Page 89 of Naughty Santa Daddy

I don’t care if you live in a big city or a sleepy suburb likeUncertain, Texas, there are people in charge everywhere and not just the law-abiding sort of authority. It is my business to stay on top of everyone within my organization. That is why this particular set of information is alarming.

Critical error on my part.

I don’t trust.

Ever.

Gio knows better. Longevity to the family or not, he’s going to understand and be made an example of once I sort all of this. Gio is one of five employees left from the original Uccello organization. He has always been loyal to me. Only lately have I taken notice of some changes in his behavior. Actions speak. A man changing his routine, not giving true accounts of his location, and missing meetings are telling to everyone, including me. Those infractions have sent me on the hunt.

Information seeking is somewhat of a pastime for me but mostly necessary. I need to know my friends as well as I know my enemies or maybe even better. Looking into Gio, there are definitely things I have to get under control with him.

Why the influx of money? Why the inconsistency in his funds? More than that, every fucking transaction iscash.

I’m fond of cash myself. I have a safe full of it in each of my homes. I also have a bank account and legitimate businesses to filter funds through.

This, though, the way he’s moving his money is a glaring red flag. Not just the kind the government looks for, but the kind that has me asking questions.

I got too comfortable.

Early on when I took over, I literally checked everyone’s movements with trackers on their vehicles, as well as in the Rolex watches I gave them. I’ve also watched their bank accounts. Once everyone from the original crew became weeded down to Emilio, Gio, Tony, Rafe, and Marco, my diligence in inspection began to waver. Now, I see I shouldn’t have slipped up. Although, I must admit, I actually thought the betrayal was coming from someone I brought into the fold, not an original member I foolishly believed I could depend on.

Even Big John and my own brother, Emilio, had me questioning things about them.

In the end, the money trail never lies. Giovanni Marino was not a top man in the Uccello family, but he wasn’t new to the organization either.

Continuing to read the pages in front of me, it’s more than the money.

Gio has been doing something on the side for years, maybe even before I took over. It seems to have slowed for a bit, around ten years or so, the transactions weren’t as frequent and definitely not as lucrative.

What gets me is the lists of names.

Hundredsof them, maybe eventhousandsof names. A simple search of the internet leaves most of these listed people as missing or presumed dead. The red flags keep building, flashing at me no matter how much I grind my teeth as I dig.

The name staring at me, though, makes my hackles rise more than the others. While I prepared myself to know Hadley was tied to this crack in my organization, I was not in the least bit ready to know it ran this deep and wide.

Halona Tsosie.

A young Navajo infant taken from her parents while on vacation. Something her parents will forever regret is taking that trip. If they had remained on the reservation, they know without a doubt their daughter would still be with them.

Beside the name is a price: one thousand dollars. Then another name.

Tracing that second name leads to a man who’s been locked up for rape, child molestation, child neglect, crimes against a minor child under the age of five, and murder.

Colton Bernard is doing life for his crimes. The deep dive my attorney did into all of this gives me the case file from the courts. A minor who is not listed by name in any official documents is listed in the redacted ones he’s sent me.

That minor’s name is Hadley Bernard.

She was his victim.

The caseworker for child protective services made notes—extensive ones. The caseworker did not believe that Hadley was indeed Colton’s daughter but rather a child bought off the black market. Her birth certificate was never found or provided when the state stepped in to remove Hadley from his care. Her mother, whom he named, was dead, except the deep dive never proved that woman ever existed.

The layers to this are so many and so fucking complex.

Hadley is not Hadley, but rather Halona Tsosie, and she doesn’t even know it.

Does she remember living with Colton? The things he did to her? What scars have been left behind? My fists clench as I grindmy molars, my heart beating so powerfully, I swear it’s going to rip right out of my fucking chest for my woman.

Page after page, name after name, there are so many of them, all with prices, and eventually a new family as I go down each and every scrap of information in front of me.How long has Gio been trafficking children?Did all of these kids end up in violent and demented families where they were violated in every imaginable way?

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