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Thirty-Two
Damian steppedout of the hospital, feeling like a heel. He hadn’t lied — not exactly — but he’d told more than one lie of omission. The fact that it was to protect Aria hardlymattered.
She would be furious when she realized he’d left to get Gatti withouther.
And he would be leaving. Cole had called as Damian was on his way into the hospital to tell him they’d gotten confirmation from their guy in Customs that Gatti had left that afternoon on a flight to ChiangMai.
Wanting to see Aria before it got to be too late, he’d told Cole to meet him at the hospital. True to his word, he was leaning against Damian’s car when he started across the parkinglot.
“What’s the word?” Damian asked when he was still a few feetaway.
“Left on an Air Asia flight this afternoon at 3:02 p.m. If we leave within the next two hours, he’ll only be a few hours ahead of us,” Colesaid.
“And we’re sure?” Damianasked.
“We’re sure,” Cole said. “Our guy sent me a screenshot of the manifest with Gatti’s name onit.”
“Any idea what he’s going to do in Thailand?” Damianasked.
“We have a few rumors,” Cole said. “We’re running them downnow.”
Damian nodded. “Good.”
“What about Aria?” Coleasked.
Damian hesitated. He was tired of delivering bad news toCole.
Tired of delivering bad news toeveryone.
Reminding himself that it had only been six months since he was approached by Farrell to take back New York for the Syndicate did little to ease hisfrustration.
It felt like they’d been at war for alifetime.
“I need you to stay,” Damian finallysaid.
Cole sighed, ran a hand through his hair as he turned away. Damian gave him a minute. Any other time, he would have laid down the law — brother or not, Cole worked forhim.
It wasn’t Damian’s job to hold hishand.
But Cole had gone above and beyond the call of duty more than once in the past few months. He hadn’t signed onto a private security detail when he’d joined Damian in his bid for the New York territory — he’d signed on to be asoldier.
When he turned around to face Damian, his face wascomposed.
“Going to Chiang Mai alone issuicide.”
“I don’t think so,” Damiansaid.
“That's because I haven’t told you the details of some of the rumors we’re hearing on thestreet.”
“Which are?” Damianasked.
“One school of thought seems to be that Gatti is joining up with the Thai Mob,“ Colesaid.
The words rang an alarm bell in Damian’s mind. Organized crime existed all over the world. Some of it was run like the Syndicate operations and Damian’s organization before he’d joined them. Others were small-time operations, unpredictable and dangerous, but without the organization and resources to do muchdamage.
And then there were territories likeThailand.
The Thai had never been under Syndicate rule, and Damian didn’t blame the Syndicate for steering clear — when it had been run by Raneiro Donati or now that it was run by Nico, Farrell, and theothers.
