3: David

“We have some news,” Reese said as he dropped a file folder on my desk. “You know Beatrice Welsh, don’t you?”

The name sent a shiver of desire through my chest. I knew her. The name brought back memories that plagued my dreams. I tried to hide my emotions as I looked up at Reese with a neutral expression.

“The name rings a bell, why?”

“The word on the street is that she’s been tapped to be the new counsel for the Trivisonnos,” Reese answered, knocking his knuckles against the desk as he sat on the arm of the chair in front of my desk. He was nonchalant, unaware of how his words affected me.

“How reliable is the source?” I asked, my heart racing as I considered the consequences. I needed to get in touch with my own sources. If this was true and the Trivisonnos had hired her that meant they knew more than I had credited them for, more than any of us credited them for. 

“It’s from our undercover asset, he heard talk of a meeting between her and The Butcher. She looks an awful lot like the last girl that they had representing them, the one they killed last week,” Reese said, his voice musing as he looked at the photo of Beatrice walking into a bar in the Trivisonno’s territory. 

“Allegedly,” I said automatically and cringed internally when I saw Reese’s look of disbelief.

“Yeah, sure,” he said with a huff of humor, “allegedly.”

My heart raced, I could feel the thump in my chest as the desire to get in touch with Devon nearly overwhelmed me. She was supposed to be safe, all of that shit we had done last year was to keep her fucking safe.

“What do we know about the Bianchi’s? Are they still causing problems to the north?” I asked, distracting Reese from the task at hand while getting the information I desperately needed to plan the next phase of attack.

“Last I heard, there was a power struggle, that’s why there were so many shootings last month in their territory,” Reese said with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Who do they think is in charge now?” I asked cautiously, unsure I wanted to hear the answer.

“The daughter,” Reese answered, running his hand through his hair. “Francesca.”

My blood ran cold, that wasn’t good news for any of us.

“What about the dad? He was the head of the family for years,” I asked. I watched Reese carefully but I didn’t need to, he was telling the truth, there was no lie in his response.

“The dad died last week in the shooting at the cafe on 10th,” Reese answered. 

“He died?” 

“Yeah, but hey, keep that on the down low, we haven’t publicly admitted that we know who the dead man is yet,” he said as he stood to leave again. “We’re trying to draw the next in line out in the public eye and if we’re right, Francesca should show her face soon to reunite the family against the Trivisonnos.”

I nodded, my brows furrowed as I took in all of this information.

“There’s a mob war on the horizon,” Reese said as he patted the door frame and gave me a half-hearted wave as he walked out of my office. “Hope we’re ready.”

His parting words were as true as they were concerning. He walked down the hall away from my office and I held the folder he dropped off in a loose grip, tapping the papers against my desk impatiently. I waited until I couldn’t see him then I grabbed my phone.

The ring was barely in my ear when I heard a tired answer.

“Hey,” Devon, my roommate and one of my best friends, said in a distracted voice. He was probably staring at a screen, hacking into something. 

“Devon? We have a problem,” my voice was low.

“What?”

“The Trivisonnos hired Bea,” I said, the panic coming through my tone slightly as I talked to one of my oldest friends. I couldn’t think about what that meant, not without a mini-panic attack threatening to overwhelm me. I pushed the thought from my mind. I didn’t need to show weakness, especially not at fucking work.

“Fuck,” Devon replied. “I didn’t think they knew about her.”

“Apparently they do now,” I replied.

“She won’t come to you after last year. Hell, she probably won’t come to any of us.”

“Yes, she will. She’s going to be fucking terrified. She’ll call,” I replied, confident in that at least.

“What if she doesn’t?”

“We’ll figure that out when the time comes,” I replied. The thought that she would rather die than come to me for help was the dump of cold water I needed thrown over my head. I watched as a group of people walked down the hall toward my office and pass in front of the open door. I gave a half-wave to Ben and Carly, two of the other agents that I had gone to Quantico with. I couldn’t show weakness now or they would know something was up.

“So, what do we do now?”

“We wait for her call. She’s going to be given Alessio’s case, that much I’m sure of. Do we have any information on that yet?”

“Some,” Devon’s voice was quiet. “I’m still digging.”

There was a pause as we both took in the severity of the situation.

“You think the Bianchi’s know, too?”

“If they don’t, it’s only a matter of time,” I replied reluctantly. “They must both know.”

“She’s never going to talk to us again after this, last year was too harsh,” Devon replied.

“We’ll just have to send in someone that she doesn’t know first to smooth the way,” I answered and Devon gave a bark of laughter.

“She’ll figure it out,” Devon replied. “But, sure, send in reinforcements. It’s only a matter of time before this shit blows up out of our control. It would help to have someone on the inside.”

“Fuck, this is a mess,” I replied. “How did they find out?”

“I’ll dig through my sources and see what I can find out,” Devon answered. The click of the phone meant he had ended the call and I set the phone on my desk softly as I walked out of my office heading toward an office at the end of the hall.

I nodded to Michael as I passed. The sharp look in my eye was enough for him to stop what he was doing and join me.

“I heard the Bianchi’s are causing problems,” he said as he walked by my side. “Who knew the troops would let Francesca take the reins.” 

He let out a snort of laughter and I shot him a look. His unrepentant smile was enough to make me roll my eyes.

“She’s a fucking terror,” I muttered. “We’re going to have full out war on our hands if we don’t get this under control quickly.”

“I could handle getting her under control,” Michael said with a low suggestive tone and I shot him a look. 

“I don’t want to know,” I replied in a dead tone.

“No, you probaby don’t,” Michael replied with a chuckle as we rounded the corner of the hall and walked toward a corner office.

“What’s going on?” Michael asked, his voice was low and I knew he was asking about what caused the thunderous look on my face. We had been friends for so long, there was no question that something was bothering me.

“The Trivisonnos have Beatrice,” I mumbled. “She’s their new counsel.”

I could see Michael’s shift in expression as a look of alarm crossed his face. He schooled it just as quickly.

“Fuck,” he muttered in a low voice.

“I thought she was safe,” I said, my disbelief overwhelming me again.

“We knew this was a possibility,” he replied as he stepped forward and knocked loudly on the corner office door.

“It shouldn’t have been,” I said as we heard a voice from inside tell us to come in.

I opened the door and followed close behind Michael as we faced the head of our department.

“Beatrice was hired by the Trivisonnos,” I said without preamble.

“My Beatrice?” Tommas asked, his brow furrowed with concern as he looked up from the files he was holding.

“Yes, who the fuck else would I be talking to you about?” I asked, my exasperation showing.

“Did Alessio do this?” Tommas asked. He was staring at me as if he wanted to shoot my head off. If we weren’t part of the FBI, it’s likely he would have already.

“No, he wouldn’t do that,” I replied.

“You’re sure?” Tommas asked and when I shook my head definitively he pursed his lips in disapproval. “Those fucking Trivisonnos.”

I nodded in agreement and Michael huffed as he leaned back in his chair.

“Do what you need to do,” Tommas said in a low voice.

“Off the books?” I asked. Michael leaned forward, his excitement already palpable. He wanted revenge as much as I did and being given free rein ‘off the books’ was as good as being given a license to kill whoever we had to in order to keep Beatrice safe. I could practically see his mouth-watering.

“Off the books,” Tommas agreed.

I nodded and stood, Michael behind me. I didn’t wait for Tommas to change his mind, I went back to my desk and grabbed my phone, Michael walked in and sat in one of my chairs beside me, silently watching and waiting for what I would say next.

I clicked a button and closed the door to my office, setting the phone on my desk, the speaker on.

“Nothing yet,” Devon’s voice greeted me.

“Michael’s here,” I said.

“You have department approval?” Devon asked, a slight tone of surprise to his voice.

“Tommas approved it, off the books,” I replied as I sat in my chair.

“He does fucking care,” Devon muttered, his voice low. 

“Of course he does, he’s her brother, even if he is an ass,” I replied. “Giuliani is going to hold her feet over the fire until Alessio’s case is finished. We need to figure out how to prove he’s innocent.”

“There’s something about that girl that died,” Devon’s voice was faint as if he was away from the phone.

“What do you mean?” Michael asked.

“I know the name, I don’t know how though,” Devon mused.

“Would Rachel know?” I asked.

“Maybe, yeah,” Devon said. “I’ll call her next and see what she can tell us.”

“Bea’s not going to be happy if Rachel is there, too,” Michael said, shaking his head as he remembered what happened a year ago that caused Beatrice to run away from them at full speed without even a glance back.

“It can’t be helped, we come as a team, I’m not leaving Rach in the dark because Bea has a grudge that she wants to hold onto,” I answered.

“I’d say it’s more than a grudge,” Devon muttered.

“She’ll get over it,” I replied, cringing when I remembered what we had done. “Eventually.”

Michael snorted and shook his head. “Not to piss in your beer, but it’s going to take a fucking act of God for her to get over that.”

“I agree,” Devon said, “with Michael.” 

“One battle at a time,” I answered. “Figure out a way to get Alessio off.”

“Do you think he did it?” Michael asked.

“No,” I said definitively. “I don’t.”

“No, me either,” Devon answered through the phone. “It’s not his style.”

“He has a style? He’s murdered a lot of girls?” Michael asked with a huff of laughter, incredulous that Devon had information about Alessio’s killing signature.

Devon snorted, “Not in a traditional sense, no.”

“Traditional meaning he hasn’t actually killed anyone,” I stated.

“But he kills the dreams of women everywhere,” Michael said with a snort. 

“Not Beatrice,” Devon said.

“No, not Beatrice,” I agreed.

My phone dinged and I looked at the screen with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, speak of the devil, and she will appear. She still has that weird third sense thing,” I answered.

“She text?” Michael asked. 

I nodded. “She just sent me a text, wanting to meet with me tonight.”

“Bring her to Maddie’s club,” Michael said. “She won’t meet with all of us, but if you bring her to us there, we can convince her that we are the better choice.”

“What’s her other choice?” Devon asked.

“Being murdered is the obvious one,” Michael said sarcastically.

I cringed. “Don’t talk about her like that.” 

My voice was low and angry but Michael merely shrugged.

“I”m not the one that fucked her over,” Michael said. “In fact, I’ve never fucked her period.”

He shuddered as he said the words.

“You were missing out,” Devon said. I looked at the phone with surprise. Devon wasn’t usually the crass one.

“You miss her,” I said, my voice ringing through the room as silence dropped. Michael looked intently at the phone and I heard Devon sigh.

“Of course I miss her,” he replied. “She’s the fucking love of my life.”

I let out a sigh and nodded, even though he couldn’t see me through the phone.

“I know,” I replied. “I think time has run out though.”

“On what?” Michael asked.

“It’s run out on her avoiding us,” Devon said firmly. “We’re getting her back whether she likes it or not.”

“There’s the spirit,” Michael said as he stood and walked toward the door.

“I’m going to check on our contact with the Trivisonnos and see what he can find out,” he said as he opened the door and waved a quick bye before softly closing the door behind him.

“What about your dad?” Devon asked. I was hoping he would avoid this.

“Dear old dad is not a concern any longer,” I said with a snort. “We have a new threat to deal with.”

“Who?”

“Francesca has taken over as the head of the Bianchi’s.”

“The fuck?” 

“My thoughts exactly.”