Page 34 of Her Dark Mafia Protector
“Absolutely. She’s the best hacker in all of Vegas, possibly in the entire country, and everyone knows it,” I say. “Which means that if she’s stolen this much money from some rich Bratva Don, she’s likely going to be discovered and in a whole hell of a lot of trouble. I know what she did to you at the club was wrong, but Zara and I go way back, and I can’t just let her get into trouble. Especially if the trouble she’s found herself in is a result of trying to send apology money to the Bratva to repay my debt.”
“I understand,” Elle nods as her eyes narrow with the same sort of instinctual caution that makes her so dangerously good at her job. “And I agree. Maybe I can help you figure out where she got the money from. I’m no tech genius, but I’m pretty good at tracking things down through back channels.”
Elle and I put aside whatever plans we were about to discuss for the day and focus on this new task instead. Together, we dive deeper into the corners of the internet that can help us figure out what’s going on. She uses the screenshot to trace back to a bank, and when the online sleuthing runs cold, we get dressed and head out to do some in-person sleuthing.
When we get to the bank, Elle acts the part of a prospective customer, garnering the bank manager’s attention while I slip into a back room and sift through some computer files. So much for lettingallof my Ghost skills fall away from me. It doesn’t take me long before I find what I’m looking for—the man who owns the bank account Zara hacked into and stole from,Dante Marchesi.
Shit.Dante’s reputation is almost as notorious as the Ghost’s.
I quickly download the bank files onto my thumb drive and make it back to the bank’s lobby before Elle finishes up with the branch manager and anyone realizes that I’ve wandered off intoparts of the bank I shouldn’t have. A security guard is standing just inside the bank’s door, and he doesn’t even bat an eye when I walk back into the lobby and sit down. They seem to be much more concerned with keeping the vault protected than with their computer files. Seems to me like that’s an error on their part.
“Thank you very much for your time,” Elle says as she and the manager step out from his small cubicle. “I’ll look over all the information you’ve given me and get back to you with my decision.”
“Wonderful,” he smiles politely. “I’ll look forward to hearing from you.”
Elle and I walk right past the security guard and back to the car.
“Well?” she says once we’re in the car with the doors closed. “What did you find out?”
“I found out that Zara is tangled up with a man named Dante Marchesi,” I say with a weighty exhale. “In the mafia underworld, he’s simply known asThe Glutton.”
“Sounds delightful,” Elle says sarcastically as we drive back to my apartment.
I continue to tell her what I know about Dante on the ride. “He’s infamous for his ruthless indulgence, obsessed with power, addicted to pleasure, and relentless in his pursuit of pain.”
“Jesus,” she gasps. “He actually sounds downright terrifying. And trust me, coming from me that holds a lot of weight because I’ve crawled into the minds of some pretty terrifying criminals over the years.”
“And I hate to ask you to do this, but?—”
“You want me to crawl into this guy’s head, too, don’t you?” she interrupts.
I nod. “To do what you do best and compile a psychological profile of this guy that Zara seems to have inadvertently gotten herself tangled up with. Knowing her, she targeted the first bank account that was easiest to hack without doing much digging into who the guy is.”
“I thought you said that he was notorious,” Elle points out as we reach the apartment and head inside. “Wouldn’t she have known not to mess with him if he’s as bad as you say? It’s not like a nickname such asThe Gluttonis easy to go unnoticed.”
“I doubt it,” I shake my head. “She probably didn’t bother to look at who she was stealing from, at least nothard enough. Besides, reputations are usually built on top of rumors. I’m not so sure anyone really knows the extent to which Dante partakes in the perverse pleasures that he’s rumored to. Sometimes, men like him use tall-tale stories of how horrific they are in order to scare people off. I need to know how much trouble Zara isreallyin.”
“Okay,” she says as she reaches for her laptop and sets it up on the table. “Give me an hour and I’ll get you some answers.”
I leave her alone to work, trying to press my memory for any encounters that I’ve had with Dante in the past, while I hear Elle’s fingers clicking against the keyboard and the sound of her voice making a few calls and calling in a few favors in exchange for leads and information. It’s impressive hearing her work. She’s fast and incredibly precise. And she has more connections around the city than even I was aware of.
If memory serves, I’ve only crossed paths with Dante Marchesi a few times. For as much of a gluttonous asshole who didn’tshy away from being in the public eye as I recall him being, the kind that likes to flaunt what he has and what he cantake, our paths didn’t cross often. I kept to the shadows while he sought the spotlight. I’ve seen him in passing a few times, but can’t remember ever exchanging words. I don’t know much about the guy other than the fact that he’s a snake in the grass, and that his “tastes” are even a bit too extreme for some of the hardest, most over-the-top kingpins. Unfortunately, I’m about to learn a whole lot more about him now.
“Nico,” Elle’s voice calls from the other room. “I think I’ve done about as much as I can with this guy.”
I walk out and sit to join her at the table, glancing over the open tabs on her computer and the pages of scrawled notes spread across the surface of the table. It looks like meticulous work.
“Thank you for doing this,” I say before we get started.
“Don’t thank me yet,” she sighs. “You’re not going to like what I found, or the profile that I’ve put together for this man. It’s not just bad, it’schilling.”
“Tell me.”
Elle’s assessment is blunt, which is good. I don’t want to waste time sugarcoating any of this. I want to know what Zara’s gotten herself into and whether or not it’s something that I should be justifiably concerned about. Zara is scrappy and smart, and capable of taking care of herself—to a point. But there are some men in the mafia thatnowoman would stand a chance going up against, and I fear Dante might be one of them.
“Dante Marchesi doesn’t simplytake,” Elle starts off. “Heconsumeseverything in his path.”
“You make him sound like some sort of feral beast,” I joke.
