Page 140 of Enforcer

Pushing inside, I take a moment to bring Holy Water from the Stoup and make the sign of the cross on myself before entering.

When I walk in the nave, Father Russo sits in his office, worrying his lip.

“Oh.” He startles. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

He removes his reading glasses and places them on the open bible on his desk.

“You wanted to see me, Father?”

He thins his lips. He’s my age, but his hair is white as snow, a hereditary condition he got from his father. Father Russo has implored me to call him Luca more than once, but I refuse.

As he refuses to call me anything but my proper name.

“Yes, Ardesia. Thank you for coming.”

“What’s going on? You seem out of sorts.”

He does. His hair is touseled, and his shirt is unbuttoned. Even his eyes are frantic as he meets mine with them.

“I’ve been over and over this in my head, and I’ve finally come to a decision that I have to do what’s right,” he starts, and nerves skitter in my stomach.

“Alright…” I say anxiously.

“I got a confession last week from a parishioner, and I can’t keep it to myself. The burden is too heavy.”

“Father, tread very carefully. Breaking the seal of confession isn’t something you should take lightly.”

He shakes his head. “And I don’t. However, when someone comes into my confessional and admits that he’s involved in a scheme to kidnap and sell girls to prominent men in this city, I can’t sit by and let it happen. Not when he gave me locations of where the girls are.”

I inhale sharply. This is everything that Dante and I have been working to find out—the location of even some of the girls that have gone missing in surrounding areas. While no one hasbeen brave enough to snatch girls from anywhere in Brynne's territory or mine, girls are going missing from other parts of the city at an alarming rate.

“If we do this, Father, you’ll be at risk of losing everything here. Your life as the priest, everything you’ve worked for,” I warn.

He nods. “I’ve sat with this information far too long, Ardesia. It’s eating at my soul at this point.”

“Alright, then tell me everything.”

After two hours of him recounting where the girls are located, I called Dante and Lorenzo to the church, and we four have been pouring over maps and plans ever since.

Father Russo is adamant that he’ll go with us when we move the girls out of Adamo territory, even after I try to convince him otherwise.

“A priest that fights beside the mafia in the shadows to keep his parish safe, that could be a comic book,” Dante says in jest, and Lorenzo shakes his head at him.

“If we do this, Father, it could get bloody. The parts of this city you see versus what I see are wholly different. You won’t be able to go back.”

“Yeah, the shit we see will change your outlook on a lot of things,” Dante adds, and I nod in agreement.

The father ponders for a moment as we all stare at him.

He shakes his head. “Knowing this has already begun to change something in me, Ardesia. I have to do this. For me. For the girls. I can’t return to my life as if these things aren’t happening. No matter what, I want to help. I want to come.”

“Alright, Father. Just know,” I say as I stand, holding my hand out for him to shake, “I tried to warn you.”

He stands and slips his hand into mine. “Keep me updated.”

I nod as I take all the maps and plans we’ve gotten so far back home to my mafiosi wife to pour over. Finalizing something this big without her would be fucked.

I need her input, and I need her assistance. She sees the things I sometimes don’t.

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