Page 20 of Unbound

He pushed it closer and gave me a look. “Randall’s team directed me to set Tommy up with Oliver as a counselor. Oliver also does work for Randall’s department.”

“Fuck,” I bit off. And then I drank down the contents of the glass and immediately poured myself another.

“Tommy got Oliver talking to Lisa when she had her breakdown after the miscarriage. While she was away on herretreat, she was with Oliver and more of Randall’s people. I spoke to her as well. They have a lot of information from her and it’s gonna help, Dario. Immensely.”

I blew out a breath. My brother was going to lose his fuckin’ mind. He was either gonna kill or ruin that guy. He’d be enraged.

Randall got up, his phone ringing, and he left the room.

“You’d best tell Oliver to change his face and get a new identity,” I advised Zack. “And what the fuck on Jason Frost? He’s getting away with his part in this?”

“Don’t know what the deal is for him, that’s out of scope for me, but lesser of evils, Dario. Maybe Lisa should go with you to Thailand as well. Bring them both?”

I shook my head. “I told Joseph Lucas that I took Jason Frost out. Because you fuckin’ asked me to trust you and that’s what you told me to do, Zack. He surfaces, it’s gonna put me in a very fuckin’ uncomfortable situation. And Lisa? No. Lisa’s too fragile.”

But in my head, I wished she wasn’t. She could help Angel through this.

I was not looking forward to telling my angel that she had to go to Kruna with me. She hadn’t brought the place up at all lately. We didn’t discuss it even once while we were in Italy. On our honeymoon, other than seeing Ma and her husband in rough shape, Angel had seemed like she was trying to have a good time.

We’d gone for nice meals, fucked two or three times a day like honeymooners were supposed to do, and did a bunch of sightseeing. I was glad we were gonna have the rest of it once everything was done, though. She’d need it.

Randall was back. “We think Lisa should also go. Is there a way to finesse that with Gan Chen?”

I shook my head, “Not likely. And Lisa isn’t ready for that.”

“Lisa is stronger than you think. Her therapy has been helpful,” Randall said, “And of course we will need to interview Angelica. Soon.”

I figured Angel would want to help put those fuckers away, but I needed to protect her from this, keep her safe not only physically but also mentally.

“I do not think Lisa’s a good idea. At all. Regards to my wife, I’m there for any meetings or interviews. She’s extremely traumatized and she won’t be without me for any of this.”

“If all goes a certain way, she’ll have to sit on the witness stand alone, though, Dario. We’ll try to plea. The more information we have, the better that’ll go and the more chances we won’t have to reveal the identities of any of the witnesses, including Frost.” Zack put his hand on my shoulder.

The look in his eyes reminded me of why I’d considered this guy a friend.

“I know. But if she takes the stand, she’ll have me there in the courtroom. She’ll know she’s safe if she can lay eyes on me, if I’m in the room.”

As much as I detested all she had endured, I had zero problem being her touchstone, her strength.

They wanted to wire her, though, and that didn’t sit well.

“My woman is not your sacrificial lamb,” I repeated, pissed at the very idea of it being brought up again.

They retorted that since she was considered my property no one at Kruna would touch her. They had special devices that would fly under radar by typical bug detecting devices. They recommended I avoid the wire if at all possible because if there was any suspicion whatsoever it would be more likely that they’d check me for bugs and her bra would be made of some material that would mask it, whereas if I wore the bug i on my body somewhere, it could be detected. If I got stuck, I should snipthat section out, leaving it in the bra fabric, before planting it on myself somewhere.

We discussed logistics, they badgered me about trying to get Tommy more on board, and Randall tried to get pushy again.

“My brother can’t help you with Kruna. My brother hasn’t yet met any of these fuckers, we’ve had one conference call where Tommy was present but you already know that shit because Zack recorded that call, so my guess is that you’ve heard the tape. Tommy does not play in that world. He’s focusing on getting Contessa back right now.”

“We know he was privy to some of your father’s dealings in human trafficking…”

“Tommy knew my father knew people and knew Pop frequented an overseas sex resort. That was the extent of his knowledge. Tommy didn’t even know Lisa was bought and had no day-to-day dealings with that trade. Knowledge and participation are two different things and Tommy’s knowledge was minimal, participation: nil.”

They had to know this, if they’d spent effort building a case against my father. They also had Tommy’s head shrink on staff so whatever my brother had copped to with him in his efforts to clear his conscience or whatever the fuck he was trying to do, clearly, they didn’t have all that much. Or so I’d hoped.

Randall and Hal left and me and Zack were alone again. I had a lot to chew on. Certain things happening might make witness protection better for all of us. Getting through all of this without the Ferrano name being mud was possible but would be tricky. I’d already given a lot of requirements that had to be worked into my written ‘deal’.

We would have another meeting before I left for Thailand to discuss the revised terms.

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