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“Damn, I can’t believe they played me like that.” The depth of their deceit had me totally stunned.
The Finder looked at me with sympathy. “Tieri embedded himself into your life. I know you thought he was a friend.” He shook his head. “The thing is, sir, when you took out the Rosarios, he filmed and snapped photos through the whole thing. Now he’s got evidence that could put you behind bars for life. I think he would have moved on all this earlier, but once Sienna came into play, he, Stefano, and Mariano were all like dogs chasing meat on the end of a stick. She was a great distraction, and it bought me time to figure it all out.”
“And where is this evidence now?” I could barely speak, knowing that once again my enemies circled.
“Ah, you do know me, don’t you? You are right, of course. I’d never leave any threads untied.” He leaned back and crossed his legs. “He was holding the original copies in the same bank as he funneled the money. He has a safety deposit box there.” He rolled his eyes as he held up a key. “Such an amateur,” he scoffed. “The digital copies have been erased from his hard drive.”
“You don’t think there could be more copies?”
“There was one, but thanks to Niccola poking around on Rosa Coppola’s computer, he brought a file to my attention. I took care of it. If there are any more copies, I’d be surprised.”
“And if there are?” I challenged.
“In the unlikely event that something pops up, I’ll deal with it personally. Also, thanks to some software and your biker friends in California, you were attending a fight at the time of the Rosario murders. Multiple witnesses will remember you winning against Taylor the Tank from Arizona.”
A smile broke through my madness, and I remembered how all those years ago I’d seen something in The Finder and had looked after him like family since. His true value now showed itself.
“I’m sorry about Tieri, Mr. Capri, but better to know who your enemies are before they can strike at something that’s yours.” He nodded at the door to Sienna, who was watching us. I hadn’t heard the door open.
“Everything all right?” she asked cautiously.
“I brought good news,” The Finder said as he stood and buttoned his jacket. He tilted his head in respect to her. “Mariano had no such tape of you and Anna in the hot tub. It was merely another lie he told.”
“Really?” Her face lit up, along with mine. I hadn’t heard that yet.
“Yes, I coaxed that information from one of Rosa’s soldiers.” He winked. “He’d been there that day and assured me Rosa had watched but there was no filming involved. It was a lie.”
“Well, thank God for that one.” She beamed over at me, and I smiled, thinking it was one less thing to worry about.
“Perhaps,amore mio, in the future you’ll save your kills for when you’re in our own territory.” I smiled at her.
“I’ll try to remember that.” She laughed, then offered her hand to The Finder and whispered something in his ear.
“I’m still working on that,” he softly replied as he gave me a wink and a smile. I raised an eyebrow at him and briefly wondered what that was about, but my mind was already on how I was going to kill Tieri.
“Thank you.” She stepped back.
“As always, I appreciate what you bring to me. Please continue to chase the Rosa leads, and when Tieri surfaces…”
“You’ll be the first to know.” He shook my hand and left.
“Tieri?” Sienna looked up at me as she wrapped her arms around my midsection.
“Yes. I have a story for you, but first we need to catch a plane.”
I cut the power and listened for any house staff who might still be inside. All was clear. They normally left by ten when no one was home, anyway. I used Bosco’s spare key to open the side door and quickly entered the sixteen-digit code. Elio’s house had at least twelve outside cameras and one of the best security systems one could buy. Thankfully, I’d seen him enter it enough times to remember it was both Andrea and Piero’s full birth dates. The system disarmed, and I was free to roam about.
I set the keys on the table and made my way upstairs to the master bedroom. Elio was extremely meticulous with his things, especially with his beloved suits. He spent more on those damn things than most people made in a year. I slid aside the door to his walk-in closet and rolled my eyes at how everything was color coded and sorted by size.
One match and these would go up in flames. Tempting.
I remembered my purpose and moved on into the bedroom to the second closet. I opened the door and found the little snake’s belongings. I felt all around the high shelves, along the sides, hunted through her bags and drawers, but found nothing.
“Where are your journals or anything personal from Elenora?” I complained out loud and slammed the drawers closed as my frustration built. I hated not knowing. Did she know my secrets, or could I just keep my head down and continue moving through this horrible life?
I checked under the bed, the bedside tables, her vanity, his cufflink box. Anywhere that something could be hidden, I checked. I was frantic and stopped caring if things were put back properly. The staff could have made this mess, for all he knew.
Then a noise came from outside. I rushed to the window. A line of cars was coming up the road, and I felt my blood run cold.Is that them?Impossible, they had another week of their stupid tour!
