Page 72 of She Belongs to Me
Not good.
“You’re one thousand percent positive,” I growled.
“I sent you pictures. You can decide for yourself. I’ve contacted our technical department to hack into Gio’s computers and place wire taps on his phone and his house. He’s being watched, but so far, he’s been a good boy.”
At least my brother knew what the fuck he was doing. He’d studied our father’s old ways. Sadly, his knowledge would prove to be more than helpful.
It might be a saving grace.
I pulled up my email, the larger file taking a full twenty seconds to come in. By that moment in time, I was enraged to the point I was seeing blood. I couldn’t be angry with anyone other than myself. Yes, I’d followed my own protocol in checking, but there were far too many ways of getting around the typical fact-finding mission.
Gio had remained off the radar other than coming to my house at night less than a week ago. Either that meant Mattia had found himself in a difficult situation or perhaps there was a new player.
Like the Greeks.
Either way, the entire situation wasn’t going to be tolerated.
As my brother had indicated, the pictures told no lies. They went back far enough I could tell the relationship Gio shared with Mattia wasn’t a casual one. While it wasn’t clear what they were doing other than talking, in one photograph an envelope was handed to Mattia.
I knew enough about the jerk to know he’d like nothing more than to be considered top dog of the five families. That had never been done before. I also surmised that if that became reality, an impossibility in my mind, he would have enough clout and control to be considered a major world player. Which meant if he wanted to take a spin in the United States, other syndicates could be worried.
What better way to enter into the country than on the backs of other Italian mafia corporations. The oddity in my mind was why go to all that trouble? The family was rich beyond their means. They had profitable merchandise themselves, including more of the illegal kind. The only reason it would make sense was because of Mattia’s ego.
“I got them. I’m going to set up a meeting with Gio. He will answer questions.” I was surprised the anger had remained in my tone.
“There’s something else you should know,” Domino stated. “I couldn’t figure out an angle Mattia was using until I realized he’d hedged his bets on his entire company and was ready to lose big.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he invested all the profits and margins on his real estate development and his other businesses on a speculative deal. Some big resort where casinos, a small town, a water park, and wineries had been planned, with investors established. Then some pesky national workers burst his bubble, acquiring the land.”
“In Italy?” I knew the answer.
Domino laughed. “In the United States.”
Well, there was the connection between the two men. Not that it was positively a smoking gun, but as with all coincidences, it was not to be ignored. “How amazing.”
“Exactly. Not only will approval not be provided, even if it was, he and his investors would have been required to pay millions upon millions to make a switch to alternative land, in a sense starting all over again. The only viable one I could find in a quick search was more like a swamp. There was even quicksand from what I was able to discover.”
Now he was laughing.
“And he took the money from the investors.”
Domino chuckled. “Yes.”
“But he started this plan years ago.” Just like Adonis.
“Yes, but Gio was helping him find investors. I have a bad feeling that includes some of the people involved in our corporations.”
We had investors of our own. “You need to dig deep to find out the names.”
“I will. Are you going to off Gio?”
“That depends on our… meeting.”
“You could always feed him false information,” Domino suggested.
“A good idea, but something tells me there is an urgency we aren’t fully abreast of.” That’s exactly what my instincts told me.