“What about the devices Ettori used to communicate with these sites? His laptop, phone?”
“All wiped clean according to his associate. Someone hacked into them and restored them to factory settings.”
“Fuck,” I swore under my breath. “They covered their tracks. I doubt it was the Bianchis, because they needed the info off those devices to finish covering the trail that led to them.”
"Indeed. Whoever Ettori hired must’ve gotten spooked once he ended up dead. So, they covered their tracks so they wouldn’t meet the same fate. But if the sites dabbled in code, the person who took the job wouldn’t have known who Ettori Zucco was. He would’ve just been a number to them. An email to send info to, right?”
“That’s generally how it works. Especially for those who don’t give a damn who they give intel to. Then there are some who want to know who they’re working for. So, before taking a job, they do everything they can to secretly find out who the client is. If I were an intel broker, it’s what I would do.”
“So,” Terzo started. “We have two dark information hubs that Ettori contacted. But we don’t know which one he ended up using. However, whoever took the job secretly investigated their client and found out who was paying them. And when their client ended up dead, they hacked his devices, making sure nothing led back to them,” Terzo summed things up.
“Sounds about right.” I sighed. “Did you learn anything else useful?”
Terzo's expression darkened. “There’s one more thing.”
“What is it?” I asked through clenched teeth.
“Though the associate didn’t know who took the job, he did state that Ettori commented about how thorough they were.”
My stomach twisted.
"They provided Ettori with pictures of a few members of your family for him to decide which one he wanted kidnapped. It wasn’t only Marcel they stalked. He said there were also pictures of your younger brother, Cas."
I clenched my fists.
"They took photos of at least three of your family members. Tracked their locations, schedules, routines, all of their daily movements."
Every word made me angrier.
Someone had been watching my family. Watching them long enough to build a complete profile on them. And Ettori’s weak ass had gone after the one most vulnerable. The one who looked like the easier target.
My cousin hadn't just been kidnapped. He’d been stalked. He'd been hunted. His privacy had been violated. Then he’d been tortured and almost killed. It was no wonder he didn’t want to leave the house.
"What else?" I asked, voice low, dark, void of emotion.
Terzo rubbed the back of his neck. “He said Ettori showed the photos to the Bianchi don. And it was the don who chose Marcel, because he seemed the easiest to snatch.”
I stared across the room at the packed boxes as rage settled deep inside my chest. I thought about Marcel trapped inside his house. Afraid to go outside. Afraid someone was watching him.
They’d changed him from the carefree spirit he’d once been and made him someone who was afraid of his own shadow. For that, they deserved a few months in our dungeon. A few months of never-ending pain.
"Rome. Rome!"
I looked at Terzo.
He sighed. “If you need help finding these fuckers, I’ll come to the States and help you.”
Clearing my throat, I shook my head.
“You have your own things to deal with here. You still haven’t caught your cousin who betrayed Sienna and Eve.”
“Oro fucking DeLuca. Someone’s helping him evade us. The longer it takes for us to find him, the more he will suffer. But once I’m done with that, I plan to take a trip to the States.”
“You do?”
“I do. The Irish mafia has a new don in Chicago. And though there’s no chatter about him wanting to come after us or Sienna and Eve for what we did to his father and brother, I still plan to go there and end him. He has to die for the suffering he and his family caused them.”
“Careful, or your cousins will truly think you’re in love with their women,” I joked.
