Page 79 of Curse

Jacob and his cousins have been on legal retainer for us for years. Their primary purpose is to handle our legal matters, but more than once, we’ve asked them for favors outsidetheir job description. And more than once, they’ve called in payback.

“Hey,” I say, keeping my tone even. “Any chance you can get your tech guy on something for me? I’ve got a flash drive with corrupt files I need recovered.”

Jacob sighs. “I’d love to help, but our tech girl’s in Naples for the next week or two.” He pauses, thinking. Jacob never leaves me on ‘no.’ “I do know someone closer, a quick plane ride to Manhattan. She could be there in a week or so, but…”

I frown. “But what?”

Massimo gestures at me, asking if he should step out, but I wave him back to work on Siena.

Jacob hesitates. “It’s… Valentina.”

I roll my eyes. “Why would I care?”

Jacob chuckles. “Well, it’s none of my business, but it’s not exactly a secret what went down between you two.”

“Between me and her?” I scoff. “I don’t think fucking her one time over a decade ago is worth gossiping about. I promise you, it wasn’t that memorable.”

I tap the screen to open another file: a blueprint of One Pearl Park Plaza. Another click reveals a second blueprint of the same building, but this one highlights two paths. One is the route Vin and I were told to take through the building when we do the job. The other is unfamiliar and seems to be in the walls, which doesn’t make sense.

Jacob’s voice cuts through my thoughts. “You don’t think her blowing up your car was memorable? What exactly does a woman have to do to get your attention?”

I glance at Siena, unconscious on the bed. Apparently, all a woman has to do to get my attention is attack federal employees, talk shit nonstop, look at me over her shoulderwith those big brown eyes while she comes all over my cock, lie to me, then try to run from me.

“That wasn’t me. That was Vin. All of it was Vin,” I mutter, omitting the part where we all walked in on her choking on Aurelio’s dick. I click back to the first blueprint, comparing the two. “They dated for a while when we were about 20. She didn’t like getting dumped.”

“So she punished him by blowing up his car and fucking his best friend?” Jacob’s keyboard clatters in the background.

“That was her trying to win him back, believe it or not,” I mumble, opening another file, a video.

Muted, it shows Aurelio killing John Lumina, the guy who inherited Luminous & Co., then walking toward the camera. The angle is shaky and skewed, but it’s clear enough.

I pause the video when I see something flicker in the background, a man with his back to the camera holding open something large and white. He’s only on screen for a moment before he turns, his face in profile. For a split second, it’s possible to see what he’s holding and to see his face before he steps out of the frame.

I rewind a few seconds and pause again, zooming in.

Fuck. It’s who I think it is.

I rewind and replay twice, finding the perfect frame and blow it up as much as I can just to be sure. I glance at Siena and back at the screen. Not only is it who I think it is, but he’s holding the very same blueprints that I was just looking at.

Jacob lets out a low whistle. “I’m guessing it didn’t work, her attempts to get him back, huh?”

“No,” I agree as the video ends, and I click play to restart it.

I wasn’t there the day Aurelio took out John Lumina. In fact, I had no idea that was happening until after the fact whenAurelio made Lorenzo Marino, a longtime friend of the family, the new CEO.

Lorenzo is Giovanna Marino’s father, the girl that Tommy has been in love with since college. The girl that Aurelio is currently keeping prisoner at an undisclosed location.

I click play on the video again, trying to figure out who is holding the camera.

Jacob speaks again. “I can have her in Manhattan by next Thursday if you send a plane for her.”

I watch Massimo stitch up Siena’s shoulder. She’s pale, motionless, except for the steady rise and fall of her chest. Valentina might prove useful, not just with the flash drive, but also for making sure that Siena does what she’s told for fucking once in her life.

“Alright,” I say finally. “Let her know I’ll fly her to my building in Tribeca. But tell her she’s making a stop on the way. And remind her not to be the cunt I know she is.”

Jake snorts. “Sure, I’ll use those exact words.”

I hang up and transfer my earbud connection to the laptop, turning up the volume on the video.

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