Chapter 11
Torq looked up as his best friend, his underboss and overall voice of reason came tearing into the boardroom. The look on Tito’s face forced him immediately to his feet. Today while his father’s people were shooting at him, Tito seemed calm and collected. This was not the same man who was being fired at earlier.
“I fucked up.”
Tito’s words made Torq worried, “What did you do?”
“Aya.”
His friend was clenching and unclenching his fists. Considering the man in front of him once stood right at his side while Torq shot his own father in the thigh, nicking his femoral artery and didn’t even blink, the uncharacteristic display of unease from the man had Torq paying close attention, but the word seemed like it rang hollow in his ear. “How?”
“I mistook a girl leaving the building as the Mariani princess you messaged about. The woman said she was up here working on the computers, but she was damn near running out of here. I insisted we put her in a car since I presumed her father would expect it but the minute the car drove away, I realized my error.”
Now Torq was confused. “Alcee Mariani was the only woman aside from Genevra on this floor for the last several hours. Who did you see?”
Tito was bent slightly as having a challenging time looking Torq in the eyes, “I knew her face immediately and I couldn’t place it, and it was immediately as I got back inside the building, I realized it was this woman,” he slid his phone across the boardroom table. “I recognized her face because i’ve been looking for it for the last six years.”
He looked at the photo and then looked back to Tito. “You saw Aya here?”
“I put her in one of our fucking cars! I tried calling the driver to bring her back but when he finally answered he said she’d jumped out not a block down the street and ran to the subway. He chased her a bit to get her back in the car and it was why he took so long to answer.”
“Who is Aya?” Kylen asked in confusion as he finally joined the conversation. He looked over Torq’s shoulder, “her name is Alcee. You were talking to her in my office.”
Now he was stunned. “It can’t be.”
Tito pointed to the phone, “this woman is Alcee Mariani?”
“Yes. She was placed here during her internship, probably as a favor to her father, and she was great at her job. Tyrell loved her to bits because she was incredibly hard working and smart as hell. She takes direction well most of the time unless we’re asking her to pull overtime. When she and Tank are on a job for me, they get results and fast. She was one of the people on the list when you bought out the company from him who he insisted we make sure she kept her job. He told me he held a lot of respect for a woman who could make it on her own away from a family like hers. He said he liked her chutzpah and as I told you earlier, she’s smarter than smart. Having her here has been a solid business decision and we picked up the protection detail where Tyrell left off, at his request.”
“A family like hers?” Bastiano asked quietly. He was staring at the photo on the phone which now sat flat on the table between the men.
Torq shook his head. They’d all missed it.
“Come on, we all know she’s Edgardo Mariani’s daughter. I wouldn’t be sitting in the president’s office if I didn’t pledge allegiance to Lozano, so I damn well knew who our allies and enemies are.”
“I need her personnel file now.” His stomach was in knots. Aya was right in the same room as him and he hadn’t noticed. It dawned on him how she’d snuck off towards the door and kept her face hidden. She knew. She knew and she was running. The question was why.
“What am I missing?” Kylen asked as he pulled her records up on his laptop and then spun the device to face his boss. “Why is one of my favorite employees a person of interest to you.”
“He’s been looking for her.” Tito said. “I’ve been looking for her for five years and eleven months and she was right in my face, and I put her in a fucking car. How the hell did I not see it right away?”
“Context,” Bastiano offered up. “You weren’t expecting her to be there, and you knew Alcee was in the building. You were seeing her out of the context of what you anticipated.”
Kylen leaned back in shock. “Obviously this wasn’t an investigation I took part in otherwise one photograph, and I would have placed her.”
1/2
Chapter 11
“We keep three people only looking for her. It was kept close because we were dealing with other shit, and we didn’t want Corrado using her against Torq.” Tito sighed.
Torq could feel Tito’s gaze on him as he scrolled through the file, memorizing every single detail of the information within. “Why does she pay for a family health plan?”
Kylen swallowed and rapped his knuckles on the table, “she has a kid.”
The swirling mess in his stomach was ready to exit onto the mahogany tabletop. His Aya gave birth to a kid. Did she get married? Was she with someone now? Then Kylen’s next words made the mess in his stomach sink all the way to his feet.
“It was part of the reason her father kicked her to the curb, according to Tyrell. Word on the street was she hooked up with someone, refused to tell her father his name and he tortured her. Most of the businessmen in this city were impressed by how she kept her mouth shut despite his
abuse.”
“He what?”
“Locked her up in a room where he does his interrogations and he interrogated her.”
“She mentioned bread and water when I was talking to her.” Torq was going to be sick.
“He beat the shit out of her, or he made his guys do it. I can’t imagine he’d hit her himself. I know his oldest son Mercurio and he said the man was doing it because she was not demanding respect for herself and was letting this guy off the hook for degrading her somehow. Anyway, a week of his tough love, if you want to call it that, her brothers get her out and she gets taken to a medical clinic. A couple of her friends from another family step in and get her into protection. She started working here as an employee, not interning and about six weeks later she disappears again for three days. Her two best friends were frantic.”
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