Page 72 of The Fixer
“No. She’s gone. She’s been kidnapped.” I stare at Guerra, hatred in my eyes. “Don’t worry. I’m going toget her back. Even if I have to break every bone in this asshole’s body.”
Hugh inhales sharply. “Romeo,” he says. “In her message, Rosa said she needed to talk to me about Romeo. If that fucker touched my sister?—”
“It’s not Romeo Santini,” I snap. “He’s dead.”
Max Guerra looks up from the ground. “No,” he says, wincing with pain. “He’s not. That’s what I wanted to tell you tonight. The timing of Romeo’s death was a little too convenient, so I ordered a DNA analysis on the corpses. It wasn’t him. The asshole faked his death.”
“Why?” I demand. Then the niggle in the back of my head builds to a crescendo. I’ve never mentioned Max Guerra to Rosa before tonight. I’ve never told her he was connected to Spina Sacra. When I asked her to come with me to Casanova tonight, I just said he worked for Ciro Del Barba.
But in the private room, Rosa asked me how Guerra fit into the mess in Lecce.
She already knew.
And the only person she could have found that out from is her brother.
“Tell me everything,” I growl into the phone. “Tell me everythingnow.”
Ten minutes later,Antonio, Dante, Valentina, and Goran have joined me in Callahan’s office, as has Hugh. We’ve reviewed the recording from the security camera at the back of the club, and we’ve confirmed that Rosa’s kidnapper is indeed Romeo Santini.
Hugh Tran has told us enough to piece together the whole sordid mess.
Rosa’s brother stole ten million euros from Spina Sacra because Romeo Santini asked him to. When Max Guerra discovered the theft, Romeo was forced to act. He knew that if Hugh was questioned, he’d implicate him. So he tried to kill Hugh by blowing up his car.
When we paid off Rocco Santini, the mafia boss stopped giving a shit about the missing money. But Romeo didn’t. He still wanted the ten million euros, and so he called Rosa and threatened her.
Rosa wanted to tell me about it, but Hugh talked her into keeping it a secret until the wedding. “It wasa stalemate,” he says to us. “It was the only thing we could do. We weren’t part of the family until Rosa officially got married to Leo. You couldn’t protect us.”
That’s quite possibly the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard out of his mouth. I’m not the only one who thinks so. “What does that have to do with anything?” the padrino snaps. “The deal was done. Romeo Santini can’t touch you without forfeiting his life, and he would have known that.”
“But I thought—” Hugh begins. Then he sees the expression on my face and shuts up.
“Forget Hugh’s utter stupidity for the moment,” Dante says. “Romeo threatened Rosa the week after she got back from Lecce, but after that, he laid low. Why kidnap Rosa now?”
Max smacks his head. “Because of me,” he groans. “He must have been watching me, damn it. I forced his hand by coming to Venice. Romeo thinks I work for his father. He believes that if I discover that he was the mastermind behind the theft, I’d tell Rocco, who’d then personally kill him. That’s why he couldn’t let Hugh talk to me.”
“So he kidnapped Rosa to persuade Hugh to keep his mouth shut?” Antonio turns to Rosa’s brother. “If that’s the case, you’ll be hearing fromhim any moment now. Valentina, we need to trace that call.”
Valentina jumps to her feet. “I’m on it.” She squeezes my shoulder on her way out. “We’re going to find her, Leo,” she says. “You’re not alone.”
Dante gets up as well. “There’s only one thing I don’t understand,” he says, looking at Guerra. “Where do you fit in all of this? You’re not from Puglia, and you have no connection to Southern Italy. Why are you involved in an internal Spina Sacra matter?”
The other man hesitates. I start to unbutton my cuffs. “My wife made me this shirt, and I don’t want to get blood on it,” I growl. “But if you do not answer Dante’s question, I will beat you to a bloody pulp; consequences be damned.”
Max nods tightly. “I don’t give a shit about Santini, father or son,” he says. “But I’m in love with Sienna Santini. When Rocco sold her to Lorenzo Corio, he sealed his death sentence. As for Romeo?—”
He never gets a chance to finish his thought. Hugh’s phone rings just then. He answers with a shaking hand. “Romeo,” he says. “What do you want?”
It’s been twenty minutes since Romeo Santinitook Rosa. My principessa is in the hands of a man who feels like he’s backed into a corner. Romeo cannot harm her, else his life is forfeit, but desperate men make mistakes. Fear threatens to choke me, and I squash it deep down inside.
I need to hold it together. For Rosa’s sake.
Liam has a map of Venice on his wall. I walk up to it and draw a circle around Casanova. “Santini has a twenty-minute head start on us,” I say. “This is our search area. It’s a lot of ground to cover. Let’s narrow it down.”
36
ROSA
My assailant drags me down an alley. We don’t go far. Less than five minutes from Casanova, he pulls me to a stop in front of a small, squat building that’s no bigger than a garage and hands me a key. “Open the door,” he says, the knife still at my throat. “If you scream, it’ll be the last thing you do.”