Page 27 of Owned By the Mafia

“Are you ready for our lesson, Carmine?” she asks, smiling at me. “Sorry, Dina. I’m going to steal him for an hour.”

I shake my head. “Not at all. I was just leaving. Thanks, Carmine. I’ll report back my findings.”

I walk out, listening to the two of them giggling. I shut the door behind me, and my heart aches. I want to laugh and tease Robbie and be with him. But I can’t, and I have to learn to accept that.

I get a driver to take me to Joe’s address and knock on his door. An aged man opens the door and looks at me fearfully. “Yes?”

“Hi, Joe? Is your name Joe?”

“I don’t want any trouble.” He’s scared, and I smile reassuringly.

“Mr. Sorvino just wants to know a few things, then I’ll make sure you’re left alone with a little something to help you along.” I smile again, and he nods, glancing around before he lets me in.

He makes us espresso and sits opposite me. “What do you want to know?”

“The day those Russian men were killed, you saw that, right? You saw who it was? Can you tell me about them?” I don’t drink the espresso. I don’t trust drinks from people I don’t know, but if he notices, he doesn’t care.

“There was one man who stood out,” he says shakily. “He had bright blue eyes and pale white skin, and he definitely wasn’t an Italian. I know Italians. I come from a long line of well-bred Italian men.” He gives me a cheeky smile.

I nod. “Go on.”

“I also know Sorvino men. Those weren’t them. They didn’t know I was there, and I heard them mention another family. I can’t be sure, but I think it was Balducci.” He shivers.

“Balducci? It’s not a name I’ve heard before,” I muse. “Did you tell anyone else this?’

“No one but Mr. Carmine knows what I saw,” he says. “I asked him not to involve me.”

“I won’t either,” I promise as I stand. “I promise you’ll be compensated. Thank you, Joe.”

Before he can say anything else, I leave. I asked the driver to take me back to the main offices. Once in my room, I sit down and use my access to the police database to search for the Balducci family. I don’t find anything on any families known as Balducci.

I message Carmine to ask for his advice.

Can’t find anything on a possible lead. Do you know a Balducci family?

I wait impatiently, and then my text goes off.

Asked Arianna, and she said it can be spelled Baldocchi. Try that. It sounds familiar.

I enter it into the database, and hits immediately start popping up. It’s primarily crimes relating to a young family that are new to the police in New York. New to us, too, I guess.

I immediately call Carmine. “The old man says that someone not Italian was there, someone pale with blue eyes. We need to figure out who that was to see who’s betraying the family.”

“It will be a bit difficult, considering all the video footage for that spot was erased. Whoever did it knows what they’re doing.” Carmine sighs.

“What about traffic cameras?” I ask. “The cameras leading out of that area. Can we search those?’

“It’ll take long, but if you can get the footage, I’ll help you go through it. I don’t mind. Do you have a connection?” he asks.

“Yes, I have a way to get the footage, but it will take us a couple of days to go through it. I suggest we set up a room at the estate. We’ll be safer there.” I logged out of the system and shut down.

“Okay, let the driver bring you back once you’ve got the footage. If we can find video evidence of these fuckers we can put out a target on them and also hopefully find out who their inside man is.”

We hang up, and I leave the office, instructing the driver where to take me. I sit back and think about Robbie. It’s barely been twenty-four hours since we last spoke, and I miss him desperately. And that’s a problem.

That I return the same feelings he has for me, and that’s going to get the two of us killed.

I can’t avoid him forever, but I need to put some distance between us somehow.

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