her. I run over and kick him in the head. Then Rocco storms in and sees what’s happening. I tell him to grab Annalisa and get her out of there. Marco’s gonna be beat to death by my own hands.”
A knock came from the door, and Thea answered it. The doctor walked in, and she turned the lock.
While the doctor was taking care of Gabriele, Lucas asked, “Is Marco still alive?”
“Yeah, someone must have tipped him off and his guys showed up, but Rocco’s got my back, and my guys arrived. Marco split. Then I’m shot.”
Lucas looked at Dimitris. “How do you come into play?”
My brother shrugged. “How do I always come into play?” He smiled.
That cockiness was going to get him killed. Another one of his finer qualities that kept him from playing nice with others.
Gabriele looked at Dimitris. “Marco’s sent an army, and they’ve got me. He showed up outta nowhere. Next thing I know, Marco’s army ain’t so many, and your guys are getting me out of there. I hate it, but I’m in your debt.”
He jerked and cursed as the doctor checked his leg. “Take it easy, my guy.”
I exchanged a look with Lucas. He was about to go with his gut on something. “You’re aware Marco and Franklin are working together, right?”
It seemed we had the same line of questioning.
Narrowing his eyes, Gabriele replied, “No, but I had my suspicions.”
“He’s bringing little girls into the port.” Dimitris dropped the information on Gabriele.
He looked at my brother. “Little girls?”
“That’s right.”
“I knew Benoit was into that stuff, but I had no idea Marco was in bed with him.” He rattled off a few sentences in Italian and smoothly went back to English. “I don’t think most of the family knows, but they will as soon as I can call a meeting.”
All well and good, if they actually cared. “What do you think the family’s going to do?” I asked.
Gabriele worked his jaw and winced as the doctor stitched up his leg. “They’ll either see it my way, or they won’t leave the meeting.” A shake-up was coming to the Moretti family. I couldn’t say I didn’t like that idea.
“You want help?” Lucas asked.
Gabriele looked at my brother. “Help?”
“Benoit and Marco are working together. Benoit killed our little sister and dad. We’ve been too weak to go after him, but if we work together, maybe we can bury both of them.”
Gabriele’s eyebrows furrowed as they held each other’s gazes. “Killed your little sister?”
“I don’t know if he knew she was ours. She was already buried when we found out it was Benoit. One of his girls, a recruiter, had told her how pretty she was and that they wanted her to audition for a movie. Gianna lied and told us she was spending the night at a friend’s house. When Mom didn’t hear from her the next day, she sent us to look for her. While we were gone, cops showed up to inform us that she’d been found dumped by a pier. She’d died of an overdose, and there were signs of excessive lower-extremity trauma. She was thirteen.”
“Ain’t you marrying his daughter? Ain’t that tomorrow?” He narrowed his eyes as he spoke.
“I think they’ re playing me.”
Wait, Lucas thought that and he was still going through with it? How was I supposed to protect the idiot when he did things like that?
Gabriele cleared his throat. “It’s a messed-up family. I was at a fundraiser for the mayor years ago and looked around the place. Claire couldn’t have been more than seven, and I saw him slap her so hard she dropped to the ground. He just walked away.”
Thea looked at Lucas. “I told you.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. If Claire was seven when Gabriele witnessed that, it was more than a decade ago. Unless Gabriele was playing us too, he had no reason to lie about that. That plus Thea’s insistence that something wasn’t right between them… Fine. I’d give Claire a chance.
“So we have a deal?” Lucas asked.
“ Accordo .” Deal . He spat on his hand and thrust it out to Lucas. “Morettis and Kalantzis are united until we settle this.”
My brother followed suit and shook his hand. “Deal.”
Gabriele pulled his hand back and crossed his arms over his chest. “We need to be smart about this, Kalantzis. Marco has pull in the Morettis, and until I can call the family, we need to watch our backs.”
How were our families united if Marco had pull? Perhaps, Gabriele meant that once the other Morettis knew what Marco was up to, they’d all fall in line and work with us.
“By now, he’s got word that it was your family who saved my life. He’ll be coming for blood. You okay, or do you need help?”
“I’m marrying Claire tomorrow at St. Andrews. I don’t think Benoit will cheap out on security. He’s got a face to keep for the public.”
Unless that was the plan, to make it seem things were secure when they weren’t, but I didn’t want to disrespect my brother in front of the Italians.
Gabriele glanced at his phone for a moment before he attempted to push off the couch. The guys helped him up. “Rocco’s got Annalisa safe and with her mother. They’re surrounded by security. He’s coming to pick me up and take me to her.”
He shook Lucas’s hand again.
To tell the truth, I was unsure about all of it. First, Benoit’s daughter seeks Lucas out, and then Franklin. Next thing is Lorenzo, now Gabriele seemingly going to war with his brother.
What was going on? With the wedding tomorrow, it seemed like we were in a holding pattern. If we played our hand too soon, Benoit would catch on. If we played it too late, we could all be dead.
We were walking a tightrope that I didn’t like.