“Se. But first, Franco, follow her.”
Dante’s replacement, one of Rory’s picks, faded out to complete his task.
Because he was a wiser man than most on myStidda, Luigi drove usquietlytoward the warehouse where Luc had stowed our enemy.
I caught up with my emails and messages, needing to make sure that everything else ran smoothly while we dealt with the betrayal in-house.
Then, I contacted my team at the lab and read through the results that showed the performance of our medications in recent tests.
Ever since news that I’d self-tested Vangelin had broken, they’d been pulling overtime shifts. Not because I’d requested it or been unable to work as many hours as I once could, but so I wouldn’t do it again.
I had a good team. I’d thought I had a goodStiddatoo…
Grunting, I replied to their messages. But that came to a halt when Rory sent me a file regarding the odious inventory they’d begun taking at the Nolita brothel. Devouring that as we crossed Manhattan became a priority, until Luc started a group call between us and Rory.
When I saw his black eye, my own widened. “You raided the Albanian warehouse last night?”
“Yes,” he hissed then hissed some more when Jen appeared with some steak she slapped on his cheek. “Ouch,riggina mia!”
“Stop whining. If you can come to my bed covered in blood, then you can deal with the aftermath!”
My sister-in-law stomped off, leaving Rory to whistle. “Whose blood?”
“Some of mine. You were right about them being angry, Stan.” He repositioned the steak on his eye. “Nearly got stabbed, but I gutted the fucker first.”
Rory flinched. “No dying before you meet your nephew.”
“Nice to know you care,soru,” he crooned. “Anyway, there was no chance of that. Not when I saw their stock.”
“What did you pick up?”
“I think having daughters has made it hard for me to see this situation rationally. My mind knows it’s heinous, but the hindbrain, the part of me that keeps making girl babies… seeing what I saw last night triggered something in me I didn’t even know I possessed.”
“There were girls there?” Rory whispered.
“Replenishing what we took from Nolita. They’re young, Rory. So young.” His jaw turned white. “Those fucking animals.”
“Where did you take them?”
“I cleared out our brothel in Jackson Heights and arranged a couple coaches?—”
“Coaches?” I spat.
“Yeah. Plural. There were a lot of kids to move.” His mouth curled in disgust. “We transported them there last night and set a rotation of ten guards on the building. It was the best I could do until we come up with a plan.”
“Smart. Geraldine, the madam, she’s good people. She’ll look after them.”
“I told her I’d pay her an extra twenty grand this month to make sure they’re cared for. We just need to get them in the system.”
I growled, “Never mind that the system is the biggest purveyor of kids to traffickers… I’m starting to think that’s why the higher-ups are so obsessed with abortion law over here. More kids in the system fuels?—”
Rory held up a hand. “Don’t finish that sentence, Stan, or I’ll need to go and kill someone. Preferably the closest man. And I like my husband.” Her shoulders sagged. “Leave this with me. I’ll talk to Rachel—” Her best friend. “See what we… There has to be something we can?—”
Luc sighed. “We’ll try our best and keep an eye on them moving forward,soru.” When both of us nodded, he persevered, “On the chemical front, their product is tainted and we picked up a lot last night.”
“Dump it, Luc. We’re not poisoning our turf with that rot.”
I scrubbed a hand over my head. “How many other places do these fuckers have tucked away?”
