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Ana shivered at the half-smile on his lips. It was predatorial. Lethal.
“I have no idea how his east coast wineries survived this long,” she said. “Some of the staff I called were there as recently as six months ago, and even their records are outdated.” Remembering her bizarre calls, she laughed. “You know, one of the numbers was so old, it led me down a goose chase to a deli. The owners were so confused.”
Gio’s eyes narrowed on her. “Which deli?” he asked, alert.
Humor slipping away, Ana blinked hesitantly. “Um, I have to check. It was somewhere in Allentown. Fifth Street or maybe Fourth Street Deli?”
He eased slightly but was still visibly perturbed.
“Why?” she pressed, worried.
“Nothing. It’s just…odd.” Gio frowned as he extracted his phone from his pocket. Thumbing through it, he landed on a screen before turning it to her.
It was a contact page. There was no name or details, just a phone number and a note he’d added at the bottom: Guard 2. Outdated number-Lehigh Deli.
“Is this–?”
“One of the two unknown guards. Yeah.”
Ana rubbed her mouth. “The person I was trying to reach was an IT guy. No one picked up his number, so I tried searching online for any relatives and landed at that deli.”
The deli owner’s caginess suddenly filtered back into her memory. At the time, she’d chalked it up to normal discomfort from receiving a cold call. But now she wondered if it was something more.
Two staff, in completely unrelated roles, were both rerouting to delis in Eastern Pennsylvania. What were the chances?
“There's no such thing as coincidence, not in the Family,” Gio echoed her thoughts. “This is the third ex-Vitello employee where something like this has happened.”
Flicking back through his phone, he pulled up another contact where he’d added a similar note: Accountant. Outdated number-Easton Dry Cleaners.
“Strange, isn’t it?” His eyes darkened as his gears turned. “As you said, most of his staff were still on his payroll a few months ago. Where did they all vanish to?”
Ana’s heart thudded as his face clouded over with growing displeasure. “Is it just these three?” she asked. “No other staff had their numbers rerouted?”
“Not that I know of. Vitello had around 300 employees here on the East Coast before I shut those operations down. He said they were able to place half of them in his Napa wineries and other Family businesses. The remaining half ended up on the list he gave us.”
“Why did you even shut down those wineries?”
Gio ran an agitated hand through his hair, mussing up his curls. “It was lousy management all around. Recordkeeping was shit; expense control was nonexistent. Vitello was paying staff double what other businesses were, even while profits were shrinking. It got so bad that he came begging for subsidies to help cover salaries, right after I became Don.”
Seriously?
“Oh yeah,” Gio scoffed at her disbelief. “I was pissed as hell. I gave him partial funds, with the rest contingent on him turning things around within a year.”
“Which he didn’t.”
Gio nodded. “He tried lowering salaries and making some adjustments, but it barely made a dent. There were too many issues racking up, and after a while, no one wanted to buy his wines except friends and family. That’s when I pulled the plug.”
The accusation was hovering on the tip of her tongue, but Ana wavered.
It sounded outrageous. Unconscionable. But all the signs were pointing in that direction.
“Do you think…?” Her lips pursed, hesitant. Gio’s black eyes gleamed, goading her to utter what they both were thinking. “Do you think those outdated staff even exist?”
Sweat beaded on her neck.
Heat whipped between them furiously as the humid summer air thickened intolerably.
“No.” His voice was low, dangerous. “They’re all fake.” There was no doubt in his tone; he’d already reached the conclusion she had minutes before. “I thought Vitello was a bumbling fool…a piss-poor businessman. But he isn’t–far from it. He was never interested in running the wineries and making them profitable. It was all a front to steal funds from the Family.”
