Brady had gone from red in the face to pale. “You’re crazy,” he said hoarsely. “That’s some crazy fucking story you’ve made up, Taylor.”
“Well, there’s an easy way to prove it,” Hudson said. If possible, the room got even quieter. “Because you’re not very smart, Brady, and I bet you haven’t bothered to cover your tracks very well. So unlock your phone and let us search your recordings.”
With a snarl, Brady leapt from his seat and made for Hudson, but before he even got two steps, half the room seemed to move together. Gio shoved Hudson behind him while pulling out his gun, and Nick and Dino tackled Brady to the floor.
Dino gave Brady a punch to the gut that made him wheeze, and then Luca D’Amato himself pulled Brady off the floor, only to slam his head down on Finch’s table.
“Dumb move,” he told Brady, one hand keeping the DJ’s head side-on against the table. “Real dumb move. Stupid to try to steal from me, from Finch. But you know what your real mistake was?” Brady flailed, but couldn’t get free. “Trying to set up Hudson,” Luca hissed. “You think I’d believe some asshole over family?”
Hudson wasn’t reallyFamily. He wasn’t a made man, he’d sworn no oaths, and he definitely wasn’t a member of any Morelli crew. So he knew, without doubt, that when Luca D’Amato called him family, he didn’t mean Morelli. He meant D’Amato.
In her own way, Connie had tied him to the D’Amatos for life.
“Give me his phone,” Luca demanded, and Finch handed it over. Luca twisted Brady’s face and pointed the phone at it to open it, even while Brady squealed and protested. Luca thumbed through with one hand, the other firmly keeping Brady against the desk, until he found the last recording.
You listen to me, Ziggy, we have your daughter—see?Ziggy’s subsequent inarticulate cry of rage seemed very familiar to Hudson. Yes, that was the noise he’d heard several times that night. Dino was looking at him and nodding, too.
The argument went on. Hissed curses, louder threats, until Ziggy was agreeing to go along with the plan. Brady was crying by the time the recording stopped. For his part, Ziggy looked ashen.
“And where, exactly, are you keeping the girl?” Luca asked.
“I’m not telling!” Brady sniffled. “And they’ll kill her when I don’t call in and tell them it’s all fine. So you gotta let me go.”
Luca sighed. “You seem to think you have options here, Brady. You really don’t.” He threw the sniveling DJ over to Nick. “Get the information, would you?”
Nick gave a wide smile. “My pleasure, Boss.” And he dragged Brady out of the room.
Hudson felt decidedly queasy, but as he turned his face aside, Gio came closer to him and put his hand in the small of Hudson’s back. This time, he really did rub comforting circles.
“Now, as for you, Ziggy,” Luca said, turning to the man. “Why in the hell didn’t you justtellme what was going on? Or Finch? We look after our own, you know that.”
“Brady said if he didn’t check in regular, let his asshole buddies know it was sweet, they’d kill her. He said as long as he got out of here safe, he’d make sure they let her go alive.”
Luca gave an incredulous laugh. “There was no guarantee of that.”
“I wasn’t thinking straight. She’s my only child. Please,” Ziggy said, tears in his eyes. “Please, Boss, I know I deserve what’s coming to me, but please make sure my daughter’s okay. Look after her for me, will you?”
Luca frowned. From downstairs in the club, a long scream sounded.
Finch spoke up. “Ziggy, we understand what it’s like to have someone you love held hostage,” he said with a warning glance at Luca. “To have family threatened. So we understand why youwent along with it. Why you tried to take the fall, even if it was a long shot.”
“Do we?” Luca asked, but after exchanging another look with Finch, he nodded. “I suppose we do. Anyway, once Brady talks, which sounds like it won’t take long, we’ll go over there ourselves. Take care of the scum and get your daughter back. But next time, I’d advise you to just spill from the start, or things won’t end well for you.”
The look he gave Ziggy made the man tremble. “Iwastrying to get away from that asshole the whole evening,” Ziggy said softly. “Trying to—to tell Mr. D in private. But Brady kept close, the son of a bitch. I tried to get Mr. D to look through the phones early on, but Brady told me if I tried something like that again, he’d let his friends kill my Bianca. Right after Gio frisked us downstairs, I thought I’d have a chance if I could get up to the office fast enough—but Brady picked a fight with Gio and Hudson, made sure I had to stay there.”
“It’s true,” Gio offered. “He did try to get away. I made him hang around.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Hudson said at once.
“The only fucker to blame here is me,” Ziggy agreed.
“No,” Hudson said. “The only fucker to blame is Brady.”
“You got that right, Blondie,” Gio said, slinging an arm around his shoulders. Finch gave a smug smile when he saw, although Luca raised his eyebrows.
Luca’s phone pinged. “Alright,” he said. “Nick has persuaded Brady to part with the location. Ziggy, with me.”
“Can I come too, Boss?” Dino asked.
