I almost asked Dominic about calling her but stopped myself. He’d say no. But this wasn’t up to him. I’d make sure to get ahold of her or at least get a message to her that I was alive. I’d tell her to go back to Sicily. Hell, she was safer there than here.
At that, the thought that Victor would have hurt her crept into my mind.
No, he wouldn’t have done that. He wouldn’t have involved her. There was no reason to.
“Did he hurt my mother? Do you know?”
Dominic looked at me as if he hadn’t heard my question. I repeated it.
“I haven’t heard anything, but I haven’t been looking for news. I’ll make a call and find out.”
To my surprise, he took out his phone and dialed a number then and there. It was to his brother, Salvatore. They spoke for a few minutes, Dominic asking for information and Salvatore, I assumed, promising to call back as soon as he found out.
“Thanks,” I said. But that wasn’t going to be enough for me. I’d make some calls myself once we got to the library and he was busy copying files.13DominicBy the time we found parking and walked into the beautiful old library building on Vine Street, it was late morning. Traffic sucked, and parking was always an issue. I held Gia’s hand. To anyone who glanced our way, we looked like a normal couple walking into the building.
Gia’s hand felt clammy in mine, and I knew she was nervous. I didn’t think she had any reason to be, although if anything did happen, we’d be unarmed, since I’d left my pistol in the SUV, assuming I’d have to pass through a metal detector.
“Lead the way,” I said casually even though I looked at every single person in the place as we headed toward the long row of public-use computers.
“Hey, Gia. You missed your shift the other day.”
A man came toward us, his face beaming at Gia. A frown replaced that stupid smile, though, when I moved in closer and put my arm around her waist, feeling much more possessive than I maybe should.
Of course she’d run into people she knew. She fucking volunteered here.
Gia tensed beside me.
“Smile,” I told her.
“Hi, Ron,” she said, her voice tight. “I wasn’t feeling well. I asked my friend to call. She must have forgotten.”
Ron’s gaze kept shifting to me, and I almost laughed at his struggle to keep smiling.
“No, she never did. I covered for you. No worries.”
“Thanks, Ron.”
I cleared my throat. “Aren’t you going to introduce me, honey?” I had to bite my tongue not to laugh outright at the look on Gia’s face.
“Um, Ron this is…um…Donnie.”
She recovered fast and relaxed. Even smiled. At least for a minute.
“Her boyfriend,” I said, gripping her tighter and pulling her close. Donnie? WTF?
“Oh, uh, nice to meet you. I guess. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend,” Ron said, trying not to look at me.
“Yep,” I chimed in. “Haven’t been together long, but once you get a taste of Gia, well, nothing quite like it…” I winked at her mortified face. “We’re on a tight schedule, though,” I said, checking my watch.
“Nice to see you, Ron,” Gia said, walking stiffly toward the public-use computers.
“Nice to see you,” Ron called out.
It took all I had not to flip him off.
“What was that?” she asked in a sharp whisper. “How could you say that?”
“Donnie? What the fuck kind of name is Donnie?”
She stopped and turned to me, one hand on her hip, one eyebrow lifted.
“Did you want me to tell him your real name?”
“You couldn’t come up with anything better than Donnie?”
She only grinned. “That one,” she said, dropping the conversation as an elderly woman vacated a computer.
“Let’s go.” Someone else tried to take the seat, but I shoved Gia ahead and onto the chair.
“I have been waiting!” the woman said.
“Us too.” Ignoring her, I watched Gia pick up the mouse and navigate to the file. Mateo had hidden it well while keeping it in plain sight.
“Here, this is it,” she said.
I took the thumb drive out of my pocket and handed it to her. “Copy it.”
She stood. “I have to use the bathroom. You copy it, and I’ll be right back.”
Before I could argue, she was gone. The woman we’d butted in front of was pointing at us and talking to the man at the counter, so I knew we had limited time. I took over, copying the file onto my thumb drive, hoping Gia wouldn’t be dumb enough to try to run off. I didn’t think she would, though. Not with this evidence in my hands now, not knowing I could copy then delete the file. Although I wouldn’t. It was my backup.
“Sir.”
The man who worked at the library approached my seat with the woman just as the file finished copying.