Page 36 of Tammaro DeLuca

It gave me all the time that I needed to make sure that the police that were on our side had time to raid his desk and get rid of any evidence that he had. It may not have made the situation disappear, but he’d have to start from scratch gathering information. I’d also been serious about the restraining order to keep him away from Asmaria. I couldn’t kill him, but I’d sure as hell make his life a living hell until he understood what I meant. He wasn’t the only target I had, though.

Inside the abandoned office building, the four men running Puff were in different rooms, along with two of their most trusted men, an attorney and their CFO. I wore a mask and observed as they were questioned about their need to buy property in foreign countries. At first, nobody answered. Then Donavan, a guy on loan from Beni, made progress. Can you guess with who? The CFO. One mention of his children and he sang like a bird.

“Well, they’re only interested in property that was purchased at a lower rate than what they’re worth. They’ve found a few in Italy that were bought at a fraction of the cost. They’ve been built up to be worth ten or twenty times what they’re worth. That means that the surrounding property has the same potential. If they buy them at a lower cost, they can make their money back ten times over. They have to buy all the property at once because the value goes up.”

And I was the only one not willing to let go of the property. I’d noticed almost everything around what I owned had exchanged hands or they were looking to change hands. All the sales were pending, though. Now I know why. Not to mention that when I’d asked for a loan to build on the property, they denied me. And it was worth waiting for if they could find the right motivator to get me to sell.

They were too smart to have their dirty laundry exposed, so I had nothing on them.

“Son, sometimes when you know somebody is guilty of something, provide them with the bait and catch them in the act that way. Maybe they would have never done it before. It doesn’t excuse them from doing it now.”

I guess Papá taught me one thing.

I had those same sons of bitches followed for a few weeks to see what they were into. Everybody kept their noses clean, afraid that they were being watched. They had all been kidnapped and then left in the middle of nowhere to get home. George was the first one to break. He was one of the CEOs and he had a thing for strippers. Good thing Massimo knew a guy.

The scam was to get them all in a compromising position and take photos they couldn’t shy away from. The stripper got him along and asked him if he wanted to party outside of the club. He agreed and when she asked if her friends could come, he said yes. It prompted him to call his buddies to invite them back to the hotel. Several drinks, lots of drugs, and tons of sex later, they passed out, and that’s when the fun began. There were photos of them with faceless women, sucking each other's dicks, and even doing drugs. I was quite impressed when I got the photos. It became even more impressive when I got a call from them begging me not to share the photos. I didn’t even have to ask them to back out of the deals they were trying to make. I was even lucky enough to see the sales unmarked as pending on the website that sold the properties.

It was easy. Almost too simple. They went away quietly and promised to forget about the properties. All they wanted were the original photos. That couldn’t happen. They were content with another set of copies being mailed to them, along with a flash drive. Though I had the originals in my possession. Did they really think I was that stupid? Like I said. It seemed too easy. But just like that, they disappeared.

No, Mr. Chambers. No, Detective Walter Shields. And no Puff Relators.

For now, I was going to keep a watch over all of them to make sure they stayed in line. Plus, the CFO was now on my payroll. Having an inside man was going to help me make sure that they stayed in their lane.

Deciding to celebrate, I called Yolanda. When she didn’t answer, I went home to wait for her. I’d given her plenty of space before the miscarriage. Now it was time to face her to figure out where we stood.

I’d processed my feelings with the baby, but I knew it was different for her. Much deeper. We didn’t know she was pregnant, but its life still held value. I mourned it because the opportunity was taken away. I hadn’t been there to watch Asmaria grow inside her stomach. All I had were the photos that Asmaria had shown to me from the photo book. It wasn’t the same as being there. She’d mentioned that she couldn’t be pregnant. Was that because she expected the condoms or birth control were enough? Or was it something bigger? Regardless, I got the feeling from some things she said as she cried that this missed opportunity meant more to her. Why? I had so many questions and I needed answers.

Going to dinner seemed like the perfect way to celebrate and get those solutions to the potential problems. It was time for my wife to stop running from her husband.

My two girls came home around six in the evening. The two of them were laughing at something when they came inside, and they didn’t notice me at first.

“Daddy.” Asmaria hugged me when she saw me. “Me and mom caught a movie.”

They were spending a lot more time together since Yolanda lost the baby. I think it was Asmaria’s way of making sure that Yolanda didn’t sink back into that deep depression that she was in. Either way, I appreciated her taking care of Yolanda since she barely acknowledged me.

“How was it?” I asked them.

“It was great. Mom shrieked when the bad guy jumped out of the closet. It made everybody laugh in the theater.”

“Hey, I thought that was going to be our secret.” Yolanda nudged her.

“Yeah, right, Ma. Everybody in the world, but Daddy heard you scream. He was probably in the shower when it happened.”

I snickered and watched the two of them tease one another. When they were done, Asmaria excused herself and went upstairs to call her friends.

“Hey,” I said to her.

“Yes?” She walked over to the counter in the kitchen and picked up her phone. “I left this here.”

“That makes sense. I called you earlier.”

“Was there something wrong?” She asked.

“No, I wanted to take you to dinner. The information that you gave me was really helpful, and I wanted to show my appreciation.”

“No problem. You don’t need to do that either. A simple thank you is enough. I’m guessing that you found out why the properties were valuable to them?”

Okay, so Yolanda hadn’t told me to force them to talk, but she had explained that knowing why the properties were so important would help since she couldn’t find anything when she evaluated them. I’d done that my way.

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