by DD Prince
“Uh, yeah---” Her voice trailed off and Romero was back on the phone.
“Ferrano? Your sister was…” he stopped and I heard what sounded like a door close, “I don’t know who, I didn’t ask many questions, but someone who took her violated her. She has not been touched since she came to me. We’ve given her medical attention but her arm is going to have a nasty scar. I gotta end this call now.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Lex,” Zack said, “Thanks man.”
“You will.” The line went dead.
My eyes moved to Zack and my blood was thundering in my veins, my ears. Violated her? To what degree? I clenched my fists. I had to put that aside for the moment, until I knew more.
“What’s the deal?”
Zack blew out a slow breath and then called up something on his laptop and tilted it towards me.
It was a candid photo of a good-looking guy with dark hair and dark eyes, maybe around Tommy’s age, maybe between us in age, dressed in a nice suit. He had a ‘don’t fuck with me’ expression on his face as he was in a doorway of a hotel or something. He was lighting a cigarette.
I needed a goddamned smoke. And to put my fist through a wall.
Zack scrolled through a few candid photos of him in various places and then hit a button and the picture slideshow shrank and there was a small amount of text below with links.
The text visible read:
Alessandro Romero: AKA Alexander “Lex” Catelli, AKA Zander Roman. Born: September 18, 1988, Morelia, Mexico.
Mother: Allegra Christina Catelli, born: March 18, 1972. Born: Cagliari, Italy. Presumed deceased. Date unknown.
Father: Pablo Alejandro “Sandro” Romero, Born: Est: 1960, date unknown, estimate: Mexico City. Presumed deceased. Date: Appx September 2014.
Knowledgebase:
Zack started talking, “Alessandro Romero’s father founded what would become one of the largest human trafficking rings in Mexico in the early eighties.
It is still known that way and now Lex runs the show. His mother was the first girl Sandro Romero kept as personal property. He married her. She was an Italian student who had been kidnapped while on a vacation. He had her six years. She escaped with their son Alessandro when he was six years old. They were found in the Spokane area and brought back when he was 15 years old. At that point, his father completely entrenched him into the business as the heir.
He is a complicated man. He’s also an ally, for reasons that are classified. Jesse Romero was his half-brother. Jesse moved to the states after their father disappeared, presumed dead.
Jesse and Lex were estranged when Jesse died. Jesse was tight with Uncle Juan Carlos. Lex was not tight with him. Sandro, the father, was known for his cruel streak. He’s the stuff nightmares are made of for girls. They tell stories about him to keep girls around there from straying after dark.”
“I know who Sandro Romero was. Heard plenty of stories; he was a sick fuck. And you know this guy, his son, well? An ally?”
“One of my guys went to high school with him for a couple years. I know him a little. A PI on my team knows him as well as Alessandro Romero allows anyone to know him. Which isn’t well.”
“And what are the chances he’ll change his mind about Holly?” I asked but already knew the answer.
“He’s put his foot down. Based on his history --- doubt it.”
“Then he gets taken out,” I said.
“No. You don’t wanna try to do that.”
“You do it,” I said, “You want my help with Kruna, you help me with Holly.”
“I can’t do that, Dario. A lot of reasons why but bottom line, he has power and he has influence. And I’ve helped with Holly. I found her for you.”
“You’re a fucking Fed out to stop the sale of women into the sex trade. What the fuck? You’ll take down Kruna but not this guy? Biggest pussy dealer in Mexico and you say he’s untouchable?”
“I need the alliance I have with him. I can’t say anything further, but even if I didn’t need him, he’s untouchable and I’ll tell you again… I am a freelance special agent, my security and investigations business is my primary gig. They pay me well to be on call and two years ago I was put on your father’s scent as part of what I do for them. They aren’t my only client and that said, I try to veer to the side of the good guy. Is this a good guy? No. But is he a guy I don’t wanna fuck with? You bet your ass he is. I have strategic associations with a lot of people, Dario. Many are criminals; present company included. And all I’m gonna say is that there are a lot of complex things happening related to the Kruna takedown as well as other ongoing projects. It’s a goddamn spider web with booby traps at every fuckin’ intersection. I’m tryin’ to help you out here but you’re on a need-to-know basis. I will see what’s what and get more information for you. But Holly Mooney might be out of scope here forward. You have to be prepared for that likelihood. At least we know what happened to her.”
I massaged my forehead, tried to tamp down my frustration, and asked, “This guy a confidential informant?”
“No. And I can’t tell you anything further about his association with me. I’m real sorry that it’s not better news. But she’s alive. He’s not one of the good guys, unfortunately. And sometimes we gotta work with the not-so-good guys to get shit done. I don’t know what else I can do other than to get Tessa back and then report Holly’s condition when I see her. All I’m doin’ with this is outside of scope beyond the project for Kruna. I’m doing this for you, using my network for you.”
“Is he a sick fuck like his old man was?” I asked, not acknowledging his words about him helping for me, suggesting our friendship was real rather than just whatever the fuck he was pretending in order to hook me into helping him with the Kruna takedown.
Zack didn’t answer me. He didn’t have to. His tight smile and carefully blank expression said it all.
I had to play it smart here. Somehow, some way, I needed to get Angel’s sister back. Without pissing off one of the most powerful human traffickers in North America, maybe the world. Or, if he wasn’t willing, we’d have to find some way of getting rid of him so we could get her back. As if we didn’t already have enough bullshit on our plates.
***
Instead of calling, I needed to see my brother in person. This conversation had to take place in person so I could try to do some damage control.
My brother was the smartest fucker I knew but to say he was hotheaded, was a massive understatement. When he found out his counselor was a fed and using whatever my brother’s confessions were to build a case against us so that we had to be their puppets, he was gonna snap.
I texted to ask if he was busy and told him I wanted to come by. He told me to head over so I drove to his house. Dex was there, handling security between Tommy’s and Pop’s houses. He was outside, conferring with two other guys, one of them my buddy, a local bookie, Killian’s little brother Will, who was twenty two and saving up to go back to school and Kill asked me to get him a job as a favor.
Will was a bodybuilder, knew how to fight, was licensed to carry, and he was reliable. I thought a lot of Killian, too, so while Will wouldn’t be a long-timer with us, he was trustworthy. And we needed that right now.
I waved at Will. “How is he?”
“Better. He’s outta the hospital.”
“Good, good. See ya later, bud.” I headed inside.
Kill had been jumped and we believed it was Denarda that’d arranged it, not knowing Kill was getting ready to leave town so was no longer bookmaking under us. Kill was opening his own chain of off-betting clubs with our blessing and help. He’d been beat up pretty bad but no long-term damage, thankfully.
It was evening and Dex told me that two guards had just driven Angel home, she had a headache, and the guards were hanging out at my condo until I got home. I texted to tell her I’d be home soon.
I found Tommy in the kitchen, sitting at a table working on somethin
g with his laptop, opened jars of olives and pickles as well as a huge hunk of salami and knife on a cutting board sitting beside him. He was eating from the jar of pickles.
“Sympathetic pregnancy cravings, man?” I joked as I took my suit jacket off and threw it on the back of the kitchen chair.
Tommy snickered and put the lid on. “Probably.”
“Just got back from Zack’s. They were pissed you didn’t show to fill out their paperwork.”
He rolled his eyes, “You hungry? Bunch of food in here. Tia’s been cookin’ all day by the looks of it.”
“Naw. I’ll eat at home. I talked to Alessandro Romero,” I told him.
That got his attention.
“He assured me Tessa is fine and she’s a peace offering to keep us from trying to get Holly away from him. He says, confidentially, that whoever got his family members out of the picture did him a favor.” I gave him a pointed look and continued, “Zack is tight-lipped about this guy but fuck, doesn’t sound good. I talked to Tess briefly. She sounded okay but he didn’t allow me to talk to her for long. He said she got violated somehow before she came into his possession but didn’t elaborate on what that meant. I’m trying to keep my cool ‘till we find out.”
Tommy took a big swig from a bottle of water, hardness in his eyes.
“We need more info on that. Leo Denarda pays for whatever happened to her, whoever did it, that’s for damn sure. Zack says Romero’s not one we wanna fuck with, but…” I said.
“I know,” Tommy said, “Heard stories. Ice cold motherfucker. No conscience. Chip off the old block.”
“Yeah man, but that’s what they say about you and it’s bullshit.”
Tommy shrugged, “Word is that his old block? Ten times worse than ours. Made Pop look like a choir boy. Sandro Romero didn’t even try to look legit. He was untouchable, like royalty down there. Fearless. Sadistic. Cruel.”
“Yeah,” I said, “but the fact that this guy intercepted Tess, reached out, did this proactively? Think Holly means something to him?”
“Possibly,” Tommy said carefully.
“She’s fuckin’ seventeen, man. Angel said she turns eighteen the day after Christmas.”
He blew out a breath.
“I don’t know what the fuck she’s been through. Angel’s come a long way but she still has a long way to go, you know? How the fuck do I tell her that her sister is in the hands of a sick fucker and that we don’t even know what that girl has endured in the past two years? We might not be able to do a damn thing about it unless we piss off a whole lotta people and put the whole family at risk? We have to fuckin’ do something about it, bro. This guy is around our age but if he’s like his father?”
I was back that day at Pop’s when we talked about rescuing Tia from the clutches of Castillo. I was insisting we not play when it was Tommy’s new fiancée. And now here I was, the other side of the argument, pleading a case and arguing that we do whatever it took to save not even my wife but my wife’s sister.
“We will,” he told me, “Don’t you worry. We’ll do whatever we have to do to make sure Angel’s little sister is all right. This is family. It’s all that matters.”
“Fuck. That’s what Pop’d say,” I thrust my hand through my hair. And then my eyes met my brother’s. “We’re both chips off that block in some ways, Tommy, but it doesn’t mean---”
“Let’s just hope the same can be said for Romero,” Tommy’s expression darkened.
“There’s something else you need to know,” I started, wincing.
“What?”
“When was the last time you talked to your counselor?”
“Before your wedding. Why?”
“He’s a fed, too. Lisa was with him during her retreat, which was more of a de-briefing by the sounds of it. Zack questioned her and that task force interrogated her. They’re gonna put her on the stand when all of this is over unless they can do it in a way to keep the Ferrano name out of it. We have a lot to talk about.”
Tommy’s lip curled.
“How much information has he gotten from you?”
“Other than that I shot our father in the head out of self-defense? That I’ve got a violent streak? Very little,” Tommy hissed acidly. “I talked in code a lot. Skirted facts, gave him information without direct admissions. But that doesn’t make a difference. That fucker has more than he should have. Dunno if patient-doctor confidentiality is a factor, probably, but still: even if it doesn’t make it into court, the info he used can be used against me in other ways. And the fucker’s gonna pay. He’s reached out three times since your wedding but I’ve ignored him. Once I knew Zack was a fed I immediately put my guard up with Oliver since Zack hooked the two of us up.”
I didn’t know what he was gonna do about this. He said he was gonna sit on the info for a bit and mull it over. We had enough shit on our plates as it was.
***
I headed back to the condo and said goodbye to the guard who met me at the elevator and gave me a run down. He had another guard outside, watching the building. Nothing out of the ordinary at home. Inside, I found Angel curled up on the sofa, asleep with her Kindle in her drooping hand, a half-eaten sandwich on a plate on the cushion beside her. I leaned over and put it on the coffee table and then lifted her up and carried her to the bedroom.
She smiled as I laid her down in bed and climbed in beside her.
“Hi,” she whispered sweetly.
I gently pulled the elastic out of her hair and watched her fiery curls tumble down around her shoulders. Fuck, but I loved her curls.
“Wanna fool around?” she asked me and chewed her bottom lip.
“Mm,” I took my blazer and tie off, “Always. But we have to talk about a few things. Maybe we oughta get that outta the way first.”
Her expression sobered. “Or let’s fool around first and then tell me the bad news? Wait…it’s not your sister, is it?”
“Tess is okay. We’re getting her back. As for the fooling around, you’re probably gonna need it in the middle of this news,” I said and her expression dropped. We both knew what that meant.
I took my shirt off and stripped down to my boxers and got into bed and pulled her close, arranging the blankets over us.
Normally, I avoided all negative talk about her triggers and her outbursts in order to deter them from happening. She knew she was under orders from me to not have meltdowns in public and her having those orders seemed to help keep her even-keeled.
But twice so far in our short time together, I ordered her to let it go in private. She’d held firm and strong so many times that I’d worried I was doing something bad in getting her to bury it.
So, I gave her a safe place where she could let it out. Where she could cry or tremble, or where I’d encourage her to tell me what she was thinking, what her bad dreams were about. She never said much about her thoughts, sometimes she opened up with vagueness. Sometimes she just cried herself to sleep tucked tight to me after begging for what she needed, whether it was sexual, spankings, cuddling.
I hoped I was doing the right thing.
Now, right now… she needed to brace and I wanted her to trust me completely. I knew there was a greater chance of earning that trust if I didn’t blindside her about shit.
“You need to come with me to Zack’s office tomorrow morning.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“The partner summit in Thailand is in a few days. He needs to brief you. They need us to go, baby.”
She nodded blankly but then lines appeared between her eyebrows as she tried to process what I was saying.
“Go?” she finally asked.
“To the partner summit. We need to go.”
She did the slowest blink I’d ever seen in my life.
Fuck.
I saw a swallow move down her throat and then she blinked again. And then a few more times. Rapidly.
“Angelbaby. I promise you, promise you, they’ll know you’re off limits. If any one of them even
think about laying a finger on you…” I felt her body rev up into a full-on tremble.
I put my arms around her and pulled her to straddling on my lap, “Hang onto me, baby. You’re safe. Talk to me.” I backed against the headboard.
She started to gasp for air. “Can’t breathe, ah---”
“I don’t want this for you. I don’t want this for us. But my baby, this could bring those fuckers down, set all those girls free. You know? And it could help us get out of the dirtiest shit Pop stuffed us in.” I ran my hand up and down her back.
She was nodding and gasping and trembling in my arms, her eyes shiny.
“Breathe, baby,” I cupped her cheek, “I put you first. You’re number one, you got me? I am taking all this shit very fuckin’ seriously. This is not what I want for our lives. But the sooner we shut this shit down, the sooner these sick fucks are out of our lives. You know?”
She was trying to nod but she was trembling so hard that her movements were jerky, erratic.
“We go, we’re there a few days, we gather information, and then we leave. In a couple months you may need to stand on a witness stand and tell the judge what happened to you. I don’t know yet how it’ll all play out because we don’t want to reveal we helped take them down but that’s to be determined and might not be in our control. But right now, we just control what we can control. We take a step at a time and you do so knowing you got me with you every single step that you take.”
She swallowed.
“Or…” I started, not premeditating what came out of my mouth at all, “Fuck it. We run. I have enough money to set us up. You tell me you can’t do it and we’ll go. We’ll disappear. Forever.”
A minute earlier I wouldn’t have thought it was possible, but she started to shake even harder. And she looked shocked. I’d fuckin’ give her anything, anything in the world she wanted.
I got her tighter against my body. I ran my hands up and down her back. She was glued against me.
“We have to stop them,” she said, her voice steady.
I was so fucking proud of her.
“We will get through this,” I promised her and she nodded and burrowed in deeper to me.
