Page 68 of Conceal

Fuck yeah!

Unable to contain my excitement, I throw my arm in the air and whoop.

I click the “Accept” button on the pop-out. Suddenly, a large window expands, and I realize I’m looking at Vitale’s desktop.

He has a tasteless background of a naked woman’s tits, cocaine spread in a line across the top of both breasts.

Ew.

Okay. That doesn’t matter.

I open the command center for his computer and do a search for “drugs”. That’s stupid. But I guess I don’t know what I’m looking for. What does the mafia even do? What would they call drugs? Surely there’s a codename for them? I’m tempted to text Hannah or Nikki and ask, but it’s two AM. I don’t want to bother them.

Pulling the charger from the side of the laptop, I bring it into bed with me, placing it on my crossed legs.

Okay.

Think.

What do I know about Giovanni? He’s an alcoholic. His dad was killed last year. He runs some sort of illegal operation, or a leg of it? He ordered my assassination. But we never figured out why. It seems like he’s more interested in snorting and fucking his way through life. He’s gross. But he doesn’t give me criminal mastermind vibes.

My brain feels like it’s made out of scrambled eggs.

Giovanni’s out, so I sneak to the kitchen and make myself a pot of black coffee before running to my room and locking the door. Taking the first few bitter sips helps wake my brain up.

I drop to the floor and do pushups until failure to get my blood moving before pulling the laptop back into my lap.

Feeling more awake, I control+F again.

“Product”. Nothing.

I try “cocaine.” Nothing.

“Heroin.” Nothing.

“Fentanyl.”

A single deleted news article about an overdose downtown.

I stare at the screen.

Of course, it isn’t going to be that easy. The man isn’t going to keep a folder labeled ILLEGAL MAFIA CRIMES next to his tax returns.

I wish Lev were here.

He’d know what words to look for. Roman would understand the structure of Vitale’s organization. Mik would somehow glare at the computer until it confessed.

But they aren’t here.

And that’s the point.

I have to do this.

Okay, so if searching isn’t finding anything, I just need to look at everything until I find something worth giving to the FBI.

I open the file explorer and begin at the top.

Documents.