Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
He’s a ruthless bastard. Evil incarnate.
Killing Raven Bellamy would not be business.
It would be personal. Revenge against Falcon Bellamy for the death of Miles McAllister and for marrying Savannah, my sister. Savannah is no longer Grandfather’s pawn. He can no longer use her to form an alliance.
That’s up to me now. I am betrothed to Miles’s younger sister, a child of eleven. In seven years, I am bound to take her as my wife.
What my grandfather doesn’t know is that by that time, I’ll have brought this family down.
If he’s still alive by then, he’ll be rotting in prison.
But Puzo…
I need to know more.
I can’t ask Grandfather. He’ll consider that a question of his authority. I have to find out on my own.
Looking into him on my computer will do no good. Everything about him will be above board, of course. Just as everything about the Bianchi family is above board. We’re coffee importers. Really rich coffee importers.
Nothing on paper exists about our drug business.
Or about the grisly business of human trafficking that Grandfather is getting into now.
My stomach turns at the thought.
I need to work quickly to take that bastard down before any innocent women and children get hurt.
But while the urgency fuels my determination, it also breeds a necessary patience. Grandfather’s empire wasn’t built overnight, and I won’t be able to destroy it overnight either. If I rush, if I get careless, I could end up in prison with my father.
Despite knowing I’ll find nothing of importance, I must start with the web. But not my own computer. I go to the city’s public library and find a public computer terminal tucked away in a corner on the third floor. The library is anonymous. No one cares why you’re there or what you’re looking into.
Giacomo Puzo…
Of Italian descent.
Shocking.
Mid-fifties. Known in the community for his charitable contributions towards building orphanages around the world. Just like us, he appears to be an upstanding citizen.
Married to Marinella Mancetti Puzo, thirty-five, and they have two children, Anna and Paulina, both in private elementary school. Charges of the nanny, Clarice, who I met today.
That has forced marriage written all over it.
But that’s not my concern.
Does this man deserve to die?
Because I’ll see to his demise if I have to.
Or find a way to fake it.
The computer whirrs softly as I dig deeper into this Giacomo Puzo. Charitable contributions and a seemingly ideal family life aside, there must be something more, something darker lurking beneath the polished surface. Grandfather wouldn’t give a damn about some two-bit drug and gambling ring, and I’m seeing no evidence of him trying to nudge into anything of ours.
Dinner parties, benefits, charity auctions—Puzo is a man about the town in the newspaper archives. There’s a picture of him at some gala, his arm around Marinella, their faces lit with all the genuine joy of two actors playing a part.
I knew a few Google searches would not be enough. I take a deep breath and look around, making sure I’m not attracting the hawklike gaze of one of the librarians. I reach into my pocket and pull out a small USB stick that contains a portable version of the Tails operating system, which is designed for privacy and security. I insert it into the computer and reboot the system. The familiar library login screen vanishes and is replaced by the Tails interface.
Once Tails is loaded, I open the Tor Browser, the gateway to the dark web. This network is designed to bounce my signal through multiple nodes around the globe to mask my location. I am now a ghost, a digital phantom floating through the encrypted corridors of the dark web.
I’m no stranger to the dark web. I used it almost exclusively while I was overseas, taking care to retain strict anonymity anytime I was online, lest my grandfather figure out where I was and send his goons across the Atlantic to bring me back home—or worse, kill me.
I use the Ahmia search engine to find hidden forums and marketplaces, my fingers dancing across the keyboard as I enter specific terms related to Giacomo Puzo. I’m looking for any hint of personal information—addresses, phone numbers, financial records—anything that could be useful.
After some searching, I find a forum that looks promising, a haven for hackers and data brokers—in other words, a place where stolen information is bought and sold. I register an account using a fake identity and begin to explore the listings. Sure enough, buried within the labyrinth of posts and threads, I find a user claiming to have information on Giacomo Puzo. Probably one of his ex-employees, someone looking to get even after being cut off from the Puzo family.
The seller requires payment in Bitcoin. Again, I expected this. When I was in Europe, I paid for everything in either cash or cryptocurrency. I access my crypto wallet and transfer the required amount. Within minutes, a download link is sent to me. I open it and a file containing the promised information is downloaded to my temporary desktop.