Page 48 of Gin & Trouble

“Good fucking riddance. Any idea if he was on it?” Marco lowered his voice enough that people wouldn’t hear him in the next parish.

“I can’t access the airport security footage until it’s archived, but I’ll keep an eye out for it.” I clicked another window to start the search process of the arrival information. Once I had the details of Abruzzo’s visit to New Orleans, I intended to take my program apart bit by bit until I identified the cause of the failure.

There goes the rest of my night and probably most of the day tomorrow.

Marco said, “Since Abruzzo is gone, I’m going to hold off on sounding the alarms to the family. Enzo just found out he’s going to be a father—”

“What?” After the disaster with Leo, the news another niece or nephew was on the way knocked me for six. Not to mention, neither Enzo nor Shanna seemed all that interested in having children. “Is he…happy about it?”

“Thrilled, and so is she. They’re planning to make the official announcement in Sicily over Christmas. Enzo has this idea to give the future grandparents baby gifts…” Marco sighed as if just realizing how many Marchionni lives were at stake if he made the wrong call. “And then there’s Leo.”

“Tell me about it,” I muttered to myself.

“He’s dealing with a situation with Dahlia that has the potential to blow sky high.”

“Are you referring to the stalker or the kid?” I added a long talk with Leo to my list of shit to do.

“You know about Gunnar?” Marco didn’t seem all that surprised.

However, the facthe’dknown shocked me. Not that long ago, he wouldn’t have kept something so big from me. “I figured it out when I met him. Am I the last to know?”

“Don’t be like that. You and I are the only ones.” Marco sighed. “Leo let it slip in the middle of lecturing me for marrying Nico. He was trying to prove how selfish I was, since he’d made some grand effing sacrifice.”

“He’s an idiot.”

“An idiot who’s freaked out that some psycho broke into his woman’s house. He doesn’t need this on top of it.” He sounded as tired as I felt. “I need to go. Get me the info, ASAP.”

“Will do.” I disconnected the call.

Julia whispered, “ADIZ?”

“Air Defense Identification Zone. It’s a boundary surrounding the United States. Pilots are required to file flight plans and notify the FAA before crossing it.” It broke me to see her so upset, but I needed her to understand what this side of my job entailed.

“And if they don’t?” She wiped her tears away as if angry they’d crashed the party.

“If the pilot fails to notify the FAA on the way in, it’s considered an act of aggression, and the military can get involved.” I shrugged. “I’m not sure what happens on the way out.”

She nodded, but I was pretty sure she’d checked out halfway through my explanation.

Ignoring work for the time being, I spun my chair to face her. “I’m sure you have questions about what I told you before and what just happened.”

“Not really. Your program failed, someone dangerous was in the city without you knowing it, and your brother wants to know what the person did while he was here, right?”

“That about sums it up.” I squeezed her hand partly to comfort her, but mostly because I needed to make sure she didn’t bolt. “What did you want to talk to me about earlier?”

“I have no idea.” She laughed a hollow sort of laugh that made my chest ache.

“Are you sure you’re okay with all of this?”

Julia shrugged. “Who was the man on the plane?”

I told her my family was involved with the freaking mob, and that’s what she wants to know?

“His name is Tommaso Abruzzo. He’s the head of one of the five mafia families in the Cosa Nostra.” I hated to ask, but her reaction while I was on the phone with Marco seemed out there—likein a galaxy far far awayout there. “But you knew that already, didn’t you?”

“You realize I’m paid to hack into Marchionni computer systems? I’m privy to a lot of…classified information.” Her eye twitched and she bit her lower lip. “I’ve seen the name on several security reports.”

I caught myself nodding, even though I was ninety-nine-point-nine percent sure she’d just lied to me. What I couldn’t figure out was why or what she could possibly be up to. She’d worked for the company almost a year, and we hadn’t faced any criminal charges, suffered any obvious corporate espionage, and had no known security breaches.

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