“I’m not fucking making nice,” Vin says, his stare piercing. “So, which of you is going to do it?”
“I’ll do it,” I say, waiting for one of them to argue. They don’t. I’ll use the skills that Giovanna taught me to help me find her. Even if I want to slit his fucking throat, the whole time I’m looking at him.
Matti scrubs a hand over his beard. “How are we going to do this? Tommy, if you reach out, he’ll expect you to ask about Gi. He may even bring it up. You’re going to have to avoid the topic, act like you don’t care.”
Vin nods. “And what are you going to say to him? You’re not a guy who has the ability to split focus.” When I give him a dirty look, he shrugs. “It’s true, and Aurelio knows it. If you can pull it off, if you can really not say anything about Giovanna, he’llbelieve that you aren’t gunning for him on her behalf. But you have to have something convincing to discuss, and you can NOT fuck this up, or we’re back to square one.”
Matti sits down at the table and pulls the breakfast plate in front of himself, picking at the bacon. “Do not even say her name. He will, but you can’t take the bait. Act like you bought into her choosing Antonio.”
Vin scoffs. “He knows they were fucking the whole time she was engaged to Antonio.”
“I’ll just say that I went there to talk her out of marrying him, and she decided to stay with Antonio.” Just saying the words makes hatred spiral through my bloodstream for that fucking douchebag fuck. My knee bounces under the table. “If this weren’t going on, we’d be focused on Mikey Briarone right now.”
Vin looks at me sharply as his phone rings, then gets up to answer it away from us.
Mikey Briarone is an associate of the Demonio family, but he took the flash drive Vin was putting together with evidence of what Aurelio was doing to fuck over his men and went on the run.
But Aurelio doesn’t know that, at least not all of it. All he knows is that Mikey took off with a flash drive that has information about the Luminous & Co. job, schematics that will help whoever possesses it break in and steal the fortune of jewels and cash in their vault. And he wants the flash drive back before someone else can use the information to break-in before he does.
Matti nods, pushing eggs onto the toast and shoving half of it into his mouth.
“True,” Matti says around his mouthful. “I’ve got guys tracking Mikey all over. I put feelers out to the Irish, the Russians, the Albanians. I don’t think he had any connections with the cartels or the Armenians, but if I hadn’t been helpingyou find Gi this week, that’s probably where I would have gone next.”
Vin ends the call and walks slowly toward us, scrolling on his phone.
Matti continues. “Vin has been tracking private planes and activated facial recognition software in New York, Boston, and Chicago for Mikey. We’re expanding south and west now with that.”
“So if Aurelio wants the flash drive Mikey took,” I say, “then bring me any leads you find on that front, and I’ll reach out to Aurelio.”
Vin looks up, his eyes bright and mean. “Your guardian angel must be making moves for you, Tommy. There’s been a plane crash down in South Carolina. Private plane. Fake info logged at its embarkation point. Irish pilot. Three men, one woman on board.”
Matti stops chewing and swallows hard. “You think it’s Mikey?”
Vin shrugs. “Maybe. But even if it’s not, it’s—”
“It’s my in with Aurelio,” I breathe. It’s perfect. Aurelio will be so absorbed by his own self interest that he probably won’t even think about Giovanna, much less bring her up.
It’s the first time I’ve felt even a shadow of hope since she slipped through my fingers. It’s not much, but it’s a start. She’s out there, and every breath I take without her feels like drowning.
But now I’ve got leverage, and with it I can begin to carve a path of fire through everyone and everything who stands between us.
3
Giovanna
The room smells like rot and iron. Damp wood walls press in from all sides, and a single bulb sways above me, its faint buzz the only thing louder than the sound of my heartbeat.
My wrists ache from the ropes, raw where they’ve rubbed against my skin, but I don’t stop pulling against them. Each rope is attached to a metal ring on either wall and I’m seated in a folding chair, one leg straight, the ankle wrapped tightly. There’s a filthy mattress next to me, no windows, and the only door I can see blends into the wall. But there has to be a way out.
Boots scrape against the floor outside before the door to the strange closet I’m in bangs open. Aurelio strides in, filling up the space and sucking the oxygen out of the room.
Antonio and his little brother Berto, plus a few other men wearing guns and dead expressions shadow him.
Aurelio’s smile is razor sharp. “There she is. My Tommaso’s little obsession.”
“And thereheis: daddy dearest,” I spit, lifting my chin. “Masquerading as father of the year.”
His mouth twists into something cold. “Careful,ragazza. You think that tongue makes you strong. All it does is remind me of your whore of a mother. And makes me want to hurt you more.”
