Page 20 of Where the Wicked Reign

“He could be biding his time, Mom.”

“I’m a public figure. A revered pediatric surgeon, for one thing, and I’m also a recognizable figure in society circles. He can’t hurt me or it would destroy his reputation as a reputable businessman.”

“He could find a way. You’re not untouchable. You need to take a vacation, Mom. A couple of weeks. Now.”

“Drop this on my daughter’s plate and run off? I think not. Besides, I have my patients and I’m needed at the hospital.”

“We both know you’ve banked enough vacation time. You’re due. As for me, don’t worry. I’m not a helpless little girl.”

She smiled proudly. “No, you’re certainly not.”

“Thanks to you.”

“You did the work, Caterina.”

“And you covered for me that year I was away training to protect myself.”

Well, it had become quite a bit more than just protecting myself. I may have taken to thetraininga little too well. All the anger, resentment, and frustration at being denied power for so long, or a real say in my life back then, had been fueled into what I’d learned from a certain someone—an old contact of my mom’s—and it had brought forth another side to me, a much darker side.

I blinked out of that impromptu trip down memory lane and focused up, asking my mom, “I need more to go on. The girl’s name? Where she was being transported to that night? What if they’d had her for another purpose and it’s not what we think?”

“I know. It wasn’t much. So I didn’t stop there. I used that bug you gave me and uploaded the data to the Cloud you set up for me a while back when we first thought your father was cheating on me again. I put it in his office.”

“You didwhat?”

“I took it out once I got what I needed.”

“Shit, Mom, that was a hell of a risk.”

She lifted a shoulder. “I managed it, regardless.” She reached into her purse and took out a memory stick, handing it to me. “Everything it picked up is on here.”

I could’ve just taken it directly from the Cloud, but I didn’t bother telling her that, because she’d gone to the effort to do this instead.

“Thanks.”

“It turns out this operation is in the infancy stage. Only he and Angelo know about it, and obviously, Angelo’s soldiers. It’s been kept from Dante and Matteo, along with the other Capo, Elia.”

The Underboss and my father’s Consigliere were being kept out of the loop? This was something else.

“That young woman was part of what they’re calling atest shipment.Apparently, she was injured that night by one of Angelo’s soldiers when she resisted, as she was being forced into one of their shipping containers. That’s right, shipping containers. That’s how disgusting this whole thing is. The asshole tried to subdue her and ended up stabbing her in the struggle. After I got her out, they still went ahead with their shipment. From what I could gather, they’re keeping these victims somewhere ahead ofsellingthem in a few weeks. I just don’t know where. They used codes when they were discussing the locations—warehouses, maybe? Empty units of God knows which one of Santino’s real estate developments?”

I put the memory stick down beside my laptop. “It’s all right. I’ll take it from here.”

She scrubbed her hand over her face. “Maybe I should have taken this to the Feds.”

“No, if you’d done that, you would have signed your death sentence. You were there treating that woman that night. This is being kept hush-hush. Angelo Simone is up Father’s ass, eager to prove himself because he wants to supplant Dante as Underboss. With him calling you in instead of one of his other doctors on the payroll shows how desperate he was to keep this quiet. With that in play, the finger would have pointed right at you.” I rose from my chair. “So, this is what we’ll do. You’re going to take that vacation I suggested so I know you’re safe and also so you’re far away from the chaos that they’re gonna have coming to them. I’ll get the location of these victims of theirs and extract them, and I’ll give them another target to focus on, creating a trail that will lead far away from you.”

“Not a trail back toyou.Tell me that’s not what you’re thinking.”

“It’s not. I promise. I’ll be careful.”

I walked to her, and she rose from her seat as I told her, “I’ll make it look like the hospital forced you to take your vacation finally, so this doesn’t come across as being out of the blue. I need the weekend, then by the time you go to work on Monday, it will be in place, then you can notify Father.”

She reached out and took my hands. “I’m sorry to put this on you. I just—”

“It’s fine, Mom. Really. Like I said, I’ll take care of it.”

“You shouldn’t have to.”

---