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But I still felt on the outs, not having caught up with any of them for weeks at this point.
“Heya, Saff,” I said when I saw a flash of blue hair in my peripheral vision as I stood at the bar waiting for Dav to pour me a drink.
“How goes stalking the Russians?” she asked, turning to give me her full attention.
Saff was short and slight with one of those delicate heart-shaped faces that made her look younger and more fragile than she was.
Fragile like a bomb, maybe.
She had her long blue hair pulled up into a mercilessly high ponytail that made her light brown eyes pop.
“They go to the massage parlors, to their restaurant, and home. That’s it.”
“And none of those places are penetrable,” Saff said, nodding. “Do you need someone in a too-tight dress to schmooze them and plant a bug somewhere?” she asked, waving a hand down her body.
That was an advantage to an organization that allowed for female capos. If you ever needed to run some sort of sweetheart scam or use them as a honeypot, you could.
The thing was, I could never bring myself to use them. Especially not Saff. She was too young, reminded me too much of a little sister figure. The idea of putting her in the path of an organization who seemed to specialize in forced sex work or sextortion made my stomach twist.
Even if, by all accounts, Saff was as tough as they came. Second only, maybe, to Cinna. Who likely had that reputation based on seniority.
“I appreciate the offer,” I said, taking my glass from Dav.
“But you’re not going to take me up on it because you’re afraid they might bruise my pretty little girly face,” Saff said, a bitter bite to her words.
“I don’t want anyone on the inside right now,” I insisted.
I mean, if I did, I could have had one of the men act as a john and go into one of the massage parlors. Find somewhere to place a bug. Then get a convenient phone call from their “wife” saying she tracked them there, and she was going to a lawyer or some shit like that.
I didn’t want any of us to get caught snooping right now. There was no way for me to know if they had watched us the way I was currently watching them, if they had files on us like I was compiling on them.
It wasn’t safe to go in.
The problem was, given their insane level of security, it also wasn’t safe to just take them out.
“El,” Renzo said, coming over, clapping a hand on my back twice as he moved in at my side. “Didn’t think you were going to make it.”
“I was following someone that was heading away from the usual haunts.”
“Any luck?”
“He’s fucking around on his wife,” I said, shrugging.
“Can we use her?” Renzo asked.
“Single mom,” I said, shaking my head. “Too much the Bratva can use against her if they get suspicious.”
Renzo nodded at that.
Maybe there was a time, when he was young and impatient, that he would have taken that risk. These days, though, he knew there were other ways, and we had the patience to wait to figure it out.
“Was his car empty while he was fucking his mistress?” Saff asked.
“No. These guys never travel alone. There’s always someone watching the cars, watching the doors. Even the wives and kids have small crews on them. Low and high level guys.”
“Paranoid,” Dav said.
“More like aware they are taking on the Five Families, and are being proactive,” Renzo said.