Or murdering someone.
Or disposing of a body.
“Do tell,” I encourage him with a raised eyebrow. Maksim and Leon chuckle. I could have sworn I heard Maksim mutter something to Leon about paying up.
“Well, those we have following them are less likely to be noticed than most,” Dima hedges. All I can do is blink at him stupidly.
“Less noticeable?”
“They’re small,” Dima continues. He’s hedging around giving the full answer.
“Like children,” Maksim butts in happily. My eyes narrow at Dima.
He wouldn’t.
The motherfucker.
“You’re using the children for surveillance?” I roar. “Are you fucking kidding me, Dima?”
The man before me shrugs unapologetically. “They wanted to help get their boss out of jail, and I needed a group of people who could surveil without drawing attention. Hence, children, or more technically, young adults.”
“Matthias is going to kick your ass when he finds out you sent some of the students on an unsanctioned surveillance mission.”
“Pay up,” Maksim whispers to Nikolai, who hands him a crisp hundred-dollar bill just like Leon had. Jesus, I’m working with toddlers who have gambling addictions.
“We’ll be coming back to that later, Dima,” I warn the still smiling Russian. “Did you happen to find anything useful while using our students to do your dirty work?”
“You make it sound like I wasn’t doing anything at all,” he feigns hurt. “I’ll have you know I am your hardest worker.”
“Bullshit,” Maksim coughs under his breath.
“You call sitting in your pervert van sipping Fanta, doing something?” Leon snorts at the same time. Dima growls at the man but remains silent as he drags the screen feed to the side, the map rushing from view, replaced by a photo of a man I’ve never seen before.
“This is Marko Cane.” Dima narrows his eyes at Leon, ignoring his jibe. “He was a low-level hitman for the Romano family. Since Dante took over, he’s more of a runner than anything else.”
“And we care about him, why?” Niko cocks his head to the side.
“Well, before the wedding, Marko was in debt up to his eyeballs,” Dima informs him, pulling up the man’s financial records on the screen. “The Irish, the Greek. Hell, he even owed the Lords of War.”
“And why do I care about the finances of one of Romano’s hired thugs?” I’m beginning to sound like a broken record.
Dima smirks. “Because less than twenty-four hours after the wedding, his debt of more than 1.5 million is cleared, and he’s been spending like a high roller every night at Club Mezzanine.”
That’s news to me.
“And tell me, Dima,” I tilt my head, eyeing him curiously, “how does a member of the Italian Mafia know about one of our super-secret, super-secure strip clubs?”
“Pay up,” Leon mutters to Maksim with a smile.
Toddlers.
We have several legit businesses around the city that clean up our dirty money. Ones that are open to members of the public and ones we keep hidden in the shadows. The fact that one of Romano’s hired thugs manages to gain entry means he’s been led there.
“You invited him, didn’t you?” The urge to groan and throw my head back is fucking strong right now.
So is the urge to strangle him with Leon’s tie.
“Yep.” Dima pops the p like a fucking douche.
