32. Sophia

32

SOPHIA

" I fucking hate New York," Niro complains as we survey the large industrial building now acting as a storage facility.

"It's going to be a warren of corridors and shit lighting," Theo says beside me. He pulls me close to his side, his hand tangled in a fistful of my hair. We've been this way since we had sex the previous day. An intimacy you simply can't fake. "I don't want you lifting things and hurting yourself."

"I'll carry things because I don't like feeling limited. But"—I turn and kiss his cheek—"I will gratefully accept your help in carrying anything heavy."

"Good enough," he says. "I like this side of you."

"What side of me?"

"The forthright Sophia." He squeezes my hand.

Spark, Vex, Bates, and Niro flanked us on the ride. We're making a quick stop here just to see how much stuff I have and see if there is anything I need in the short term. Then we're headed on to the rehab center to meet with Dr. Polunin and her team.

Theo and I came in his truck, and I'm relieved. While he didn't make a big deal about it, he had a headache, a dizzy spell of sorts, in the shower earlier. He promised that if it wasn't gone before we left, he'd let someone else drive.

From the smile on his face a moment ago, I can tell it's passed.

"Little Sophia," says a rotund man in a tight-fitting polo shirt as he approaches us. "Alessio said you might be around." He tugs me into a grip so tight, I'm suddenly uncomfortable and reach my arms out to my side instead of wrapping them around him.

"Hands off my wife," Theo says, and I hear Niro chuckle.

I push the man away and glance over at Niro, who tips his head at Theo, mouths my wife and starts making smooching faces.

It softens the quick flare of temper I had at being manhandled.

"Apologies. Old family friend. Would normally hug the girl. Think of her like a niece." He looks down at me. "You still can't remember shit?"

Theo steps up next to me and nudges me ever so slightly behind him, placing himself between me and the stranger.

"And you are?" I ask.

"Paul Russo. Or as you used to call me, Uncle Paulie. You don't remember that, huh?"

I shake my head. "Don't remember shit."

Paulie glances at Theo. "You married a biker, Sophia. 'Course you can't remember shit. Wouldn't have married one if you could." He laughs at his own joke like he's on a TV special.

"We're here for her belongings," Theo says. "Locker?—"

"224. Yeah, I know. Helped the movers when they brought her stuff."

"Movers brought my stuff? Not my family?" I ask. I suppose it makes sense given my family is wealthy, but I find I care that they let strangers see and touch my things. It feels like a further invasion of…me. Of my privacy.

Paulie laughs. "Can you see any of the Viscusos wrinkling their suits? Yeah, movers did it. Said your place was a right state when they did it too. Would have pictured you for a neat freak."

I reach my hand for Theo. I was a neat freak. The last time I visited my apartment, everything was neat as a pin. I took photographs so I could learn the layout of my belongings.

"I'd like to see my things," I say.

Once Paulie has shown us to a large unit, he tries to hang around.

"We can take it from here," Bates says, blocking my view of Paulie.

When he disappears, I turn to Theo. "The last time I went to my apartment, it was spotless. There wasn't a thing out of place. I was a neat freak."

"You think someone went through your stuff?" Theo says.

"I'm not sure what I think, just that the mess doesn't sound like me. I just…" I glance over my shoulder to see where the others are standing. I know Niro could hear me if I speak normally, and I don't trust him with this information. I drop my voice to a whisper. "The call with Alessio. Maybe my father does know that I knew something. Do you think I could have had the evidence in my apartment?"

"We don't have time for a full search," Bates says.

I didn't hear him come up behind me. "That was a private conversation."

Bates looks at me indifferently. "It affects one of us, it affects all of us. You dragging my brother into some internal shit in La Cosa Nostra could have implications for the club. Now isn't the time for secrets."

"You're right," I admit. "I'm sorry."

Spark looks at his watch. "We have two hours. We can search through as much stuff as we can."

Theo leads us into the large storage area, and I take in my belongings. They are all out of order from how they were in my apartment. Kitchen appliances mingle with books from my living room. Clothes sit on rails covered in clear plastic.

"I don't know where to start."

"If there's possibly evidence in here that might lead you to better understand what's going on in your family and how at risk you are, we should go through it with a fine-tooth comb. It's unlikely anything is going to obviously trigger a memory," Theo says.

"Please be gentle with my things." I take a deep breath to bite down on the overwhelming feeling of panic enveloping me. "I have no idea what's important or not, but I'd hate to break or ruin things I might want to keep."

"Do we have any clue what we're looking for?" Vex asks.

"I have a feeling it's some information about Cosa Nostra business or my father. I have no clue what form it will take, but I'd look out for reports, paperwork, a laptop, maybe."

We spend the next two hours rearranging the storage space. We go one item at a time. Opening books. Digging in pockets of clothes. Poking through jewelry to see if we find any mysterious keys to a security box.

Anything.

It turns up nothing.

I start a small pile near the door of things to take to Theo's. Winter clothes. Cashmere sweaters. Some thick-soled boots and a long champagne-colored parka.

"Maybe they found what they were looking for," Niro says. "If all your stuff was already searched."

"Anything is possible," I say. "But it strikes me that if my father had found out that Alessio and I knew something, say my father was stealing from the family for example, he?—"

"Your father was stealing from the Cosa Nostra?" Spark asks.

I shake my head. "No. Well, maybe. Like, if you think it through, I held a position with financial responsibility regarding real estate. My brother told me I was looking into some financial data and was up to my neck in spreadsheets. Doesn't it make sense it was financial irregularity? Oh, but, please, you can't mention it outside of this room."

Theo squeezes my hand. "You can trust every man here."

Niro laughs. "It's like you don't even know me."

Spark throws his arm over Niro's shoulders. "Don't put yourself down. You're doing so much better."

"Can you tell that to Rae?" Niro asks.

"You tell her," Vex says.

I sit down on the now cleared sofa that had been covered with boxes. "I would have thought it would have been in here somewhere."

Theo crouches down in front of me. "It might still be. When we move your stuff into my place, we can go through it all again. But for now, we have somewhere we are meant to be. We need to go see Dr. Polunin. So, we need to shift the sofa so we can get back out through the door."

Playfully, Niro, Spark, Vex, and Bates pick the sofa up with me on it. I laugh as I fall back against it.

"Wait," Bates says. He moves his hand along the sofa. "There's a fucking switch."

They put the sofa down, and Bates drops to his knees. When he clicks the switch, I hear a thud, and a panel falls out of the back of the sofa.

"Secret panel. That's some James Bond shit, Sophia," Niro says.

My hip bothers me, and I press my palm into it to relieve the tension as I walk around the back to see what is in there.

The shelves start at the bottom of the base of the sofa and stop at sofa cushion height. There's a series of identical notebooks. Five in total.

And a laptop.

I pull one of the notebooks off the shelf. They look like detailed journals that dance between business and pleasure. The handwriting is definitely mine, even if I don't remember writing what I'm reading. There are also copies of financial ledgers.

"I saw a gym bag, an empty one, earlier. Let me see if I can find it again," Spark says.

"My phone," I say suddenly. "When I got my belongings back from the crash, they gave me all I had on me that day that was salvageable. My shoes, my driver's license, and my phone. It was dead. Had a shattered screen. I assumed it wouldn't work anymore. Vex, could you take a look at that to see if there is anything on it?"

Vex nods. "That's easy. Where is it?"

"I left it at the clubhouse in the drawer next to the bed."

Theo unwinds a key to the room from his keychain. "Feel free to grab it when you get back."

Spark hands Theo the bag and begins to slide the books into it. I give him the one from my hand, but I'm anxious to read them first before the club. Before Theo. I need a minute to digest my life before they do.

Once everything is packed up, including the clothes I piled in the corner, we leave.

"King'll want to know what we found," Spark says as he carries the bag with all my clothing.

Theo carries the one with the journals and laptop in it. "And we'll tell him, once we know if there is anything important here."

Once we're in Theo's truck, I say, "Promise me you won't let them take the laptop and journals before we've had a chance to look at them first."

"I like the way you used the word ‘we', Sparrow. We won't let them take it. I promise."