“Following up on the Colombo family. I just had this feeling about them when I was investigating them. Sometimes that happens.” She couldn’t stop the eagerness that crept into her tone. “There’s a connection between Barcelona, New York and Los Angeles, Elie, and the way they’re using the freighters out at sea and then bringing them into smaller ports.” The words tumbled over one another, a bad habit when she was trying to explain something and she was certain the other person wouldn’t listen to her.
Elie swept her hair off her left shoulder and pressed a kiss to her neck. “We need to get you a large whiteboard in here so you can connect all the dots for me.”
Her breath left her lungs in a long rush. He wasn’t arguing with her or dismissing her. That felt good.
“Why do you have my picture on the screen?”
“I found your picture, Valentino’s and Dario’s in a file on Dino Colombo’s computer.” She didn’t mention hers, but then, she didn’t lie. “I was just about to backtrack and find out who sent the pictures. Whoever did was most likely behind ordering the hits on the three of you. If not them, I’ll keep going until I find out who.”
“Is there a danger to you? Will he be able to find you?”
Elie rested one hand on the desk right next to her laptop. She had the feeling he would shut down her computer in an instant if she told him Dino could find her.
“I have warnings set up and would know the moment someone was aware I was in their computer or if anyone was hunting me.” She used her most confident voice, mostly because she was confident. She knew what she was doing and she always took precautions. No matter how excited she was, or how close she was to her target, she never skimped on safety. She had to admit, she was far better on the computer than as a shadow rider.
“You hungry?”
She hadn’t given food a thought. “I’ve been eating fruit.”
“A few grapes are not what I’m talking about. I’ll make us sandwiches and bring them up. By then, maybe you’ll know a little more. Leone and Raimondo can bring up the whiteboard while I’m getting us dinner. Then I’ll send everyone home and lock up the house.”
“Val and Dario took those men with them.” She made it a statement, but she kept her gaze locked with Elie’s.
He nodded. “They had a few questions. They weren’t here to kill me, Brielle. They were here to kill you. The bomb was sent here to kill you. Val and Dario are very good at extracting answers from reluctant men. If they don’t get what they want, I’ll join them and I’ll get the answers, because no one is going to kill my wife.”
She liked the emphasis he placed on that so she just nodded and watched the way he walked out. He reminded her so much of a large predatory cat stalking through a jungle. Turning back to her screen, she began to search for the original sender of the photograph as well as who took it.
She barely noticed when Leone and Raimondo came and went, too busy writing in a separate document her findings and then doing the same with the pictures of Valentino and Dario, just to be certain. She closed the file titled Friends in Low Places and began a search for anything that looked like it could be similar.
Brielle found a second file that easily could have been a playlist. Hear Me Roar. Seriously? That didn’t quite mesh with Dino Colombo. She opened the file and once again her heart gave a little jolt.
These were one-line texts. Erase # heart emoji.
Erase # female French bulldog male French bulldog.
Erase # devil fighter
Again, she sank back in her chair and took a sip of water. Someone had issued the order to kill the four of them. All four of them. That meant that her investigation in Barcelona hadn’t been separate from Valentino’s and Dario’s initial one in the United States. She’d just started in a different place. She would have to tell Elie the truth, that she’d found her picture in that file as well. He wouldn’t be happy with her for not confessing it immediately.
She sighed, printed out the text file and closed it and did a search for another file that contained any similar title. When the Ships Come In.
The moment she saw the title, she got that spark of electricity that zinged like lightning through her veins. She knew immediately what she would find. This was what she’d been looking for all along. Sure enough, it was all there. Times. Dates. Transfers from one freighter to another and the coordinates where the transfers would take place. She had the names of the freighters and the ports they originated from.
Trying to still the trembling in her body, she pressed print. It was going to take a while. A long while. There were pages and pages of data. She went in reverse order, just in case, the latest to the oldest. Elie would want to know when the freighters would be coming to the ports and off-loading any victims and where.
She reached for the bottle of water only to be shocked when Elie’s hand got to it first. He unscrewed the cap and handed it to her.
“You hit the jackpot.” He indicated the screen.
“I believe I did,” she agreed. “He’s getting his orders from Riccardo and Carlo Santoro out of New York. Riccardo only chimed in once. All other correspondence has been through Carlo. He sent the pictures of the three of you. Riccardo had to send one of the freighter times when Carlo wasn’t available. He mistakenly sent it from his personal email and then copied and pasted it into his ‘encrypted’ one.”
She chewed on the side of her bottom lip before taking another sip of the water, avoiding his eyes.
“You may as well tell me, Brielle. You’re going to anyway. The longer you wait, the more agitated you get.”
That was true. She didn’t know why she felt so guilty holding anything back from him. He was holding things back from her. She was certain he’d gotten news from Val or Dario. Probably from Emmanuelle, telling him things the two prisoners had coughed up. It was early, but she had studied Dario. He looked as if he could take apart a man and put him back together with his arms and legs on backward if he wanted to. If he was interrogating her, she’d tell him everything he wanted to know before he even started torturing her.
“Dino had four photographs in the file titled ‘Friends in Low Places.’ I was the fourth photograph.”