Page 106 of Divine Obsession

We all looked to see my father making his way towards us.

I cleared my throat and fixed my posture. “Thanks, Dad.”

Maria bumped her elbow into Manny’s side and they both left to give us the space to talk.

Dad turned to the only other person left. “Trevor Su.”

“Mr Moretti,” Trevor replied politely – almost like the perfect gentleman – though I didn’t miss the slight venom in his tone.

“I assume your father has already filled you in. That’s why you’re here?”

Something elusive passed through Trevor’s eyes. “Correct.”

Dad sighed. “I don’t like it, but it must be done.”

“What must be done?” I asked, taking a step forward.

“Cara,” Dad turned to me. “Richard Su and I have come to an agreement that you and Trevor will be working together on the cyberattacks.”

I could swear I felt the globe fall off its axis in that exact moment.

“What?”

Over the past couple of months, my father’s organization had suffered from countless cyber heists. The latest, resulting in frozen assets. The Moretti Family’s undercover bank accounts, which had been filled with enormous amounts of hidden, illegal, unwashed money – were drained and consequently frozen. As for our offshore accounts and local holdings, they too became inaccessible.

If that had been all, it wouldn’t have necessarily been as much of a threat. Just another enemy that needed to be hunted down and killed.

The attacker however, left a digital breadcrumb trail framing us for laundering government funds and stealing from international accounts.

I guess it wasn’t technically framing since the moneyhadbeen dirty – but the family didn’t dabble in government money. There was a saying among the criminal underworld that government money had more blood on it than criminals’.

Regardless, now we were in it with the feds, which was an unnecessary pain in the ass.

My father had basically the whole of the FBI in his pocket, so we weren’t necessarily in trouble… But the situation needed to be resolved quickly.

Which resulted in me being in charge to handle it. I was already not only my father’s family’s main hacker, but also the whole of New York’s Cosa Nostra’s.

And Iwashandling it.

I just needed a little more time.

“What do the Sus have to do with our family’s business?”

“The same exact cyberattacks are happening to them. A government relation informed Richard and I of the similarity.”

“Dad, I’m the best goddamn hacker on the East Coast. I was top of my class at Columbia.”

“So was Trevor. Which is why Richard and I want you two working together. I know you’re disappointed, but we both believe this is for the best.”

Disappointed? I wasfurious.

“I’m supposed to handle this myself. You know I can. Every one of my past jobs has been a success.”

That was afact. There was a reason why I was Cosa Nostra’s highest-paid hacker.

“Yes,cara, but sometimes you need to unite forces in order to take down a common threat. Neither family has the expertise to deal with this type of cyber warfare on their own.”

“But, dad–”

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