“So, Colton, if I remember correctly, you’re next in line for the title. It would’ve been yours had your parents not disappeared.”
“Cool, where’s Gia?”
“Gia? How do you….?”
“We’re trying to find her. The Russo family got in touch.”
“Oh yes, Eloise, that’s how we came to be here. Colt saw a picture of Gia and thought it was me or his daughter. Did I show my grandbabies?” Ma took out the purse-sized phone I’d got her when she kept losing the normal size ones everybody else uses. She and her daughter-in-law bitched and moaned until I got her a new one; now she complains it’s too big.
“Ma, we’re talking here. So, you haven’t seen Gia?”
“No, did you say, Russo? Bless them; they’re still looking. I’ve been so crossed with her. At first, I was worried, scared even. She hasn’t had the best life since my daughter passed and her father…. Oh, we’ll leave that for another time. Anyway, I was so worried until I got a call from her months later, and then nothing. Two years she’s been gone, and each day I wait for the doorbell to ring or the next phone call.”
I looked over at Mancini and the others who hadn’t said a word in the time we’ve been here. No way am I leaving Elena and the pothead alone here, no matter how friendly the atmosphere, so I made a split decision in my head. This squad wants me to lead them then they can deal with my mercurial moods.
“Is there a place here where my men and I can set up? We don’t have a lot of time; we need to find Gia.”
“Oh yes, Jasper, come in here, please.” The butler, who looked like he was a hundred and ten, shuffled into the room. “Ma’am.”
“Have the others make the east wing ready for these young men, Elena and Daniel, you’ll stay here with me; we have lots to catch up on.”
“Of course!” Now Elena has manners. Any other time I have to beg her not to cut up in front of my kids.
MANCINI
We’re getting nowhere. In the hours since Lyon had commandeered this wing of the house for us to set up shop, we’ve been plugging away. First, we had to make sure the place was secure, which the SEALs took care of while the rest of us set up our equipment. I’d been keeping in touch with Draco in Sicily, accepting the fact that we weren’t quick enough to stop the kid from going.
As to be expected, Draco wasn’t sharing much about what his son was up to, but it was enough to know that the boy wasn’t planning to commit patricide right away. While the others both here and back on the island were trying to find Gia, I was trying to put together a picture of Gabe Russo in my head. The kid’s an enigma, a true genius for sure, but with some added elements hardly ever seen in one so young.
“Someone from the Ricci family just died. They’re announcing it now in Sicily.” Quinn, who was still on the Fratelli woman, was in charge of gathering an everyday report of the goings-on in Italy. I’d contemplated having someone on the ground in Palermo, but with Draco there, there’s no need. I don’t think anyone wants to save his son more than him, so I have no qualms about leaving it in his hands.
"Anything else on that?"
"Not yet; I just got a ding on the name; I'll keep you posted."
Out of nowhere, Colt, who’d been spinning round and round in his chair gazing out the window at the horses in the paddock, called out. “Name! What’s Russo’s mother’s maiden name?” He jumped up from his chair and walked over to a computer.
“It’s Antonelli!” Draco had finally come clean with the fact that he now had his father-in-law stashed away in his home during one of our conversations.
“And Gia’s mother’s name is Adrienne.” He typed in the name, but nothing happened. “Let’s say we spell Adrian the American way and not the French way. Put it together, and what have we here?” By now, all the others had come over to join us.
“Oh, shit, I think this is her. Are there any pics?” I felt my excitement rise.
“No! She just popped up in some obscure landing in Alaska. Who dafuq lives in Alaska?”
“Not now, Colt!” I read over his shoulder while the others turned to their own devices to start digging.
“Seems like the right age and everything but nothing else to go on.”
“Yeah, but that place, places like that aren’t easy to come by. It says here that the land out there cost a pretty penny. Even if they’re mostly living off the grid.”
“I’m not surprised. Her mother left her a shit ton of money so she could move around as much as she wants. She can live off the grid if she wants to; she doesn’t have to work a day in her life.”