Chapter 24—Claudius

Yesterday brought with it an answer clear as glass. It was the answer I didn’t want, but it truly was the answer to what my heart feared the most.

I needed to let her go.

Let Ava go. It was the same answer I’d had in the very beginning. The same fucking answer that tore me apart.

Letting her go this time would be harder, because she knew the truth. She knew how much I loved her, but love wasn’t close to enough for us to be together.

I needed to let her go and live a normal life. Go be happy with a man like that dweeb John. Crispy clean in his suit and that I-think-I’m-hot-shit attitude. She could go be happy with someone like that in her restaurant.

She could meet a normal guy, have a family, and live the rest of her life happy and safe. A life that didn’t include me.

A life where she wasn’t tainted by my world.

I wasn’t like Luc. Luc was the guy who had his shit together. The significant thing about it was, whether he was in the business or not, he had his fucking head screwed on and knew how to handle a situation.

Me, I just lost my mind, and when it called for it, couldn’t think past running into the street on a blood hunt for the fuckers who messed with me and mine.

Too much had happened in just this week alone. All disasters like signs or massive warning billboards telling me to get this woman out of my life if I didn’t want to ruin her any more than I had.

So, that was it. It wouldn’t matter what I wanted. It was the right thing to do. The right thing—my old friend returning, rearing its ugly head in my face, telling me that all the choices I made would never include my own happiness.

Fuck.

I didn’t matter. That didn’t matter. Right now, I had to switch into serious mode and get to the bottom of this.

Instead of sleeping, I went to my office and called in every resource I knew before the sun came up.

That also included contact to the hacker we’d used three years ago when Amelia got taken by Victor, and Taglioni Donachie.

The hacker’s name was Cora.

Getting her details meant talking to Amelia’s friend, Brad Sinclaire. A damn cop based in L.A. I hated cops more than anything, but he was a guy who actually grew on me even though I gave him a hard time.

I needed Cora now because I didn’t know how much time we had available to us.

Last night, whoever was watching us killed David. That and the incident at the restaurant all spoke of what trouble was on the way. So, I needed eyes everywhere.

Pa and I were already waiting for The Four when they came in.

I noticed the tension rippling off Dante and Gio. Tension toward Alex and Jude.

Pa glanced at me when the door closed.

I had everything prepped in my mind, but for the first time, I didn’t know how to start.

There was too much shit. Mostly, I wanted to torture the rat amongst us and kill him.

“You know what?” Dante declared. He would never have spoken first if Raphael were still boss. Hell, he probably wouldn’t do it if Luc were standing before him now and not me.

They’d become too comfortable with me, but I got it. The guy looked as pissed as me, as did Gio, who moved his hand to his piece in his side pocket.

Maybe it was stupid, but I kind of knew in that moment that the rat amongst us was neither of them.

“What would you like to say, Dante?” I asked.

“Where the fuck were you two last night?” Dante spat, directing the anger he exuded to Alex and Jude.

“I told you we were tied up,” Alex answered. “I messaged back last night. Couldn’t answer the phone. We went to the Glass House and saw Joe Manello and one of his whores. We followed him to a house on Rocherfield. I thought it was more important to tail him.”

I stared at Alex. He was the first to speak to David Shipel. The man got a foot in the door. And Jude?

Asshole had that damn unreadable expression on his face. The same expression that made others underestimate him.

Was I doing that now?

“Fucking convenient. No one can check that out,” Dante argued.

Alex stood at the same time as Dante.

“What you trying to say, Dante?” Alex challenged.

Dante answered with a fist. One punch straight to Alex’s cheek that sent him to the floor.

Jude jumped up and aimed his gun at Dante before he could hit Alex again, but Gio stood at the same time, aiming two guns at Alex and Jude.

“I’ll use them. You know I will,” Gio warned, showing clear that while Jude might have Alex’s back because they were brothers, Gio had Dante’s back.

To my surprise, Pa started laughing. “This is what happens when mobsters go soft. They start fighting amongst themselves.”

Pa knew my concerns and had completely spoken his mind earlier when he said it was one of those two.

Jude or Alex.

I knew it was true, but I didn’t want to accept it.

“Put the fucking guns away,” I ordered, and all guns moved back to where they’d been previously stationed. “Jude and Alex, go back to tailing Joe. Report back at five.”

Alex looked me over. A bruise had already started to form over his eye.

“You’re sending us away?” Alex glared at me and shook his head.

“I’m sending you on a task. Do it.”

I was fucking sending them away, alright. What had happened so far had given the rat the intel he needed to tell whomever he was working for.

Now that we had an idea of what we were up against, I didn’t want to share any more information.

“Come on, Alex. Boss’ orders.” Jude stood up and tapped Alex’s shoulder.

Someone knocked on the door. That would either be my secretary or Cora. I knew Cora would be on her way but figured it could be too early for her to get here.

Since I’d offered her fifty grand for her help, I suppose that could have gotten her here quicker than I imagined.

“Come in,” I called out.

The door opened, and she popped her head inside. Three years older looked better on her. None of those bright colors in her hair shit that I’d seen last time.

Instead, her hair was a light brown, but the ends where it curled up were a soft shade of lilac.

It made her look more professional, although she still had some color.

“Morning,” she smiled, looking around the room. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything. You guys look a little tense.”

“We always look like this. Come in and sit down.” I pointed to the chairs where Alex and Jude had previously sat.

She bit the corner of her lip and made her way inside. As she passed Alex, I didn’t miss the look she gave him. It was the look he gave her, however, that caught my attention more. It made me wonder if anything had happened between them last time we were all together. The slight blush in Cora’s cheeks told me that maybe I was right.

It was all shit to me though. Business was business.

“Guys, you remember Cora.”

Dante and Gio nodded. Cora gave them a sheepish smile back. Still wary of us.

“Cora, I know you just got here, but do you think we could get down to business?”

“I’m ready.” She nodded.

***

“I took the liberty of checking out a few things on my way here. Sinclaire said the main goal was to see what was currently hot in Chicago. Anything worth stealing. I found five things and a possible sixth.” Cora brought up a file on her laptop, and her fingers fired across the keyboard as she opened one of the files.

“What made these things so special?” I asked. The obvious answer was money, but as I knew all too well, there were some things worth more than just money.

“You’ll see.” She clicked on the folder in the file, and an image of a jade stone popped up. “This was found in a dig in Indonesia. The current market value is not listed because of the possible significance. Sold on the black market, you could make an easy million. As with these.” She opened an image of a Japanese art collection. It looked of the priceless variety too. “These are here for an exhibition.”

“It can’t be any of those,” Dante said. “David Shipel wouldn’t offer up all that money to make an easy million, especially when he was being offered a billion dollars.”

“I agree.” I pulled my chair closer. “Cora, these guys wanted to use my shipping company to smuggle something valuable. The thing would have gone as far as England undetected because of the arrangements we have and leniency on shipping permissions. Whatever it is, is that valuable.”

She pulled in a breath. “Well, let me jump to number six. Maybe we should start with the worst-case scenario and work our way down.” She pulled up an image of three cylinder-shaped objects. They were silver but reminded me of Fabergé eggs due to their glossiness.

“What the hell are those?” Gio asked.

“Nukes,” Pa stated.

Cora nodded. “They’re nukes currently being stored at the military base in Illinois.”

“What made you think it was these?” I had to know.

“When I was told about Barabbas Antonella. His name popped up a lot for illegal weapons trafficking. But he’s not a thief of sorts. He’s the orchestrator. Joe Manello’s name never came up, but I saw the type of wealth he has. I’m willing to bet he’s the investor. I think you’re looking at a crew setup here. Not just one of two people. There’s someone big missing from the picture. Someone you haven’t seen yet maybe.”

I looked at Cora as she spoke, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. There was one person I could think of, but I knew my heart wanted it to be him.

Goliath…

This was the sort of thing that was up his alley.

“How are we going to know? The nukes are just speculation. It might not be them.” That was me trying to be objective.

“There’re these two things.” She clicked the files below. One brought up a research paper from some doctor on cold fusion, and the other a tech-looking chip. “The chip allows you to hack into any system. It’s actually a decrypted devised for Homeland Security as an antiterrorist measure. It could be that too.”

It could be, but I didn’t think it was.

“I think it’s the nukes,” I said, glancing at the guys. “It feels more fitting with the shipping company. I’m pretty certain if it was a chip, then they wouldn’t need to get gone by sea. Let’s say it is the nukes, and they want to steal that, what would they do? Just grab the things and go? Taking something like that is bound to cause a big fuss. Don’t you think?”

Cora smiled. “Definitely. If I wanted to steal something like this, I’d have friends on the inside. You can’t get your hands on something like this in any simple way. If our theory is right and this is the thing they’re after, then they have some seriously big plans going on in the background. What we’re seeing is just the tip of the iceberg.”

The bigger picture was not my concern. That would indeed be sticking my nose where it didn’t belong.

“Nukes are a little above our game, aren’t they?” Gio stated.

I couldn’t have agreed more, and if this really was about damn nukes, then this whole thing really was starting to become a sort of déjà vu of seven years ago.

“I don’t give a shit about nukes. Yes, damn straight, it’s out of our game. It’s right out of the ball park, but they tagged us and pulled us right in.”

“So, what do we do?” Dante asked, raising his brows. “Warn the government?” He chuckled.

“We dig a little deeper. Cora, focus on the nukes. What info can you find out?” I didn’t know how she would be able to link any association between Barabbas and the nukes.

“I can find out everything.” She smiled.

“Everything?”

“Yeah, pretty much. Once I know what to focus on, there’s nothing I can’t hack into to get the intel I want.” She looked proud of herself. I knew she was a very resourceful woman to have. Also dangerous depending on what side she worked for. She seemed to me to be the type that didn’t care for loyalties; just whoever filled her pockets the deepest.

“Okay, do whatever it is you do.”

My phone rang, and I stood up and answered straight away.

It was number seven from the secret squad.

“Boss, we have intel that Barabbas has a meeting set up in a guest house at Four Peaks Quarry. It’s at six.”

“I know the place.” Good, a lead. “Good work. Get back to me if you get anything else.”

“Sure thing.”

When he hung up, I turned back to Pa and the guys. Cora gave me a curious look.

“Plan for today. We stay here for the next few hours helping Cora. More hands, less work, then we head to Four Peaks Quarry.”

Finally, a real plan.