Page 16 of Saint Of Envy (Tangled Hearts, Sinful Hands #2)
LUC
“ W hy do I feel you guys only bring me in on things when they’ve reached a dire level?” Zara asks as she sets up her laptop and all of her peripheral tech inside the hotel suite, where Vincent, Alonzo, and I are all huddled around her.
“Because you’re the best tech and security specialist around,” Vincent compliments her. “That’s why you work for me.”
Zara lets out a small laugh and then gets to work.
She is the best there is in tech surveillance.
Her skill, combined with her high intelligence and cynical ability to get into the heads of those who would do harm, makes her nearly infallible in tracking people down.
Which is exactly why we called her to help us find Valentina.
Plus, she’s got a good heart, even if she is a bit jaded.
I swear she has connections and secrets that even Vincent and I still have yet to figure out.
“You know, in order for someone to have extracted her from the medical clinic,” Zara thinks aloud as she works. “Someone would have had to have known that she was going to be there.”
“Leonardo knew she was pregnant,” I say.
“They would have had to know more than just the fact that she's pregnant,” Zara says as she clicks away on her keyboard at a furious pace. “Like exactly when she was going to be there for her doctor’s appointment in order to take her at the right time and be able to sneak her past the doctor and your bodyguard. Is there anyone else who knew she was going to that appointment today?”
“I don’t think so,” I shake my head. “Just me, Vincent, and she probably told Isla. But I don’t think there’s anyone else she would have talked to about it. She isn’t even around anyone else since she’s been spending all her time inside the hotel suite.”
“What about staff?” Vincent asks. “Besides the bodyguard, of course. Was there anyone else Valentina would have had contact and communication with?”
“I don’t know, maybe the maid?” I say with a shrug. “I doubt she would tell personal details to the housekeeping staff, and I doubt the maid would have any connection to Leonardo Conti.”
“Doubt is an explicative in my world,” Zara says as she pulls up another screen on her computer. “Everyone has connections.”
Within seconds, we’re all staring at a security image of the maid on her laptop screen.
“Maria Russo,” Zara says. “Twenty-nine-year-old, Italian immigrant with family still back in the homeland, lives in a modest apartment near the casino district.”
“Man, I am really glad that we’re on the same team here,” Alonzo teases her. “You can dig up instant dirt on anyone, can’t you?”
“Mhmm,” Zara nods with a smirk. “And I think you might want to take a better look at this girl.”
“I’ve fully vetted all of my staff,” Vincent says, doubtful that anyone in his employ would betray him even though it has happened before.
“I’m sure you have,” Zara says. “But fully vetting someone still doesn’t guarantee that you can peek inside their head.
From the looks of it, Maria Russo is pretty deeply devoted to her family obligations, with regular cash transfers back to her family in Italy.
All the while, she keeps a low, humble profile here in Vegas.
Her bank transactions and living situation show that to be the case. ”
“I don’t see how any of that is a problem,” Vincent says.
“People with little means and lots of responsibilities tend to be vulnerable to bribery or blackmail,” Zara says. “Just like Giovanni Ricci.”
She’s not wrong in that assessment.
“And look!” Zara exclaims as she pulls up some of the city’s street camera security feed and points to an image. She zooms in, clears up some of the visual debris on the camera, and then it’s clear as day what she’s pointing to. “Your maid and Angelo Barone like to eat at the same sandwich deli.”
Sure enough, the two of them are sitting at the same table with untouched sandwiches in front of them.
God damn it. Angelo Barone got to the maid. He must have exploited her vulnerability in order to get her to spy on Valentina.
“I’m going to kill her for betraying Valentina,” I growl beneath my breath.
My remark surprises everyone in the room. Sure, I’ve done my share of hits, but I’m usually the last one to opt for slaughter.
“Easy,” Vincent says with a measured tone.
“It’s more than likely that Maria was just used as a pawn in the larger game here.
She’s been no trouble at all until now. You know how cruel and heartless the manipulation of the mafia can be.
Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and bring her in to talk.
We’ll get her to crack, and then we’ll go from there. ”
Vincent turns to Alonzo and gives him instructions to bring the maid in for questioning.
“What do the Barones want with Valentina?” Zara asks while we wait for him to return with Maria.
“Nothing,” I say as my anger rises with each passing moment. “It’s Leonardo Conti running the show and calling the shots with this. The Barones are just a temporary alliance that he’s using. “
“Geez,” Zara rolls her eyes. “You guys really know how to piss off all the bad guys at once, don’t you? Leonardo Conti and the Barone family? You’re not trying to get yourselves killed, are you?”
“Trust me,” I say through gritted teeth. “If anyone lays a hand on Valentina, it will be their graves being dug, not ours.”
Vincent paces the room. “We should have seen something like this coming. I can’t believe I missed the connection the maid had with our enemy.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” Zara says.
“I don’t think anyone initially connected her to the Barones.
I think this situation just sort of developed.
Leonardo was probably looking for a way in, had the Barone’s scope us out for him, and this poor woman was likely just an innocent victim who got caught up in their game.
You know how indifferent those guys are to collateral damage. ”
As much as I want to stay furious at the maid for potentially putting Valentina in direct harm, I also agree that what Zara is pointing out is true.
Maria was likely completely innocent with a clean past when Vincent first hired her.
Men like Angelo Barone can turn anyone against their own morals by using the right threats.
The focus now is to find out how he got the maid to turn and what, exactly, she told him.
“Hopefully, she can give us some insight into where Valentina is,” I say as my concern over her and the baby continues to climb.
When Alonzo returns within the hour with Maria Russo in hand, it’s time to get some answers.
Maria does admittedly look completely terrified when she’s brought in and shoved down into a chair to face our questioning.
She glances over at Vincent, visibly afraid of what punishment her boss is going to provide, now that she’s aware of who he really is.
But it’s me she should fear the most in this moment.
Vincent might be the more ruthless of the two of us on a normal day, but not today—not when Valentina is involved.
“Why did you do it?” I ask slowly as I kneel in front of her and put my direct eye contact squarely in her face. “Why did you give information about Valentina to Angelo Barone?”
“Answer carefully,” Vincent warns her from behind me. “You won’t get a second chance if you lie to us, Maria.”
Tears swell in her eyes as her hands shake in her lap.
“I had no choice,” she chokes on her words. “I am so sorry, truly I am. Deep remorse haunts me, and I’ve felt guilty ever since I gave that wicked man information. I like Valentina. She has been nothing but kind to me, but I had no choice—he threatened my family.”
Her face twists with conflicted emotions as she blabbers and rambles as if she’s glad to be getting this off her chest. “I was too afraid to speak out. I had to stay silent. They told me that if I didn’t, there would be consequences.”
“What consequences?”
“Mr. Barone said that he had men in Italy who were watching my family. He showed me photographs of my parents and my sister there and said that if I didn’t report to him every night about Valentina and if I dared to let anyone know about our arrangement, that he would have my entire family killed and he would make me watch. ”
At that, Maria bursts into tears and buries her face in her hands. “I never wanted Valentina to get hurt,” she cries, obviously deeply troubled by the conflict between her moral compass and the reality of her position, a position Barone forced her into by threatening her family.
“What information did you provide to him?” I ask, trying to get the answers that might help us find Valentina before deciding what to do with the maid.
“He asked me if she was pregnant, and I told him she was. I was the one who brought her the pregnancy test. He asked me whose child it was and if she was sure that the baby belonged to you.”
“What did you tell him?”
Maria shakes her head. “I told him honestly that I didn’t know that part.
Then, he told me I needed to tell him everything that Valentina did and said, and everything I heard about during my shifts here at the hotel.
We met at the sandwich shop down the street every night for me to report to him.
He told me that if I was late or didn’t show up, my family would die within hours. ”