Elie was well aware of those ties, thanks to his brilliant wife. At one time, the Toselli family had ruled parts of Sicily, Italy and Spain with an iron fist. No one moved without their say-so. They were so powerful, they had ties to governments and certainly law enforcement. Most notably, they were tied to the drug cartels of South America.
Eventually, other families in Sicily and Italy went to war when the Tosellis in those regions tried to bite into their territories. The feuds went on for quite a long while. Unbeknownst to the Tosellis, the Ferraros were enlisted to aid one of the smaller Italian families, and with no explanation, the Italian family became the undisputed ruler of the territory. Little by little the Toselli family lost ground. Recently, they had begun to come back in strength, building their power again, both through drugs and human trafficking. He should have known the Toselli family was involved.
Both the Ferraro and the Archambault families had their investigators tracing how Brielle’s name had gotten back to the Toselli family to put her on a hit list. She had turned her findings over to the investigators of the rider family in Barcelona. None of them could conceive of a rider on the payroll of the Toselli family, but the shadow riders weren’t taking any chances.
Elie studied Dino’s face for a long time, allowing the man to see he wasn’t impressed. “You don’t seem to understand we can get to anyone and no one ever knows we were there. That includes the Toselli family. How did they know Brielle investigated them?”
Dino shrugged. “I have no idea. I just got the order from Carlo. You’d have to ask him.” He smirked. “He’s in New York in case you want to go see him.”
“I intend to do just that. I don’t think you have anything else to tell me that I don’t already know.” Elie didn’t move from his chair. “You’re not too smart, Dino. You should have done your homework before you targeted my wife. You would have known the Archambault family is no one to fuck around with. We police the Ferraros. And messing with Valentino Saldi and Dario Bosco? Are you out of your mind? You have to know their reputations. They will skin you alive. I might have promised to keep your family alive, but they aren’t nearly as nice as I am.”
“I told you what you wanted to know. Get the fuck out.”
Elie arched an eyebrow. “Did you think you’d live through the night after you tried to have my wife killed? I promised to let your family live, not you, you son of bitch.”
Behind Dino, Stefano grasped the man’s head in his hands, in the age-old traditional manner of the kill. He yanked in one fluid motion, breaking the neck easily. “We didn’t get anything new.”
“Not really, just confirmation of everything Brielle already told us. Let’s get back to the jet. There’s a party going on with the LA cousins and we can’t leave until Ricco, Mariko, Giovanni and Sasha return. We’ll head for New York.”
Stefano stepped into a shadow and Elie selected a second one. At once, his body felt as if it were being torn apart, the skin flying from his bones as the tube shot him through it with unbelievable speed. The shadow took him down the stairs and through the great room and under the door, nearly spitting him out before he could halt in the mouth of the portal, waiting for his body to orient while he looked for the next shadow to step into.
All riders kept maps of cities in their heads. He knew the route to the airport and made his way back without hesitation. Used to riding the shadows, he chose the smaller feeder tubes that were extremely fast, so much so that oftentimes they could make an experienced rider ill, but he wanted to get back to the plane and go over all the reports sent in from the investigators.
Leone Palagonia and Raimondo Abatangelo, Brielle’s two bodyguards, had been trained by Emilio Greco, Stefano’s cousin and head of security. Elie had received training as a personal protector from him and knew firsthand how thorough he was. Few could surpass him when it came to training his men. Elie knew his wife was not only protected by the two men, but the security of the house had been reviewed by Emilio as well as the Ferraro family. He should be satisfied that she was safe, as long as she was there, but for some reason, he had this nagging feeling in his gut he couldn’t quite get rid of.
The truth was, he preferred to watch over her himself. He couldn’t very well insist she travel with him through the shadows when he’d told her he didn’t want her going into them unless it was absolutely necessary. Stefano had the time to go with him to seek out Dino Colombo. He wasn’t very happy that his brother-in-law had been targeted and he was more than willing to make that known. Elie knew Stefano didn’t want Emmanuelle to go after the Colombo family or the Santoro family unaided, which she was more than capable of doing.