Page 20 of Mob Princess

LOL no Ides of March rather inauspicious.

Me

I hope Julia wasn’t on your parents’ short list.

Lina

No. Neither was Julius if I’d been a boy.

Me

If you’d taken a national security advisor job for a senator it would be kinda ironic.

Lina

I nearly named a dog Brutus.

Born the day Julius Caesar was stabbed in the Senate with his best friend leading the charge. The first syndicate in the U.S. might have been the Irish, but the Italians have been fucking shite up since the Ancient Romans.

Damn it.

“Hey, Cor. What’s up?” My cousin would call now.

“The Kutsenkos just busted up an underground poker ring. Stole seventeen grand right off the table. Dillan wants you, me, and Shay to head over there.”

Wonderful. Cormac and Seamus will make sure I get answers to my questions. I know where Cormac’s talking about. I could handle it myself, but it’ll go faster with the two of them backing me up.

“And after?”

“Knock off a couple of their liquor stores. But we can get a few of the guys to do it.”

“Give me twenty to get to you.”

“Shay and I are on our way to you.”

“See you in a few.”

Motherfucker.

Me

I’m sorry. My cousin called. We’re headed out to a show. I gotta go.

It’ll be fucking entertaining watching the Kutsenkos from a distance when they arrive to check out what we do to their stores.

Lina

No worries. Have fun. I hope it’s something good. TTYL

Me

Me too bye

It’s been three weeks of trying to break this goddamn code. In all fairness to me, I’ve been distracted. The shite with the gambling ring led to more shite with a fencing ring we run. We discovered a few of our guys decided to freelance for the Cartel. We did a little late spring cleaning. I spent a few days at the station.

When I left after those four days, I turned on my phone and saw I missed texts from Lina. My heart sank. I know she thought I ghosted her. I didn’t have a good way to explain why I didn’t have my phone on. We haven’t talked about work, so I don’t know what she does. She hasn’t asked me, so I haven’t had to lie. At least not until I left the station.

Since we studied the same thing, it’s reasonable to believe we have jobs in the national security fields that require discretion. I told her I was at a conference where we couldn’t use unsecured lines. She bought it. One of umpteen lies I’ll tell her if this goes anywhere.

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