Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74035 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“I didn’t know that Gray was involved with a fledgling group, headed by José Sanchez of Columbia. I found this out two days ago by digging through transactions they made with Gray. They aren’t organized yet. They’ve pulled members together, united as forces in the Columbian Army. They began as a quasi-military group but have gone on to form a rough mob of sorts. They want a foothold here in New England.”
“Okay, so… no offense or anything, Vivia?” Timeo says gently. “But you’re… a mafia princess. Where did you get all that information? How did you find this out?”
I swallow the lump in my throat and force my voice to stay strong. “I had to. Dario put his life on the line for me. You all gave me up for dead. The only reason I left Dario to go find out what I needed to know was because it was so important for me to clear my name.” I sigh before I draw in another deep breath. “And come back to Dario. So I left, and when I left, I thought about what Gray had access to. My phone. A bank account. So, I had to do whatever investigation I could with the limited time and resources I had.”
I pull out a notebook and a cell phone. “I hacked into Gray’s bank account and traced payments made from his account. I emptied my bank account and used cash to bribe people at the wharf. They were happy to talk for money. I cut off my hair and tried to keep my identity secret, which didn’t prove to be that hard. ” My voice wobbles. “The first payment hit his account the day after we had our first date.”
“You went back to the wharf where they took you,” Gloria says quietly, as if in awe of my boldness. I’m not surprised at all. No one’s ever given me much credit for anything.
“And you did this behind our backs,” Sergio clarifies. “The dating. This…man.”
“Obviously.” I don’t bother to frame my words politely. A muscle clenches in Sergio’s jaw, and Dario straightens beside me. Sergio sits back.
“You slept with him,” Timeo says quietly.
I nod. “I did. But for crying out loud, guys, there’s a lot more to this story than my deflowering, so may I continue?”
My brothers and cousins listen in silence. “I didn’t know Gray was involved with them. He paid attention to me. I thought I loved him. He used me. Asked for information about the Rossis, which should’ve been a warning to me, but I— I thought that it was sort of a celebrity thing, like he looked up to you guys and wanted to know what it was like being related.” I feel sheepish telling them, but it’s all the truth. “Like you’re all celebrities or something. I mean, people in school or work would ask questions all the time.”
“Of course they do,” Mario says with a smug grin. Gloria smacks him.
“I remembered that Dario said these people had money. He and Orlando thought they were trying to prevent the union of our family, the Montavios and yours, the Rossis. You all know that if we join forces and align ourselves with one another, we’ll be unstoppable. The most powerful organized crime family in the entire United States, if not the world.”
Sergio and Romeo look at each other and don’t respond, but Dario squeezes my shoulder again. We all know it to be true.
“Gray had us meet at a club in Boston. The very same one where Gloria and Mario caught us the night they took me into custody. I didn’t think much of it. I thought it was only a meeting place, but later I began thinking that it was more than that. So much more, because how would a group of out-of-state men even know a secret club like that existed? So I investigated.”
“When was that?” Dario asks me.
“Two nights ago.”
“You went into that club alone,” he says, his voice holding a dangerous tone.
“I had to.”
“Footage of the club,” Mario says, and all eyes go to his screen. I’m pretty confident he’s distracting them for me. Dario leans in and whispers in my ear, “Don’t you ever, ever, do anything like that again. It was way too dangerous for you to go in there alone. You’ll answer to me for that.”
A responding tingle vibrates through my body at the promise of a punishment from him. I swallow hard and pretend he hasn’t just lit my body on fire.
“Go on,” Romeo says.
“I asked around in the club and got some answers. Not only is that group dangerous and threatening, I also have it on good authority that their purpose here is to establish a new crime ring from Boston to Maine, for the direct purposes of drug trafficking and money laundering.”