I smiled, feeling grateful for her sincerity. “Thank you, it’s nice to see you.”
“Oh good, and thanks I thought it might be a little better having me here. The guys tend to get a little annoying.” Ava chuckled, her bright green eyes sparkled. She walked in and sat beside me. “I brought some food and treats. I didn’t know if you had any friends around that would come over to cheer you up.”
Friends …
People used that word so loosely. There was a time when I had a host of people I called friends, but they weren’t. There were girls who wanted to know me, because of my connections with Luc and Claudius. Girls who wanted to know me, because they thought it would increase their chances of getting with a mafia guy, and those girls who just were bitches.
“No, I don’t really have any friends as such.” Saying it that way didn’t sound so bad, not like I was such a loser.
She looked me over and gave me a little smile. “Well, thank goodness I came by. And less friends means we can pig out on all of this.” She held up the bag which I now saw had all sorts of chocolate goodies.
I actually laughed. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. As you can tell I have a sweet tooth. I think I may gain twenty pounds after the baby comes.”
“After?” Most people gained weight with the baby.
“Yeah, my friend makes the most amazing cupcakes and I know I’m going to indulge. Now and after.”
I had to laugh. “Those sound like amazing cupcakes.”
Ava nodded and her ponytail bobbled. “Yes. I’ll bring some next time. Some for you, and Flynn … maybe twice the amount for me and baby.”
“How far along are you?”
“Fourteen weeks.” She grinned. “Fourteen weeks of Claudius going crazy and pampering me like I’m in a glass ball that’ll break if someone breathes the wrong way. The other day at the restaurant he was trying to set my office up on the main floor. I stumbled on the stairs the other week and it freaked him out.”
I chuckled even though the mention of the stairs reminded me that my husband had actually pushed me down the stairs.
“It sounds like he’s taking good care of you.”
“He is. Um, the other girls wanted to come by too. I mean with me, but I thought as you’d met me already it would be best if I came by myself.”
Others? I guess that meant Luc’s wife was in the mix, Amelia—my replacement.
I didn’t care anymore. It didn’t affect me, because to be replaced you had to belong to someone in the first place. It was never really that with me and Luc. That was truth.
In just the short time I’d been with Dante I’d experienced so much. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that he wanted to be with me. My problem was that I was stubborn.
“Thanks, I’m happy you came. It would be good to see them next time. Meet them properly.”
Her smile widened. “It’ll be fun. I have to say though that of everyone I eat the most. I’m a chef. I can’t help it. Food is my weakness.”
I looked at her and liked her.
She was Claudius’ wife. It was weird as she seemed so normal and not the kind of woman I’d see Claudius with.
Extremely beautiful for sure. It was the personality though. I could imagine it to be like the angel and the demon, but it worked.
“I like food too.”
She laughed, lifted the bag and emptied out the contents on to the sofa.
A host of chocolate came out.
“Pretty isn’t it.”
“It is a thing of beauty.”
“Good. Well, if I remember correctly you wanted to speak to me about a job. I hear you have quite the experience in the restaurant business. I’m looking for a manager for the new branch of Delizioso. It’s opening at the end of the summer.”
“Manager?” My interest piqued.
“Yes. I need someone responsible and caring. Someone street smart and quirky. Someone who likes food.”
I’d never thought about myself as managing anything, but this sounded right up my field. “I like food.”
“That’s the biggest part of the criteria met. How about you tell me how much you like food while we wait for our guys to come home.”
She looked at me like she could tell I was worried.
I brought my hands together to stop them from trembling. She reached over and gave my hand a gentle squeeze.
“My guy is with your guy and if it’s one thing I know they always have each other’s back. We help them however we can. Even if it’s as simple as not worrying. Capisce?”
“Capisce.”
I nodded appreciating her advice.
Not worrying would help, especially when I had Franco to give me enough of a heart attack already.
Dante was looking into something that could solve Christina’s murder. The least I could do was be supportive and not lose myself in worries of the past.
Maybe we’d know the truth soon.
Chapter 23
Dante
Well this was different to how I came to this place last time.
The Crowthorne Society however looked the very same. Same elaborate structure of grand archways attached to a beautiful châteaux style mansion and acres of lush land surrounding it.
Last time I was on my bike and I’d practically been snooping to see as much as I could of Christina and Donny Manello.
This time felt like I’d been given the chance to spend the day on set of a film like Mission Impossible. Just for the fact that while Claudius and Marcus had gone inside the regular way, Gio and me were dressed up in overalls under the guise of men from the electric company. Alex was on surveillance with two of the guys from our tech team.
Very elaborate set up we had going on here.
The goal was to cause some sort of distraction with Claudius and Marcus ordering lunch and tea while we got to working on the actual mission. There were ways of walking into a place and taking what we wanted. It didn’t always mean we had to go in guns blazing with death in our eyes.
We would only do that when absolutely necessary. It wasn’t an option when it prevented us from having enough time to get what we came here for.
Claudius and Marcus were acting as the decoy. They would be the massive distraction to throw off the Antonellas.
I could imagine them up there in the restaurant and the manager at the very least knowing they were enemies to the Antonellas. Knowing and wondering what in the hell they were doing there.
It sent a seriously big message that we were up to something.
This place was somewhere none of them had really been to before, and definitely not to eat.
I could imagine them calling around to report it, but who to exactly? Well that would be some kind of mystery and something to definitely be interested in. Barabbas was seen just last year. Maybe they would report it to him and he’d march down here in all his glory to find out why they were here.
Gio and I had on disguises along with the overalls. We both wore caps, the standard kind guys from the electricity company would wear. I, however, had a moustache and beard to cover my face. Gio had on thick rimmed glasses and had even shaved off his beard.
He actually looked so different without facial hair that it may have been enough of a disguise by itself.
The secret squad did a really good job figuring out the layout of the place. We knew that there was one guy in the security office located in the basement watching the CCTV. There were six guards on site. Four custodians that took care of the interior, and two managers on site at all times. One took care of the restaurant while the other took care of the function halls and the events.
The area we needed to focus on was the basement area near the security office. They had an archives department that held all the records we needed.
Our fake ID passes got us in with no problems, and the manager escorted us down here to the electrical room.
Alex was screwing with the CCTV. When he gave the signal to move on to the Archi
ves room, we headed there quickly.
The good thing about this place was the doors were unlocked. The security at Crowthorne was so tight that anyone on the grounds or inside the building were all vetted to the highest degree. Especially people working on the premises. If we were anyone else there would have been no way that we would have made it inside so easily.
Gio opened the door to the Archives room. We had to be careful here. We weren’t authorized to be here. Alex would tell us if he saw someone coming, but past experience taught me to keep watch myself and stay on alert even with the backup of surveillance.
Things could always go wrong.
“Where should we start?” I asked Gio while looking at the many, many rows of shelves.
We were after video files and record books.
“How about you start with the video files? I will look for the books.” Gio answered.
I nodded it was a good idea to split up the search. The faster we could get out the better. I hoped for this to be a simple grab and go job.
The minute we were done, Alex would let Claudius know and they would leave too.
I left Gio and moved to the section with all the video files. Whoever took care of this place had to be one of those overly organized, perfectionists who had to have everything a certain way. Everything was labeled. The video recordings were all labeled by date and there was a file cabinet for every year going back to 1999.
I guessed they probably didn’t do much in the way of surveillance before that. CCTV wasn’t exactly popular these days. I guessed that the Antonellas would have been very possibly the first people to get it.
I needed to find the 2008 files. That was all I was interested in except maybe a year or so prior to that and possibly the year after. I planned to grab as much as I could depending on how the files were stored.
I made my way down the line of cabinets until I found the one for 2008. I opened it and frowned when I saw that the thing was fucking empty, the whole thing. There were four drawers, each with trays for memory sticks that should have held the recordings.
I decided to look in the cabinet next to it for 2007, however that was empty too. I must have gotten to 2003 before I stopped and got a bad feeling, because fuck 2003 had all the video memory sticks. Following that feeling I went to 2009 and found that cabinet to be the same.
2003 and 2009 had files. All the years in between however had nothing. All empty.
What the fuck did it mean?
Gio came around to me, face contorted into a frown.
“There’s no files. No books from 2004 to 2008,” he said, and that confirmed the nagging feeling I’d gotten.
I balled my fists and punched out at the air. “They’ve been removed. Damn it, they’ve been removed Gio.” I stared at him as the feeling in my gut deepened. Shit. I didn’t fucking believe in coincidences, particularly the ones like this. No one could tell me this was just some random occurrence that the files we happened to be looking for were missing. No one could convince me of shit like that. Someone knew we might come here. How? Did we have a rat in our house again? No it wasn’t that. wasn’t that. “They’ve been moved on purpose Gio.” I nodded.
“I think so too.” Gio scowled. “Let’s get out of here. If they knew we could come here, they’ll be on the lookout. Claudius and Marcus up there will confirm it.”
I tapped my microphone to speak to Alex. “Alex get them out now. We’ll meet back at the office. There’s nothing here.”
“Nothing at all?” Alex asked.
“Nothing.”
* * *
We got back to the office, meeting there as a team.
Claudius and Marcus were the last to arrive. Claudius looked seriously pissed.
“Dante, how the fuck could there be nothing?” he asked.
“The years 2004-2008 were all gone; every single record book and video. There was nothing there at all. Everything else was there though, but we needed 2008.”
Claudius looked at Marcus.
“They were being careful, someone was taking precautions.” Marcus surmised.
“How’d they know we’d go there?” Alex huffed sitting forward in his chair. “Crowthorne isn’t a place we would normally go to.”
“They thought it would be though.” Gio stated.
I nodded in complete agreement. “They absolutely fucking did. Whether it was a just in case or a direct attempt to take the evidence away, someone had thought we’d visit and look around at Crowthorne.”
“So maybe they know you’re looking into Christina’s murder,” Claudius added. “Wouldn’t take much to figure out if you knew there was some kind of a link. Yesterday …” his voice trailed off as he smiled.
I was already there, at that thought. I’d told them what had happened yesterday with that creepy guy.
“Claudius that guy from yesterday. He’s the only person that I’ve seen in both those places; the charity and Crowthorne.”
“That fucker was practically running.” Gio added.
“He was the driver of the car that took Christina to Crowthorne with Donny Manello. He was in her office arguing about something when I saw them.” I thought deeper to the questions I’d asked Jerry Chase. “Maybe he spoke to Jerry Chase, the manager at Help The Homeless. I’d asked if Christina got the chance to work on any government events.”
“I’ll bet he did speak to Jerry.” Gio frowned. “From just the sight of us he’d know who you were, and the fact that you mentioned the government events could have hinted at the real reason why we were there.”
Fuck, it had to be that.
“Maybe it’s him,” Alex stated.
“Maybe it is,” Claudius said. “I don’t think so though. Doesn’t fit with what Gibbs said. You never said this guy was anybody important. Remember the person we’re looking for is exactly that. Anyone could be helping them. Maybe he helped.”
I sighed. “Yeah. It just feels like we’re going around in circles.”
“Nah, man. This wasn’t a damn circle. Not at all. You may not have found any records we could use, but it’s what wasn’t there that tells us what we need to know. 2004- 2008, those were significant years for obvious reasons. We know that the person who either took the records or was given orders to take them thought so too. They knew we were coming. That is no circle Dante. It means we’re getting close.”
My gaze snapped up to meet his, really close. Until now I’d been so far away from finding answers that I couldn’t see it from that angle.
“Close.” I nodded.
“I’ll get the secret squad on to that guy.” Gio nodded. “ He’s definitely a link. I feel it in my gut.”
Claudius nodded. “Me too, and remember we could be looking for two people. Dante, I suggest you get on to matching up the names with what you found yesterday. It could help narrow down something.”
“On it.” I felt bad, because I should have done that last night. I was with Maria instead.
“From here on, we leave no stone unturned. Anything you find, even if it doesn’t seem important check it out.”
I looked at him and was reminded of years ago when I’d last gone to Christina’s office before she died. Claudius had offered to come with me back then and here he was now helping in the biggest way possible.
“Thank you, Claudius and all of you.”
“Stop saying thanks man.” Gio smirked. “It’s what we do, it’s what any of us would do. You would do it too if it was for any of us.”
Claudius smiled wider. “Guess I’m not that much of an L.A. punk after all right?”
I chuckled. He remembered what I’d said all those years ago. Sometimes I still couldn’t believe I spoke to him the way I did and lived.
“Get on it boys,” Marcus ordered. “We don’t know what other factors we may have to take into consideration with today’s visit.”
He was definitely right about that, and I was sure as shit that the manager would have called Barabbas and told him the Morientz’s were d
rinking tea at the Crowthorne.
He definitely wouldn’t like that.
Chapter 24
Dante
* * *
I spent the rest of the day with Alex and Gio going through the names. I would give them a name and they would try matching it against the list of initials Vinny had sent.
All day, all damn day and nothing. Not even one match to the list of names on my fundraiser list.
No matches led me to believe one of two things.
The first was that the people on the fundraiser list didn’t have anything to do with the people on the list Vinny sent. The second was that maybe there was some involvement, but it was through someone else. There were possible surname matches, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself and start guessing.
It did however seem that we might have to at some point. Like making an educated guess and inferring what was missing.
That was me taking into account what I felt could have happened.
I went to the bar later. The guys came along and helped out downstairs while I stayed in my office.
It was one of my normal nights to work, I just didn’t feel like it. I wasn’t in the mood to go down and mingle with the people. Honestly I just wanted to get shit done, like the signing off on everyone’s timesheets so they could get paid, and doing balance sheets from the last few nights. I wanted to get all that done and fast so I could get home to Maria.
Home to Maria. It had such a good ring to it. Home to Maria and Flynn. I’d promised him I would watch Pokémon with him. Apparently, it was his second favorite now and I hadn’t really lived until I saw Pikachu jump out of his Pokeball.
I smiled to myself, it was weird hearing a four year old talk like that. I loved it. I absolutely loved that I was warming up to him so well, like he really was mine.
Maria though would have me warming up to anything, or anyone. I didn’t know if that was a good thing though. It showed she had control over me. Control was something I never gave away to anyone before. It was however always there with her.
Stolen Kisses Page 17
