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“Don’t be so sure. It happens. I’ve seen it all, trust me. So tell me how you got that photograph or how your friend was researching Moira’s sister.”
“After the incident, I thought I’d hear from her, even though she was supposedly dead and buried. You did that.”
“Didn’t kill her, but yes, I buried her in Italy after I got home from deployment.”
“I thought she was still alive. I couldn’t believe she’d been nabbed and then killed.”
“Thank you, SEAL Team 8.”
“The now Senator Goldberg. Nathan Goldberg.”
“Why were you researching her sister?”
“She was spotted afterwards. I searched papers online and found a picture of her and her parents. I knew Moira’s mother was from Capri. Nice little island off the Italian coast. Family had a hotel there, history going back a few hundred years. Her dad retired from owning a vineyard in Sonoma County and moved the family to Florence-area years ago, when Moira was just entering college. He actually started managing several smaller wineries, started doing that again. And within months, he started buying up property with his proceeds from his winery business sale in California.”
Dimitri tried to understand why this would be so controversial she couldn’t tell him. So he asked Jordan.
“Wonder why she never told me all this. I never met them.”
“Ah! I have an answer to that. Her dad got in trouble with the wrong sort of people over there. Moira was going to look into who they were and try to help her dad by getting dirt on some of his enemies.”
“And they were bigger than she thought.”
“Bingo. Like Cabinet-level Italian government officials, mafia perhaps. Bullies. The ones that give charity balls and donate to the church or widows and orphans funds. They name libraries after those people. So here the family was, ex-pats from California, trying to deal with officials and gangsters. Only her mom knows Italian. They have two children at home, her younger brother and sister. And it’s getting dangerous.”
“A bubble ready to burst.”
“Exactly. Being Americans, they believe in the court system, so they file a complaint, and that brings down the wrath of God. They were unceremoniously told if they valued the lives of their children, they’d withdraw the complaint, and so they did.”
“This was still five years ago?”
“Before San Francisco, so at least five. Until she came over that summer, they didn’t know there was a second daughter. She complained to the US Counsel’s office on behalf of her family, who had all their money tied up in ventures with unsavories who were squeezing them.”
“Were these people to be trusted?”
“The embassy? She thought so. But the family had to flee under the cover of darkness. A group of SEALs attached to the embassy security detail helped rescue them. The family relocated, had to leave everything behind, as part of the negotiated agreement. The family could be protected but couldn’t leave Italy. Moira was sent back to the US and went back with the SEAL Team who rescued them.”
This was the part Dimitri was sure he wasn’t going to like. Just the thought of Moira with a small platoon of SEALs, traveling together on a long flight home, was disturbing. She’d even confessed to him early in their fledgling relationship she always wanted to embed with the SEALs. She got part of her wish. She must have been higher than a kite with joy and took her guard down.
“She made friends and allies. One of them was then-Lieutenant Nathan Goldberg.”
He could have just stood up and walked away. But he remembered the cards, and he wouldn’t be able to do that, even if his fears were substantiated.
“She looked me up and asked for my help. Filled me in with all the details of what had been going on with her life. At thetime, she was having a relationship with Goldberg. Not sure you knew that.”
“No, I didn’t. But I’m not surprised. He’s very handsome, always on the upward move, hangs around a lot of the Mr. Bigs. He was a legend. That gives more reason he was tasked with the botched rescue—the second one where everyone was killed. Probably asked for it.”
“And it ruined his career, but it turned out to be just a minor setback.”
“Losing all the hostages is called a setback now?” Dimitri asked. “Really? Not the way the SEAL Teams thought of it. He was sort of persona non grata. Not just because she was my fiancée, and you know the community doesn’t like others messing with our women, but for his cockiness, attitude, and excuses. We all saw him on TV, and he came across like one of those lizard-people from that Sci-Fi series that ate live mice. Can’t remember it.”
“Not into sci-fi. But, sir, from your perspective, I completely understand.”
“Yeah, since I was the one who put that ring on her finger not more than six months before she left. He was going over to rescue my fiancée, and I was never told he’d been involved with her before I came back into the picture. What am I missing, Jordan? Was I just stupid or didn’t ask enough questions while I was loving the Hell out of being her other half?”
“After he helped move them, he was working with the Embassy to help her get justice for her father and permanent safety for her siblings. The Italian government wouldn’t let them leave, even though they were U.S. citizens.”
“Which means they went too deep. Our government was pressured to close the door on them.”
