I shake it, internally rolling my eyes. I’m sure he’s real pleased. Bastard.
“How do you fund all of this?” I ask, turning back to Papa.
“Alessio set aside a large source of money that funds the operatives and recruitment. The rest,” he pauses, “that comes from Salvatore.”
“As in—”
“Yes, my brother.”
“He knows?”
“I told you we all grew up together. We might have our differences, but he believes in this cause.”
Huh. Wouldn’t have expected that.
“How are the girls we rescued? Where are they?”
I have so many questions I’m not sure which are the most important.
“They’re safe. Protected. That’s all that matters.”
I frown. “You don’t know.”
Papa smiles proudly. “No, I don’t know their location. As I’ve said, the secrecy is how this all has worked for so long. But I do know that they’re in a safehouse with my team. Only my guards and doctors at the site are aware of its placement.”
“How it that possible? Surely you had to buy the land? Get contractors in?”
He rolls his eyes at me. “I have one guard I trusted to buy the land for me—without telling me where. The contractors didn’t know what they were building. Everyone who knows the location lives on site. That’s the same for all my safehouses”
“That’s… a lot of security.”
Papa sighs. “Lorenzo… Isolde alone took down five trafficking rings. Imagine how many girls are involved in each one? Then imagine the rest of my operatives. If I know where the girls are staying—if anyone does—it puts them in danger.”
“What if someone wants to leave?”
“One of the girls?”
“No, what happens when the operatives want to stop working? Surely, they know too much?”
Cam’s the one to answer this time. “It depends on why they’re leaving. If they’ve been compromised, then usually we offer witness protection. But if they just want to stop… well, they don’t really know anything at all. They don’t know the other operatives. They don’t know any of the locations. That’s why everything mission is given through handlers. It’s all very need-to-know.”
The more I learn, the more impressed I am. I can’t believe Papa has been leading this entire operation on his own since Alessio died.
“And Izzy?”
“Her papa always had plans for her to join. He started training her when she turned eighteen. She never stopped—not until the day he died.”
“What happens to her role now?”
“That’s up to her.” The thought of her going back undercover has my heart clenching. “But I assume, with the marriage, she’ll take a step back.”
I fucking hope so.
42
You’re Everything
I wish I could be with you. Papa tells me we can't move to join you. I don't understand why. —Iz
