If The Seas Catch Fire(75)

A meeting with his uncle. Right now. Of course.

So he’d dropped everything, as always, and driven over to his uncle’s place. Biaggio was otherwise indisposed, but Dom knew the way to the office, so he showed himself upstairs.

Before he made it to the office, though, Felice met him in the hall.

“There you are!” His cousin threw up his hands. “Where the f*ck have you been?”

Dom halted, schooling his expression, though it took work. “Why?”

“Because I’ve got people breathing down my neck asking what the f*ck happened yesterday.” Felice narrowed his eyes. “Then you step off the boat and just disappear? Dad’s hammering me for answers left and right, and I’ve got the Coast Guard getting curious after they found that f*ck floating out by—”

“Maybe you should’ve thought of that before you killed him, you f*cking idiot,” Dom said in a harsh whisper. “Or before you threw him in the water for the Coasties to find.”

“Before I killed him?” Felice laughed, stepping closer, and stared right into Dom’s eyes. “I seem to recall you were the one who killed him.”

“Yeah, to put him out of his misery after you decided to put a bullet in his gut.”

“And did you really want to sail back into the harbor with a body on the deck?”

Dom gritted his teeth. “I’m not the one who decided to shoot the—”

“It’s done,” Felice snapped. “But that doesn’t explain why you dropped off the face of the earth after—”

“Because I wanted to lay low,” Dom threw back. “Keeping a low profile seemed like a good f*cking idea.”

“Yeah? Somebody’d almost think you were hiding. Got a guilty conscience or something?”

Dom held his gaze, and slowly narrowed his eyes. “Are you making an accusation?”

“Depends. Am I hitting a nerve?”

“You think I did Privitera in?” Dom folded his arms. “Because if memory serves, I was with you from the last time you saw him alive until someone else found his body. So pray tell, when exactly did I kill him?”

Felice’s jaw tightened. “Okay, it wasn’t you. But disappearing doesn’t look good.”

“I was around. All you had to do was call me.”

“You should have been here. With everyone else.”

“Yeah? That why your father told me he’d call me when he needed me?” Dom arched an eyebrow. “Or am I answering to you now?”

Felice scowled. “Listen, I’m just rattled. Yesterday… that was too close. Someone was on that boat.”

“So you don’t think it was one of the Koreans.”

Felice shook his head. “I questioned the hell out of the two who survived, told them they’d be joining their buddy if they didn’t talk. They didn’t know anything.”

“Which means we have to consider that it might’ve been an inside job.”

“I know.” His cousin exhaled. “But those guys, they’ve been my crew for years. I trust them.”

“Somebody cut Privitera’s throat. It wasn’t you or me, so…” Proceeding cautiously, Dom added, “We can’t rule them out. Not yet.”

“Think about it, though. They were all on the deck with us or supervising the Koreans. And the Koreans confirmed the others were there with them the whole time.”

“So what do you think happened?” Dom lowered his arms. “I mean, Privitera didn’t cut his own throat.”

“Someone else had to be on the boat.”

“We scoured it from top to bottom.” Dom shook his head. “I don’t get it. And the security cameras show nothing?”

“That’s the weirder thing—all the surveillance equipment was compromised. There’s nothing. It’s so f*cking scrambled, we can’t even tell when it was compromised.”

Dom shuddered. Whoever was behind this was good. They were thorough. They thought of everything. Always one step ahead. “We need to bring in more security, then. Extra bodyguards. Personnel on watercraft, at houses and offices.”

Felice nodded. “That’s going to get expensive.”

Dom gritted his teeth. He could practically hear Felice calculating how many immigrants Dom would have to squeeze to make up the spike in security costs.

“Anyway.” Felice shook himself and clapped Dom’s shoulder. “I shouldn’t keep you. My dad wants to see you, and he won’t want to be kept waiting.” He flashed an odd smile. “Once we get some more security, you should come out on the boat again soon. Hopefully it’ll be a little more boring this time.”

Dom’s stomach lurched. If he never went back out on that floating crime scene again, it would be too soon, but… image. “Sure.” He returned the smile. “Let me know when you’re going out again. I’ll bring champagne.”

“Perfect. See you later, Dom.”

“Yeah. See you.”

Dom watched his cousin walk away, then continued toward Corrado’s office.

Well. This day was getting better by the minute.





Chapter 21


The conversation with Dom wouldn’t leave his mind.