Page 33 of The Bond

“Agent Jasinski, aren’t you curious about what we are willing and able to give in exchange for immunity?” Valentina asked. “You seem to know how my family operates. We wouldn’t ask for something without having something to give in return. We are fair in our business dealings.”

“Business dealings.” Agent Jasinski snorted and started muttering under his breath in agitation. “What are you offering?”

“We think we can get you the recent New York City bank bomber,” Valentina answered.

Whatever the agent had been expecting, it wasn’t that, because his eyes bugged out of his head. He was clearly stunned. “The US National Bank Bomber? The terrorist who bombed a bank in the middle of New York City and just vanished into thin air? The guy national security has been after for weeks? That guy?”

“Yes.” Valentina nodded. “We believe we can get him. And you can help us do that.”

“I didn’t know you people had started making deals with terrorists,” Jasinski said.

“We have not knowingly worked with terrorists,” she said. “That’s a line we would never knowingly cross.”

“If what you’re saying is true, how are you so sure the can FBI help?” Agent Jasinski asked.

“We think he might have been feeding you...faulty intelligence about my family,” she said. “It’s possible he’s been acting as a mole in our family for quite some time.”

“You want me to believe that we, the federal government, has been getting intelligence from a wanted terrorist and we didn’t know about it?” Agent Jasinski’s face reddened as he started fuming.

Clearly, the agent didn’t want his mistakes pointed out to him any more than Valentina’s father did.

“He’s been able to fool a lot of people for a long time,” she said. “If you share the name of this informant with us, you’ll learn that he’s the one responsible for the—”

“I see what this is,” Agent Jasinski said, cutting her off. “You want the name of our informant so that you can disappear him yourselves. He’s a thorn in your side and you’re here fishing for information that will lead to identifying him.”

“No, you have that wrong,” Valentina said firmly with a shake of her head. “We have reason to believe that he’s been coming after both of our families for some time now.”

“What do I care?” Jasinski asked.

I clenched my jaw, scowling in Jasinski’s direction. Anger boiled through me. I was getting really fucking close to being done with the smug bastard’s tone. The way he was talking to my wife pissed me off. That was when I felt a gentle hand on mine.

Glancing down at my wife’s small hand, I took note of the wedding band on her ring finger. That small, golden reminder that she was mine and I was hers. We were in this together. I didn’t need to growl every time I had to act as her attack dog. What I needed to do was trust her ability to handle the situation. I’d growl and bite when she asked for it. Jasinski was damn lucky I had married a reasonable woman with a good head on her shoulders.

I gave a slight nod in her direction. A subtle way of letting her know that I trusted her to continue. My family was in good hands and I trusted that.

“We’re not asking you to care about our wellbeing,” Valentina answered, slowly pulling her hand away. “If you won’t give us the informant’s name, then what we want is a deal.”

“How do you know this informant is our terrorist?” Agent Jasinski asked.

“Someone has been coming after both of our families,” Valentina replied. “My father was shot, Enzo and I were nearly poisoned, a De Luca car dealership was attacked the very same day of the bombing, and you must be aware of the shooting at our wedding. We have reason to believe all these attacks are connected.”

What my wife didn’t mention was the fire that her father had ordered set at the safehouse. Mostly because even now, Valentina was trying to protect her old man. Since he’d been adamant about never revealing the name of whoever he’d hired to do the job, she wanted to respect his wishes for as long as possible. If the FBI didn’t know about the fire, then her father’s secret would be safe—nobody would ever wonder if he had leaked the name of a hitman. His reputation would be intact.

Valentina and I had discussed it the night before, with me agreeing to not pushing for consequences for her father. Not because I liked the man, but because I loved his daughter. Respecting her father’s wishes was important to my wife and I’d do anything to make her happy.

“Yeah, everybody knows that some lunatic gunman shot up your wedding. We all saw it on the news. The FBI figured it was just more mafia BS. Another battle in the never-ending war between your clans,” the agent said. “But we’ve had zero intel about your father being shot.”

“My family chose to keep that confidential. For my father’s safety,” Valentina explained.

“You mean you didn’t want any mobsters coming after him when he was out of commission,” Jasinski observed. “Look, the FBI can’t go off on the word of a couple of gangsters. We have no reason to trust you. No prior relationship with either of you. Surely you see our predicament.”

“That’s understandable,” she said. “Which is why we’re going to bring him to you.”

Jasinski lifted his bushy gray eyebrows in surprise. “You’re going to bring in this supposed terrorist, whose name you still don’t know. How?”

“Leave that to us,” Valentina said.

“Let me be clear,” Jasinski said in a tone that left zero room for argument. “Even if we were to agree to an immunity deal, we cannot be privy to whatever your plans are for bringing this guy in. This is not an FBI operation. Law enforcement cannot be involved in whatever citizen arrest you’ve got going through your head, Mrs. De Luca.”