He refused to think about the kinds of things those bastards had done to other potential witnesses who could testify against them.
Stealing an undiscernible glance in Poppy’s direction, he thought…
They won’t fucking touch her.
“So because the man who broke into my apartment had that tattoo on his back, that means this Mons Leones group sent him after me?”
“That’s our belief, yes.” Noah nodded. “And here’s why.” Taking the remote back from his wife, Noah brought up another image. This one of another dead man, but this picture had been taken while the body was still on scene.
“Oh, God.” Poppy turned away, clearly disturbed by the gruesome image.
The poor bastard in the picture was as bloated as a beached whale, his throat slit from ear-to-ear, the cut so deep he was nearly decapitated.
“This is, or rather was, David Santoro,” Noah informed the group. “He was a local attorney.”
Declan joined in on the conversation. “I remember him. Wasn’t he the sleezeball lawyer who represented Armando De Luca?”
“One in the same.” Wade nodded from his seat next to where Noah was standing. “His body was discovered early this morning by some fishermen. The remains were tangled in some trees along the bank of the South Platte River near the Two-Twenty-Four overpass.”
“What you can’t see from this particular picture is the official cause of death.” Maggie’s comment surprised them all.
Poppy grimaced as she pointed to the gaping neck wound. “He didn’t die from…that?”
“Fortunately for him, no,” Maggie confirmed. “He was shot point-blank in the chest with a nine-millimeter round. The bullet pierced his heart, so his death would have been instant.”
Jumping back in, Noah went on to share, “Santoro’s clothes had already been removed prior to taking this picture, but when he was found, he was dressed in a pair of baggy jeans and a light blue t-shirt.”
Aaand there it was. The connection Noah had been waiting for. It took less than three seconds for Poppy to connect the dots, as well.
“Wait a minute.” She narrowed her gaze as if to zero in her focus. “Do you have another picture of this man from before he was dead?”
“As a matter of fact…” Another click and a new photo appeared on the screen. Zooming in to focus solely on Santoro, this one showed the man very much alive and smiling on the courthouse steps.
“That’s him.” Poppy’s eyes flew to Jax’s. “He’s the one I saw those men toss into that trunk.”
“We suspected as much.” Noah nodded.
The look on the agent’s face said he was thinking the same thing Jax was.
Poppy was the sole witness to a hit that had been put out by the area’s most powerful mob boss. And now that order to kill had been extended to her.
“Fuck me.” His focus turned to the woman beside him, his blood turning cold for the danger he knew she was in.
“What?” Poppy stared back at him. “What does all of this mean?”
Knowing she deserved the truth, Jax swiveled his chair to face her directly and gave it to her in spades.
“It means the two men you saw most likely murdered David Santoro around the same time you were walking near that alley. You can place those men at the scene of the crime, holding Santoro’s body, and putting it into the trunk of that car, and once we I.D. them, you’ll be the prosecuting attorney’s star witness. And since Santoro used to work for De Luca and the man who came after you yesterday has the Mons Leones mark, chances are pretty damn good that De Luca’s the one who put the price on your head.”
Jax and the others remained quiet while Poppy processed what he’d just told her. The moment she realized what it all meant was the moment when the fear he’d first seen in those big, beautiful eyes returned.
“I’m on a mob boss’s hit list.” It was a statement rather than a question.
Unable to keep from it, he reached over and covered her hand with his. “Yeah, Kitten. Sure looks that way.”
“Why would De Luca have his own lawyer killed?” Grady finally spoke up from his seat next to Declan’s. “I mean, it seems pretty counterproductive to me.”
“It would be if Santoro was still representing De Luca at the time of his death,” Wade answered cryptically.