Chapter Thirty-One
Tristan
I open the door and smile when I see Alfonse standing on the other side.
He marches into my house the same way Pa would and has a stern expression on his face. He’s been edgy since yesterday.
The edginess skipped over me and I’ve been filled with rage.
“Must you boys head out again?” Alfonse asks.
“Yeah. We need to,” I reply.
“Do you really think it’s a good idea to go separating yourselves? I certainly don’t,” he states.
We’ve had this conversation before. If he knew who were going back to he’d understand better, but since we’ve kept Isabella a secret to most it’s understandable why he’d be worried about us.
“Alfonse, I have to. It’s important.”
“That’s what you keep telling me. You do realize you guys could have been wiped out yesterday right? All three of you gone like your father and brother. Everything gone in minutes.”
“I know,” I shuffle my weight from one foot to the other and stare back at him. I don’t have much time. Our flight leaves in an hour. “Don’t worry about us Alfonse. There are important things we need to take care of. Things that can’t be left.”
“Isn’t it more important to find out what’s going on here?” he throws back.
“It’s Mortimer Viggo. That’s the answer.”
“And what if it’s not him? Your father taught you to never assume. It will get you killed.”
As if I don’t remember Pa’s teachings.
I remember well and I don’t think I’m assuming. “By saying Mortimer Viggo, I mean everybody else who’s working for him,” I fill in.
“Tristan I don’t like the fact that you’re all dispersed. Yesterday could have gone different if it was just Massimo in the room. Being together meant you could protect each other.”
“Alfonse, I think it was because we were together why that happened. I don’t know who the fuck told the other side we’d be there. There’s a fucking fox in the henhouse, again. Or, rather he or she has been there the whole time and never actually left.”
The staff at D’Agostinos are being questioned and checked out. When shit like this happens we check everybody out and leave no stone unturned. Since everyone so far has come back clean I think our phones were tampered with. Dominic can do all kinds of shit people could never imagine. I won’t assume Mortimer doesn’t have someone like him working with him.
“I don’t know what to say. It’s sad and unnerving that it’s come to this.”
“I couldn’t agree more.” He looks scared, more scared than I’ve ever seen him and he has every reason to be.
Until yesterday I considered us to be powerful enough that nobody would be able to do such a thing to us. I couldn’t have been more wrong. It was a planned assassination.
After the incident I contemplated whether Mortimer might know we have Isabella, but then I realized that was impossible. It was an isolated incident.
I still freaked though and called Candace to check in to see if she and Isabella were okay. When you have a target on your back paranoia is expected. Honestly I’m anxious to return to the island and I’m even more anxious to get to Mortimer. Even though it means saying goodbye to Isabella.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” I promise him. “We have plans in motion that should eradicate the major threat,” I say. I owe him some form of reassurance.
If I were in his shoes I’d want it. He’s worked for us long before I was born. He’s like family, and I’ve worked close enough with him in the company to consider him part of the family who are as valuable to me as the staff I grew up with. They all took care of us and he’s just doing that now.
“I just worry for you.”
“I appreciate that. Alfonse, I gotta run,” I say. Dominic is supposed to meet me on board the plane but I wanted to see if he would agree to grab coffee first. I messaged him earlier but he didn’t reply. Surprise, surprise. He’s still not fucking talking to me, even after yesterday. The first person I thought to protect was him.
I’m hoping to get to the airport early just in case he does decide to turn up.