“I changed the code, so don’t bother with another escape attempt.”
“Wow, I warrant you having to change your security codes.” I went to pull the SUV door open, but he pushed it shut, making me jump, making my heartbeat pick up. I looked up at him looming inches from me.
“I could just chain you to the bed if you prefer? Maybe I will, when we’re back.”
He stayed like that, his gaze burning into mine until I had to look away, conceding his win. Dominic pulled my door open and walked around to the other side without waiting for me to climb in. Once we were settled, he started the engine. A momentary panic came over me.
“What if someone’s there? They see me?”
“Scava thinks you’re at the cabin. No one’s looking for you. I called already. Told them all was well. That we were on schedule.”
I nodded as he drove out of the driveway, but my fear of Victor Scava—as nauseous as it made me to know I feared that man—was very real.
“Why didn’t he kill me? Wouldn’t that have been smart, in case I did know something?”
“You make a mistake if you think Victor Scava smart.”
He made light of it, but then his face grew serious.
“He didn’t want you fucked during the training either. The liaison was very specific.”
“What?”
Dominic glanced at me as he navigated around the still opening gate. “What I said. And from what you told me, he didn’t rape you. Did his men touch you?”
I shook my head. “He wouldn’t let them.”
“Why?”
“He was jealous of James. Maybe he wanted me for himself? He offered to spare me the branding if I fucked him. When I said no, he didn’t force himself on me.”
“And he sent you to me to train and sell off?”
“Maybe he planned on buying me himself.”
“Sick fuck. I wouldn’t put it past him. It would certainly return you…humbled.”
“Let’s talk about something else.”
“Library address.”
I gave it to him, and he programmed it into the GPS, studied the map, then turned the little machine off.
“I know where it is. It’ll be a little over an hour.”
I unwrapped one of the two bars.
“One of those for me?”
“No.” As I brought the one to my mouth, he reached over and took it, biting into it himself.
“Don’t be fucking rude, Gia.”
“Fuck you, Dominic.”
He grinned and shoved the rest of the bar into his mouth. “Shit. This is old.”
I smiled, but my stomach fluttered, and my face heated. I had to turn and watch the passing scenery out the side window, unable to take his intense gaze. It felt like he read me like a damned book.
I focused on something else. On my mom. I wondered if she was planning Mateo’s funeral. Wondered how worried she was about me. I didn’t know if they’d trashed my apartment. They’d taken me when I’d walked out of a café after work. Did she even know I was missing? She had to by now, now that she knew about Mateo. She would get in touch with Angus Scava when she couldn’t find me. It’d be the first place she’d go.
I almost asked Dominic about calling her but stopped myself. He’d say no. But this wasn’t up to him. I’d make sure to get ahold of her or at least get a message to her that I was alive. I’d tell her to go back to Sicily. Hell, she was safer there than here.
At that, the thought that Victor would have hurt her crept into my mind.
No, he wouldn’t have done that. He wouldn’t have involved her. There was no reason to.
“Did he hurt my mother? Do you know?”
Dominic looked at me as if he hadn’t heard my question. I repeated it.
“I haven’t heard anything, but I haven’t been looking for news. I’ll make a call and find out.”
To my surprise, he took out his phone and dialed a number then and there. It was to his brother, Salvatore. They spoke for a few minutes, Dominic asking for information and Salvatore, I assumed, promising to call back as soon as he found out.
“Thanks,” I said. But that wasn’t going to be enough for me. I’d make some calls myself once we got to the library and he was busy copying files.
13
Dominic
By the time we found parking and walked into the beautiful old library building on Vine Street, it was late morning. Traffic sucked, and parking was always an issue. I held Gia’s hand. To anyone who glanced our way, we looked like a normal couple walking into the building.
Gia’s hand felt clammy in mine, and I knew she was nervous. I didn’t think she had any reason to be, although if anything did happen, we’d be unarmed, since I’d left my pistol in the SUV, assuming I’d have to pass through a metal detector.
“Lead the way,” I said casually even though I looked at every single person in the place as we headed toward the long row of public-use computers.
“Hey, Gia. You missed your shift the other day.”
A man came toward us, his face beaming at Gia. A frown replaced that stupid smile, though, when I moved in closer and put my arm around her waist, feeling much more possessive than I maybe should.
Of course she’d run into people she knew. She fucking volunteered here.
Gia tensed beside me.
“Smile,” I told her.
“Hi, Ron,” she said, her voice tight. “I wasn’t feeling well. I asked my friend to call. She must have forgotten.”
Ron’s gaze kept shifting to me, and I almost laughed at his struggle to keep smiling.
“No, she never did. I covered for you. No worries.”
“Thanks, Ron.”
I cleared my throat. “Aren’t you going to introduce me, honey?” I had to bite my tongue not to laugh outright at the look on Gia’s face.
“Um, Ron this is…um…Donnie.”
She recovered fast and relaxed. Even smiled. At least for a minute.
“Her boyfriend,” I said, gripping her tighter and pulling her close. Donnie? WTF?
“Oh, uh, nice to meet you. I guess. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” Ron said, trying not to look at me.
“Yep,” I chimed in. “Haven’t been together long, but once you get a taste of Gia, well, nothing quite like it…” I winked at her mortified face. “We’re on a tight schedule, though,” I said, checking my watch.
“Nice to see you, Ron,” Gia said, walking stiffly toward the public-use computers.
“Nice to see you,” Ron called out.
It took all I had not to flip him off.
“What was that?” she asked in a sharp whisper. “How could you say that?”
“Donnie? What the fuck kind of name is Donnie?”
She stopped and turned to me, one hand on her hip, one eyebrow lifted.
“Did you want me to tell him your real name?”
“You couldn’t come up with anything better than Donnie?”
She only grinned. “That one,” she said, dropping the conversation as an elderly woman vacated a computer.
“Let’s go.” Someone else tried to take the seat, but I shoved Gia ahead and onto the chair.
“I have been waiting!” the woman said.
“Us too.” Ignoring her, I watched Gia pick up the mouse and navigate to the file. Mateo had hidden it well while keeping it in plain sight.
“Here, this is it,” she said.
I took the thumb drive out of my pocket and handed it to her. “Copy it.”
She stood. “I have to use the bathroom. You copy it, and I’ll be right back.”
Before I could argue, she was gone. The woman we’d butted in front of was pointing at us and talking to the man at the counter, so I knew we had limited time. I took over, copying the file onto my thumb drive, hoping Gia wouldn’t be dumb enough to try to run off. I didn’t think she would, though. Not with this evidence in my hands now, not knowing I could copy then delete the file. Although I wouldn’t. It was my backu
p.
“Sir.”
The man who worked at the library approached my seat with the woman just as the file finished copying.
“That’s him. He just butted right in front of me!”
I ignored them both, double-checked the complete file had copied onto my thumb drive, and ejected it.
“I’m done,” I said, heading in the direction Gia had gone while looking for signs to the bathrooms.
But I didn’t find her at the bathrooms. Muttering a curse under my breath, I walked fast up and down the aisles looking for her. I was going to kill her. My temper grew hotter and hotter with every step I took. And then I saw her. Talking to fucking Ron behind a desk, a phone tucked between her neck and shoulder.
“Gia!”
All heads turned. Someone ‘shushed’ me and I sped toward her, walking fast without breaking into a run. I wanted to slap the phone away. I saw her talking and reached her just as she hung up.
“Donnie! There you are. Are you done? I couldn’t find you.”
“Yeah, I’m done. We’re done,” I said, grabbing her arm as she moved around the counter. “Let’s go.”
“Gia?” Ron called out.
“What the fuck was that?” I hissed through gritted teeth.
“I needed to call my mom. I knew if I asked, you wouldn’t let me, so I didn’t bother asking! She’s worried sick!”
“Did you tell her where you were?”
“I don’t even know where the house is, and no, I didn’t mention the library. She’s planning my brother’s funeral, Dominic! I know you don’t have a heart, but try, just try to be fucking human for a minute!” She wiped a tear from her face as we reached the car.
I bit my lip, wanting to shake her but feeling sorry for her and hating her—or wanting to hate her—for what she said. I mean, she was right. It’s not like I had a fucking heart. Monsters didn’t have hearts.
So why the fuck did her words sting? Why did I give a crap?
I slammed her door shut and took a minute, my fingernails digging into my palms as I got hold of my anger. I climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled the SUV out of the garage, still so fucking mad I could hardly breathe. Gia sat staring straight ahead, and I could see her eyes glisten. She was trying not to cry.
“That was a stupid thing to do.”
She didn’t answer.
“Fucking stupid, Gia.”
Nothing.
We drove in silence all the way back. Once we were back in the house, Gia slipped from my grip and ran upstairs to her room, slamming the door behind her. Fine. That was just fine. She wasn’t going anywhere; we were locked in tight. I’d deal with her later. I wanted to listen to the recordings first, and I wanted to do it without her.
After grabbing my laptop out of the duffel bag, I headed into the study and closed the door behind me. I plugged the thumb drive into the port, hit the button to play and leaned over my computer, listening.
The quality was shit, grainy as fuck. Mateo’s equipment either sucked, or he wasn’t wired right. I could make out Victor Scava’s voice, his laugh grating on me, his mood swings in the span of a few minutes giving me whiplash. The man was insane, clearly. He’d say one thing, then the exact opposite just a few minutes later.
Much of the conversation was useless, at least for my purposes. He talked about moving drugs. Moving money. I didn’t care about those things. I wanted to know about the trafficking. I wanted to hear Roman’s voice.
Mateo must have been recording for a good month. I wondered how they’d figured out he was wired. I thought of how they’d killed him. Right then, Victor laughed again. I fisted my hands.
“Sadistic motherfucker.”
How are you different?
I shut down that voice and listened, replaying a piece here or there. It was only toward the end that things got interesting.
I never did hear Roman’s voice. There was one time Victor talked on the phone with someone. Victor was pissed after that call. The conversation was about moving product. This particular product, I figured out, was living and breathing. Whoever he was talking to was tearing Victor a new one. Victor had fucked up apparently. Typical. After he hung up was when I knew who it was.
“That fucking asshole thinks he’s the boss of me! Fucking imposter. He thinks he can tell me what to do. First old man Scava and now him.”
“Take him out, boss?”
Static.
“No. Can’t do that, not yet.”
Silence. Static.
“If my pussy uncle found out—”
Static cut off the rest of the sentence. When Victor came back in, he was laughing and someone was getting hit.
“I have a much better idea. The fucker’s gonna die, but it’s not gonna be me to do it.”
A struggle, someone grunting. More punches followed, the sound of furniture breaking.
I thought of Mateo watching the beating, maybe administering it. I wondered what had gone through his head then. He had to know what would happen to him if Victor found the wire.
“The Benedetti imposter’s gonna get what’s coming to him. I’ll let my uncle be the one to do it, though.”
“How, boss?”
“Thinks I’m fucking stupid. Thinks I don’t know he’s keeping me on as his fall guy, treating me like some fucking foot soldier and taking over what I started. What rightfully belongs to me!”
My heart raced. Static cut him off, but I had everything I needed.
“I’ll let my uncle dig his and that asshole’s grave.”
Static again, then laughter.
“Two birds, one stone, and all that shit.”
I checked the date on that recording. It was the twenty-third of December. Not a full twenty-four hours before Mateo had disappeared.
Victor Scava killed Mateo because he was a snitch, but he used Mateo’s death to start a war. A war within the Benedetti family. He wanted Roman out.
Well, I guess that was one thing he and I could agree on.
With Roman out and no more Benedetti sons to take over, Victor Scava could move into Benedetti territory. Take it over. Hell, maybe he’d overthrow his own uncle in the process.
But if he thought I’d stand by and watch, he had another thing coming.
14
Gia
I sat in my room, waiting out Dominic’s anger, figuring it was smart to just stay out of his way, at least for now. I picked through Lucia’s closet, feeling like some sort of criminal to be looking through her things, snooping almost. She had a lot of books. I could read for a while.
I chose one from her shelf and sat on the bed, flipping it open. I didn’t get very far, though. Not past the first blank page, where she’d made a sketch she’d then crossed out in angry lines. I recognized the drawing, but it took me a minute to realize why I knew it. I stared at it for a long time, knowing it was a drawing of the mark on my hip. I read the words Benedetti Killers she’d written beneath the drawing. I wondered about her. Those weren’t the words of a wife in love. Had Dominic lied to me about that? Was Lucia as much a victim as I?
I didn’t need to compare the sketch to my mark. I’d studied it. Hell, I’d memorized it. I knew it was the same. I just needed to figure out the connection.
Growing up, my father had shielded me from his work, but being the daughter of a foot soldier, there was only so much you could keep from your family. We were kids, Mateo and I, but we had eyes. We saw.
Mateo’s introduction to the world our father lived in came on his eighteenth birthday. My family had a big birthday party for him, a gathering for extended family and friends we hadn’t seen in years. There must have been three hundred people at our house that day with Franco Benedetti at the top of the guest list. In fact, he’d taken the opportunity to meet with several men, including my father, during the party.
I obviously hadn’t been invited to the meeting, not only for the fact of my gender, but I was only seven. My father introduced Mateo to Franco Benedetti that day. Mateo h
ad been given his first-ever job; something small, thank goodness. I remember how proud he’d been. How excited.
Franco Benedetti liked my father for some reason. He treated him differently than his other soldiers. My father considered it a promotion when he became one of Franco’s personal body guards, traveling with him everywhere, coming home less and less often. Mateo had begged to join him so many times, looking at Franco like he was God almighty. He’d never been allowed, though.
It was during one of these trips that my father was killed. He died protecting Franco Benedetti. He’d saved Benedetti’s life by sacrificing his own. That was why Franco had promised to take care of Mateo, me, and our mother.
I hadn’t known Mateo was at the meeting, and I’d gone looking for him during the party. I wanted cake, but my mother said we needed to wait for Mateo to sing “Happy Birthday” first, so I’d decided to go get him myself. I remember I’d taken the envelope Mr. Benedetti had dropped off for him, Mateo’s birthday gift. My mother had commented on its thickness, knowing it contained cash. She’d put it on the top of the refrigerator for safekeeping, but I’d climbed up on a chair and gotten it down, wanting to take it to Mateo, knowing how happy he’d be. I loved him. He was the best big brother. He was protective and even humored me by playing with my dolls when I begged.
Well, I hadn’t found him and had wandered farther from the property, not realizing two older boys had seen me with the envelope and were following. They cornered me when we were far enough away that no one would hear and told me to give it up, give them Mateo’s birthday gift.
No way I was doing that, and I told them so.
Well, they didn’t exactly take no for an answer, and I realized that day how powerless I was without Mateo to save me. It pissed me off, actually and I readied to fight, knowing I’d lose, refusing to return to the house empty-handed. At least Mateo would know I’d fought for him.
But I hadn’t had to because another boy had been there too. An older one, a friend of Mateo’s. Or at least someone I’d seen with Mateo a couple of times.
Dominic: a Dark Mafia Romance (Benedetti Brothers Book 2) Page 12