“That’s actually smart. I’ll contact Mickey and have him ask her to facilitate it for us. Do we know their last name?” I look at Sage, who frowns and shakes his head.
“No, I don’t think we do. We need that to do thorough background checks.”
“Leave that to me. I will do a little digging while they are here. I’m sure none of them will be going to school tomorrow, and I will fuss over them like a mother hen,” Suzy assures me, and Ben snorts with laughter.
“Suzy is a master manipulator and will have the information out of them before they even know they’ve been interrogated.”
“Okay, thanks, that would be great. Send me a message or an email, and I’ll make sure Mickey gets it.”
“How long will you be gone?” Suzy asks, looking at the bag at my feet with a frown. “That seems like a lot of packing for a night or two.”
I shrug. “We will head up to Seattle and make our way back down. I’m going to make discreet inquiries at all our locations, so don’t share where we are. Sage had the pilots take the jet to Cancun. As far as anyone is concerned, we’re on the beach drinking mai tais,” I instruct them.
“Even Gio?” Ben asks carefully.
“Especially Gio. He doesn’t get to know anything, and I very much doubt he will ask, but if he does, assure him everythingis being handled. We have no big shipments of ammunitions or drugs due over the next couple of weeks. It’s just business as normal through the rest of our holdings.”
“Be careful, Tori. You were attacked the other night, and now Gio was targeted. It looks like someone is gunning for the Russo family again,” Ben cautions, and I frown.
“It does seem that way, and there aren’t many players left for us to point a finger at. We took care of a lot of them just after Dad and Carla were killed. I have a suspicious feeling that this is internal. I was only targeted after I found out about the Kitty Kat up in San Jose. I would place money on my attack being Lorenzo’s work. As for tonight, I would suggest the same. When Gio was living here, there was no way for Lorenzo to get at him, especially at night when this place locks down, but his college apartment doesn’t have those kinds of protections, and anyone could have breached it. I’m just surprised they used the method they did instead of straight up sending an assassin to take him out in his sleep.”
Sage leans against the counter and crosses his arms. “You know, you’re right. It seems a little random, to be honest, especially bombing both rooms like they did. You think they would have done their research first to figure out which one Gio was in.”
“So maybe Gio wasn’t the target?” Suzy suggests, and I gape at her in surprise. She shrugs. “Well, I mean, they are family, aren’t they, and they were spread out over those two rooms. Gio rooms with Xavier and Tristan, right? And the other three room together. I’m just saying maybe one of them was the target.”
“Suzy isn’t wrong. We know absolutely nothing about them. It’s why I want an independent background check ran on them. Gio had one done back when he was originally going to room with them, but that was completed by one of the guys we disposed of after Dad died. Turned out he was being paid on theside to leak information to a third party, which we weren’t able to get out of him. No matter what I did to him, he took that information to his grave.”
“That’s pretty loyal,” Ben comments offhandedly, but Sage shakes his head.
“Not really. He knew Tori was going to kill him, and she had already tortured him quite badly. It was a giant fuck you to her.” Sage grimaces, probably remembering the bloody swathe I cut through our family as I weeded out those who were loyal and those who had been turned to the dark side.
“Okay, so that is our main focus. You find out their surname, and I’ll put Mickey and Maeve on it. It will give them something to do. I think Mickey is going stir crazy at the lake cabin. He wants to help more, but he needs to remain comatose a little longer. Sage and I will let you know how we get on.”
“I booked us in small chain motels, so no one should recognize us. We’ll go to the various businesses undercover and make sure Lorenzo isn’t using the Kitty Kats as a breeding ground for his sex trafficking venture.”
“He was very unhappy when I took over the Kitty Kat clubs back when I first joined the business, but I only thought it was a bunch of sleazy asshole managers. I wonder if women were disappearing even then. I should go back through all our records. If only Carla was still around, she would know any details.” A stab of sadness ripples through me at the thought of my dearly departed pseudo aunt. I still miss her and Dad on a visceral level, I just learned to shove it deep down. Family men don’t show their grief in public, and I am being held to those standards despite my gender, especially because there are still people who want me to return to the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant, and submissive to a man who is in charge.
At that annoying thought, I grab my coffee off the machine, and Sage and I say our goodbyes to Suzy and Ben before escaping.
Chapter Five
“Let’s pay a little visit to the club here first. I want to send Candy up to San Jose to cover for Stella, and I can’t put it off any longer.” I grimace as Sage pulls my car out of the underground garage, and we leave the estate.
I see him wince out of the corner of my eye. “Fuck, that’s going to be messy. You know that’s going to go over like a lead brick,” he warns unnecessarily.
I blow out a huff of air. “Oh, I have no doubt. Why do you think I’ve had Sam and Dean do anything with that club? I dreaded going there because Candy made a huge ass scene every time, and putting a bullet in the head of an ex didn’t really appeal to me.”
“When was the last time anyone went there?” Sage frowns, keeping his eyes on the road as he maneuvers the car to the Kitty Kat club.
I purse my lips as I try to remember the last time either of the boys went there. “I haven’t been there for about a month, but I went there in the morning so I didn’t have to run into Candy. I’m not sure when the guys were there last, to be honest. You know the two of them have something going on with Lacey, right?”
“Yeah, I do, but they go to her place, or she comes to theirs.”
I gape at him. “They have a place?”
Sage chuckles and runs a hand through his hair, keeping the other on the steering wheel. “Yeah, babe, they aren’t robots who come when you summon them. They have lives too. Haven’t you noticed the few houses at the back of the estate? They live in one of those. They are accessed from the back street though, no direct access from our place.”
I feel my cheeks heat in embarrassment. Of course I know about the houses at the back of the estate, I just thought they were empty.
