Chapter 45: THE MEETING

MIA

She sent the address and I decided to go there earlier and reach the door first. It was an old habit from months of being watched. So I always wanted to know who walked through the door.

I ordered a coffee I didn't want and turned my phone over twice checking for messages from Dante even though I'd told him I had a client meeting in Midtown so I would be out for a while. He kissed my forehead and told me to text when I was done, it should have been fine but the paranoia Lin had put in me didn't let me brush it off.

She appeared at twelve on the dot, coat buttoned, bag over one shoulder, eyes scanning the cafe instinctively and I realized it was a pattern I had also seen in Marco and Dante.

She smiled a bit when she saw me then sat opposite me.

"You came," she said.

"You said you could prove it." I cut straight to the point.

She reached into her bag and set an envelope on the table between us. I stared at it but didn't touch it yet.

"Before I show you this, I need you to understand that I'm not doing this because of Ren at all." She held my eyes. "Whatever happened between you two is separate. I'm here because of what I've seen happen to people who get close to the Voss family without understanding what they walked into."

I looked at the envelope. "The Voss family?"

"Yes."

"Show me the content first," I said. "Talk after."

She opened it and slid three photographs across the table face up.

The first one showed Dante outside a building I didn't recognize, talking to two men whose body language told me enough about them and I couldn't deny it even if I wanted to.

The second showed Dante and Marco getting out of a car with two other men in an alley, all of them moving towards a very shady looking group of men with barely concealed weapons on them.

The third showed Dante in what looked like the back room of somewhere, jacket off, sitting at a table with some older men who looked like they were running a very shady meeting. I could see some things like drugs lying around.

I stared at that last one for a long time.

"These could be anything," I said, hesitantly.

"They could be." She admitted. "But keep looking."

I looked more carefully at the photos and this was nothing like the investment consulting he had described. I started to notice just how deadly he looked in all of them, armed as well.

"He told me he does investment consulting," I said.

"He lied to you to cover up what he actually does because he knows you don't like mafia men."

"That's—" I stopped then started again. "That's insane. You're telling me he's mafia."

"I'm telling you he's been with the Voss family since he was sixteen. Since his father was killed." She said the last part carefully, watching for my reaction. "He told you his father died. He didn't tell you how, or who, or what it meant for him after."

The room felt slightly tilted at this point.

"That's why he joined them."

"That's why he was recruited." She pulled out one more photo and set it down. "This is from eleven months ago. At a warehouse in Red Hook that the Voss family uses for certain kinds of meetings with a rival mafia. Do you know what mafia that is?"

I shook my head.

"Ren's family," she said. "That's who Ren works for — with." She tapped the photo. "Eleven months ago there was a meeting that went wrong. The details aren't important right now but someone was being held and someone intervened and the whole thing came apart." She watched my face. "You were there, Mia."

My blood went cold.

"I don't know what you're—"

"Think about what happened during that time, Mia. You were shooting an abandoned industrial series for a personal project and you wandered into something you shouldn't have." She looked me dead in the eyes. "You didn't see much but you saw enough to cause a disturbance that gave someone an opportunity to get out of a bad situation."

The abandoned warehouse. I'd posted two photos from that series and deleted the rest because something about the memory of that night had made me uncomfortable.

"I left quickly." I said. "So I didn't see anything at all."

I had seen but that wasn't her business. I genuinely didn't like where this was going and my stomach twisted in knots.

"You did, Mia. And he saw you too." She said.

The entire cafe suddenly felt suffocating.

"He's been watching you since that night and he has been plotting." She said. "You getting the apartment across the hall at the right time at such a good price was not a coincidence. The stalker, the messages, the way he always knew where you were… isn't it clicking? He's been watching you since Red Hook and he plotted on how to get close to you."

I opened my mouth and nothing came out.

"Think about it," she said. "Think deeply. The timing of when he moved in. The things he knew about you that he shouldn't have known. The way every threat seemed to drive you closer to him specifically. The way everyone else slowly disappeared." She didn't say it with satisfaction, but genuine regret. "It all fits and you know it but you've been choosing to ignore it for a while because you love him."

She was right. He was always there at the right time and I thought it was just him being attentive but turns out it wasn't. All the fear, panic and… pictures I had sent to the stalker. That was him.

I thought about how I'd never once heard him say his own last name.

"The stalker messages," I said shakily. "You're telling me—"

"That's him." She said without hesitation. "Every single one from the beginning."

I stood up fast, chair scraping loud enough to earn me a few looks.

"You're lying," I said.

"Check his apartment." She said softly. "There has to be a second phone somewhere. Somewhere he thinks you won't look and that's the one he uses to message you. Find it and then tell me I'm lying."

I picked up my bag, said nothing else then walked out of the cafe and into the cold street. I let the noise try to drown the raging in my head.

I was going to check and if she was right… I wasn't sure what I'd do.