His eyes turned pained. “You already are, Olivia. Mrs. Ferraza and I suspect Gio too, are victims of Blackwood.”
Gio. I’d forgotten about him.
It was my idea to work together, but now I’m unsure. If I move forward, I'm crossing a line I've never crossed before working with a criminal against the FBI. If I don't, I might never learn the truth about and end up being a part of corruption I vowed to fight against.
I look up at him, staring into the depths of his eyes wanting to see that I can trust him.
I give him a nod. “Okay.” I feel like I’ve just leapt off a cliff. God, I hope I’m able to catch myself before I crash and burn.
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?"
