“That’s why all the lavender,” Emmanuelle said.
Dario nodded. “I snapped it up when it came on the market. It was right next to Val’s property and you just never find a place like this one for sale on the lake. It’s a long way outside of the city, but in order to keep you and Val safe, I have to be close anyway. Since he insisted on my taking this bullshit position in the family, taking over the territory, I needed a place close to you, so I could still eat with you and see to your security, but get away when you’re driving me crazy.”
Once more, Dario managed to sound annoyed with Emmanuelle, but Elie would never believe that tone again. He was coming to understand Dario.
Valentino heaved a sigh. “You need a housekeeper who will cook for you. You have a kickass kitchen.”
“I have a cleaning crew. That’s enough of an invasion. Emme can cook for me.”
“You aren’t my head of security. You have a huge territory to run.”
“I’ll always be your head of security. Your personal protectors will answer to me.” Dario sounded bored.
Val’s intense green eyes met Elie’s over Emme’s head. Val shook his head. “He’s never going to change. He’s got an entire territory to run, the one Miceli screwed up. He’s putting it back together, finding out who he can trust and who he can’t, but he’s worried about my security, not his own. Do you have any idea how many death threats you get on the daily, Dario?”
Dario shrugged, his normal answer to anything he didn’t want to answer aloud.
“Are you running these down, Emmanuelle?” Elie asked. “If you need help, when I’m not on the roster, I’ll be more than happy to help.”
“Would you? Val and Dario seem to inspire quite a lot of death threats, especially now that they’ve taken over running the businesses. Everyone knows they’re close.”
“Emmanuelle,” Valentino cautioned.
She pushed away from him. “I’m head of both your security. Don’t give me any trouble. I could use Elie’s help.”
“Elie isn’t the point. Dario and I told you, until we know who is behind the threats . . .”
Phones began to go off, saving Emme from her husband’s lecture, which she clearly was going to ignore anyway. Elie glanced down to see Brielle had sent in her last report. This was the information on the criminal family in Los Angeles that Stefano had requested.
Stefano had appeared to randomly choose one of the crime families to gather specific data on, but in actuality, Emmanuelle had requested Stefano to choose the Colombo family. She wanted them investigated, but she didn’t want to ask Bernado to investigate. She knew he would immediately tell Val and Dario she had put in the request. She wanted her own investigator, one that was loyal to her. One she could count on to report to her first, not Val or Dario. She wanted Brielle.
She’d been careful not to ask for specific information relating to anything that would tip her husband or Dario off that she suspected the Colombo family had anything to do with a number of the recent threats against them. This was more of a probe for data concerning how to gain entry into their lives, homes and places of businesses as well as their favorite places to eat. She had been very careful not to ask for anything connecting them to the Chicago business.
Brielle’s report, as before, was very thorough. Elie read it over carefully, with a sense of alarm. There was an underlying impression he got that Brielle had delved deeper than she had been instructed to go, which shouldn’t have surprised him. She hadn’t included anything in the report that hadn’t been asked for, but he had a gut feeling she might know more about the Colombo crime family than was good for her. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for her to be an investigator for Dario and Valentino. His gut, as a rule, usually saved his ass.
The phones began to light up all over the place, as report after report came in, one after the other. There was satisfaction in knowing that his wife had been first, thorough and every bit as good as she’d said.
“Not bragging, Vittorio,” he murmured. “But it looks like my wife kicked ass.” He grinned at the others. “I’m heading home. You can transfer my winnings into my account. I believe I’m sharing with Dario and Emme.”
CHAPTER NINE
Brielle frowned at her computer screen, pushing aside the small bowl of grapes she’d brought up from the kitchen once she’d finished the “test” that Stefano had devised for her. He’d pitted her against the other investigators. She had no idea how she did, and right at that moment, she didn’t care. One of the crazy compulsions she couldn’t ignore was fully on her. When it happened, she couldn’t eat or sleep until she followed it all the way to the end.
She had a feeling about the Colombo crime family in Los Angeles. There had been a reason that particular family had been singled out. Stefano had indicated he’d chosen them at random and he’d made it very clear that none of the investigators were to go beyond what he’d specified in their searches. Just the fact that he’d made that one of the rules set off alarms in her head.
She stared at the screen and the information she’d dug up. Alfredo Colombo, the head of the Los Angeles crime family, was in his sixties. He and his wife, Bianca, had been together for over forty years in an arranged marriage that seemed to work out, although he cheated on her. Dino, his oldest son, was forty and married. Jerico was thirty-three and still a bachelor. Alfredo’s daughter, Elisa, was twenty-eight and married with three children. Like her parents, hers had been an arranged marriage. Alfredo’s youngest son, Mano, was twenty-three years old and single.
The three sons worked in the family business. The daughter’s marriage to a man with a large territory in Los Angeles had solidified an alliance between the two families. Or at least that was what the marriage appeared to have done. Brielle knew appearances could be deceiving.
She typed in several commands that got her nowhere and sat thinking, wondering why she couldn’t let it go. Something just seemed “off” to her. She knew quite a bit about each member of the family now. What they liked to eat, and what they were allergic to. What their favorite sports were. She knew the entire layout of each of their homes. The list went on and on. She knew too much about each of them.
She sat back in her chair, looking around her at the spacious office. She wasn’t certain she would really call this room an office. It was the most extravagant office she’d ever been in. Just like the rest of the house, the office was all hardwood floors, rustic beams and walls of windows overlooking spectacular lake views. She envisioned adding a thick, plush pile rug she could curl her toes in on cold winter days. Already, Elie’s house felt like home to her.
Brielle stood up to stretch and wandered across the gleaming floor to the thick windows to stare out to the lake below her. The lake had a strong chop today. Brielle watched two small powerboats bobbing up and down on the swells as they crossed the lake in the distance. She frowned as she watched them plowing through the waves. Something nagged at her, something to do with the boats.
Going back to her laptop, she sank back down into her very comfortable chair and switched her gaze to the stone fireplace. Like the fireplace in the great room, it was also gas rather than wood burning. She brought up the latest information on the last Colombo family member she’d been working on in Los Angeles. Dino Colombo. He ran the business in the harbor.
Los Angeles. The port. She tapped her finger on her lower lip and once more looked out to the boats as they moved farther away from the house across the expanse of choppy water. In New York’s Santoro crime family, the oldest son, Carlo, also ran the business in the harbor. In Barcelona, where she had first begun to suspect the existence of an active human trafficking ring because of all the missing children and teens, there was also a port.