Page 80 of Daddies of the Underworld

“Could be planted.” Dante moved to my side and read over my shoulder.

“It could.” I hated agreeing with him when Nina was watching me like I held a match near dry grass. “But the mistakes are different from the planted evidence at the villa. This fits Marco’s MO much better.”

Nina stood too quickly, bumping the table with her hip. The laptop shifted, and Matteo steadied it before it slid onto the floor. She didn't seem to notice. Her eyes stayed locked on the screen. “He was alive after the theft.”

I clicked through the map I had created, following the money the best that I could. Marco had been all over. Nina sank into her chair and pressed the blanket against her stomach with both hands. “He never came for me.”

I hated that the idea hurt her so much. “We don't know what he knew. He may have thought you were dead. Or he may have believed coming near you would get you killed.”

Her brother might have betrayed her, protected her, abandoned her, and saved her life all at once, and none of us had enough facts to sort the mess out. Not yet.

My secured phone vibrated. I sat forward and picked it up. “I need to go.”

“Where?” Nina’s head snapped up. “You can't leave now.”

I read the message, confirming the details. “There's a woman who worked inside Viktor's organization. She was high enough to see payment routes. She was unwilling to talk before, but we have a new in.”

“I'm coming.” Nina started to stand again.

“No.” the word came from all three of us, and Nina’s eyes went hot enough to blister paint.

I stood before Matteo could turn even more protective. “She'll run if I bring you. She might run if she sees Dante breathing too hard, but if she recognizes you, she disappears before I can ask a single question.”

“I need answers, Luca.”

I took her hand because I could not help myself. “Let me get them without scaring her off.”

Dante came with me, which might say something about his faith in my survival instincts. Then again, it might just be Dante being Dante.

We were scheduled to meet the informant in the backroom of a closed tailor shop twenty minutes from the safe house. The owner owed Matteo enough money to hand over the keys, clear the building, and forget our faces by morning. Dante checked the alley, the front door, the roof access, and the storage room before he let me sit down.

“Do you ever get tired of being rightfully paranoid?”

He gave me a look that answered before he even opened his mouth. “No.”

“Tragic. I was hoping for some personal growth.”

Dante's earpiece crackled. “She's on her way.”

The woman who walked in was everything I expected, and nothing like what I expected. She wore a wool coat and sunglasses too large for her face despite the fact that it was almost midnight. She stopped when she saw Dante, which was exactly why I had told him to look less like an executioner and exactly why he had ignored me. The woman pulled the chair out and sat on the edge of it. “You want to know about Marco.”

“I want to know about a lot of things, but I will settle for Marco.” Her hands shook as she gripped her handbag, setting it in her lap. “Until three years ago Viktor kept him moving. He shifted him through safe houses all over Italy, places where no one asks questions as long as the rent is paid in cash.”

“Why keep him alive?”

“He was insurance.” She glanced at Dante and decided she preferred looking at me, which proved she had some survival instinct.

I leaned forward. “Explain.”

“At first, Marco thought he owed money to men who would break his bones. Viktor's people let him believe that because frightened men are easy to control. Then they showed him photos of Nina inside the villa. They told him if he copied what they asked for, she would stay untouched.”

“You said until three years ago. What happened after that?” Dante took a step forward, and the woman paled.

She rubbed her thumb back and forth over one knuckle until the skin turned red. “He saw reports, and some old photos. He realized the money was never the point. Viktor wanted the alliance weak, and he wanted Nina isolated before anyone understood what she was to you.” She opened and closed the clasp on the bag several times. “Once he realized what was happening, he took off.” Another click of the clasp on the bag and she reached inside.

Dante made a low noise in the back of his throat and the woman froze.

“I have something that I want to show you. I swear it isn't dangerous. Not to you, anyway. It would get me killed.”