“But you had an idea,” he prompted, handing her the vegetables.
“Yes. I’m pretty certain anyone with a brain could have figured it out, Elie, especially when the prisoner never resurfaced.”
“When Val and Dario are hunting for a traitor, or they call a formal meeting, they are looking for something specific. The investigators will be listening and jamming cell phones, sometimes hacking into them. Whatever is seen or heard stays there. If a traitor is discovered, Brielle, it can go bad right there. You might witness the matter being taken care of. There can be no question of your loyalty. You can’t agree to work for them and not be one hundred percent certain you can be loyal.”
“Am I loyal to the Ferraro family or to the ones employing me, Elie? I’m not a spy, nor do I want to be. If I work for Val and Dario, then I work for them and my loyalty is to them. If I work for the Ferraro family, I tell Val and Dario up front and walk if there is a conflict.” She worked quickly, making the first omelet and then sliding it onto a plate for him before starting the second one.
“Your first loyalty is always to me. You’re a member of the Ferraro family because you’re married to me. We make that clear when we offer your skills to them. If they don’t want to take you up on them, or they want to lock you out of certain meetings, that’s okay, too, if you really want the job. If they do interview you, Emmanuelle most likely will sit in on it, and don’t expect her to be sweet. Val and Dario are her family and she’s fiercely protective of them.”
She smiled at him over her shoulder. “Elie.” He was busy putting silverware on the table. She waited for him to look at her. “You are, too. It’s very clear that you consider Val and Dario family. I imagine Stefano does as well.”
He nodded. “It’s true, Brielle, but I’m not willing to take chances with your life. Val and Dario are hard, dangerous men. They don’t know you yet. Until they do, we’re going to be very careful.”
She slid her omelet onto the plate and made her way to the dining table. She eyed the numerous windows with fresh eyes. When she’d first seen them, she loved the windows and the view. Now she was worried that a good sniper might shoot Elie while he ate his breakfast at the dining table. She studied the angles carefully. It would be a difficult shot. The table was positioned back from the windows.
“I forgot to tell you, I put your electronics in the office upstairs. I’ll show you that after we’re finished,” Elie said. “And the airlines delivered your missing suitcase this morning. I told them to leave it on the front verandah. I didn’t want anything disturbing your sleep.”
Brielle’s eyes clashed with his over the table in alarm. “Elie, I didn’t know about your house. I had Stefano’s hotel down as my address. I had his phone number as the number to call in case I lost luggage, which I did not. All of my suitcases were accounted for when Stefano’s driver picked me up at the airport.”
CHAPTER SIX
Stefano studied the suitcase from a very safe distance. “Looks exactly like every other piece of her luggage, Elie. It has her name on it, just like the rest of her luggage. The address of my hotel and the number we gave Brielle to use if there were any problems were on the luggage tag. Our people at the hotel believed the airlines were calling to report Brielle’s missing bag was found so naturally your address was given so her luggage could be delivered here.”
Elie was silent as he digested what that meant. No one knew his bride’s name other than her lawyer and the members of the shadow rider international council. And the council only knew when both lawyers turned in a copy of the formally signed papers to the head of the council the night before their formal ceremony.
Vittorio approached the suitcase with the Ferraros’ portable 3-D X-Ray Scan system. Setting the screen on one side of the suitcase, he set the small image cam on the other side and walked away. Taking out his iPad, he activated the system. Vittorio flicked his hand in the air, signaling to Stefano and Elie to join him. That meant he had concluded there wasn’t a remote detonator.
“Definitely a bomb,” Vittorio said. “Rolling it would activate it. You can see the detonator is hooked in a very sloppy manner to the wheels. I’ll take a few pictures and then retrieve my system before blowing the thing up.”
Elie watched him work in silence for a few minutes, letting the breeze from the lake cool the heat of his skin.
“That suitcase is a live bomb, Elie,” Stefano said, his voice quiet. Deadly. “You are not the intended target. Brielle is.”