Chapter Five
It had been a whileas they waited.
Kosta never quit his search either.
Finally, Serenity looked up and asked, “What is her real name again?”
“LaDonna Rinc,” Pride told her.
Serenity paused then said,“I might have found her.You were right, um, Mr.Candy, she’s using an LLC to be exact.Just let me check something here.”Serenity typed in more commands.Then a few minutes later, she gasped and pushed her chair away from the desk.Looking up at Sergi, her gaze was full of astonishment.
Pride’s men all stared at her, knowing this had to be big.
Slowly shaking her head, she reached out and hit print.
A few seconds later the printer spit out three pages.
Sergi walked over and grabbed the pages off the printer tray.He studied them then looked up at his men.He swung his gaze over to Serenity and asked, “See how far back these payments go.We need to know how deep this sting really is.”
Serenity shook her head and explained, “I can’t stay in this window too long or the bank will know I got through their firewalls.”
“Try at least,” Sergi told her.
“What did she find, Sergi?”Yuri asked impatiently.“What payments?”
Sergi handed him the pages.
Yuri studied them, his eyes widening as he scrolled through them.He looked up at Sergi and whispered, “Svyatoye der'mo...Holy Shit.Is she serious?”he growled.
“What is it?”Pride asked.
“She’s been collecting payments from almost every faction in the city,” Yuri replied.“Lots of them.If this goes back years, no wonder there is unrest in New Orleans.”
“Da, these men aren’t used to paying someone off,” Sergi commented.“They would rather put a bullet in someone’s head.And it seems we are the only faction here that isn’t paying.But I’m wondering what they are paying for?”
“Does it matter?”Pride asked.
“Da, it does.”Sergi nodded.“It also matters who they think they are paying.”
“Do you mean...?”Nicky asked him then he realized what he meant and his eyes widened when he came to the same conclusion.“Oh, shit.”
Sergi nodded as he looked troubled now.“They might be under the impression that we are demanding this money for them to be able to live here.If that's the case, then this money might be considered protection money.The Bratva doesn’t do that and hasn’t done that for many years.We have kept a tight hold on our territory and shown them many times that we can be deadly if pushed.We do not know if some have had enough of the extortion either.I imagine that they have.”
“I’m surprised no one has attacked us over this,” Yuri noted.”
“I’d rather not have that happen,” Sergi said.“Many innocent people could be killed in the chaos.”
“Should we call a meeting of the faction heads?”Yuri wanted to know.
