Page 35 of The Deals We Make

Alessio points towards a large room with more sofas and chairs in it than you can count. Not sure what the point of the room is. It looks like an overly cluttered hotel lobby to me. I suppose those big-ass lamps on the end tables are worth ten grand a piece.

Three men are situated around the perimeter, and I glance at them.

“My personal guards,” he says. “You can speak in front of them.”

I follow Alessio with Switch and Sofia to the sofas, but Bates, Niro, and Cat set up guard around the room.

“Why do you think you’re being hacked?” I ask.

“It was when they hit the company we established to manage our real estate and development portfolio. The company is called VERE holdings. Viscuso Executive Real Estate,” Alessio says as he takes a seat opposite me. “They took three million. And when we looked back, we could see there were much smaller amounts missing over a period of time. Then, boom, three million was gone in one hit.”

My heart skips a beat. This was always Calista’s MO. Make the connection, go small, see what alarm bells ring, then go big. She liked to tease and keep the risk low with the initial hit so the repercussions would be small if it triggered any kind of tracking.

“Organizations like ours are a prime target for hackers,” Alessio says. “They think that because we run enterprises that skirt the law, we won’t report this kind of theft to the police because it would draw attention to us and our holdings. But the real estate business is completely legitimate.”

I lean forward and rest my elbows on my knees. “And you’re sure this is an outside job?”

Alessio rolls his eyes. “Yes. I’m sure. We’ve gone through all the obvious answers.”

“We think it may have been opportunistic,” Sophia says. “While we tried to keep my accident out of the press, it didn’t go unreported. I was responsible for that business. I’m certain from my files and the content on my laptop that I would have gone through the numbers each month with a fine-tooth comb. They took advantage of the fact I wasn’t in charge.”

Something doesn’t make sense to me. “But then, doesn’t that speak to an inside job, someone who knew what you were or weren’t doing?”

“We have our own technical guy,” Alessio says. “He’s looked at the ways he thought they kept doing it but hasn’t found a trace.”

“Kept doing it?” Switch asks. “They’ve done it more than once?”

“Three times, different arms of our business,” Alessio admits. “And I’m fucking pissed off about it. I’ll kill the motherfucker when I find them.”

“Your tech guy…did he set up one network? For all your businesses?” I ask.

Alessio shrugs. “I would have to ask. But we share software and emails.”

“Who would have thought mobsters had enterprise software?” Switch says.

I huff and lean back, placing my arm over the back of the sofa. “Best guess without looking at it? Someone has exploited a network weakness to gain illegal access to your system. There will probably be traces of both their reconnaissance on your system and the scanning they did to find your vulnerabilities. Once they find access, there are so many ways they could have hacked you. Brute force attacks. They could spoof you. Use man-in-the-middle attacks, called an MitM hit. But I think theimportant thing here is that they’ve found a way to maintain access.”

Alessio temples his fingertips as he thinks. “Can you take a look at our systems and tell us how they’re getting in? Because I want our money back.”

I swallow and try to hide what I fear most. That this is Calista. I’m a wealthy man, but I don’t know if I would ever be able to foot the bill. Although, given how well her company is going, she might have enough of her own.

Having enough was never Calista’s issue. She simply always wanted more.

And greed can land a girl in a lot of places she shouldn’t be.

But I need to know if it’s her. Because if it is, I’m going to clear her tracks and put her back on the next flight to California, mom or no mom. I’ll see her off with a clear understanding.

She needs to stop shitting in my yard, because for whatever reason, I feel compelled to clean up after her.

“Sure. I can take a look. But in looking, I’m gonna see every single thing you probably don’t want me to see. I’m going to be all over your files and drives and networks. Are you cool with that?”

Alessio looks up at the ceiling and purses his lips for a moment. “I am. Only you. And I’ll have someone watch you while you do it.”

“Fair enough. King says he’ll be sending you a consulting bill.”

“Understandable. I’d be paying it anyway. I was about to hire a company to come take a look at it for me, before Sophia told me about you.”

The comment makes me uncomfortable. “Yeah?”