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“The squeeze?” I asked, hating the way my hands continued to shake.
“Pick a law enforcement agency and whatever acronyms you want. FBI. CIA. DEA. Hell, even Interpol wants a piece of them. With their international arms deals from Europe to South America, Giovanni and his father have been on the most wanted list for years. However, they’ve been too savvy to get themselves caught in a mess. But they’re hurting for cash. Between deals gone bad, betrayal within their ranks, and other crime syndicates gaining power, their organization has shown signs of fracture. Even the pandemic cut their resort and casino profits.”
“Where do my father and his company come into all of this?”
Maverick leaned back, folding his arms, his glare just as harsh as before.
“Your father has spent almost twenty years exploiting weaknesses and blackmailing some very influential people, and not just in Chicago. That’s just a theory, but widely known in certain circles. As you know, he also had some pretty powerful friends, men and a few women who influence more than just the bottom line in their businesses.” Gage laughed. “If Carmine Rathbone had kept his nose clean, at some point he would have become one of the most powerful people in the world.”
“Get to the point,” Maverick huffed.
Gage narrowed his eyes. “Patience, my friend. This shit needs to be made into a movie. I have it under good authority that your father has one vice.”
When he held up his index finger, locking eyes with mine, I could tell he was curious if I knew. I played out scenarios in my mind and what I knew about Giovanni’s organization. They owned several legal businesses including profitable resorts and casinos. “Gambling.”
“Very good.” Gage nodded. “The problem with your father is that he has no luck. I doubt we’ll ever learn the actual number, but he was in the red to the Butellis to the tune of millions of dollars. If you ask me, I’d say Giovanni lured him into the world of high dollar gambling. That’s just a good old sheriff’s intuition.”
I grabbed the copies of the photographs, glancing at the numbers. Now they started to make sense. “He was using investor money to fund his gambling, fucking with the very men who helped make him so powerful.” When I looked up, Gage was grinning.
Maverick was still fuming.
“Yup. Like I said, we won’t know how much and while it might be chump change to the Butellis, Giovanni saw it as an opportunity to infuse more than capital into the syndicate.”
“He leveraged Carmine’s entire business against him,” Maverick added. “Then he could put pressure on those who were squeezing his family.”
I was still confused, my mind fuzzy in trying to put the pieces together. “Why was I part of the bargain?”
Maverick snorted, picking up the codicil my mother had added. “Because he figured out that Carmine didn’t have the controlling shares. That left you as the only possible candidate.” He handed it to Gage who couldn’t keep from widening his grin. “Notice the corporation name.”
“Let me guess. If I look this up, eventually the trail will lead to your mother.”
Nodding, I couldn’t believe the lengths my father had gone to.
“Maybe I should be a betting man,” Gage said in passing as he picked through the information we’d found.
“The company’s value has already dropped. I’d discovered that a few months ago. I’m certain the investors had a feeling something was going on behind their backs. With the exchange of the shares, the stocks would jump at least at first after I had control.” I’d paid enough attention to my father’s company to know how volatile the situation had been through the years. He used friends as investors, promising and delivering tremendous success. With his failure, their businesses could crumble as well. “And with me taking control, the men who invested in his company would take a huge fall.”
“Only if you were twenty-five and had the power could Giovanni control what you did with them. That’s what he wanted. That’s what he was led to believe or somehow discovered.” Maverick growled under his breath. “The man was playing your father for control of an empire.”
“Well, then Butelli is a brilliant businessman,” Gage said. “But everyone underestimated your mother. Congratulations, Amelie. You’re a wealthy woman.”
“I couldn’t care less about money. I just want my father destroyed.”
He glanced at the pictures again. “What you have is enough to incriminate your father for several crimes but up to this point Giovanni hasn’t been officially tied to any crime. The contract is unscrupulous, but from what you’ve told me, it could be perfectly legal.”
“What about Bruno’s escape?” Maverick asked.
Gage shrugging. “I’ve going to venture a guess since I haven’t heard dick about anyone from the Butelli organization being arrested for aiding a fugitive, that Giovanni dangled a huge carrot to Bruno without offering much support.”
“He expected the man to be hunted down.”
“What about my mother’s murder?” I demanded, inching closer to Gage’s desk. When he shared another look with Maverick, I lost my temper. “You don’t seem to understand what I’ve lived through over the years, the worry and certainty that the man whose sperm allowed me to be born was responsible for murdering my mother in cold blood over greed and lust for power. I was treated like a piece of trash, while he was forced to deal with me because of his desire to find the shares of stock my mother had hidden away.”
They shared another look and I wanted to scream.
“Your mother died in a car accident. Before you jump, I managed to find the accident report. She was in a vehicular incident with another car. There was no investigation to see if it was anything but accidental. There’s no way after all these years we’ll be able to find anything.”
Goddamn it. I closed my eyes, trying to keep from becoming emotional. “How did Giovanni know about Missoula? How did he have any idea Candy and Mark existed?”
