Page 34 of Of Desire And Deception

“Enough talk about your reproductive organs.” I sheathed my knives and folded my hands on the table in front of me. “There are more important matters to discuss.”

“You intercepted a shipment,” Dante prompted.

“Of women,” I gritted out, my blood heating with rage. We didn’t tolerate the flesh trade, and I would personally send any man who participated to hell. “The River Raiders have moved into trafficking. By the time I found the right shipping container, the contact who had dropped it was long gone.”

“And the Raiders?” Dante’s expression darkened. “Did you let any of them live?”

“A couple.” I shrugged. “For a little while.”

Romeo looked bored as he no doubt texted his wife. “But you didn’t get any intel out of them?”

“They didn’t send anybody higher in the organization to pick up the girls. Just a group of guys in a box truck,” I explained. “All they could tell me was they were given a location to drop the girls. Whoever had been stationed there was gone when I took a few men to check it out. They must have found out the operation was compromised.”

“There will be other opportunities,” Dante said optimistically. “We will find the men responsible.”

“At the expense of more women,” I added ruefully. “Do you think Luca knows anything he’s not telling us?”

Dante lifted his eyes to mine. “I’m sure.”

My fist clenched. “Let me question him.”

“Fuck no,” Romeo snapped, shoving his phone back in his pocket. “You will not take strips of skin from Luca’s hide.”

“He’ll tell us what we need to know.” Dante had more faith in our cousin than I did.

Though I knew where Luca was staying in New York, I couldn’t pick him up without blowing his cover. That is, if I intended to return him safely. Nobody would believe I was picking up my cousin for a pleasant chat, and people didn’t make it out of my dungeon alive. I couldn’t have witnesses who could lead others back to its location.

“Tell him we need more information now.” I was itching to get my hands on another lowlife trafficking piece of shit. My blood sang, calling for violence and bloodshed.

“I’ll pass on your request,” Dante said with a flick of his fingers. It would be no use to press him on the matter.

“How about the security breach?” Romeo asked, changing the subject. “Did you get that figured out?”

“I had the tech guys look into it,” I told them. “As far as they can tell, it seems like a power surge… or something.”

Call me paranoid, but I was suspicious whenever something went wrong with technology. In the old days, the mafia operated with as little technology as possible. We still didn’t own certain home devices that could be controlled with voice commands and had the function disabled on our phones. You couldn’t be sure who was listening at any given time.

Correspondence was coded and never done on a work computer. The laptop I used at Deception never contained any information pertaining to my family’s other operations. Many of our more unsavory business ventures were still conducted in person after we had checked everybody for wires. The feds still thought they could easily turn men and use them against us. Unfortunately for them, I found any leaks and plugged them. Government workers were woefully underpaid and easily swayed by money. There was always somebody willing to inform on plans regarding my family.

“You don’t think it was a coincidence?” Dante asked, sensing my hesitation.

“There’s no way to know for sure. I’d rather err on the side of caution.” I nodded subtly to the extra men I’d posted. “Until I know what’s going on, I’ve tightened security. I’m also replacing all the cameras in case they were directly tampered with while they were down. None of the employees saw anything abnormal, but there’s always a chance somebody got in.”

“What about the basement?” Romeo asked, his knee bouncing nervously. “Could they have gotten in?”

“No. It’s on a separate system.” I’d insisted on it from the beginning. If somebody got through the first line of defense, there was always a backup power supply for the dungeon. “I didn’t get any notifications about a breach. I have it set up so I know every time somebody opens the basement door and my dungeon door. Everything runs through encryption, too.”

“Smart.” It was as close to praise as I would get from my older brother. He wasn’t quite as emotionless as I was, but the man was every bit as guarded.

“I have contingencies if the security downstairs is compromised.” As a last resort, I could incinerate everything by hitting a kill switch. The people upstairs would have enough time to get out since the dungeon was concrete, but any lingering evidence wouldn’t survive.

“Well, let’s hope this was a glitch,” Dante concluded. It’s what we all hoped for, because having any law enforcement agency that close was a fucking hassle. He turned to Romeo. “How’s the rebuild going with Flex?”

“It’s going to take time.” Romeo sighed. “But since we have to start again, I got permits to put a pool on the ground level and make the building three levels instead of two. So in the end, it will be the biggest location with the most amenities.”

Flex was Romeo’s baby. He’d started with one luxury gym and made it into a chain that doubled as a cover for those who owed the family money. So many people owned gym memberships and never used them; it was nearly impossible to prove anything underhanded was going on. The finances were clean.

“Do you think we could pass off bomb dogs as emotional support animals?” he asked Dante. We were all cautious after the bombings.

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