“Same here.”
“This is Brian Anderson,” said Dominic, pointing toward the man on Viggo’s right. “He’s Merrick’s brother.” Of course he was. He could be his twin. “He’s head of an outfit called Anderson Security. On the surface, they do private security for businesses. Behind all that, they do private security and other functions for those in need of more than police or WITSEC protection.”
She tried not to react when he said WITSEC, but she was sure she had. Any lingering doubt she’d still had this morning that he’d somehow found out she and her mother were in the program was officially gone for good.
“Your mother now has a twenty-four hour tail from my people,” said Brian, “and I assure you she will never know about it.”
“Thank you.” She didn’t know what else to say. This was overwhelming. Dominic hadn’t been kidding when he’d said he’d take care of it, but how would this solve anything long term? Her status had been compromised. Not voicing it aloud didn’t make it any less true.
Dominic pointed toward the other man. “This is Oscar Velez. He works for Viggo doing IT and security. I’ve told him the story I’m about to tell you, and he along with Brian, are going to use their resources to dig deeper than I can. We have a few people to find, once and for all.”
He pointed toward her plate when she said nothing. “Eat, and drink lots of coffee. This is going to be a long day.”
Her appetite was gone, but she did as he said because she had to do something or she’d simply start screaming and not be able to stop.
“My real name isn’t Dominic Greco.”
She dropped her fork.
“It’s Antonio Trapani.”
Trapani … she knew that name, but why? Dominic Greco wasn’t his real name? What the fuck? Was he also in WITSEC?
“The man we saw last night is my cousin, Gene. I’m certain of it. Up until last night, I thought he was dead.” Dominic leaned back and ran his hand through his hair. “Let me start at the beginning.”
She picked up her fork, but there was no way she could eat anything now. Instead, she put it down again and wrapped her hands around the coffee mug, trying to draw warmth from it.
“My grandfather, Mario, had three sons. Giuseppe, Pietro, and Alberto. Alberto was my real father. Giuseppe fathered Gene, and Pietro fathered Leo. Your father, Frank Rossi, and your uncles, Mike and Danny, worked with my cousins and my uncles. They were unofficially part of the Trapani family.”
No! This can’t be happening! Angela stood so fast her chair toppled over. “How long have you known this?”
He stood, too, and took her hands. “Days only. I didn’t say anything because the moment the truth is out of your mouth, you’re compromised. I will not place you in that position.”
“But you know! What difference does it make who says it out loud?”
“These men are going to track down any remaining members of the Trapani family. Once they’re gone, you and your mother are no longer in danger.”
“Are you in danger from them, too?”
“Yes.”
“Then why haven’t you done this before?”
He sighed out loud. “I thought I was safe. I found no evidence that any of them were out of jail or alive. I’ve covered my tracks for eighteen years.”
“Why now, then?”
He gave her a curious look. “Because you’re involved. Angela, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“All these years you’ve had this hanging over your head? What about your company?”
“Viggo and I talked about trying to find them before, but we decided that the fewer people who knew, the better. We always knew this might become our only option one day, and now that day is here.”
Her mind reeled. “I’m confused.”
Dominic kissed her gently. “I know you are. Please sit back down and let me explain all of it.”
“But now everyone here knows about me and my mother. I need to call my—”
He put a finger on her lips and shook his head. “Don’t say it. Just listen first. Do you trust me?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then listen to this story. Please.”
She nodded, and sent up a silent prayer that she wouldn’t regret trusting him. This was her worst nightmare come true.
“Your father and your uncles stiffed Mario on a deal. They tried to take off with all the money and flee to South America.”
Angela frowned. Snippets of conversation came back to her from her childhood, but she couldn’t quite remember them. “When was this?”
“You would have been about eight.”
Right before they moved to San Francisco. This wasn’t possible. Dominic actually knew her family. If what he said was true, and her father and uncles had tried to take off with money they were supposed to have given to his family, that meant he was part of the family looking for her and her mother. So why was he in danger?
Angela stared at him, not sure if she should run or slap him. “You told me that you’re one of them. You’re part of the Trapani family.”
“No. I’m not. I haven’t been for a long time. Please let me explain.”
She watched him carefully now, ready to run if need be. She’d leave this apartment and go to her mother’s house, and then she’d call her WITSEC inspector, like she should have done last night.
“When your father and uncles took off with all the money, my cousin Leo was supposed to kill them. Before that could happen, your father and uncles went to the FBI. Leo took off for Europe, and Gene turned to Mario for advice.”
She swallowed hard as a fleeting memory of her parents talking late into the night downstairs with a man and a woman whose voices she didn’t recognize came back to her, but she couldn’t recall any of the conversation. They’d kept their voices hushed, but she did hear enough to know her mother had cried through most of the conversation. Had that conversation been with her father and uncles, or with the FBI?
“Mario wanted me to kill them. He wanted me to make my bones.”
“What?” she whispered. She couldn’t have heard him right.
“My grandfather was tired of my staying out of the family business. I wanted no part of it, and made my intentions clear at every turn. I was twenty-three years old and already writing complex code and building computers. When I refused, he went ballistic, so I left, but no one really leaves a crime family, Angela.”
She didn’t say anything. She merely watched his face. He was telling the truth, and suddenly so many things he’d said and done since she’d met him made sense. She wasn’t in danger from him, but she was in danger from his family. She always had been.
“I had already built up friendships with the other Weathermen, and I sought Viggo’s help. These types of situations are his specialty. He lived in Los Angeles, so that’s where I went. He helped me build a new identity and hide the legitimate money I’d earned and inherited. I built my company and stayed ten steps ahead of my family who were actively looking for me.”
No wonder he never looked for them before. He’d been too busy keeping them at bay.
“You’re originally from Chicago, then.”
He nodded. “Yes. The same as you.”
“When you said that woman tried to hurt you and your company five years ago, did that have something to do with your real family?”
“Yes, but let me tell you this in chronological order to help you understand it. When The Madeline Project was compromised in 2117, Viggo and I didn’t wait to move our operations underground. We knew what was coming. Things were so confusing then. It took over a year for everyone who was still alive to move underground. Because of the storms, data was lost, either electronically because servers were destroyed and the backups failed, or in paper form. People disappeared, meaning there was no data on where they were.”
“So you thought that your family—your real family—were dead.”
“Most of them, yes. I knew Leo was in a federal prison and he stil
l is, but not in this city. I kept track of your father and uncles, too.”
Goosebumps broke out along her arms. “Where are they?”
“In prison.”
She let out the breath she’d been holding, until she noticed he had averted his gaze as he answered. He continued talking, so she saved the other questions for a later time.
“I don’t like to think I was lazy, only complacent after so many years, but don’t mistake that for ignorance. I kept track of them all, looking for clues online in the databases I had gained access to. When I needed extra help, I turned to Viggo. He’s the only other Weatherman who knows the truth.”
She knew what it felt like to live a lie. She had a fake name, too. She’d been looking over her shoulder since their move from Chicago to San Francisco, and then again since their move underground. Surely someone who had gone through what he had would never betray her. He knew what was at stake.
But how had he discovered her true identity? “Is this why the doors to your office are metal?”
He smiled. “Yes. I had actually intended to do that to all of them, but then decided it wasn’t cost-effective. I spent so much time at work I figured if anyone were to find me, that’s where they’d look first.”
“What about all those names you rattled off the first day? Are they fake, too?”
“Only ‘Dominic’ and ‘Greco’ are assumed names. Antonio Paul John Matthew Trapani is my birth name.”
She nodded. “So what happened with the woman?”
His shoulders slumped a bit, and she couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. “Becca Stowe worked in my accounting department, and she blindsided me. In retrospect I should have seen her true nature from day one. I was dazzled. When I didn’t want what she did from the relationship, she used her connections at the FBI to get too close to the truth about me.”
Angela hugged herself. Was it really that easy for someone to uncover a wiped-out identity? “Why did she go looking in that direction to begin with?”
“I fucked up in a moment of weakness. I said too many things about crime families and hiding from them, and she zeroed in on that. It took me and Viggo some late nights planting a false trail that had Antonio reappearing again, this time under Eurasia.”
“We found evidence that suggested Dominic’s uncle Giuseppe was alive and might have been in touch with someone Becca knew,” said Viggo. “This friend of Becca’s worked for the FBI, and she wasn’t averse to selling valuable information. So we threw Giuseppe off the trail, just in case.”
“Is your uncle still alive?”
Viggo grinned. “That’s one of the things we’re going to find out.”
“We should have been more thorough a long time ago,” said Dominic. “The stakes have changed.” He took her hands, and she tried not to flinch. This was all so confusing, and talk about being blindsided. He’d been living under a false identity as long as she had.
“It’s not only me and my company in danger now. You and your mother have been drawn into this, and I can’t have that.” He lifted her hands to his lips and kissed the back of them, and her heart melted at the gesture.
No matter what name he used, the person inside was the same, just as she was still Angela Rossi inside. He didn’t hold it against her that she’d kept her past from him, so didn’t he deserve the same consideration from her? He was hiding from a crime family who would kill him if they found him. Who could understand that better than she could?
“I can’t have the woman I love living a life like this anymore. We’re going to find these people, and then we’re going to make sure they can never hurt anyone again, so we can all be free of this forever.”
She glanced at the other two men in the room. Both of them looked as confident as Dominic’s voice implied. Then she looked into Dominic’s eyes again, desperate to believe he could truly pull this off.
Chapter Eighteen
Dominic called Merrick and then Trish, asking them to let the rest of the team know that he and Angela would be working from his apartment for the entire week but they could both be reached at any time.
Then he took Angela to her apartment and asked her to pack up most of her things. “I don’t want you to have to return here for anything until we settle this. I can’t keep you safe unless you’re with me.”
She hadn’t spent one night in the place for almost a month as it was, so she didn’t protest, but she was too quiet as she worked. He was worried about her. The last thing he’d wanted to do was give her more to be afraid of, and that’s exactly what had happened.
He watched her carefully all week as she worked from his apartment. She did what she needed to do, but her mind wasn’t on the work as much as it normally was. Not that he could blame her. They sat on the balcony outside his bedroom as much as possible, and that seemed to help her focus better. She wasn’t as visibly anxious when they took those short breaks.
This particular balcony had no direct line of sight to another building as tall as this one for a quarter of a mile, so he knew they wouldn’t be seen. The remaining three sides of the apartment had balconies that faced other buildings, so he didn’t want to take a chance on sitting outside any of them right now.
She told him she felt claustrophobic being indoors even though his apartment was over three thousand square feet. Dominic understood what she meant. He’d felt that way for eighteen years. Looking over your shoulder while walking down a street was still not as bad as feeling like you could never leave your own home without danger lurking at every step. She’d been living this way since she was eight years old, but it didn’t sound to him like she’d ever come face to face with a situation like this before. Neither had he. This changed everything.
They made love in the evenings, and he didn’t wear a condom now. She also didn’t ask him to wear one, but they hadn’t really discussed marriage or children again. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to ask her, but he didn’t want to do it under these circumstances. He wanted her to be free to live with him as his wife, without a constant threat hanging over their heads.
There was one more thing Dominic wanted to do to prove to Angela he was serious about spending his life with her and starting a family of their own, but he had to get out of the apartment to take care of it.
Viggo called Friday morning and told Dominic he was close to having the information he needed. Dominic took advantage of the situation and asked Viggo to come over and work at his place. That way, he could stay with Angela for a short time while Dominic ran an errand. Viggo didn’t even ask what errand. He was at Dominic’s apartment in half an hour. Dominic knew Viggo would keep her safe for the short time he’d be gone.
“Brian has men at both entrances,” said Viggo, “and they almost didn’t let me through.”
Dominic smiled. “Glad to know they’re doing their job. I won’t be long.”
“Take your time. I’ll enjoy being alone with Angela.”
He winked, but Dominic gave him a dark glance. He and Viggo had been friends a long time and he knew Viggo wouldn’t actually try anything, but he was short on humor these days. He gave Angela the excuse that he needed to run over to the office for a mess of a situation with another department that had to be dealt with in person. She wouldn’t have any reason to think he was lying, but he hoped his tiny fib would be forgiven once this mess was behind them forever.
****
Angela was restless, even with Viggo right there, working on his own laptop, next to her. They were in one of the rooms of the apartment that Dominic barely used. It had originally been set up as a media room until he decided to turn a different room into one instead.
As a consequence, this room still boasted a great sound system and a big screen TV. It also had a wall of windows that let in plenty of fake sunlight, and that helped her feel less closed in. They didn’t have the TV on while they worked, but they did have on music. It gave her mind something to concentrate on as background noise instead of her own thoughts as she worked.
>
The team was complete now, and they had plenty of work to do, searching for machine IDs. They’d identified several dozen already between the teams that were in place. Angela had her own to look for, but the majority of her time was still occupied by tweaking the database and making sure everyone on the team was doing what she and Dominic needed them to do.
She glanced over at Viggo, frowning as he typed. He’d known Dominic since college because he’d done his undergraduate work at Northwestern, where Dominic had also done his. He’d helped the man create a new identity, and hide his money so his family couldn’t get their hands on it. If anyone could find Dominic’s real family, he could.
She wondered if they’d be able to find her father and uncles as easily. Dominic had told her they were in jail, but if they’d gone to the FBI about Dominic’s family all those years ago, why hadn’t they gone into witness protection as well? Did Viggo know why? She’d asked Dominic earlier this week, but he’d averted his gaze and told her he wasn’t sure. She didn’t want him keeping things from her any longer. They were in this together now.
Viggo looked up, as if sensing her watching him. “You okay? You need something?”
“I have some questions.”
He leaned back in his chair. “Okay.”
She asked him what she’d been wondering about, and as expected, the look on his face that told her he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say.
“Viggo, I don’t feel comfortable being kept in the dark anymore. This is just as much my problem as it is Dominic’s.”
“I agree with you that this affects you both.”
The men were loyal to each other. She’d give them that much. “Why wouldn’t my father ad uncles have gone into witness protection when they ratted out Dominic’s family?”
Viggo looked really uncomfortable now, but she didn’t care. This was ripping her apart inside. “I don’t know. There could have been dozens of reasons, beginning with the fact it might not have been offered to them.”
The Price of Secrecy Page 13
