It was too early to call, but I did anyway.
“Any news?”
Yara sighed. “The arraignment is in two hours. It’s a Class A misdemeanor, Elena, and Judge Hartford is on the case again. There’s no question Dante will go to prison until trial for the RICO case.”
“I know.”
“Then why the phone call?” Yara asked coolly and I knew she was probably raising her eyebrows over the phone.
We’d spoke yesterday about the game plan, but it was hard not to be directly involved in Dante’s legal team after so long of being Yara’s associate, especially now that I was in love with him. It made me feel impotent to sit there knowing there was legal work to be done.
It was legal for lawyers to represent their family under New York law, though it wasn’t exactly advisable. Still, there was no way I was going to take myself off the RICO case now. The only reason I couldn’t attend the arraignment was because technically I was still on leave from work.
“I want to ask Ricardo Stavos for help.”
There was a surprised pause, then, “What can he do that Frankie can’t?”
“He’s the best private investigator in the city. Frankie can do amazing work through the computer, but if we want someone on the ground, there is no one better than Ric.” I’d thought about it a lot in the last two days and decided I would reach out to him even if Yara vetoed it. “He could be invaluable in tracking the di Carlos.”
“One thing at a time. Let’s focus on proving Dante’s innocence.”
I picked at a hangnail until it bled then cursed softly. “Dante said you would know who to speak with to get a speedy trial.”
“I do.”
Another pause while I tried to stop the flow of blood with the edge of a napkin.
“Elena,” Yara called, her voice firm. “I know this is scary. I know it’s against your nature to sit back and do nothing. But I’ve got this, I promise. Dante will spend minimal time behind bars while we set a date for the trial and then we’ll hit it out of the park. He didn’t even kill Giuseppe di Carlo.”
“No, but USA Dennis O’Malley knows that and he doesn’t care. He wants to use the case to build his political career. Now that Dante’s fled and come back, he won’t want to lose even more badly.”
“Too bad for him.”
Chen came into the kitchen in his workout clothes, dripping sweat all over the tiles. “Donna, the cops are downstairs. Seems they think they should talk to you.”
“Yara?” I said into the phone. “Do you think you have time to meet me at the police station for the arraignment?”
It was beyond bizarre to be on the other side of the table in a police interrogation room. We were at the 23rd Precinct where Dante had turned himself in late last night. The two uniformed cops who had come to pick me had long ago handed me over to a pair of detectives.
One of the men was an older man with a slight underbite that made him look almost feral and the other was a gorgeous younger man with close cropped dark hair and pale blue eyes like chips of arctic ice.
It was the latter who leaned over the metal table intimidatingly.
“Ms. Lombardi… or should we call you Mrs. Salvatore now?” he questioned as if he was clever and shocking.
I blinked at him. “You can call me whatever you like, but I won’t answer until Mrs. Ghorbani arrives.”
He scowled at me. “You think because you’re a lawyer, you’re above the law? We know you went to Italy with Dante Salvatore when he fled the country. We got surveillance tapes that put you at the same airport.”
I blinked at him again.
“He told us that he kidnapped you and forced you to marry him so you couldn’t testify against him in court,” he tried, giving me a mean, sly look as if his words could hurt me.
I almost told the idiot that of course we’d gotten married so quickly because of Dante’s trial. Not only did I not have to testify against him, but now, I also had rights to see him and speak on his behalf.
I yawned.
The cop, a Detective Falcone, slapped his hand against the table. “You think this is funny? Dante Salvatore is one of the most dangerous men in New York. He probably wined and dined you with all his blood money and kept the truth from you. But he’s a very bad man, Ms. Lombardi, and I’ll telling you, a law-abiding lawyer like yourself doesn’t want to be within sixty feet of him.”
Actually, I would have given nearly anything to be within sixty feet of him again soon.
There was a knock at the door and then Yara entered, dressed to the impeccably in a beautiful double-breasted suit.
Detective Falcone sighed and sat down as soon as she moved into the room, clearly aware of her reputation.
“Falcone, Whitmore,” she greeted cordially as she took the seat beside me. “I trust you’ve been treating my client well while you waited for me to arrive.”
Their silence was somewhat petulant.
“We’re trying to protect you,” Falcone tried again. “We got intel that the di Carlos family is after you. They make your husband look like a fucking kitty cat. You give us what we need to keep Salvatore behind bars, we can offer WITSEC.”
I laughed.
I couldn’t help it.
Giving up my entire life by giving up Dante? It was so ludicrous it made my belly ache.
“I think you should take that as a ‘no,’ gentlemen,” Yara suggested coolly. “And unless you have actual charges to level against Ms. Lombardi, I think we’re done here.”
“You’re in danger,” Whitmore inserted sincerely. “Do you understand who you have coming at you? The Cosa Nostra have stayed strong for a reason. They take out anyone in their way.”
They can try, I thought as I fixed an icy smile to my face. “Thank you for looking out for me, detectives, but I think we’re done here.”
Falcone sighed heavily, grabbing my arms as I went to walk back so he could press something into my palm. “This is my card. Something happens, you call.”
I blinked up at him curiously because he seemed genuinely concerned for me and in my experience, most cops didn’t care about random suspects. “You seem invested in this case, Detective Falcone.”
His lips pursed. “Trust me, I know the mafia seems glamorous, but it’s a nightmare. Death is nothing to them. They eat women like you for fucking breakfast. I don’t want to see a nice woman with a good reputation lose everything, even her life.”
I patted his arm. “It’s all a matter of perspective because the only way that would happen is if I took your advice.”
Twenty-Four
Elena
The first thing I did after being interviewed by the police was meet with Ricardo Stavos.
“Elena,” he greeted me with a wide grin and open arms, kissing me warmly on both cheeks before he took a seat across from me. “I was so happy to hear your voice. Everyone at Fields, Harding & Griffith misses you.”
I arched a brow. “Oh? I’m sure Ethan Topp is beside himself.”
Ric laughed. “There’s definitely no love lost there. So, maybe I’m the only one that missed you, but that counts for something, right?”