Page 76 of Urgent Vows
"I thought you said your father never talked business with the family."
"I listened at doors and his men weren't nearly as reticent talking about business around me. I was a nonentity in that house."
"It could be the bratva, trying to stir trouble between us and the Irish."
But she shakes her head. "No. Just because a bratva family in Detroit double crossed the Irish doesn't mean any of the bratva families in New York are looking to risk their people trying to steal territory. They don't have to use New York to bring in their cargo. They have family connections in port towns on Canada's East Coast, not to mention Boston."
"Don't tell me you overheard that listening in on conversations between your father's men."
She grins. "Nope. It's the result of intense intelligence gathering."
What the hell is she talking about?
"Once I came home from boarding school I had very little to do except learn and research things that interested me. My father liked to say I'm stupid and ignorant. Useless. Knowing more than he did about the Cosa Nostra made me feel powerful. It was my way of proving him wrong."
Impressed by my wife's determination and intelligence, I point out, "The bratva are not the Cosa Nostra."
"Well, no, but researching the Cosa Nostra naturally led me to accumulating information on all the major syndicates in the Cosa Nostra's five territories."
"How?" my sister asks, sounding fascinated.
"Yes, how?" My brother-in-law seems far less trusting. He thinks my wife is talking out of her ass.
I know better. I don't underestimate the woman in my arms.
"How can you know they aren't the same bratva family?" Miceli asks. He wants specifics related to our current situation.
"Surnames. I track all the family and syndicate connections via the news, social media, public arrest records and government reports which are often published in easily accessible places."
"Fucking hell." That is Raffaele. "Where do you keep this information?"
"It's analog. My father might have found it on my computer, or God forbid, law enforcement with a warrant for the household computers. A written document can't be hacked and it's unlikely that any warrant would cover my personal possessions since I have nothing to do with the business. Even so, I took pains to hide all the information I have accumulated. In the wrong hands it could underminela famiglia."
"You got that right," Miceli says explosively.
I tilt Catalina's head up with my knuckles under her chin. I want to kiss her, but I ask instead, "Where is it?"
"In my bedroom at the mansion."
"We need to get it now," Miceli says, a rare urgency to his tone.
I nod. "Call Luigi. He's there retrieving Catalina's personal things."
"I might need to go to the house to get it. I'm not sure Luigi will be able to figure out the mechanism for the entrance to the secret room. It's complicated."
Chapter 25
SEVERU
"Secret room?"I ask, stunned.
"I know it looks newer, but that's because the original house has been added onto and doesn't show in the outer façade of the mansion it has become. I don't think Papa would have bought it otherwise."
I'm sure she's right. Appearances were important to Francesco.
"My bedroom is part of the original house. My father wasn't interested in its history, but I was. I learned it was built by a Mason over one hundred and fifty years ago. That's how I found the secret room."
"I don't want you going back there."
