Chapter 36

LUCA

The woman was fucking fearless. I had to admit, I was much more intrigued by her than I'd expected to be.

Leaving her in the bedroom to give her time to accept her new fate, I warned her again that trying to escape was not beneficial to her staying alive, then went downstairs and strode down the hall to my office where I found Enzo staring intensely at the computer monitor.

"What is it?" I asked him.

He didn't move or look up at me. "It's not possible," he said after a moment.

My gut clenched. "What's not fucking possible?"

Finally, he looked at me, and I didn't have to see the monitor to know what he had found. Without a word, I walked around my desk and sat down in my chair as Enzo jumped to his feet.

Two birth certificates were pulled up on the large monitor screen. One for a Nicole Marie Calbert and the other for Veda Lynn Calbert. Born a minute apart on the same day at the same hospital to the same parents.

For a moment, I felt nothing at all. "Why is this the first time I'm seeing this?" I knew the story, but I needed to hear it the fuck again.

"Tito was the one who saw Mario going up to the condo.”

Tito was one of my top soldiers. He’d been with me a long time. I trusted him implicitly.

“He knows someone who works in the building, and he was able to disguise himself as a maintenance man and was admitted into the woman's home to make repairs. He engaged her in conversation after seeing the ring on her finger and found out she was, in fact, engaged to Mario. She seems happy enough to blab it to anyone who'll listen. She also told him how she’d been on TV the previous day for an interview. She seemed nervous. Once he gave me the information, I confirmed her name and where she lived, and we watched the interview. Then scoped her place out ourselves, as you know. Birth records were never a part of our investigation for you."

"Maybe they fucking should have been."

Enzo had been with me for a long time. He knew better than to respond to that statement.

I took a few deep breaths, forcing down my temper enough so I could think rationally. Honestly, I didn't really blame Enzo. With the information we had gotten straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, there had been no reason to investigate her further. I didn't give a fuck about where she'd gone to grade school or where her first job was. What I cared about was taking her away from Mario. Taking something he loved. Something he would miss. And then blowing off half of her skull right in front of his fucking face and smiling as her brain matter splattered his body.

I could’ve just killed her on sight. Taken her outside and shot her in the back of the head. But that wasn’t enough for me. I wanted to see the fear in his eyes. Wanted to watch him grieve for her. Wanted to tear his fucking heart from his chest for choosing his life over loyalty to the family. Over loyalty to me. Then, and only then, would I put him out of his misery.

My pulse sped up again and blood began to pound in my ears as my hands clenched into fists on the desk. I wanted to hit something. But going off half-cocked would not fix this problem. I'd take out my anger on the punching bag in my gym later.

"What should we do with the woman?"

I sat back in my chair. There was really nothing to think about. She knew who we were. She'd seen our faces. She knew I lived on a lake. Even if I were to let her go, that was too much information. Anyone with half a brain would figure out who had taken her. And my home, the only safe place I had in this city, would be found not long after. If I was lucky, it would be the police who found me, and not Mario or the Cartel.

And if my home was infiltrated, and I happened to live through all of that, I would become a liability to the family. In jail or on the run, my father would take me out. I didn't take it personally. It was business. He couldn't be seen as weak in any way. Not even for his own son. Luigi—my father— was the main boss. It was a position he'd hung onto for the past forty-three years, and nothing as insignificant as myself would remove him from being head of the family.

So I couldn't just let her go. And that left me with only one option.

But then something else came to me. Until we found out where her sister was, Veda was the only possible card I held against Mario. At least until I found the real Nicole. They looked enough alike he wouldn’t know the difference unless he was close to her. And if I had my way, he would never get within six feet of her. My blood boiled at the thought of my brother anywhere near Veda. “She stays here. For now."

"What about the plan?"

"The plan stays the same until we find out where the actual Nicole Calbert is and how she slipped under our radar. I also need to know if Mario has been with her since Veda came here."

"Of course."

"Where is Tristan?"

"He's on his way back."

I got up from the desk and started walking toward the door. "Fill him in when he gets here, then I want the both of you to personally find Nicole Calbert. This information doesn't go any further than the three of us."

"Yes, sir."