27. Luca

Chapter twenty-seven

Luca

" T ell me you found him?" I slam the door closed behind me.

"I found her ," Rafael says.

"Her? Is it Lisa like we thought?" I round my desk as Rafael stands and moves out of my way.

"No, Lisa's clean. Remember when I said it had to be someone from the office? They are the only ones who have access to the records." Rafael sets a folder down in front of me and moves to sit by Gio.

"Do not tell me it's Margaret. I won't believe it. She would be the first to tell me of any breach." I open the folder and look at the culprit's file.

"No, it's Betty, Margaret's assistant. Besides Margaret, she's the only one who has any access. As you can see in the folder, when I did a deep dive of the office employees, she came into a large sum of money six months ago."

"Do you want me to pick her up, boss?" Gio claps his hands and rubs them together in his excitement for a little fun.

I ignore Gio's question and look at Rafael. "Are you sure? Did you trace the money? We can't make a mistake on this. If we get the wrong person, that tips off the real culprit."

"I'm sure. Betty's an only child. Her parents died in a car accident when she was nineteen and she has no other blood family. Six months ago, she received an inheritance from a long-lost grandma that she swears she knew nothing about. When I followed the trail of the money, it came out of an untraceable LLC. The proof is in that folder."

I turn to Gio. "Go get her. You know where to take her."

"You got it, boss." Gio chuckles in glee as he heads out.

Taking the folder, I look at Rafael. "You're driving. I want to hear everything before Gio brings her in."

"What about Kylie?" Rafael doesn't move to follow.

I stop at the door and turn to him. "What about her?"

"Didn't you have plans with her tonight? We can hold Betty until tomorrow. I'm sure Gio and I can occupy her until then." Rafael sounds only too thrilled at the prospect.

"You can have your fun with Betty later. Kylie is just a fuck toy. She's available whenever I want. Besides, I'm already thinking about trading her in." I open the door and stare down at Rafael. "Don't worry, you and Gio can have your fun with her before I do."

As we head out, I give a chin lift to Frankie, unable to unclench my jaw in my anger. The plant will pay for this. The whole outfit will pay for this. If Rome doesn't make that happen, then I will.

When we're outside, I toss the keys to Rafael and climb into the passenger seat. "Tell me."

"It's the new bartender. He came up clean—a little too clean. So I looked into the previous bartender that he replaced. His dead body was discovered a week later in the river. The police report claims he was drunk, fell in, and drowned." Rafael looks pointedly at me.

I nod. It's a plausible explanation that wouldn't have the already overworked Chicago police itching to investigate further.

"Did this guy only place bugs in my office?"

When Rafael set up that fake scene, I asked him to mention Kylie so that I can dismiss her importance to me. If they had any plans to kidnap her, I needed them to think I was already done with her. It was the only way I could think to dissuade them from trying. I'm still battling to control my anger over implying I would share her. Like that would ever fucking happen.

"No. There's also a bug under the reservation booth. Probably to catch anything they can blackmail you with." Rafael turns at the light.

"Fuck." I run my hand through my hair in frustration. "You're sure they weren't there last night when you swiped the place?"

"I'm sure. The cameras caught a man from the cleaning crew placing the bugs. He was good." Rafael taps the steering wheel as he pauses. "My guys are following him. He's not a concern for now. I think they just paid him to plant the devices in the club."

Rafael adjusts the rearview mirror, looks at me, and nods. We're being followed. Good.

We're meeting Rome at a disposable location. We want these assholes to follow us, so that they'll see Gio bringing in "Betty" for her interrogation. The real Betty is already on her way to an all-inclusive paid vacation in Hawaii. We needed to get her out of the picture to make the enemy think we believe it's her and we've taken care of it.

"That was smart, suggesting Betty. No one knows about how I created a fake inheritance to help her through college. The timing couldn't have been more perfect to use her as the fake plant." I owe a lot to Rafael and Gio for helping to come up with the plan, and this is a prime example of why I need to bring them in as partners.

Rafael chuckles. "It really was perfect. These idiots won't look any further into it and are probably already stroking their ego's that they fooled us."

As we pull up to the warehouse, I nod at Rome's guard standing sentinel. He nods back and opens the gate to let us through.

Rome's waiting, arms crossed, outside the warehouse as we pull in. He knows we found the plant, but nothing else. He showed patience in loaning us a female guard without having the full story yet. Not that he won't demand it by the end of the night.

"Cousin." Rome nods .

I should hate that he forces acknowledgement of our blood connections, but after what Kylie said this afternoon, I can admit she may be right. I still don't want any involvement in Rome's business, but that doesn't mean I have to cut him and the others completely off. Rome's already proved he's honorable. Well, as honorable as a mafia boss can be—not that I have room to talk. I am operating an illegal sugar baby business.

"Cousin." I respond without the denial he would expect. Rome shifts his head slightly, the only tell that he's surprised by my greeting.

"Let's go inside. I'm eager to find out what you've learned."

Rafael and I follow Rome into the warehouse and to the back office where we settle in. Rafael recaps what he found and the cover story to throw the other syndicate off our trail.

"Damn, that's brilliant." Rome sits back in his chair and eyes Rafael with a glint in his eyes. "Never should have let you go."

"I wouldn't have allowed you to keep him." I remind Rome, who grins at me in response.

"My loyalty is and always will be with Luca." Rafael leans back and clasps his hands on his stomach as if he didn't just openly refuse a mob boss.

Rome sighs. "What's your plan? I know you have to have one, otherwise you would've just told me to grab this Smith guy and take care of him."

"Like you said, we have to tie him to this syndicate. You might have been able to beat a confession out of him, but I want this done right, so we don't have to go through another attempt."

He scratches his beard as he considers things. "I agree. As much as I would like to take this guy tonight, I want to end this once and for all."

"Good. Now that we've fooled them into thinking our attention is somewhere else, let's put several men on this guy. Get the proof of his connection with video and audio feed. Then you'll have permission to take down the whole outfit," I advise.

"This Smith guy will break into the Sweet Connection's office since we led him on that path. Cameras are already installed to catch him, and I've already planted the fake files. This should satisfy the dirt they're looking for to bring us all down. Then your guys follow him to his boss. It'll be your job to get the footage of his meeting with him," Rafael explains.

Rome nods his approval. "I like it. With the video proof of both the break in, the possession of the files, and his meeting connecting him to the boss, that will be enough evidence for the head of the family to approve my official take down."

"That's the plan." Rafael confirms. "This guy could attempt to break in as early as tonight after hearing our conversation, but I doubt he'll get the approval that quickly." Rafael turns to me. "We need to monitor the feed from this point on, since we can't predict when they'll make their move."

I nod, letting him know I heard him. The sooner we catch this guy, the better, but he's right, it may take a week or two.

Rome's phone pings with a notification. He reads the text and looks up with a smug smile. "Gio was followed. You both were. I assume that was your plan, since our girl is disguised as Betty?"

Rafael nods.

Rome tilts his head to Rafael. "Like I said, brilliant."

Cold satisfaction settles into my bones. It's going to be a long night and I won't be able to go home to Kylie any time soon, but at least she'll be in my bed.

Rome moves to the cabinet against the wall, revealing multiple monitors. He turns to Rafael, "Plug your computer in and open the feed from the office on here." He turns to me. "While we wait, let's play some cards."

Rafael does as Rome asks while Rome comes and sits down next to me. "You have Kylie well covered, but I want to be open with you. I have men at your residence to back your guy up." He holds his hand out, stopping me from interrupting. "She means something to you, but I'm also being smart and keeping a cop's daughter out of this."

I grit my teeth, but ultimately I can't complain Kylie has the extra coverage, so I give him a chin lift.

Rome slaps me on the back and grins. "Good. Come on, I want to find out if you've lost your touch at poker. "

Gio comes waltzing into the office, followed by a female pulling a wig off her head.

"Luca, meet Cassie." Rome waves a hand at the woman.

I dip my head to Cassie. "Thanks for helping."

"You're welcome. I'm told my compensation for doing this, I would have a chance to kick your ass at poker." She grins before moving to the table where Rome's men are gathering.

"I like her." Gio follows Cassie, staring at her ass and misses the disgruntled look she gives him over her shoulder. I can't help but chuckle despite the shit about to go down.

Rome approaches me with a drink. "What did Rafael find on Lisa?" His gaze moves to the screen as my office comes to life on the monitor. "I'm not convinced she's clean. The timing is too perfect and the guy we interrogated said they had multiple plants."

I accept the glass he offers. "I agree. Rafael has a guy on her. If she makes one wrong move, we'll get her. That makes three plants in total. We're looking into the cleaner to see how he got involved. I'll share as soon as we have all the details."

"Good." Rome downs his drink and turns to the card table. "For now, let's play."

"Give me a minute. I need to let Kylie know not to wait up for me."

"Take your time, Cousin." Rome slaps my back and moves to join the others at the poker table.

Pulling out my phone, I text Kylie and mourn the loss of her company tonight. If this wasn't so important, I'd put it off. We had one great day, and it wasn't nearly enough time. Sighing, I put the phone away and join the others.