Page 38 of Shield

Fuck. With a start, I realize that Valentina distracted me from checking the cameras in Siena’s house when I woke up.

Heart pounding, I wrap a towel around my waist and rush back into the living room.

Valentina smirks as I snatch up my phone. “Change of heart, stud?”

Ignoring her, I open the camera app, scanning all the angles of Siena’s house, inside and out. My stomach drops. She’s gone.

I call Grit. “Where the fuck is she?”

“Sorry, boss. I’ve been trying to call, but you didn’t pick up. I followed her from her house this morning. She took the PATH train to 14th Street. We’re on the subway now; I’m in the train car behind her. Do you want me to pick her up?”

“No. Keep eyes on her and update me.” I’m about to hang up when he interrupts me.

“Boss, I had to bury two packages last night. Former friendlies.” He means they were Demonio’s men. “But my guys got everything cleaned up before the girls arrived, and no one else has showed up since then.”

Fuck. Aurelio knows where she lives now. She can’t stay there.

I’ve been systematically upgrading security round the clock since I sent her away, but I hadn’t expected to bring her here until after we dealt with Aurelio.

When I hang up, Valentina is right behind me. I brace myself, expecting her to do something that’s going to make me want to punch her in the face, but her expression is flat, checked out. Fucking psychopath.

“Do you want to take a look? I have to go.”

I give a curt nod and she settles on the couch while I scroll through looking for anything of interest. At least she knows enough not to hang over my shoulder.

Most of the thumbnails feature Aurelio’s face, and depending on the background or his expression, I stop my scroll and watch a few. There are hundreds of audio clips, video clips. I put in my earbuds and listen, fast forwarding through some, while skimming over images.

I make a mental note to have Eleanor go through these more meticulously.

Then one thumbnail catches my eye. It’s a close up of a man’s hand, slightly blurry, but the glint on his wrist has me opening it up for a better look. As soon as his hand is in view, I freeze the frame and zoom in.

It’s unmistakable. It’s the watch band that I saw Siena staring at the other night, the Parmigiani. Except in this video it’s not broken. Examining the watch face, I put the pictureinto a search engine and do a reverse image search, scrolling until I find a picture that matches: it’s a vintage Parmigiani watch that was discontinued decades ago, during a time when the company was making fewer than 1000 watches each year.

There’s no way this isn’t the same watch.

I zoom out and stare at the face of the man wearing it in the video, hatred coursing through my body. This is exactly the kind of information that Siena is actively looking for and may find on Emily’s phone. And I need to make sure that information goes through me.

Valentina releases a dramatic sigh, and I glance over my shoulder as she rises from the couch. “Nice seeing you, Matti. Maybe next time I’ll get to see a little more of you.” The script is the same, but her usual flirtatious tone isn’t there. Maybe she’s finally learning.

Making sure my towel is firmly closed, I stand and jerk my head toward the door. She fakes a pout and blows me a kiss as she turns to go.

My phone rings, and I wait for the front door to close behind her before I answer. “What’s up, Grit.”

“Hey, boss. You’re not going to believe this, but she’s coming to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Siena just walked inside Dragovari Tower.”

18

Matti

Eleanor picks up on the first ring. “Yes, sir?”

“Eleanor, do you see a woman, 30s, short, brown hair, brown eyes, walking into the lobby right now?” I put her on speaker and open up the camera app on my phone, switching to the lobby cameras.

“Siena Bellamorte? Let me look, sir,” she says. I can hear a general murmur of people talking around her. “It’s very busy here this morning. Give me a moment.”

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