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My heart beats wildly against my ribs. “Who is she?”
Chase points a remote at one of the main monitors on the wall. An image of a young woman fills the screen. She looks to be about twenty with dark-brown hair and eyes—as innocent-looking as can be.
“Gianna Russo,” Chase says. “Nineteen years of age. Graduated grade school four years early—a bonafide prodigy. Super-senior at Colorado State University finishing her second major in computer science with an emphasis on system security. First major under her belt—pre-med. Top of her class and considered brilliant by her professors.
“Gianna has direct ties to Tom and Bianchi. She and Tom have the same major. She was in a different computer coding class across the hall from Tom’s when he was shot, but she was out of sight of cameras. Aside from sharing the same major, they worked together at—get this—Bianchi’s Italiano Restaurante.”
My chest rises and falls rapidly. This is it. We finally have her. “Tom said he use to work at an Italian restaurant—we should have known it may have been Bianchi’s.”
“But we wouldn’t have known our hacker worked there,” Gauge interjects. “Having those two under Bianchi’s thumb made them easy pickings. Pretty Paolo probably learned Tom was a runner, and that’s why he recruited him for the trail detail. But why wouldn’t Bianchi ask Tom to be his hacker too? Fewer people involved means less mess to clean up later.”
“My thought exactly,” Chase says. “I did some more digging, focusing on Gianna’s last name. The Russo family has some deep ties to the mob world. Lorenzo wasn’t recruiting a temporary hacker—he wanted someone morepermanent. Hence, he recruited someone already in the family. Maybe the girl wanted in, maybe not. That we can’t answer until we have her in our custody.”
We have a name, now we need to grab her and bring her in for questioning. “Not a word of this to anyone. We handle this and get it all on tape. I don’t want a hair harmed on her head—nothing to come back and bite us in the ass. Bring everyone in aside from Tom’s detail. I need Tony’s insight—he may have intel on the Russo family.”
My brothers nod, agreeing with me. I look at Chase. “Find her location, and we’ll set the trap. I want this done tonight under the cover of darkness.”
Chase nods and gets to work with his team. Gauge calls in the troops as I strategize for the takedown.
* * *
Fifteen minutes later, Tony comes skidding into our tech room. “I came as soon as Gauge told me about Gianna. What do you want to know?”
“Everything,” I admit.
Tony nods. “Good kid. Daughter of Nico and Francesca Russo. Has a little brother named Michele. Nico has done a lot to separate himself from the mob, but his family history doesn’t exactly allow him to cut ties. He moved his family out of Denver to Fort Collins to create some distance from the main family, and he owns the butcher shop off of Main Street. Lorenzo rarely called on Nico for favors, but Nico never said no to the boss, fearing for his family.”
I fold my arms over my barrel chest, absorbing the hacker’s background. “Would he have called on Nico when he learned his daughter was going to school for computer science?”
Tony shakes his head. “Nico never said no to Bianchi, but his family came first. He would have moved them into hiding long before handing over his daughter. My guess, Lorenzo approached Gianna directly at the restaurant, and knowing Lorenzo, it wasn’t a request.”
What Tony says makes sense. “Did you know Tom worked at the restaurant?”
Again, Tony shakes his head. “I never was in the restaurant unless I had to notify the boss of bad dealings in the casino. I was his muscle downstairs and wasn’t allowed to show my face above. Bianchi preferred to keep me as his dirty surprise. But I knew Gianna worked there from her pop—he’s my butcher and has the bestprosciutto.”
Gauge rubs his jaw. “Why the double major? I mean, I get she’s smart, but the two don’t correlate.”
“Her dad wanted her to have a respectable job, something to get her out of Colorado and away from the family line of business. Gianna only did pre-med to appease her parents. Her passion is computers and has been since she was a kid. She’s smart, too fucking smart if you ask me. She was able to argue she was too young to go to medical school when she completed her first major, and was able to negotiate completing another major until she was comfortable pursuing a medical degree.”
Chase groans and sinks into his office chair. “Smart enough to avoid us, but still leave a breadcrumb trail? Something doesn’t add up.”
I agree with Chase. Gianna is young, but if she’s as intelligent as everyone keeps saying, she would have covered her trail. We have enough to connect her to all systems hacked. A person who didn’t want to be caught wouldn’t be this careless.
I grit my teeth and look at Tony. “You believe she was forced into this work?”
Tony gives me a deadpan look. “Nobody willingly works for Lorenzo. You’re either in because of family ties, you’re desperate, or you have a few screws loose. For crying out loud, I joined the marines to get the fuck out of the family, and as soon as I was back home, they sucked me back in—me being banished was the best thing that happened to me. This girl is a good kid. I’d bet my life savings she was threatened. Maybe he was leveraging her family against her.”
Gauge rubs at his jaw. “Why would she be our shooter?”
“Honestly,” Tony says, “Bianchi couldn’t send one of his own men onto the campus without it tying back to him if it went south. A student who is in the same building in similar classes as Tom was the perfect cover. She probably got a lot of hell from Bianchi for failing the attempt, but he had to realize she had no experience as a made-woman.”
I run my hand down my face. “If she’s our shooter, she could be facing jail time for attempted manslaughter.” I feel a twinge of guilt about bringing her in, but justice is needed and we need answers.
Tony swallows and nods his head gravely. “I understand. I wish it didn’t have to be like this, but I get it.”
Chase leans back in his seat. “What do you want to do here, Prez?”
“We bring her in tonight. Find where she lives if she doesn’t live with her family,” I order.
