Page 16 of In Her Blood
Iris rolled her lips between her teeth like she so often did before saying something that compelled him to react in visceral ways, but it was not her voice that filled the air next.
“If that’s your idea of dirty talk, I’m amazed you ever managed to make a baby.”
Iris turned crimson and ducked her head.
Dante lowered his arms to encircle her around the waist and turned his head to scowl at his sibling. “And if my son weren’t sleeping, I might shoot you.”
Mikey grinned back shamelessly. “I do appreciate your mercy.”
Dante stared him down for another beat before pressing one more kiss to the side of Iris’s head. “I’ll be in my office for a bit if you need me.”
Iris took a deep breath and straightened, having found her composure. She nodded, then offered a smile to the other man in the room. “Hi, Mikey.”
Mikey inclined his head. “Hey, Sis. You look good. Vitto napping?”
She bobbed her head. “Yes.”
“I’ll keep it down, then.”
Dante gave her hips one final squeeze before stepping back and striding over to his brother. “Let’s talk in my office.”
Mikey only nodded and followed behind him down the hall.
They didn’t speak until the door was shut and they were settled in their usual positions, Dante in his leather chair and Mikey in the corner seat of the matching sofa. Dante’s home office was a combination of moody professional and cigar lounge, and while much of the house around it had changed little by little with Iris’s welcome influence, she had refused to change this room. He’d offered to let her renovate anything she wanted, with the one exception of removing the panic room, but she hadn’t touched his office. She’d insisted it needed to be the strongest reflection ofhimit could be—his power, his aura, his absolute authority.
Her words.
Mikey swung the shoulder bag he always carried on his visits up onto the coffee table and swiftly pulled a laptop from within. “Let me start with saying that I don’t have all the information yet,” he began, “and yes, of course, I’m working on that. But I didn’t think it was smart to leave you blind to this until that process was finished, in case whatever the hell this is turns out to be a worst-case scenario.”
Dante scowled and settled back in his seat, raising one leg to rest his ankle over the opposite knee. “You know I rarely have patience for when you speak in circles, Mikey. Get to it.”
Mikey flexed both hands in an uncharacteristic, visibly anxious gesture, and Dante’s own anxiety spiked a little. Mikey looked up from his laptop. “A while back, I set up several alerts based on keywords and word combinations in an effort to help keep us ahead of any shit that might be headed our way.” He paused. “Things like our names in media posts or consistently repeated searches, paired with anything suspicious … like references to death.”
Dante nodded his understanding. This did not feel like a good lead-in, but then, that would be why Mikey was making an issue of it.
“This past weekend, one of those alerts started pinging,” Mikey said, an odd weight overtaking his voice. He reached for his computer again. “Someone’s gone to good effort to hide the exact source, which is what I’m still working on, but I do have it narrowed down.” He spun the laptop around so Dante could see the split screen display. “Even as of this morning, when a bunch of those same searches were repeated ona different browser, it didn’t seem like the source had changed location. That … is the good news.”
Dante narrowed his eyes at the screen, seeing a topographical map swathed in a veritable net of red. But he was close enough, and the map zoomed in enough, that he could make out certain words. The word that mattered. “Chicago.”
Mikey nodded. “I don’t yet know more specifically than that. Right now, it looks like there’s a privacy barrier between the source of the searches and my probes. Brandi and I are working to break it down.”
Dante nodded again. “Good. But I assume you know what they were searching for?” The fact that his brother hadn’t yet volunteered that information had him on edge. It obviously pertained to family—to blood—and he damn well needed to know. If there was someone in Chicago looking to learn their secrets, perhaps their weaknesses, Dante needed to know everything.
Chicago wasn’t in their network. It was mostly run by bratva families who liked Italians about as much as Italians cared for the Irish. Still, Dante made an effort to keep ears in the area. He never wanted to be caught unaware. And he hadn’t heard a fucking whisper about either clan of note thinking to take a broader swing.
Mikey reached over the top of his screen, swept his finger sideways, and expanded the other half of the display until the document took over the entire thing. “This is the list of results that returned to me,” he said. “You’ll see for yourself what they have in common.” He looked up, and there was something beyond irritation in his eyes. “They’re all focused on Mom.”
Dante reared back.
Mikey continued somberly. “Whoever it is, they’re looking for her … or evidence of her death.” He indicated a section of text on the screen.
Dante dropped his gaze to the words typed beside Mikey’s finger.
Eleonora De Salvo + Death
Death Certificate Eleonora De Salvo
Is Eleonora De Salvo dead?
