34. Vinnie

34

VINNIE

“W ait. Do you know?”

“You feel like making a deal, Austin?”

“Am I dealing with the grandson of Mario Bianchi? Or with the man who loves my daughter?”

“The two are one and the same,” I tell him. “We can have this talk if you like, but I need your guarantee that it doesn’t leave this room. That there’s no surveillance system recording us.”

He frowns. “I can’t guarantee that.”

I rise from my squatting position and head toward the office door. “Then I suppose we’re done here.”

“No. I don’t want to be done.” He rises. “Come with me.”

We leave his office, and together we walk out the front door.

“I need to check with my driver and my bodyguard,” I say.

“They’re in the car?”

“Yes. The air conditioning is on. They’re fine.”

“They’re not dogs, Vinnie. They’re people. They can wait in the house if you like.”

I shrug. “This is what they’re used to. Trust me that the car is comfortable. But thank you for the offer.”

He leads me to a small bench off the porch of the house. “We can speak freely here.” He pulls out his phone. “See? Not recording anything.”

“All right,” I say. I take a deep breath in before continuing. “Here’s the deal. I want to know who Brick Latham was. And why he’s no longer alive.”

He gazes out onto his land. “I didn’t find out about his connections until after Raven already met with him. When I found out that she had a date with him?—”

“And you found that out because you’re having her watched, correct?”

He snaps his head back at me, his eyes fiery. “I’m not going to keep defending myself for that. My wife doesn’t know about it, and I’d like to keep it that way. But after what went down eight years ago…”

“Right.” I’m still not sure I believe him about all of that. I think he had another reason for wanting Falcon in prison, but I’m just not sure what it is. “You don’t need to go through all of that again. I get it.”

“Right. So this Latham, he spent a lot of time with Raven that day here at the house. They worked on the setup for her nonprofit that she wants to start.”

“Right. I know all about that. A worthy endeavor.”

“Yeah, it is. A great idea for her. Because he spent so much time here, I looked into it.”

“Isn’t he with a firm that you do business with?”

“He is. Turns out he’s a bit…unethical, according to his partners. They’ve been trying to figure out a way to oust him for years.”

“Okay.” I press my lips together. “That doesn’t explain why you got involved.”

“No, it doesn’t. I did some research. Probably similar to the research you did when you found out about my infractions when I was a minor.”

Interesting. So Austin Bellamy is no stranger to the dark web. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“What did you find out?”

“He came into some money about five years ago. It was laundered through a dry cleaner in Austin.”

I nod slowly. “So I can understand that you wouldn’t want your daughter dating a money launderer. But I’m still not sure why?—”

“I’m not finished,” he says. “He’s used the money to pay people off. No less than eight women have accused him of rape.”

Chills run through me.

“So you can see my dilemma,” he says.

“Yes, I do.”

“I don’t go around ordering the deaths of people,” he says. “This is only the second time I’ve ever done it.”

“Who did you have offed the first time?”

“I don’t think that’s any of your business, Mr. Gallo.”

He’s right. It’s probably not. Unless it was Diego Vega, but I’m still pretty sure Austin doesn’t know anything about that.

“I couldn’t let my daughter get into that.”

“So you arranged to have her out of the house—with me—and your wife and you were also out of the house.”

“That’s correct. Alibis all around.”

“Then why didn’t you go into Raven’s room as soon as you got home? It would’ve made your alibis cleaner.”

“For the same reason you would’ve done the same thing. My wife had to be the one to find him. It couldn’t be me.”

“And you knew she would check on Raven in the morning.”

“Exactly.”

I’m not sure whether to have respect for the man or contempt. Why would he put his wife through finding a dead body in his daughter’s bed when he could have done all of this miles away from here?

That’s pretty cold.

But Austin Bellamy had his reasons, I’m sure. It was in his best interest to have it done at his house. In a way, it made him look even more innocent.

“All right. You should know, though, that my grandfather’s on to you.”

He scoffs. “I’m not afraid of Mario Bianchi.”

“You should be,” I tell him. “I believe you’re a good man. I believe you do bad things sometimes to protect those you love. I get that. But Mario Bianchi? He’s not a good man. Whatever good he had inside him was erased long ago. He knows what happened, and if he wanted to, he could expose you.”

He crosses his arms. “Then you and I need to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“You’re right. We do.” I lean in, lowering my voice. “I plan to take him down, but my plan was always to do that in my own time. I want to protect my mother, my sister, myself. And now Raven. I didn’t know I was going to have to protect you and your wife too.”

He shakes his head. “I can protect my wife just fine. I’ve done it for the last thirty years.”

“I don’t think my grandfather’s any threat to you.” I look into his eyes. “But just be aware that he knows. If the day comes when he needs to use it as leverage or needs a favor from you, he won’t hesitate.”

“I can’t imagine why your grandfather would ever need anything from me.”

“You’d be surprised.”

“That may or may not be, but for now, Vinnie, we had a deal.” He grits his teeth. “Tell me who shot that cop, because I know it wasn’t my son.”

I don’t know Austin Bellamy well yet, but I do know that he will protect his children.

As long as it serves his own interests.

I believe he could have kept Falcon out of prison, which is why I’m not going to level with him now.

I open my mouth to say as much when my phone buzzes.

It’s Raven.

“I’m so sorry, I have to take this.”

I stand and walk out of earshot from Austin.

“Raven?” I say into the phone.

“Vinnie, I know you don’t want to hear from me, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to.”

“Is my mother okay?”

“Yes, she’s fine. Savannah’s in with her. And your grandfather is still here. But your mother has some other visitors.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. Declan McAllister, and his daughter.”

Shit. “Raven, you know?—”

“That’s not what this is about, Vinnie. I know you’re not going to marry her. Or maybe you will someday. Who knows? My concern isn’t about that. It’s for the little girl. I think her father is… He’s hurting her, Vinnie.”

Fuck. Belinda must be getting desperate if she told Raven—a stranger—what’s going on. “What makes you think that?”

“I offered to take her to get a drink while her father talked to your grandfather and went to see your mother.”

“I don’t want that degenerate anywhere near my mother.”

“Yeah, I can understand that. Anyway, she was so timid, and frankly I was surprised he let her go with Jared and me. But he did, and she didn’t want to go back to him. She wanted to hang out with me for a little while. She didn’t talk much at first, just told me how much she likes playing the piano.”

I sigh. “I know about this, Raven. I’m trying to figure out how to deal with it.”

“You know?”

“Yes. I had lunch with McAllister and his daughter a couple days ago. She slipped me a note asking for help. And then I talked to the nanny later and she told me about her father hurting her.”

“What are you doing about it?”

“I haven’t been able to do anything about it. I’m supposed to be in Colombia right now. And once my mother’s out of danger, I know my grandfather’s going to want me back on that plane.”

“You can’t get on the plane, Vinnie.”

“Raven, I’m not going to have a choice.”

“This is the woman you’re supposed to marry.” Her voice is pleading. “You can’t just let her stay in harm’s way.”

“First of all, Raven, she’s not a woman. She’s a little girl. And I’m not going to marry her. I hate this as much as you do. But there’s one thing I know about this family that I’ve been so fortunate enough to be born into,” I say sarcastically. “He may be hurting her, but he’ll make sure she stays a virgin. That’s part of the deal.”

“Great, so he’s not fucking her. There are a lot of other things he could be doing to her.”

I pause a moment. “I know that. Did you see any bruises on her?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“What was she dressed in?”

“Some kind of party dress. The girl is eleven, but I swear he dresses her to look like she’s six.”

“Yeah, I know.” I run my hands through my hair. “It’s beyond disturbing. I wish we could help her. I really do. The fact that he’s hurting her makes me ache inside. But her life isn’t in danger, Raven. Her virginity isn’t in danger.”

“I can’t even believe you’re saying these things, Vinnie.” She starts crying. “How did I ever think I loved you?”

Those words cut into my heart like a knife.

But I can use them to my advantage. For Raven’s protection, she needs to stay away from me. And if she hates me? That will make it all the easier.

The idea of making her hate me breaks my heart. I love her so much. I know she loves me too. But if I let her see a side of me that she doesn’t like…

Perhaps she’ll at least stay away.

“Raven,” I say, “it’s not my problem.”

I hear her gasp, and then she ends the call abruptly.

I feel like a fucking heel. I ache for that little girl as much as she does. And I will find a way to help her, but I think it’s better if Raven thinks I won’t.

She’s seeing that I may not be the man she thinks I am. And although she’s wrong, letting her think that will work in my favor. At least for now.

I shove my phone in my pocket and go back to Austin.

“Is your mother okay?” he asks me.

Of course. He thought the call was about my mother. He has no idea it was his own daughter on the other end of the line.

“She’s not good,” I lie. “I should be getting back to her.”

“We have an understanding then?”

“Yes. No one will hear anything from me about Brick Latham.” The world is better off without one more rapist and money launderer. I’m just grateful that Raven didn’t end up in his clutches.

“Good. And you have something to tell me?”

I pause a moment.

Cobra.

I haven’t brought up the name on purpose. Now that I know that Bellamy was behind Latham’s demise, I know something else as well. He knows more than he’s letting on about what happened years ago.

And Diego Vega.

Only my father, my grandfather, and Vega knew about that nickname for me, and it’s not something Bellamy would have found on the dark web.

Which means…

“Later,” I say. “My mother takes precedence.”