She stood, stretched and felt her back crack. About to leave, her phone rang. “How are you feeling, Frank?”
“About the same as you, I suspect.”
“Why the call?”
“Lancaster is demanding your resignation. I tried to convince him otherwise, but he’s not giving in. he said you’re lucky that’s all he wants. That he won’t prosecute you for threatening him if you resign.”
She eyed the monitors. “Tell him he’ll have it when I complete my investigation.”
“You know he closed the case, Sin, but now he seems to have taken his vendetta to a personal level.”
“How so?”
“He forced me to suspend you and your team. All of your team.”
“All of them? Four members of my old team weren’t even part of this?”
“I think he did it to punish you.”
Sin wanted to throw her phone across the room but restrained herself. “I gotta go. I’ll call you when I come to Washington.”
In the den, she found her team eating breakfast. “No one bothered to bring me anything,” she said.
“We figured you’d come out when you were done doing whatever you’ve been doing in there,” Fletch said.
“I need you and Troy to come with me,” she said, stealing some bacon and a piece of toast off Johnson’s plate. Looking around, she didn’t see Deb. “Where’s the doc?”
“She left early this morning,” Johnson said. “She went to check on Carmelita. She said she’d be back after she took care of some business at the hospital.”
“How is it you know everything about her whereabouts but everyone else is staring at me like I just ran over a kitten?”
Johnson blushed.
She rolled her eyes. “Not another word. Fletch, Troy, follow me.”
In the library, she told them what she knew. “Dominic told me that part of the deal he made with Lancaster was that the money he took from ‘Ndrangheta was to be split between the two of them.”
“That slimy bastard,” Fletch said.
“Agreed,” Sin said.
“You’re not going to let it rest, are you?” Troy said.
“Not on your life.”
Sin filled them in on her plan. She took passport pictures of them and made them new ID’s. When she was finished, she handed them both a set along with plane tickets. “Fletch, you’re headed to Zurich, Switzerland. Troy, you’re taking a trip to George Town, Grand Cayman.”
She watched as the men stared at their ID’s. “Are you serious?” Troy said. “This says my name is Nathan Lancaster.”
“Mine, too,” Fletch added.
“Lancaster was smooth when he deposited his portion of the money in off-shore accounts. His instructions to the banks stated that money could be deposited by phone or online but could not only be withdrawn from the accounts in person.”
“I’m sure, he made sure the banks had a picture of him in order to prevent someone else showing up to withdraw the funds,” Fletch said.
“He did. That’s why I’m going to delete his photo and put yours in its place.”
“You can do that?” Troy said.
Sin tapped on the keyboard and brought up Lancaster’s accounts including his photo and personal information. She changed his height, weight, birthdate, and the rest of his vital statistics to equal Troy’s and Fletcher’s, then with the click of the mouse, placed their headshots where his was a moment ago. She handed them both a piece of paper with an account number on it. “When you get to the banks, have them transfer all the funds from Lancaster’s accounts to these.”
“Whose name are they in?” Troy asked. “In case they ask.”
“Mine.” She then handed them their flight reservations. “You better be leaving. Your perspective flights leave out of Miami tonight.”
After they left, Sin spoke to the Dominic and Aria without Pia or Savio present. Before she could say a word, Aria spoke up. “What will happen to Savio?”
“That’s up to you, both of you.”
“What do you mean?” Dominic asked.
“You did a good thing trying to divest yourself from ‘Ndrangheta, but it’s not enough. I want both of you to completely shut down your families.”
“That’s not possible,” Aria said. “Even if we did, someone else would take control of the company.”
Sin agreed. “But it won’t be you. What Savio did was inexcusable, but the only people who know of his involvement are the three of us. Either you do as I request, or I take him in on kidnapping and accessory to attempted murder charges. He’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars.”
“And if we do as you ask?” Dominic said.
“Then, it’s our little secret. You go back to Italy, or anywhere in the world you choose, and work on being a family. Pia returns to Dartmouth next semester.”
“You think that’s safe?” Aria said.
“I have some friends in New Hampshire who will make sure she’s safe. Her and Becca.”
Dominic and Aria looked at each other and nodded. “We will do as you asked,” Dominic responded.
“I swear,” Sin said, pointing a finger at both of them, “if I catch wind of either of you doing anything illegal, I’ll hunt you down and throw the three of you in jail.”
“You won’t, we promise,” Aria said.
65
A day after the Russo-LaBarbara family left, Sin released Sawyer.
After a week of relentless work, she was able to track the lone unknown number to its source. She gathered all the intel she needed and met with Troy and Fletch, making sure everything went as planned overseas.
She and her team along with Troy, Tiffany, and Deb met for a meeting at the formal dining table in the basement of the Johnson Place. A meeting called by Fletcher.
“I told you before that we’d been thinking about our jobs,” Fletcher began. “We all decided that we no longer wanted to do this job if it meant being separated and that includes from you.”
Sin looked around the table. “You all know that may not be possible. Lancaster suspended all of us and he’s looking for my badge. If I give it to him, I might be able to save your jobs.”
“Not gonna happen, Boss Lady,” Garcia chimed in.
“It’s all or none,” Baxter added.
“This isn’t the Three Musketeers,”
