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I look between Jax and my father. “Wait? Toni is a Moretti? Like a Chicago Moretti?”
“Yes. A genuine pure blood Moretti.”
“She’s their half-sister,” Jax adds. “She moved to LA with her mom when she was fourteen. She and Dante have always stayed in touch though. The oldest brother, Lorenzo isn’t her biggest fan.”
“I had no idea she was one of them,” I say, hanging my head. “I’m so sorry, Papi.”
I keep my head bent low, too ashamed to look any of them in the eye and pick at a stray cotton on my dress while Jax squeezes my other hand in his. Then he cups my chin with his other hand, turning my face until his eyes meet mine. “You have nothing at all to be embarrassed about, angel,” he assures me.
I offer him a faint smile.
“Jax is right, sweetheart,” my mom adds.
But my father can’t let it go yet, and his anger at Jax is obvious to anyone in the room. “I trusted you to take care of her,” he barks.
“He does, Papi,” I insist. “This isn’t his fault.”
My father rolls his eyes at me but at least it stops him glaring at me.
“Do you have any idea who sent them or what they want?” I ask.
“We don’t know who it was yet, but we’ll find them, angel,” Jax says.
“And as for what they want — money? Plain and simple greed,” my father adds.
“How much?”
“Five million dollars by noon tomorrow or they upload the videos to every free porn site there is and send the stills to anywhere that will print them.”
I cover my eyes as the thought of that makes me want to throw up.
“We won’t let that happen, angel,” Jax assures me.
“Can you find out where this has come from? Take down any videos if they do get posted?” I ask him.
“I can take anything down. Hell, we can even get a legal injunction to do that. Filming people having sex without their knowledge or consent is still against the law. I can find these fuckers too…”
“But?” my father asks.
“Once something is out there, it’s out there. I can’t guarantee we’ll remove every trace of it. There are screenshots and the dark web. I could spend the rest of my fucking life hunting this down once it’s released. We need to find the source, and I can’t do that by noon tomorrow.”
“You’re saying I should pay them five million dollars? Let some piece of shit use my beautiful daughter to blackmail me?” my father growls.
“I’m saying you should buy me some time. Pay the money. I can follow its trail.”
“Always follow the money,” I say. It’s something Jax says often and he winks at me.
My father narrows his eyes at him. “Rolling over isn’t like you.”
“Yeah? Well I’ve never had someone threaten to post pictures of my wife having sex before, amigo. I’m not on my fucking A game here. I still don’t know what happened in Dallas. This could all be linked for all we know,” he snaps, rubbing his hands through his hair in frustration. “Besides, I’m not rolling over. This is the easiest way to find them. I’ll get you your money back.”
“I don’t give a shit about the money, Jax, but if we look like we’re weak. If we give in at the slightest hint of pressure.”
I fidget in my seat. This is all my fault. “I’m so sorry, Papi,” I whisper.
“You did nothing wrong,” Jax reminds me, but my father doesn’t reassure me. A few words to ease my guilt, but he refuses to say them. Jax turns back to him. “This isn’t pressure. This is your fucking daughter, amigo.”
“You think I don’t know that? But this is about more than my daughter. More than you. This is about my family’s legacy. I will not be the weak link in the fucking chain.”
