Shadow Warrior (Shadow Riders 4)

“Maybe,” Vittorio said, his voice mild. “But whoever it is was aiding human trafficking, and the woman he helped them take was mine. That makes this very personal.” He ignored the way Stefano’s head came up, his gaze suddenly sharp and assessing. Vittorio doggedly continued, “The fact that they can wipe the security feed and slip Saldis into the club along with a junkie—it has to be someone high up in management we trust.”

“We’re going to handle this, Vittorio,” Stefano assured. “When it was Francesca’s life in danger, or Mariko’s, or Sasha’s, for that matter, we took care of the problem ourselves. We’ll find out who’s behind this without jumping to conclusions.” His gaze touched Emme’s face just for a moment. “We aren’t going to make any mistakes with this one.”

Emme’s fingers tightened around Vittorio’s. He knew she loved Val Saldi and that wasn’t going away anytime soon—even though she knew his family were criminals. When the Ferraros loved, they did it wholly, and they did it once. This exact scenario had always been the thing they’d feared the most for Emme—that the two families would end up in a war.

“Who was on last night, managing the club?” Ricco asked.

“Martin Shanks,” Stefano said. “He’s been with us as a manager for six years, worked an additional four in the club. Rosina is looking into his financials. Shanks went home around midnight very ill. There were witnesses to him being extremely sick. His assistant, Timothy Vane, took over for him. Vane had been working for the club about three years when he was promoted to assistant manager. That was two years ago. So, he’s been in the club for a good five years. These are not new employees. They’re paid extremely well, receive bonuses and have been with our family for a lot of years, so they receive profit sharing as well.”

“Who was at the door?” Emme asked.

“Clay Pierson. He’s been one of our bouncers for ten years,” Stefano said. “Emilio and Enzo trained him. Again, he’s long-time employed, makes good money and receives profit sharing.”

“I saw Peter Franks,” Vittorio said. “He’s hard to miss. He was on last night as well. Not working the door, but inside.”

“I don’t know who that is,” Francesca said.

Sasha and Mariko both indicated they didn’t know him, either.

“Franks works security. Essentially, he’s a bouncer. He works the door when he’s scheduled, but like Clay Pierson, he trained under Emilio and Enzo,” Stefano provided.

Vittorio handed his coffee cup to Taviano, who had risen, and pointed toward the kitchen where the espresso machine was. He needed to hear everything being said, but he wanted to be at the hospital. He’d promised Grace he would be there when she woke up, and he was determined to make that happen.

He was going on forty-eight hours without sleep and he needed to crash soon. Giovanni, Sasha, Taviano and Ricco had gone to Los Angeles in their private jet. He’d taken the shadows to the airport, secretly entering the plane right under the noses of the paparazzi. Once in Los Angeles, his brothers and sister-in-law headed to the nearest nightclub with their LA cousins to party the night away. Being out in the open like that, getting photographed dancing and drinking, gave their cousins alibis just in case anyone ever suspected them of wrongdoing. No one had any idea that Vittorio was in Los Angeles. As far as they knew, he was still at home in Chicago, nowhere near the city in California.

“What about the waitress or bartender?” Sasha asked. She had worked at the club as a top-tier waitress.

Giovanni shook his head. “If someone is on the two top tiers, they were already vetted. We’ve never given that kind of responsibility to a bartender or waitress.”

“Only management and security have that level of authority,” Vittorio said. He rubbed his chest again. His muscles ached, right over his heart. “Still, one would think they would have questioned it. I’m going to have to get back to Grace soon. I don’t want her to wake up without me being there.” He took the latte Taviano handed to him, grateful for the caffeine when he felt like he was running on empty.

Stefano nodded his understanding. “Let’s get back to Grace. She’s the main concern right now.”

Vittorio nodded. “Rosina has dug up quite a bit on her. I don’t know how she escaped our notice until now. Because she worked for Katie Branscomb, she was in our circles. We didn’t have her on our radar, but she was on someone’s. That person is either part of or connected to the Saldi family, and Miceli or Giuseppi owe him.”

“Is she safe in the hospital?” Francesca asked. “I’d rather she be in one of our homes and the doctor come to her.”

“He’ll come to her, baby,” Stefano said. “Just right now, they don’t want to move her.”