much more restraint than I ever could have. He’s a saint.”
Again, his brothers and sisters laughed. The sound made Vittorio’s heart a little lighter. He knew he had a long way to go with Grace, but once he was set on a task, once he made up his mind, he was relentless. He wanted Grace, he wanted to give her all the things she’d never had, and buffer her from the worst the world had to offer. He was tough and knew there was little anyone could do to hurt him, other than those in his family. He didn’t want Grace to have to be like he was. She could be soft and sensitive. He’d provide the armor for her.
“I am a saint to sit here listening to this crap when I could be sitting with her,” Vittorio proclaimed, sitting back in his chair. “Was she seeing anyone?” If she had been, Rosina hadn’t sent him evidence or a name of a man who might be after her because she turned him down.
“Not that Rosina could find,” Emme said. “If she was, it was kept very quiet.”
“What about her relationship with Haydon Phillips?” Taviano asked.
Vittorio’s gut tightened. “What about it? They were in a foster home together. She clearly tried to get him off drugs and to quit gambling.”
“She paid his gambling debts twice, Vittorio,” Taviano pointed out. “It’s possible they had more of a relationship than being thrown together in a home.”
Vittorio shook his head. He knew absolutely the two of them hadn’t had an intimate relationship. “No way. It wasn’t there.”
“He locked her in the trunk of a car,” Ricco said. “He took that woman, ambushed her somehow—she didn’t just climb in for him—and he drove her to the club with the intention of selling her into slavery to pay his debts.”
“He kept saying he deserved a two-hundred-and-fiftythousand-dollar credit,” Vittorio said. “Who in the Saldi family loans money?” He shook his head. “Let’s narrow that down to Miceli’s crew. Ale Sarto and Lando Gori work for Miceli. I doubt that Giuseppi would have used either of them to deliver messages or even to pick up a potential prostitute for them.”
“I’m shocked Miceli used them to deliver his message,” Ricco said.
“No way was Phillips going to live through that,” Vittorio said. “They were there to kill him. If they wanted money from him, they wouldn’t have sent Sarto and Gori. They wanted him dead because they cared more about getting Grace than they did the money.”
“So, whoever loaned the money would have had to sign off on that,” Stefano concluded. “That narrows things down, doesn’t it?”
There was a moment of silence. “Let’s get Rosina on it,” Stefano added.
“Someone who loans out large amounts of money, not penny-ante crap,” Vittorio said. “It has to be someone Miceli is indebted to, owes a favor, something of that nature.”
Stefano was already texting his cousin. “She’ll find them, Vittorio. You know she’s never missed yet.”
“Who runs the girls?” Emme asked. “That’s another lead right there. High-end, it sounds like. They aren’t going to trade that kind of debt and put someone like Grace into a stable. She’s special and they know it.”
“That would be Marco Simoncini,” Ricco said. “He runs all kinds of girls from street-level to very high escort girls. If you want to party, you call Marco.”
“How would you know that?” Mariko asked very softly. Her large eyes were fixed on her husband’s face.
“Yes, Ricco, how did you know that?” Giovanni asked.
Ricco threw a buttery pastry at his brother, who caught it before it hit him in the head. “Everyone knows Marco runs the girls for Miceli.”
“I didn’t know,” Mariko said. She turned to Sasha. “Did you?”
“No, I wasn’t informed. What about you, Francesca? Did you know?”
“No, but I’m betting Stefano knew.”
“That’s because almost everyone knows,” Stefano said, leaning in to steal the laughter from his wife with his kiss.
“Did you know, Emme?” Mariko persisted.
“I’m afraid I did,” Emmanuelle admitted, her lips twitching. “Marco is very loud about his girls. More, he tried to recruit me once. Ricco, Stefano and Vittorio paid him a visit. He quit harassing me. I didn’t need them to bail me out, but they insisted it would raise too many questions to have a girl beat up one of the Saldis.” She gave a little sniff.
“You could have done it, too,” Vittorio said, pride in his voice. He brushed a kiss on top of her head. “Marco’s ego would have insisted he try to retaliate. We