Another round of laughter went up. When it faded, Stefano turned his attention to Vittorio. “Tell us whatever you’ve got.”
Vittorio knew Rosina had copied Stefano on everything. As head of the family he was privy to anything that affected any or all family members. His word was law. He listened to the others, but in the end, it was up to him to make decisions. They were used to Stefano as head of the household. It had been Stefano providing any positive attention they’d had as young children.
“Her name is Grace Murphy. She’s twenty-three. Was raised in the foster care system. She was one of the lucky ones at first. The family she was with wanted to keep her, but an accident took the father, and the mother turned to alcohol. The adoption fell through and Grace was moved to a series of homes.”
He kept his voice even. Calm. That was his way. He didn’t react to things, not even when examining his woman’s past and the things she’d been through as a child.
“When she was thirteen she landed in the same home with Haydon Phillips. That particular home was run by a very abusive couple, Owen and Becca Mueller. They had one biological son, Dwayne. They did everything from beatings to withholding food. Haydon took the brunt of the punishments and has the scars to prove it, although there are photographs of Grace’s body showing burn marks on her.”
Emme put her hand on Vittorio’s arm. He was still inside, refusing to allow any negative energy to emerge. Vittorio practiced discipline at all times. This was one of those times when he needed to stay very calm. Deep inside, the volcano that could emerge was at a boiling point. Rosina had sent the photographs they’d used to convict the couple before moving both Grace and Haydon, but it was far too late by the time the investigation had been taken seriously and horrendous things had continued to happen.
“Neighbors had complained. It had taken months before anyone acted. Four visits from the police. Another six from a social worker. The investigation came to a screeching halt when Dwayne was tortured and murdered, his body found several miles away from the home in a ditch along the high-way. The investigation turned into a murder investigation, with Owen as prime suspect, but he was cleared.”
“Were they at least removed?” Sasha asked.
Vittorio shook his head. “It was almost as if all the allegations brought against the couple just disappeared. Maybe the social worker felt sorry for them or had too much work. In any case, they were left there another four months and one night, Owen got drunk. That was a common occurrence, according to the neighbors. His wife locked him out of the house, another common occurrence. He went to sleep in the garage and decided to work on his car. It fell on him and crushed his lower extremities. He lay on the cement with the car on top of him all night before Becca discovered him the next morning. He’s in a wheelchair and can’t function very well.”
“Sometimes justice can be found in strange ways,” Taviano said, and held up his glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice.
The others followed suit, Sasha with a little obvious reluctance. She wasn’t used to their ways. Vittorio noticed Giovanni put his arm around her, lean close and whisper something that had his wife smiling. Vittorio liked that his brother was always aware when Sasha was uncomfortable with anything.
“Grace was in that home four years before an actual investigation was conducted and the couple were arrested and charged.” His hands fisted so hard his knuckles cracked. “Four years of fucking hell before the couple was finally arrested. The husband was given a suspended sentence due to his injuries from the accident and the wife was given two years, but never served time. She has since applied for a foster care license numerous times and been turned down, but Rosina found they run an unlicensed daycare.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Ricco asked. “That’s insane.”
“Where are they?” Giovanni asked.
“Upstate New York,” Vittorio said with some satisfaction. “Our territory. We can turn over the investigation to the cousins there. See what turns up. No way have they stopped what they were doing, not with that kind of slap on the wrist.”
Stefano nodded. “It’s already done. The New York branch of the family is on it.”
“That’s so terrible, Vittorio,” Francesca said. “I can’t go see her in the hospital, but when you can, please bring her here.”
“Dr. Arnold explained they wanted her kept in intensive care for a long stay with round-the-clock nurses,” Stefano said gently, “but we’ll bring her here as soon as they tell us it’s okay to do so.”
“She’s in our private suite, eyes on her all the time. An artery had to be repaired and the shoulder is in pieces. If you see the damage done, the bone was shattered. Dr. Arnold doesn’t want to move her. The first few days he’ll keep her as sedated as he can. Then, once they bring her around, they don’t want any movement until those bones begin to heal. She has enough plates and pins everywhere, trying to hold her together. She’s going to have a long rehab, honey,” Vittorio explained to Francesca, “but I’ll definitely bring her to you when I can. In the meantime, I have to convince her I’m the one for her.”
“There’s no doubt she’ll think you’re amazing,” Emme said staunchly.
The other women nodded their heads. “She’ll be so lucky to have you,” Mariko said.
Sasha remained silent, but her eyes met Vittorio’s and he could see the knowledge there. She saw inside him. She knew what kind of man he was. What he needed and would insist on. His woman had to be very courageous—and very trusting. You didn’t get the latter trait living in the kind of home Grace had lived in and then being betrayed by the one person you probably thought of as family. He had a long road ahead of him to win his lady.
“What else do you have on her?” Giovanni asked.
“She works for an event planner, a woman by the name of Katie Branscomb.”
All four women nodded their heads. “Katie owns KB Events and is the number-one event planner here in that industry,” Emme said. “Everyone we know uses her.”
“Grace is her personal assistant and according to Katie, she’s the force behind the real planning. She makes things happen. They’re very popular with customers because Grace always gets the customer exactly what they want.”
“Why would the Saldis think they could kidnap a woman with a reputation like that?” Taviano asked. “Her boss would come looking for her. She had customers that have all the money in the world at their disposal. Those customers would most likely help Katie Branscomb find her absent assistant.”
“Do you think they were after her specifically, or that’s who Phillips had to offer for his gambling debts?”
“It sounded more like it was very specific and they were going to take her regardless of what either of them said. Phillips was too far gone to read them accurately. They were going to kill him the moment they had her in the car,” Vittorio said with absolute certainty. He’d spent his life reading others. He knew Sarto and Gori were there to kill Haydon Phillips. “Miceli never sends those two out without a reason. I’m afraid that reason is Grace.”
“She stands out,” Stefano said. “Even with blood all over her, and her face as white as a sheet, you could still see the beauty there. Someone noticed her. Maybe Miceli, but if not him, maybe someone he owed a favor to. If Grace was that favor, is she still?”
Good question. Vittorio had to consider that even with Sarto and Gori in the hospital, but in police custody, Grace might still be in danger.
“If she disappeared, the last person to see her would have been Haydon, and he would have been dead. No one would have a clue she was taken by the Saldis,” Emme said.
Vittorio knew what it cost her to state that. He dropped his hand to the nape of her neck and massaged gently to ease the tension out of her. He couldn’t give her back her heart, but he could let her know he stood solidly with her.
“I know Grace is the one for me, even though I didn’t connect with her shadow first. The lights in the parking lot had been deliberately br
oken, most likely by Sarto and Gori. Or Phillips. The camera footage will tell us when Rigina recovers what we need.”
“We have a remote backup that feed goes to,” Stefano pointed out. “What about that?”
“Rigina has access to it, even though the original was wiped,” Ricco said. “Fortunately, no one but our family knows about the backup. When she finds the right footage, whoever is selling us out to the Saldis won’t know we’ve discovered what they’re doing, and we might have a way to use them.”
“Maybe,” Vittorio said, his voice mild. “But whoever it is was aiding human trafficking, and the woman he helped them take was mine. That makes this very personal.” He ignored the way Stefano’s head came up, his gaze suddenly sharp and assessing. Vittorio doggedly continued, “The fact that they can wipe the security feed and slip Saldis into the club along with a junkie—it has to be someone high up in management we trust.”
“We’re going to handle this, Vittorio,” Stefano assured. “When it was Francesca’s life in danger, or Mariko’s, or Sasha’s, for that matter, we took care of the problem ourselves. We’ll find out who’s behind this without jumping to conclusions.” His gaze touched Emme’s face just for a moment. “We aren’t going to make any mistakes with this one.”
Emme’s fingers tightened around Vittorio’s. He knew she loved Val Saldi and that wasn’t going away anytime soon—even though she knew his family were criminals. When the Ferraros loved, they did it wholly, and they did it once. This exact scenario had always been the thing they’d feared the most for Emme—that the two families would end up in a war.
“Who was on last night, managing the club?” Ricco asked.
“Martin Shanks,” Stefano said. “He’s been with us as a manager for six years, worked an additional four in the club. Rosina is looking into his financials. Shanks went home around midnight very ill. There were witnesses to him being extremely sick. His assistant, Timothy Vane, took over for him. Vane had been working for the club about three years when he was promoted to assistant manager. That was two years ago. So, he’s been in the club for a good five years. These are not new employees. They’re paid extremely well, receive bonuses and have been with our family for a lot of years, so they receive profit sharing as well.”
“Who was at the door?” Emme asked.
“Clay Pierson. He’s been one of our bouncers for ten years,” Stefano said. “Emilio and Enzo trained him. Again, he’s long-time employed, makes good money and receives profit sharing.”
“I saw Peter Franks,” Vittorio said. “He’s hard to miss. He was on last night as well. Not working the door, but inside.”
“I don’t know who that is,” Francesca said.
Sasha and Mariko both indicated they didn’t know him, either.
“Franks works security. Essentially, he’s a bouncer. He works the door when he’s scheduled, but like Clay Pierson, he trained under Emilio and Enzo,” Stefano provided.
Vittorio handed his coffee cup to Taviano, who had risen, and pointed toward the kitchen where the espresso machine was. He needed to hear everything being said, but he wanted to be at the hospital. He’d promised Grace he would be there when she woke up, and he was determined to make that happen.
He was going on forty-eight hours without sleep and he needed to crash soon. Giovanni, Sasha, Taviano and Ricco had gone to Los Angeles in their private jet. He’d taken the shadows to the airport, secretly entering the plane right under the noses of the paparazzi. Once in Los Angeles, his brothers and sister-in-law headed to the nearest nightclub with their LA cousins to party the night away. Being out in the open like that, getting photographed dancing and drinking, gave their cousins alibis just in case anyone ever suspected them of wrongdoing. No one had any idea that Vittorio was in Los Angeles. As far as they knew, he was still at home in Chicago, nowhere near the city in California.
“What about the waitress or bartender?” Sasha asked. She had worked at the club as a top-tier waitress.
Giovanni shook his head. “If someone is on the two top tiers, they were already vetted. We’ve never given that kind of responsibility to a bartender or waitress.”
“Only management and security have that level of authority,” Vittorio said. He rubbed his chest again. His muscles ached, right over his heart. “Still, one would think they would have questioned it. I’m going to have to get back to Grace soon. I don’t want her to wake up without me being there.” He took the latte Taviano handed to him, grateful for the caffeine when he felt like he was running on empty.
Stefano nodded his understanding. “Let’s get back to Grace. She’s the main concern right now.”
Vittorio nodded. “Rosina has dug up quite a bit on her. I don’t know how she escaped our notice until now. Because she worked for Katie Branscomb, she was in our circles. We didn’t have her on our radar, but she was on someone’s. That person is either part of or connected to the Saldi family, and Miceli or Giuseppi owe him.”
“Is she safe in the hospital?” Francesca asked. “I’d rather she be in one of our homes and the doctor come to her.”
“He’ll come to her, baby,” Stefano said. “Just right now, they don’t want to move her.”
“I’ve got bodyguards on her,” Vittorio assured. “And I’ll be with her most of the time. I’m planning on taking her home with me when they let her out of the hospital. She wouldn’t get any care at her apartment and with me, she’ll have everything she needs for rehabilitation.”
Stefano sent him a quick grin. “Nice move, brother. Get in good while she’s down.”
Francesca rolled her eyes. “You’re so bad, Stefano, although, in this case I have to agree, it’s good to bring Grace home with you, Vittorio. From what Stefano said, it doesn’t sound like she’d have anyone to look after her.”
“Does that answer the question of whether or not you think it’s over for her? Or do you think someone is going to make another try for her?” Mariko asked. “Do you really think the Saldi family would start a war with us over her?”
Vittorio shrugged and sipped the hot latte to give himself time to choose his words carefully. He detested hurting Emme, and any mention of a war between the families was going to break her heart. “If Grace was the specific target, and it sounded like she was, then yes, I think she’s still in danger. We just don’t know where that danger is going to come from, and like Stefano says, we’ll handle this carefully. The right way. Although, having said that, I want to hunt Haydon down and find out what he has to say before—” He broke off and shrugged again.
Stefano glanced at him sharply but didn’t say anything.
Ricco put down his latte and looked straight into Vittorio’s eyes. “I think it’s safe to say, we’re all feeling the same way, Vittorio. Not just because she’s your woman, but because she’s a woman. She could have been anyone. Had you not gone to the club, we wouldn’t have known they were using it to conduct their business.”
“They were definitely thumbing their noses at us,” Taviano agreed.
“Maybe,” Stefano said. “But we all agree we don’t do anything stupid. We treat this the way we would any job.” His gaze touched Vittorio’s, making his point. “We investigate, and we call in our cousins from New York to dispense justice. The cops are all over this one. We’re going to have to have alibis at all times and make certain we can publicly account for every minute of the day. When dead bodies start turning up, we don’t want to be in any way associated with them. Since this started at our club with Vittorio’s fiancée, the best-kept secret of all time, we will be scrutinized.”
Vittorio knew Stefano was right, but it didn’t sit well with him to have Grace in danger while he did nothing about it. He knew that would be impossible for him. His brothers knew it as well. Only Sasha and Francesca, the two non-riders, would believe what Stefano was saying, and were assured by his statement that no one there would do anything rash—like find Haydon and kill him. Vittorio was hoping his own intentions weren’t stamped on hi
s forehead for the world to see—because he was definitely going after that asshole and taking him out permanently.
Maybe he should feel some sympathy for Haydon, because for Grace to love him so much, he must have been a decent human being at one time, but Vittorio didn’t. Grace had gone through the same things Haydon had, although from what Rigina had uncovered so far, Haydon had tried to protect Grace and taken the brunt of the abuse. Still, from everything the investigators had found in the short time they’d had, she remained a decent, hardworking, honorable human being. One who gave way too much love and loyalty to a douchebag who deserved neither.
“We’re going to be scrutinized by the press,” Ricco said. “No one has caught a glimpse of Vittorio with Grace. Were they at any event at the same time? We need to start building a plausible story for them.”
Emme nodded. “I’m on that already. Rigina has helped me, sending all the charity events Vittorio went to in the past year and a half.” She looked up at him. “You attended thirteen large and well-publicized events as well as three smaller ones. Four were for brain traumas, six for cancer research, three for women’s shelters and the three smaller ones were to raise money for rescues for animals. Eloisa put on most of the bigger events.”
“Animals?” Giovanni said. “When did you do that, Vittorio?”
Vittorio flipped him off.
Sasha looked up at her husband. “Giovanni, are you giving your brother a hard time when you just this morning told me about the horse rescue—”
Giovanni wrapped his hand around his wife’s mouth, laughing, his eyes dancing. “Not the time, woman. What are you thinking?”
Vittorio found himself laughing along with his brothers and the women seated at the breakfast table. That was how they were together. Discussing business one minute, and then erupting into laughter together the next. He wanted that for Grace. According to everything Rosina was sending to him, she’d never had a family—well, except that loser Haydon. Vittorio could, at least, provide that for her. He had no idea if it would be enough to balance out living with him.
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