Page 9 of The Wicked

I shrugged. “They have guts—and determination. I could tell from the one I spoke to.”

“Zahra?”

“Hm. Do you have the full name yet?”

Dropping his glass to the table, he nodded. “Her last name is Faizan. She was bought in Saudi Arabia and abandoned before coming to Italy. Couldn’t dig up much about her.”

“Parents?”

“Father unknown, mother disappeared right after birth. No other records.”

“And the others?”

“I already sent you all the information you should need about them, but I know you won’t read it, so—pink-haired girl who calls herself Milk is an orphan and was in foster care before migrating to a small biker group. The group is still active, but when we reached out, they refused all claims to her. Upper and Dog are no-name orphans. Devil’s background is still unclear; the background check we ran on him was void.”

“Void?”

“He’s a ghost.”

I brought the cigar to my mouth, inhaled once more before putting it out in the ashtray. “Hm. No childhood pictures, surveillance cameras, webcam images?”

“None. He’s not in any database. Medical records are also zero, and criminal records are clear—no legal name to pin him to like the others. And we can’t exactly run a check on a nickname. It makes it difficult because that face isn’t in the system.”

I nodded. “Interesting. We should keep an eye on that one.”

Casmiro grunted. “I don’t think we should be keeping eyes on any of them. They should be dead.”

“They are useful.”

“Useful in what sense? We have guys who can steal for you and would never be seen doing it.”

“These people stole from thosesameguys and were not seen by them. They locked us out of our security system for two hours after they left. They had the guts to do all that and were still successful.”

“We caught them.”

“Because they left something behind. The jewelry. They know it too.”

“I don’t think this is wise, E.”

“I think it is. They are under Marino’s command now. They are not our people but assets we can use. Political assets.”

“There we go,” Casmiro mumbled.

“Think. These men in the big seats only listen to the command of power, Casmiro. You might not see the use of politics. But the Marino empire is legal, thanks to me. We can touch the government and political bodies and be so big that future accusations without proof would brush past the media in a swoosh no one would see. Our fathers never thought of this because they were old-fashioned. They were scared little men who didn’t dare to branch out of their comfort zone,” I said to him, drinking the rest of the whiskey in my glass and dropping the empty glass on the counter.

He was silent after that. I watched his jaw clench and unclench, still looking at the collection of whiskeys and wine before him as he spoke. “Then let me in.”

I sighed, turning to pour myself another round, ignoring the pointedness of his gaze at the side of my face.

“But you won’t.” He turned fully to me. “You won’t because you don’t trust me—because, for some reason, you choose not to. I would have accepted that if there had been a time when Idid something to break your trust in me, but I never did. You just stopped.”

“I don’t trust anyone, Casmiro. Don’t make it personal.”

“Fuck you, E. I am making it fucking personal.”

“Cas—”

“I am tired of you treating me like one of your soldiers. It was supposed to be the two of us. Against everyone. But you fucking treat me like an outsider.”