Page 75 of With Wine Comes War

After we got that out of the way I said, “Ok, now for the serious stuff please. What have you guys got for me?” I clapped my hands together, getting us back on track.

We went over everything that they’d been doing and where they’d been looking and the couple of houses that they found— the ones I was going to look at today. I’d been tasked with finding affordable housing that might not need too much work. The housing prices had gone up so much. It might be hard to find homes to replace what they had that didn’t need gut renovations.

“Grant, why didn’t you tell me that Roman had gotten the zoning issue fixed with the Santoro’s property? I meant to ask you about that the last time I was here?”

“Oh, I thought Roman would’ve said something to you.” That’s weird. Roman knew that was important to me.

“No, he hasn’t mentioned it at all.”

“Such a humble guy.” Yeah, not really what I was thinking, but I’ll ask Roman about it later. Now, however, I have to go grab Shay and head over to get Darius for his first day of work.

Chapter 20

ROMAN

Ipulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. It was beautiful and damn busy for lunch time. I gave the hostess my name and told her I was meeting someone. She was staring so hard she barely got out, hello before Grant walked up and tapped her on the shoulder. That’s the only time being stared at like that is truly annoying.

“Roman, right this way.” I followed him into a back room. There were a few tables in the room but no one else was in there. We satdown and a waiter came in from a door which looked like it led into the kitchen. He brought us both water and put some bread on the table. Grant shooed him out after saying thank you.

I looked at him curiously and he smiled. “I own this place. This is a private party room.” He said it so nonchalantly.

“Nice. What’s this information you have for me?” I was curious to know if Alex knew about this restaurant.

“First of all, I want to introduce myself. I’m Andrea DiGiovanni.” He reached out his hand and I tentatively shook it.

“I’m sorry, what? What do you mean? I’m pretty sure we’ve already met, Grant.”

“I’ve been able to keep this name out of the public eye since I moved to the United States fifteen years ago where I trained very hard to lose my Italian accent and roots. I worked for Alessandro Santoro and his family back in Italy. I was their consigliere to put it simply.” My mouth hit the floor. I knew exactly what that meant and I also remember Alessandro telling me at the hospital that he was a connected member of a very prominent Italian family.Oh shit! What the fuck have I gotten myself into?

“Grant, should I call you Grant? What exactly is going on?” I clasped my hands and rested my elbows on the table.

“When I moved here it was because I was getting out of the business, basically going into hiding. Alessandro also got out of the business, and he sent me over here to set up a normal life. I helped him open the winery in California and in North Carolina. I had a…” He hesitated. “...layover in Cincinnati. I did a little research on the place and fell in love with it. I told Alessandro that he and his family would love it here. They weren’t ready to leave Italy yet, but they came to visit, and we decided to get into real estate. I got my license and after a few years I opened my own office, and of course this place. You’re nottruly Italian unless you own a restaurant.” He laughed but I wasn’t in the mood.

“Well, I guess all that’s good to hear, but how does Alex play into all this? I feel like you have a very vested interest in her. The Santoro’s seem especially concerned about her as well.” He had a genuine thoughtful smile on his face when I said her name.

“Alex is special. When she came to work for me, she wasn’t the girl you see today. She was sweet and maybe a little naive. It took everything I had not to take care of that husband of hers. I talked to her and tried to give her as much knowledge as I could about relationships and real estate to get her thinking for herself. She finally accepted her marriage was a sham, and her business wasn’t. She got rid of the husband and I kept her busy with real estate while she went through, what she calls, the dark times. She’s something else, isn’t she? She told me she’s moved in with you.”

Now I was the one smiling. “I’m glad you were there for her during that time. I had the pleasure of meeting the asshole over the weekend.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I heard.”

“Roman, Alex asked me about the zoning issue on Alessandro’s property. I told Shay that King Construction took care of it not thinking it would ever come up again. She asked me why I never told her, and I said that I thought you would’ve told her.”

“You’re going to tell me now though, right?”

“I’ll tell you, but I want you to take the credit for it, for now. She’s got enough going on with this court hearing and I don’t think it would be a good idea if she found out who I was or who the Santoro’s are.”

I was on board with that. In fact, I didn’t think it would be a good idea if anyone ever found out who they were.

“Grant, tell me about Texas.” I figured he must be in on that too. He’s the only person that would’ve known about Alex.

He laughed and said, “Oh. You found out already? Well, we obviously know who’s doing this, the Ellingtons, so when we heard about what was going on in Texas we decided to talk to some friends. We relayed some of the shady antics they were pulling up here. It was nipped in the bud pretty quickly and people quietly got arrested and money was recovered. We decided the kickbacks would be put to best use in this relocation project, so we started an account for you and Alex to figure out what the best use for it should be. Do you agree?”

“That depends. Is the money clean?” I sat back, crossing my arms over my chest. I was having trouble being in this small room with him now. It was starting to close in on me.

“Roman, I’m not doing anything illegal. I didn’t even go to Texas. The bad guys were arrested by the good guys. The money was just returned to its rightful owner, which was King Construction. I thought you might be good with putting Alex’s name on the account too, so she could help with Burrow Township. She was planning to use her own money to help them. I know the Texas project doesn’t have anything to do with displaced residents.”

I took a deep breath. “That’s actually a great idea. But you do have to see my concern in all this now though, right?” I grabbed the glass of water and gulped it down to get some oxygen flowing through my body again. I thought I was going to have to ask him to open a door but clearly no one needs to hear this conversation.

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