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I glanced at the file again, wishing I had the time to take photos of all the pages, but I had no time, so I scooped up the entire folder. I tucked it beneath an arm and rushed from the office, leaving the door slightly ajar as it had been when I’d entered. I charged down the steps and toward my bag. I had just enough time to haphazardly shove the file inside and stand before a man rounded the corner. Something in my chest loosened when I saw it wasn’t Virgil, but his intimidating expression and the gun tucked into a holster at his hip had me veering out of his way and making my way back into the kitchen. Adam glanced at me for a moment before getting back to work.
I thought I was in the clear as the man went into Virgil’s office and stayed there for a few minutes. When he strode back downstairs and glanced at us, I paused. “Can I help you?” I asked.
“Mr. Lucchese sent me to retrieve a file from his desk, and I can’t seem to find it. Has anyone else come in for it in the last hour?” he asked.
My heart skipped a beat, but I forced myself to calm my breathing as I furrowed my brows. “I don’t think anyone has been here since Mr. Lucchese left, but we’ve been distracted, so we could’ve missed something.” I shook my head and glanced at Adam. “Have you seen anyone?”
He shook his head. “Nope, just us.”
I looked back at the tall, intimidating man before me. “I can go and look if you want a second set of eyes,” I offered.
He nodded, and I wondered if that was suspicion I saw in his eyes or if I was seeing things. There would be no reason for him to be suspicious, I decided. I was being paranoid, and there was no reason to feel that way, even as he nodded and I followed him back up the stairs from where I’d come.
“What exactly am I looking for?” I asked as we approached the office.
“A manilla folder labeled 1284,” he said. I hadn’t looked at the label on the folder I’d stolen, but I somehow knew it was the one he searched for. I also knew that the folder was barely tucked away into my bag, and if he looked hard enough, he’d find it.
I acted as if I was searching through the other folders in his cabinet, but my mind lingered on the man on the other side of the room, staring at me intently.
I finally turned back to him and shook my head. “I’m sorry, I don’t see anything either. Maybe someone else already came and got it.”
“Maybe,” he said, leaning into the doorframe and staring at me.
“If I see it lying around somewhere while I’m working, I can call Mr. Lucchese and tell him that I found it. When does he need it?”
“Now.”
The man’s clipped tone had my fear spiking. I intentionally acted oblivious and pursed my lips. “I’ll keep an eye out.”
I strode out of the room and down the stairs, eyeing my bag beside the stairs. I hadn’t tucked away the file nearly as thoroughly as I thought I had. The papers still hung loosely from my bag, and I tried to angle my body in a way to hide the evidence. When I reached the bottom of the stairwell, I turned and glanced at the man behind me. He looked at me, then at the bag, then back at me. Shit.
“Let us know if you find anything,” he said, walking past me without a single moment of hesitation. He left the house, closing the door forcefully behind him.
I continued staring in his direction for a long moment before I turned and hid the evidence in my bag more thoroughly and took a deep breath. If he had suspected something, he would have said it outright, wouldn’t he? Maybe he didn’t notice the file. Maybe I was being paranoid. Or maybe I was just playing a far too dangerous game.
23
CARLO
“This is a load of fucking bullshit,” Louis said, swirling a glass of whiskey in front of him before downing it all in one long draw.
“This is all there is,” Tommy said, shaking his head. “I’m still going through all the files to see if I can find anything more definitive, but the listening device can only pick up things when he’s talking.”
He played the audio file again, and we all leaned in, listening intently to each of the words Virgil spoke.
“They’re in place and ready to strike when we give word.”
“Who is it, and why hasn’t he already struck?”
“Nobody can know, but we’re prepared to utilize the advantage soon. If we haven’t made headway in the next few weeks, I’ll give the order to strike down all of them.”
“Who the hell is he talking to?” Frankie asked.
“I think the more important question is who he’s talkingabout,” I countered, shaking my head. “If they have someone in place to strike us down and nobody knows the identity of the person aside from Virgil, we’re in a dangerous predicament. He could be using this as a fear tactic because he doesn’t know what to do next, but I believe he’s being honest.”
Nobody said anything more as we all simultaneously considered what this meant and the implications of it. Sierra had done a lot by placing the device, and she did even more by handing over a file of names. Frankie assured her that we’d take care of it the best we could, but there was little we could do without risking our asses. If we interfered in their businesses, they’d have every right to interfere in ours.
We didn’t support human trafficking, and we sure as hell never used it to increase profits in our own businesses; but if we interfered, we’d make more enemies than we could handle right now. Louis of course had disagreed, claiming he’d take out the ring of traffickers himself if we gave him the information. He’d always been the most adamant about taking out all forms of the skin trade, but the way he rushed into situations with a hot head would get him killed if we let it.
