Page 57 of The Sting of Love
Alex and I walk over to the computer and look at the screen. On it is a list of names on a table. There are contact details beside each name and then on the last column the payment agreements.
My eyes nearly pop out of my head when I realize what this list is.
It’s a client list.
Shit, I recognize some names.
Some are notable people like government or military, international and national. The other names I recognize are crime family members across Italy. A lot are those we would class as hardcore enemies. They all have serious money though. Everybody I recognize here can manage to pull an easy million.
I grab the mouse and scroll down, my blood boiling as I see the list goes on for thirty pages with up to fifty names on each page. I even find Amadeo and Leo’s names.
My blood boils and I actually feel sick to my stomach when I reach the end and find a listing of the girls who are worth the most money. Virgins between the ages of fourteen to twenty-five. Full bodied women. There are instructions on the hotels to use to keep them while in transit, and where to take them from.
I can’t believe we didn’t know this was happening.
Fuck. Fucking hell. I tighten my grip on the mouse so tight Gibbs places his hand over mine and taps the back of my hand. I release the mouse and straighten up.
“Motherfucker,” I snarl. “This was what Mario was up to.”
Alex straightens up too and shakes his head. “No, this is whatwewere up to. It’s not gonna be him who goes down if this shit blows up. It’s us. It’s going to look like we did this.”
I look at Gibbs, who isn’t saying anything, then I glance back to the screen and scan over it. I’m mad as fuck, but an idea forms in my mind as I take hold of the mouse again and track back to Amadeo’s details. There was a hyperlink on his name. If this list is top secret, then maybe it leads to top secret information. Amadeo’s usual address was listed next to his name, and we’ve already hit up all his hangouts. This asshole isn’t going to be anywhere we know him to be. He’s going to be in the fuck hole he’s hiding in.
Gibbs and Alex watch me as I scroll up and click on Amadeo’s name. Fuck, am I ever glad to see a link which takes me to another page with two addresses listed for him. They’re both in Syracuse.Perfect. That’s near, and we can get to those places easily.
“There. I’ll bet that son of a bitch is at one of those places. We don’t have any listings of those addresses for him,” I state.
Alex nods. “I’ll get some men together, and we can make a plan. We don’t want them getting any sort of chance to flee.”
I agree. The last thing we want is for them to scatter like the vermin they are. “We can check out the buildings today,” I state.
“Good plan. I like that. Let’s get this fucker and go on to help the others with the bigger problem of Mario.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely,because judging from this listand from what we’ve seen, it looks as if he’s been working with The Triad all along.” It was Xiou who picked him up that day on the boat. This list looks like Mario definitely curated the clients and acted as the middleman to organize the sale of the girls.
He was doing all this under Pablo’s nose. This isn’t a recent thing. It has an older feel to it, like he’s been doing it for a while under wraps. Time to fix this. I feel like I regained some control now that we have a lead.
Gibbs sighs. “And what about this? They have an operation, and it needs to be shut down.”
I remember what Gibbs said to me about his friend’s daughter, and it looks like this discovery has struck a nerve. I can be a bastard when I want to be, but I’m not evil. I know when to do the right thing.
“I couldn’t agree more,” I say. “I think we found a way to make the feds happy, don’t you, Alex?”
Alex chuckles. “Hot shot. Yeah, I agree. Business first though.”
“Most definitely.” We can hand over the intel once we know we don’t have any trace of the problem left. I just hope we get that far. We’ve crossed one hurdle, but we aren’t out of the woods yet. We still need to find both Amadeo and Mario. As long as they’re missing, we can’t do shit.
Gibbs pulls a memory stick from his pocket, places it in the drive on the side of the computer, and taps at the keyboard.
“What are you doing, Gibbs?” I ask.
“Taking and cleaning,” he answers. I watch him carefully as he uploads the file to the stick then deletes the file from the computer. He pulls the stick out, holds it up, and points it to Alex first then to me. “Who’s the boss here?” He looks at Alex, then they both look at me.
“Me,” I say, and Alex looks proud.
“Then this is yours, boss.” He hands it to me, and I take it.
Looks like I have much to report back to Claudius later.Good.It will make me feel less tense heading back to the beach house.
