“I agreed we should reform the Syndicate from the moment I got the letter. Being told to hunt my enemies or war will come was enough to make me want the alliance a syndicate would have. But I’ve taken my time to consider who I want to involve because while I want to keep the structure and the concept the same, I don’t want the same problems so the same shit can happen in the future. I think I can finally make a start at rebuilding, but I’m continuing the hunt. Mortimer is at the top of the list.”
“You know I fully support you. I’ve never stopped looking for that man.”
“I know.”
“If we get Mortimer, it will be a big win. If we get the rest of these bastards then I think I’ll look to reforming the Syndicate with the same vision Pa had for strength.”
I nod my agreement.
We grew up poor, living in shit because Riccardo Balesteri made sure our father lost everything. Pa rebuilt and gave us a legacy with D’Agostino Inc. He took one step further and allied himself with the Syndicate to protect what we had and make us stronger. We can do that too.
The door burst open and Dominic rushes in carrying a wad of papers.
“Guys,” he says breathlessly. “I found something.”
“What?” I stare at him eagerly.
He moves over to Massimo’s desk and sets out the papers. We follow and look over them as he spaces them out.
One looks like a transfer of property deed and the rest are listings of addresses and photos of a young woman with white blonde hair and bright green eyes. Instantly she catches my attention because she’s very beautiful.
“Look, here,” Dominic points to the deed and I see exactly what he’s pointing to.
It’s Mortimer’s name transferring a house in Moscow to Isabella Viggo.
“Isabella Viggo?” I ask narrowing my eyes, and Dominic nods.
He then points to another set of documents that lists Isabella Viggo’s relation to Mortimer as his daughter.
Fuck…The man has a daughter.
The realization hits me and Massimo at the same time and we look at each other.
“Mortimer has a daughter,” I state and grit my teeth.
“Correction brother, Mortimer has a daughter only a select few know about,” Dominic intones. “That house in Moscow is empty but I found an address in Rhode Island for the point of contact. The woman who lives there, however, is this lady: Isabella Baker. She’s twenty-two and works at the Ridgewood Clinic as an assistant therapist.”
I sigh. “Same first name, there’s every reason to hide the surname.”
“We have to be careful. It might not be her. We’d need something to identify her as Isabella Viggo,” Massimo points out. “Isabella Baker could be someone working with them, or just a contact at the address with the same first name.”
“Or it’s her,” I press. Maybe it’s desperation making me eager to jump the gun and get somewhere. Or maybe I don’t want to spend the next six years in the same shit, or worse … losing someone else.
“How did you find this Dominic?” Massimo asks.
“I hacked everything known to man. I’ve had trackers set up on various systems to alert me when Mortimer’s name pops up. This came from a land registry office in Moscow. It was filed this morning. The moment it was scanned into the systems my bots picked it up. I did the rest of digging around with the details on the deed.”
Fuck… All I can do is look at him in amazement.
“Good job Dominic,” Massimo says with a nod.
“Fuck yeah,” I agree.
“So… What are we going to do?” Dominic asks nervously. “What do we do now?”
“If this woman is his daughter, she’ll know where to find him,” I say picking up the photo of her.
She is really beautiful. That white blonde hair and those bright green eyes are striking. Her eyes hold me in place like she’s actually looking at me and there’s a sheen of determination in them.
Is she his daughter?
If she is then that makes her my enemy too. Guilty by mere association with hands as filthy and her soul as dark as her father’s.
A plan starts brewing in my mind and stirring in my soul. The same plan I’ve thought of before, many times. After Alyssa was killed there were countless times when I wondered if Mortimer had anybody he cared about. This could be her. A daughter.