Page 44 of Chaotic Curse
“I’m so sorry about your friend,” she says.
“Don’t worry about that.”I wave my hands.“It was years ago, but I recently ran into Ted’s two brothers who said he did a lot of volunteer work in Colombia when he was younger.”
Daniela widens her eyes.“Oh my God.You think that he might’ve been one of the men who…”
I shake my head.“No.This would’ve been over fifteen years ago, and you were only a toddler then.Plus, I just found out that Ted was gay, so he wouldn’t have been interested in your services.”
She nods.
“But there might be a connection between Ted and your father.”
She bites her lip.“I suppose there could be.But there are a lot of people in Colombia, Hawk, and I don’t think my father would’ve been interested in a volunteer worker.He didn’t associate with the poor and downtrodden, and I can’t imagine that there would’ve been any interaction between the two of them.”
“I would’ve never thought so either,” I say.“But there was something about Ted that my father deemed untrustworthy.And that makes me think that maybe Ted wasn’t who I thought he was.Maybe he was doing volunteer work in Colombia as a cover.”
Vinnie rejoins us then, and I retell what I just told the women about Ted.
He nods.“I’ll look into it.I can hack better than anyone.I’ll see if there’s any connection between Ted Tucker and Jacinto Agudelo.Or maybe either one of them and Hernando Reyes.”
“Vinnie,” I say, “I hate to ask you to do this.Especially after you’ve done everything you can to erase your family’s criminal history.”
“No, I haven’t tried to erase it,” Vinnie counters.“Sure, all our business is legit now, but you can’t erase history, no matter how much you want to.And unfortunately, some of it may be coming back to bite us all in the ass.”
“I appreciate it.”
“Hey, we’re almost brothers, man.Absolutely happy to do it.I can do it all on the dark web so none of it will come back to you or to Daniela.”
“I’m not sure how I can thank you.”
I need to tell Vinnie the truth about Ted.Raven’s not here, but Robin is.
And Robin doesn’t even know the half of what’s going on.
Because Ted didn’t disappear, nor was he killed in a bar brawl like his brothers were told.
My father killed him.
In cold blood, in our home.
The same office where my father attempted to end his own life.
The same office where I was grazed by his bullet.
If I can figure everything out—and if I can protect Daniela in the process—maybe I can stop any more blood being spilled by a Bellamy.
14
DANIELA
“Any of you ready for lunch?”Vinnie asks.
“No,” I say.“I can’t eat.Not with all this new information.”
“I understand,” Vinnie says.“Let’s go home.”
“I can take you,” Hawk says.
“That’s not necessary,” I say.“I mean, Vinnie’s going home, and that’s where I live.”
