“Rewind that,” I demanded. “Pause it!” I pointed at the man wearing a catering uniform who was about to walk past the podium. “Watch him.”
Max pressed play, and just like I’d seen before, the caterer brushed past one of the decorative lighting pillars and bent slightly. His hand dipped low and out of sight. Max paused it and zoomed in on his hand. It wasn’t a clear image, but he was definitely pressing or placing something at the base of the column hidden under the decorative silks.
“Could he be activating the explosive?”
“It’s possible.”
Max let the feed keep rolling, showing the caterer walking briskly away.
Four things happened in the next forty-three seconds before the explosion. I made Max rewind it each time to double-check that I wasn’t mistaken. After the caterer walked away, Callum looked up at the lighting rig with a smile. Second, Sani noticed him doing this and appeared alarmed. He started moving towards the stage, towards mypapi, and towards the unknown bomb. At the same time, the caterer nudged past Callum, and they exchanged eye contact. And finally, once the explosion occurred, it was clear everyone was flung backward except Callum. He was underneath the sturdy table that had been holding the champagne tower as if he had known it was coming and ducked just in time.
“That caterer activated the bomb and was the one who used the burner phone to detonate it once he was well away. We just need to prove it,” Max growled. He closed the feeds and pulled up the cell tower data for the city. “Fuck, look at that.”
He pointed out the blue-marked area of the burner phone that had been used when the explosion detonated. It covered half of the roof, the side where Callum and the caterer were standing, but not where Santino was.
I smiled, my eyes wide. “Is it enough?”
“It’s enough to cause doubt and possibly get him released on bail. But we needmore.”
“And here it fucking is,” Nero chuckled at his laptop screen, causing us all to pause. “I’ve just pulled up Boss’ construction company procurement records, and an order was placed for pickup at midnight the night before by a subcontracted firm linked to one of D'Ardenzi’s manufacturing allies. The load was signed out of the warehouse using a temporary VPN tunnel named ‘consultant access’ but was deleted hours after the explosion. Our port manager didn’t sign it out. Callum did. Or at least someone working for him.”
“Print that off,” Max ordered. “Raya? Anything on the detectives?”
She pulled out a few pictures of Detective Morelli at a club snorting cocaine off a stripper’s stomach and threw them on the table.
“Anything else?”
Raya smirked and slid a falsified police report towards us.
“Perfecto.”
“Can you do face recognition on the caterer?” I asked, and Max’s eyes lit up. He zoomed in on the clearest shot and ran it through Sani’s system of known criminals.
It matched a man called ‘Rigorati Netalli’. Nero began to frantically investigate his background. “Born in Venice. Was a low-ranking Leone soldier back in the day.”
Max dragged his hand down his face. “Sani was right.”
“So what do we do now? Do we take all of this to the police? Use one of our corrupt officers to get it to the detectives?” Cami asked, and Max sighed.
“We gather evidence that raises questions, yes. But we can’t incriminate Callum. Sani will want to handle him himself, and he’ll be pissed off if we get D'Ardenzi arrested.”
“Even if it gets him out?” I argued, placing my hands on my hips.
“Especially if it gets him out. He’ll want D'Ardenzi’s blood.”
I exhaled the tension from my body because, in truth, I agreed. After what Callum had tried to do to mypapí,Sani, and me with Damiano, he didn’t deserve to rot in a cell. He deserved whatever my husband had planned for him.
“I’m going to the station,” I announced, making them all look my way. “Don’t try to stop me. The police will want my statement and to question me anyway.”
“Not arguing. I’ll inform our lawyers so someone can meet you there. But are you certain you want to do this? Bribing a law enforcer is a crime,” Max said, gathering all the printed evidence into a file.
“Do you doubt my abilities or my lack of morals?” I raised my eyebrow with sass, and Max scoffed.
“Already one of us, I see.”
I opened the door to the sound of men groaning and whimpering in agony.I froze, taking in the scene before me. Three men were tied to the chairs, blood pouring out of various wounds on their bodies and faces as Buccini soldiers took it in turns to beat the shit out of them. Giovanni was standing in front of them with his arms folded over his chest and a bored look on his face. He turned when he heard us all filtering out of the room.
“When did you get here?” Max asked.
