Page 3 of A Life Betrayed

The mood at the table chilled, and Mathias turned to look at Gabriele. The remark wasn’t lost on him. Mathias’s tainted lineage was not exactly a mark in his favor on the marriage market.

Gabriele cleared his throat and reached clumsily for his glass. “A joke. Come on, Beauvais. It’s a fucking wedding.”

Conversation turned to the track numbers, and Mathias caught Enzo beckoning him from across the room. He stood and navigated his way through the maze of tables toward him. As he walked, a woman in a purple gown appeared at his elbow. He recognized her from the bridal party, a sister or friend, rabid with wedding attention.

“I’m not sure if you remember me—it’s Bianca,” she said with a bright smile. “We met at Carlo and Stella’s—”

He crossed in front of her without a word and rounded the head table to where Enzo was seated. The woman had enough sense not to follow.

“Congratulations,” Mathias said when he reached the beaming father of the bride. He pulled an envelope of cash from inside his jacket and handed it to the man.

Enzo took the gift and stood to shake his hand. He gestured for Mathias to sit in the empty chair beside him. “Might as well keep it for myself, what with everything I’ve spent on this fucking thing. Lace from France.” He gave a snort. “And you think we run a racket.”

“Anything for the happy couple,” Mathias said wryly, taking a seat.

“Ain’t that the truth. But it’s a relief, I tell you. Took the girl forever. We were afraid we’d be stuck with her.”

Mathias glanced over at the horse-faced woman clutching the arm of the exceedingly sweaty man sitting beside her at the table.

“Heard you just got back. What did Truman have to say about the latest seizure?” Enzo asked.

That had been the reason for Mathias’s trip to Hamilton. They’d had two shipments seized in the past six months, and he was growing tired of Truman’s indifference toward theincreased scrutiny. Mathias had a feeling their shared success had gone to Truman’s head, and he was seriously considering pulling the plug on the whole operation. Over the past year, the volume of the Reapers’ shipments had noticeably dropped, and it was becoming apparent that the additional risk they were shouldering was not worth the decline in profit. It wouldn’t go down well with Truman, but with all the unwanted attention, Mathias couldn’t afford to have him distracted at the wheel.

“We’re going to have to do something on our end,” Mathias said. “I’ll speak with De Luca.”

Enzo clapped him on the shoulder. “Good man. Did you get stuck in that mess over the weekend? No worse place to be snowed in than Hamilton.”

Mathias shrugged. “A chance to catch up on my sleep.”

Enzo chuckled and raised his wineglass to his lips. Mathias cast his eyes around the room, thinking of the other things he’d caught up on.

The councilman took a long swig and set the glass down. Then he leaned in, his voice lowered. “I’ve got some news about the investigation. Lapierre is out. It appears they’ve brought someone in from the capital.”

Mathias frowned. They’d been aware of an ongoing federal investigation for some time, the divisional office making a show of sticking their noses into the family’s activities with renewed vigor, but so far, nothing had come of it. It wasn’t the first time either. The RCMP went through cycles like this, drawn into the group’s dealings in Montreal only to pull back when their leads eventually petered out. It helped that the family maintained several friendly connections at federal level—Inspector Philippe Lapierre among them.

“With our old friend given the boot, there goes our sway. I’ve looked into his replacement and put something together.” Enzoretrieved a folded sheet of paper from his jacket and slipped it to Mathias. “Figured you could use the info.”

“Who is he?” Mathias asked, pocketing it.

“He?” Enzo sneered. “They’ve sent a broad. Brownie points for this government—they think some tart in tights is going to topple us.”

Must be more to it than that.They wouldn’t take Lapierre—who’d been a well-regarded figure at the Quebec divisional office for the past twenty years—out of commission for some Girl Scout who looked good on paper.

“There’s something else,” Enzo continued, glancing around quickly. “Turns out the whole thing came about from a tip-off, not just bad timing as we’d suspected. No clue as to who or where it came from, but it looks like we have a leak.”

Mathias set his jaw grimly. “And the nature of the tip-off…?”

“No info there either.”

“I’ll look into it.”

Enzo’s face darkened. “Last thing we need’s some bitch from Ottawa poking around when we’ve got a squealer on our hands.”

Mathias looked out at the crowd of guests growing more inebriated by the minute. It could be anyone—in or out of this room. One thing was clear: they couldn’t afford to give the Feds any more ammunition. He needed to figure out where the leak was coming from and plug it.

Chapter Three

Rayan had just stepped out of the lecture hall after his morning class when he heard his name being called. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Professor Hofstein threading his way through the mass of departing students.

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