consider that even with Sarto and Gori in the hospital, but in police custody, Grace might still be in danger.
“If she disappeared, the last person to see her would have been Haydon, and he would have been dead. No one would have a clue she was taken by the Saldis,” Emme said.
Vittorio knew what it cost her to state that. He dropped his hand to the nape of her neck and massaged gently to ease the tension out of her. He couldn’t give her back her heart, but he could let her know he stood solidly with her.
“I know Grace is the one for me, even though I didn’t connect with her shadow first. The lights in the parking lot had been deliberately broken, most likely by Sarto and Gori. Or Phillips. The camera footage will tell us when Rigina recovers what we need.”
“We have a remote backup that feed goes to,” Stefano pointed out. “What about that?”
“Rigina has access to it, even though the original was wiped,” Ricco said. “Fortunately, no one but our family knows about the backup. When she finds the right footage, whoever is selling us out to the Saldis won’t know we’ve discovered what they’re doing, and we might have a way to use them.”
“Maybe,” Vittorio said, his voice mild. “But whoever it is was aiding human trafficking, and the woman he helped them take was mine. That makes this very personal.” He ignored the way Stefano’s head came up, his gaze suddenly sharp and assessing. Vittorio doggedly continued, “The fact that they can wipe the security feed and slip Saldis into the club along with a junkie—it has to be someone high up in management we trust.”
“We’re going to handle this, Vittorio,” Stefano assured. “When it was Francesca’s life in danger, or Mariko’s, or Sasha’s, for that matter, we took care of the problem ourselves. We’ll find out who’s behind this without jumping to conclusions.” His gaze touched Emme’s face just for a moment. “We aren’t going to make any mistakes with this one.”
Emme’s fingers tightened around Vittorio’s. He knew she loved Val Saldi and that wasn’t going away anytime soon—even though she knew his family were criminals. When the Ferraros loved, they did it wholly, and they did it once. This exact scenario had always been the thing they’d feared the most for Emme—that the two families would end up in a war.
“Who was on last night, managing the club?” Ricco asked.
“Martin Shanks,” Stefano said. “He’s been with us as a manager for six years, worked an additional four in the club. Rosina is looking into his financials. Shanks went home around midnight very ill. There were witnesses to him being extremely sick. His assistant, Timothy Vane, took over for him. Vane had been working for the club about three years when he was promoted to assistant manager. That was two years ago. So, he’s been in the club for a good five years. These are not new employees. They’re paid extremely well, receive bonuses and have been with our family for a lot of years, so they receive profit sharing as well.”
“Who was at the door?” Emme asked.
“Clay Pierson. He’s been one of our bouncers for ten years,” Stefano said. “Emilio and Enzo trained him. Again, he’s long-time employed, makes good money and receives profit sharing.”
“I saw Peter Franks,” Vittorio said. “He’s hard to miss. He was on last night as well. Not working the door, but inside.”
“I don’t know who that is,” Francesca said.
Sasha and Mariko both indicated they didn’t know him, either.
“Franks works security. Essentially, he’s a bouncer. He works the door when he’s scheduled, but like Clay Pierson, he trained under Emilio and Enzo,” Stefano provided.
Vittorio handed his coffee cup to Taviano, who had risen, and pointed toward the kitchen where the espresso machine was. He needed to hear everything being said, but he wanted to be at the hospital. He’d promised Grace he would be there when she woke up, and he was determined to make that happen.
He was going on forty-eight hours without sleep and he needed to crash soon. Giovanni, Sasha, Taviano and Ricco had gone to Los Angeles in their private jet. He’d taken the shadows to the airport, secretly entering the plane right under the noses of the paparazzi. Once in Los Angeles, his brothers and sister-in-law headed to the nearest nightclub with their LA cousins to party the night away. Being out in the open like that, getting photographed dancing and drinking, gave