Page 99 of The Woman in the Hollow
“He did several small-time ones for a few of the capos. Nothing that would have put him in contact with any sort of external player who might have tempted him. And most recently, he’s worked here.”
Yeah, that tracked.
I’d asked for some help around the opening, when we’d still been looking for the actual employees. I’d been so overwhelmed with work then—both legit and less so—that I honestly didn’t remember who’d been around.
“Also, I heard something else,” Dom started.
“What?”
“I’m getting this like third or fourth hand, so take it with the grain of salt that needs. But apparently Big Ed was bitching about his income. About how much the Family was making, the big houses the capos are living in, that kind of shit.”
While he’d been living in an apartment similar to Hazel’s. It wasn’t a bad place by any stretch of the word. But, yeah, if you were comparing it to our houses, it probably didn’t feel like enough.
That said, if Big Ed wanted more money, there would have been hundreds of opportunities for him to earn more. Or he could have proven himself to be a big earner by finding his own jobs to bring to the Family.
His lack of ambition or work ethic was no one’s fault but his own. The rest of us were constantly courting new income streams. That was how we got the big houses—not because the Family itself paid us more. That wasn’t how it worked.
“It’s a motive. Now the question is, was Big Ed spending time with anyone else recently? Was this just him? Is there a larger unrest going on? Are our loved ones even safe with the men we’ve tasked with protecting them?”
“That’s a big question. Any chance you arm the wives and moms and sisters when things are in lockdown?”
“There are always weapons around. And they know how to get to them if they need to. But it’s not supposed to come to that.”
Domenico nodded at that.
“Let’s just hope it’s isolated,” I said, glancing out the window, wondering where Hazel had gotten to. We were supposed to be going over employees’ files.
It seemed like the second she stepped onto the property, a million tasks required her attention, and damn near every employee wanted a word or two with her.
I shook off my discomfort, knowing I had men everywhere.
“Wanna help me look through files?” I asked. “See if anyone working here could have been in bed with Big Ed?”
“I mean, they’re mostly kids, but sure.”
Dom pulled off the first page from the folder when I slapped it down on the counter, brows pinching.
“I didn’t hire this one.”
“Ant. Yeah, Hazel hired him.”
“There’s no picture,” he said, flipping it toward me.
“I doubt Hazel thought it was necessary.” The members of the Family were particular about knowing everyone’s vital details and having a picture of them on file somewhere. For this sort of situation. But Hazel would have had no reason to think that way.
“I dunno if I’ve even talked to someone named—” he started.
But he was cut off by the loud, frantic pounding of fists on the glass, making the panes wobble as both our heads whipped over to see Hazel.
She was round-eyed, pale, sweaty, with a trickle of blood on her neck.
My fucking heart dropped to the floor even as Domenico and I both broke into a run.
We were reaching for our guns before we even made it out the door.
She was okay.
That was what mattered.
