I listened for five minutes as she told me how he blackmailed her and threatened to implicate her in all of his bad deeds. Apparently he has done this more than once. Seems this is his M.O. He gets assistants, makes them an accessory to illegal stuff and then he has them where he wants them and now, I am poised to be one of them. If only I could ask for help without putting anyone else in this.
My brothers have been trying to call me as have my parents but I can't jeopardize everything my parents have worked for. The really scary part of all this is, once my boss finds out about the baby, I am scared of what he will do.
CHAPTER
THREE
JOZEF
ONE WEEK LATER
I have been one step behind her since I have been here. I came here a few days ago, specifically to her apartment and found her landlord. After a couple of hours of interrogation and having my guy search his background, I put him on my payroll for the sole purpose of keeping an eye on her for me.
I had cameras placed in the hallways and inside her apartment in all rooms except the bathroom. They are routed to my phone. I know what you are thinking. How will she not notice? Well, luckily for me, my guy is a former army intelligence officer and he has access to cameras so small you’d need a microscope to find them.
The guilt at not being around when she has previously needed me, is still killing me, but I could not have foreseen what went down when I left her.
When I made it back to Chicago everything blew up. Not only did our father order us to kidnap the daughter or a DeSantis brother in Chicago, but he also then tried to have us killed, he killed our grandfather, his own dad, and my brother killed him. As we speak my brother is now here, in New York, now a part of the new DeSantis Crime Family headed by his future wife’s sister Giulia. There is a place for me with them, but I need my girl first and given how in the dark I am about what is going on, I am staying away from my brother and his family right now.
I have been trying to find an in. Some way of getting info about her boss, but every angle I have tried has been a dead-end. He is heavily insulated confirming my gut that he is connected and not in a good way. I tried to get a meeting under the pretense of a business opportunity, but when they couldn’t triangulate where I was calling from, they declined the appointment. I mean who the fuck is this guy?
Hell, I tried getting something as basic as photos of his license plate but the glass surrounding it has a nonreflective coating and has an invisible layer that when a camera has a flash, it deflects. My IT guy says his ‘company’ is buried in shell corps that are bouncing between so many countries, the fucking CIA would be confused.
I was finally able to get to his driver one night, hitting a line behind a club. He was so coked out of his mind, I fronted as a dealer, promised him a free hit and he split all he knew which wasn’t much. But, he gave me a key card to the basement where his cars are kept which is how I got the plate picture.
Now, I am following her home from this restaurant at midnight, pissed she is driving alone in the dark. For a week I have been tailing her, sneaking into the apartment as she slept, concerned about the fact that she is sleeping so hard she hears nothing.
I am expecting information about her boss to come in at any moment and then I can proceed. Sure, I could have gotten the information I needed the hard way but playing my hand right now would not keep her safe. My brother taught me in more ways than one to keep my cool until it was no longer an option.
I watch from a few cars behind her as she pulls up to her building. I park five cars down, my eyes zeroed in on how exhausted and dead on her feet she looks as she walks. From my rearview mirror, I see the car that follows her everywhere is parked on the opposite side of the street, watching to make sure she doesn’t leave in the middle of the night. I could easily take them out right now. I could walk over to their vehicle and put one in both their heads before they'd see me coming, but then he would be on to me, and she would be in danger. My phone buzzes and I look down. It is a message from her landlord telling me she is in the building. Good to know he is going to do his part.