Page 63 of Tormented Diamonds
“That was your father’s insurance policy.”
“Get to the point, Carrera.”
“Half of the terminal. That’s my final offer. Take it or leave it.”
I grit my teeth. This fucking kid is going to live to regret this one day. “If I find out any merchandise coming in or out of my port has a pulse, your execution will be extremely painful and very public.”
“Why the hell do you think I want control of it?”
“As long as we’re clear.”
There’s a static moment of silence, and then, “The man you’re looking for is a Rogue reject named Declan Flynn.”
I catch Anton’s eye, his fingers already at work typing on his phone. “How did he get linked up with my father?”
“Through mine,” he says, the disgust in his voice palpable. “Flynn’s half-brother was part of the Rogue’s inner circle. Poor bastard, Declan, wanted a piece of the crumbling pie and was in the right place at the right time. My father has always prided himself in being a murderous matchmaker of sorts.”
I’m already in this hole; I might as well see how deep it goes.
“Do you know anything about Carmine Damiano dipping his hands in the operation?”
“Maybe, maybe not. Additional information has an upcharge.”
“Fuck you.”
“Wait…” he calls out, prompting me to leave my finger hovering a few millimeters above the disconnect button. “The rose and dagger isn’t just a tattoo. It’s a brand. Your father made his Providence connection get it, too, as a show of loyalty. Brilliant, huh?”
I watch every word of that statement sink into Anton. Knowing the truth of what my father took part in doesn’t cushion the blow of having it shoved in our faces. “And if anything went south, they had guilt literally written all over them.”
Valentin chuckles. “The man was apendejo, but he knew how to cover his ass. However, their ‘merchandise’ as they called it, received a crude version of it, too.”
A knife sinks into my gut as I think of the tattoo on Becca’s wrist. “What’s the real reason you wanted access to my port, Carrera?”
“I found out your father contacted mine three weeks ago to arrange a pickup out of Elizabeth Marine Terminal. He told him there’d been a breach in the ‘Rogue,’ and he was moving operations to New Jersey.”
That sick, sadistic son of a bitch…
I want to rip everything off the walls. I want buildings to burn and people to bleed.
“Your father didn’t bring your wife to New Jersey to kill her,” he says, the low shift in his accent skating the wrong way down my spine. “He was going to sell her.”
Ending the call, I shove my phone in my pocket and head toward the door.
“Gianni, wait.”
“Go home, Anton.”
I hear metal scrape behind me as he stands. “Are you all right?”
I turn to face him, the rage within me so dark and destructive it has turned me into a sheet of Zambonied ice. “No, I’m notall right. I just found out my father wasplanning to sell my wife into sex trafficking. I’m very fucking far fromall right.”
“Don’t confront her like this,” he says, his stare unwavering. “If you love her, pull yourself together first. Becca needs to find out about this from her husband, not her avenger.”
Every word is true. My head knows it. My heart knows it.
But there’s already too much of a chasm between us. If I let it widen, we both may fall through.
“Let me worry about my wife.” I open the door, take one step, then turn back for one last parting gift. “By the way, your friend, Sartorre, used up his free pass with me. There won’t be another, so I suggest telling him the next time he feels like offering hisassistanceto my wife, to do himself a favor, and don’t.”
