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He gave me a smirk, looking over at me. "And you don't."
"Did he tell you that!" I yelped, starting to get annoyed but then getting crushed with a wave of sadness.
He caught the look, letting the smirk fall. "So how is Janie's Reign of Terror going?"
I fought the smile when I realized he used the same name that I made up in my head. "So... Marco isn't just a cop. I mean he is a cop. He went to the academy and everything. But he's something else too."
"And that is?" Repo prompted, pouring the contents of the bowl into the pan and pushing it around as it sizzled.
"He's an Abruzzo."
"The mob?" Repo stiffened, turning toward me fully.
I pressed my lips together.
See... we already had our mob in the area. We had the Grassis in Navesink Bank who had a restaurant and ran the docks, most especially the black market shit that came through the docks. And then there were the De Lucas in New York who had their hands in everything as well as a bar that they named Lam. Yeah, as in 'on the lam'. The head of the family, Vin, had a serious 'fuck you' attitude toward authority.
But if a third family was on the rise...
"Aren't they supposed to be out in fucking Long Island?"
"Guess they are... branching out?"
"Do you think Wolf is personal? That they are after our gun trade?"
"Mix that food. I'm not picky, but I prefer it wasn't burnt," I said and he turned to mix. "Honestly, I don't know. I don't know enough about the Abruzzo family. I don't think anyone does. They are small. I think they ran girls out in Long Island. Prostitutes, not skin trade."
"But that's the Third Street gang's gig around here. Why not target them?"
"Repo... I have no fucking idea. All I know is Marco, whenever he recovers from the beating he took last night, is still a wild card. The best I can do is expose his link to the Abruzzo family. He changed his name like ten years back, way before he joined the academy. But they might give him the benefit of the doubt. You can't help what family you're born into."
"Know what I'd like?" Repo asked, turning off the heat under the pan and going to the fridge to grab a bag of grated mozzerella cheese to pour over the scramble.
"What?"
"To have one year, hell one... month that everything isn't a giant clusterfuck."
I felt myself smile as he plated the food and held mine out toward me. "You chose the wrong profession if you wanted a tame life, Repo."
He snorted, grabbing forks, then lifting himself up on the counter a few feet from me. "So what now?"
"Now I forward that info on his new blood to Collings. Let him dig around, report it, whatever. I'm sure the whole force is feeling the heat. Besides, him getting his ass handed to him might point them toward thinking it was some mob turf bullshit. Then we wait and see if Collings lost the boot evidence."
"I refuse to believe you'll sit on your hands until maybe something happens."
He was right. I wasn't that kind of girl.
"I might be making a visit to the Grassis today. See if I can get a meeting with the old man or Luca or Matteo."
"Always good to get that ball rolling. If they don't already know about the Abruzzos moving in, they'll appreciate the intel. They'll be worried about their control of the docks."
We fell into sporadic conversation, just easing the silence of the early morning as we ate and downed too much coffee. He was right, his breakfast scramble was amazing. And after my second helping, I told him so.
Sometime around seven, Reign rolled in looking wide awake with a drowsy looking Summer in toe. At my questioning look, she made a growling sound, rolling her eyes at Reign's back. "He barely needs any sleep. It's obnoxious," she declared.
"Told you to sleep in, babe," he shrugged, pouring two cups of coffee, one black and one with milk, sugar, and some caramel syrup he pulled out of a cabinet. He handed Summer the fancy coffee and drank his. "So I called the station and talked to a very frazzled-sounding Detective Collings," Reign said with a smile, picking at the food on my plate with his fingers until I pushed it at him.
"And?"
"And they're moving Wolf to county today. They had a warrant they carried out at Wolf's last night. Doubt they found anything."
"There was nothing to find," I assured him.
"If he gets settled in, we should be able to go visit him in three days. That's the next visiting day."
I felt my heart fall at that. I couldn't face him in a jail. I couldn't stomach seeing him in orange and chains. I had no worries for his safety in there because, well, he could crush heads with his pinkie fingers. But the idea of talking to him through a glass? Yeah, no. That would not stand.
"I have to go," I declared, jumping to my feet and running up the stairs to throw on something appropriate before running back down stairs to get in my car.
The Grassi family owned the docks as well as the upscale seafood restaurant that overlooked them. Famiglia was a raised dark blue building with an enormous wrap around deck sitting on stilts right out of the water. I walked toward the side staircase and climbed, noting the three late-model luxury cars parked outside. The restaurant may have been closed, but the family was in.
"Closed," the huge specimen to muscle-bound male perfection wrapped in a nice black suit that was Famiglia's version of a security guard told me.
"Janie from Hailstorm. I need to talk to the Grassis about the Abruzzos being in town."
I got the tiniest of brow lifts at that and he nodded and moved inside.
And, well, I wasn't waiting for an invitation.
I grabbed the door and let myself inside, seeing the security guard shake his head as he turned away from the table where the Grassi family was sitting.
