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I get cappucino and an almond croissant, and take them to a table in the shade. I text Mikey and tell him where I am, and to be ready to pick me up in about half an hour.
I play a mix of Billy Eilish, Beyonce, Janelle, and some Taylor Swift in my headphones.
Thinking about calling Bruno, I’m expecting he won’t be up for another hour or two. The music is supposed to be pumping enough to keep Alessio out of my head for a while at least, and even more his fucking uncle. It’s clearly not working though.
I try some Hozier. It’s more of a purge, but in the end, I go with dark Vivaldi.
Bruno gets a little anxious and even jealous of any time that I spend with just one of them, and I think it’s a little worse when the one is Carlo. Bruno is confident with Alessio and he loves him, but I think he’s still a little in awe of Carlo — everybody is — and I don’t think Bruno’s always sure how to handle it.
More than anything I don’t want to make Bruno feel bad. He’s my rock. While he’s obviously the strongest of my kings physically, and the most stable in his personality, he feels things very deeply.
He has the tenderest emotions of the three and he’s the most easily hurt. I know he’s also the least likely to let on, so I always make a point to try to stay close with him.
Turns out, he is up.
When he picks up, I feel like a weight slipped off my shoulders. He sounds great. He was up late on a roll at the craps table, but now he’s down in the breakfast bar.
He tells me about things with the casino management. “We were all getting on fine. The people at the Sky Table resort could not have been nicer. Nobody was talking details about the deal, obviously, but we were, you know, all getting along.”
I catch Kieron’s eye to order another coffee. Bruno says, “Waya, the director of operations, showed us around personally. He’s about eight feet tall. Broad and proud. He’s got that godlike chieftain thing going, in a gorgeous tailored suit.”
“Sounds like you’ve got the hots for him yourself.”
“Gotta say, if I was going to flip…” he chuckles. “But there’s not a chance of that, I don’t think.”
“I don’t know. You’re pretty well in touch with your feminine side.”
“It’s my secret weapon.”
“Not much of a secret now.”
“Oh, it still has some tricks to that can surprise you.”
“Damn. I can’t wait.”
“But I’m not flipping for anyone. I’m so totally in love with you, Lucia, I wouldn’t have room for anyone else.”
I’m glowing inside. even Kieron seems to have caught a sign of it somehow. Ss he sets my coffee down with a biscotti, his eyebrows stretch to the ceiling.
Bruno gets back to the story. “Everything looked good and we were all having a fine time. Or that was how it seemed. Then, in one minute we looked around and everyone’s faces were like flat-irons.”
I can imagine how chilling that might have been.
“It took us a while to find out what happened at Sun-a-do.” he pauses for a sip of his own coffee. “It was like the shutters came down. It was night and day, I’m telling you.” In the pause, I can imagine his head shaking. “Carlo got hold of Tai. He said they found the rubber thumbs and identified the prints from them. Apparently, they’re all from a team that were hired in for vacation cover. Looks like the workers might have been undocumented and trafficked.”
I shake my head. “So not much chance of tracing them.”
“Unlikely, But we got a hold of the agency. We’re on it, as much as we can be.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask,” I take a sip of my coffee, “but, can we see yet whether that sloppy hire is on the tribes, or is it on us?”
“That’s not clear at all. They’re in charge of the day to day running, and operating the security, so it’s on them that they didn’t update and take those prints out of the system.”
“In the big picture it’s just a gap that needs plugging. It shouldn’t matter who’s to blame. But right now…”
“Right now, I don’t think it matters much either way. I was talking to Tai’s security guy and he kept on muttering about there being a leaky pipe.”
“The rat.”
