Married to the Mob: Fighting for Freedom Teaser

Sitting in my office, I was looking over the names of the clean-up crew from my abduction nearly two and half years ago. A few men were close to the family, like Liam, Felix and Seth. They were a part of my inner circle, the backbone of our organization. There were also a handful of men who were called in that were not as close, but were considered loyal.

Or, so I thought.

It made me sick that we had a potential traitor in our midst. I still hadn’t gotten over Garrett’s betrayal. Well, it wasn’t a betrayal. He had been planted into our organization and we had been too blind to see it, too quick to allow him into our inner circle.  

I was waiting to meet with the first man on the list, Eli Novak. He was a college-educated man, attending university for criminal justice with an emphasis in forensics. He was the head of our clean-up crew because of his knowledge. Prior to working for us, he had tried to get a job in the CSI unit, but due a previous felony charge when he was in high school, negated that possibility. Claire led him to us and we’d paid him handsomely to cover our asses. He drove a Maserati and a Tesla, owning a condo in Wicker Park and a beach house in the Florida Keys.

Suffice it to say, I paid him more than the Chicago Police Department ever would.

“Boss, Eli’s here,” said Emmett, poking his head inside. “He came up the back elevator.”

“Send him in,” I answered. I stood up, buttoning my suit coat and walking over to the table that held a decanter filled with bourbon. I poured myself a glass, two fingers, and leaned casually against my desk.

Eli walked in, dressed in a pair of black dress pants and a dark grey sweater. He was tall, taller than me, with dark brown hair, brown eyes and broad shoulders. He had an easy smile that made him popular with the ladies, as well. “Boss? You asked to see me?” he asked with a deep voice, with a heavy Chicago accent.

“Yes, Eli,” I said, coldly. “Please sit.”

“Did I do something to upset you, sir?” he asked, sitting down and looking at me warily.

“I don’t know. Did you?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him and taking a sip from my glass. He shifted on the couch, twisting his watch. “Do you remember the night I was taken?”

“Yeah, Boss. Clean up in Dekalb. Fire and tornado did a pretty thorough job, though,” he said. “However, we scoured the scene with a fine-tooth comb after the storm.”

“Were there any bodies remaining?” I asked.

“About four bodies that were intact, but we made them disappear,” Eli answered.

“Could you identify them? Any scars? Connections to our family?” I pressed.

“One was Garrett, the traitor. Beta team took him, along with the big guy, Colin,” Eli answered.

“Where?” I growled. He took out his phone, pulling up the files. “That better be encrypted, Novak.”

“It is, Boss,” he said. “One of my hobbies is hacking and burying information so far deep in a system that it’s nearly impossible to find anything without the proper code. Those codes change every day.” He looked over the information. “Garrett and Colin were taken to a private cremation facility outside of Beloit. Their remains were scattered in Lake Geneva.”

“What about the other two bodies?” I asked.

“Royce and your uncle, Stephan,” Eli replied. “I was responsible for that team. We left them at another facility in Elburn.”

“And their remains?” I sighed.

“Buried in an unmarked grave,” Eli said.

Eli Novak

Cullen Consortium

Edward's Office