Shadow Warrior (Shadow Riders 4)

“Enough.” Stefano rose to his feet, his face a mask of fury. “She’s at home exactly where she needs to be, fighting for the life of our child. You will not say one more word, not one, against the woman I love and respect with everything in me. She’s made my life worth living. I’m sorry yours wasn’t and your children didn’t make up for your loneliness, but you let yourself become a bitter, nasty woman striking out at anyone who shows you the least bit of compassion. For once in your life you listen to what I say. If I hear you utter one more word against my wife, I will banish you from this family. You will leave our territory and you won’t be spoken of again. If you think I won’t do it, you try me.”

Emmanuelle went white, shaking her head, eyes over-bright, and again Vittorio had to keep her from jumping to her feet.

The room went completely silent for several seconds. Vittorio kept his eyes on his oldest brother. Stefano had lost more than one child and now, with Francesca struggling to keep the one she carried, he wasn’t to be trifled with. The family was one rider down and all of them were exhausted, never a good thing for riders and he knew it. He was sending his brothers and sisters into the shadows to carry out harsh justice when they were already tired. Now they faced a war with a major crime family, one they’d had a truce with, even at times an uneasy alliance. Stefano was responsible for all of them and the pressure on him was tremendous.

“I’m very sorry, Stefano. I had no idea Francesca was pregnant or that she was having trouble carrying. At times my idea of tough love is ludicrous. I can’t even call this that. I struck out because I’m so upset on Theresa’s behalf, and I don’t deal with my emotions well. There will be nothing more said about Francesca.”

Vittorio noticed she didn’t promise not to speak about any of the other women, but his mother’s apology was so shocking he didn’t point it out. Again, there was a stunned silence.

Stefano slowly lowered himself into a chair. “I accept your apology, Eloisa, and will pass it on to Francesca. In the meantime, we need to get back to work. There are three more bodies, all discovered around the same time in various locations. Each of them was stuffed in a dumpster behind one of our buildings. Bruno was the first to be found, behind Petrov’s Pizzeria. Benito discovered the body and called me as well as alerted the police. Bruno’s body was desecrated.”

“You mean he’d been tortured,” Eloisa clarified.

“That too. They were making a point. That was why he was found a day after he disappeared. They took their time with him.” Stefano’s voice was grim. “They removed body parts and shoved them in other places. It would have been a horrific sight for Theresa or one of the waitresses at the pizzeria to see.”

“Who else?” Ricco asked.

“Timothy Vane. We hired him a few years ago. He was promoted to assistant manager under Martin Shanks. Vane’s body was found in a dumpster wrapped in a carpet. He had been tortured and cut to pieces as well. He was the one giving his okay to allow the Saldi enforcers into our club without alerting us. He claimed to any waitress, bartender or security man who asked that we had given our approval. He put something in Martin Shanks’s drink to make him sick, so he’d go home that night. It wasn’t the first time.”

“How long has he worked for the Saldis without our knowledge? Do we have any kind of timeline yet?” Vittorio asked.

“He’s still under our investigation. He was a bit careless spending his extra money, so we should have that information fairly quickly. It’s ours, not to share with the police. Our official answer is we have no idea what is going on or if, because the three we knew of worked at the club, it might be related to Grace’s kidnapping.”

“The cops know we had a meeting with the Saldis at the hotel,” Taviano pointed out.

Stefano shrugged. “Old friends getting together. Nothing more. The second man working at the club the Saldi family employed was a security guard named Ezra Banks. He’s the one who wiped our security cameras. Vittorio’s presence scared the hell out of him and lucky for us, he knew nothing about the remote backup.”

“Background with us?” Ricco asked.

“He worked for us for three years. Was introduced to us by Vane.”

“How long has he worked for the Saldis?” Taviano asked.

“My guess?” Stefano said. “The entire time. Rigina found him from the times the cameras had been sabotaged. She went back two years on his shifts. The cameras were messed with on his shift about six times last year and four more this year. We’ll take a leap that each of those times, he allowed someone known from the Saldi family into our club. He was found in the dumpster directly behind Masci’s. Fortunately, Pietro found him and called me before calling the police. Ezra had been done the same way, tortured and then cut in pieces, his body parts placed in wrong places.”