Arranged marriage to the princess of the Red Scorpions

339 Other Ideas

Richard paused as he got ready to take away his tray, his head cocked slightly to one side as he processed what Lena said.

“You honestly believe that to be the case? Wouldn’t we have heard some rumor of that going around? The man has enough of a reputation no one would hesitate to call it if he came back around.” Surely Richard of all people would’ve heard something considering he used to work with the Vedova Nera man. Unless…

“Or are you implying that Jovani’s mood about me has something to do with that?” Lena cast him a sideways glance as she requested her own food but didn’t give a committal answer. If she meant what he thought she did, it would put a few more pieces of the puzzle together. The ones that didn’t quite properly together, however. What a softie Jovani could be.

Richard directed them towards an empty table towards the back of the room. Lena would’ve preferred to eaten in the hospital room but doing that would invite her uncle into the conversation. The less people right now, the better.

“We can just leave it at the fact that there have been a few interesting events I’ve seen recently that have brought the possibility to my attention.” Lena went for the coffee without even taking one bite of her food unlike her companion who didn’t wait to start eating. Richard always managed to keep his manners about him even when eating at a hurried pace. Spilled food was wasted and wasted food was a horrible thing.

“Why don’t you tell me about what’s been going on closer to home first? Maybe the two incidents are connected, and we can create a trail starting from there?” Richard took a drink to clean his palette before he spoke. He only paused in the devouring the food in front of him to decide what to start with first before he resumed. Lena lowered her voice as she answered the question, keeping one eye on few others eating in the room in case anyone seemed to be paying a little too much attention to them.

“Romeo is out of commission right now. He wouldn’t confirm with me what happened but the injury could hardly be called a scratch. He insisted on maintain his post despite his injuries, something I couldn’t allow.” Lena put her hands on the table before leaning forward.

“Richard, this is starting to move towards a turf more than I am comfortable with. People are dying and we don’t have any leads as to who is responsible. I need something to work with and all the men I need most are unavailable at the current moment in time.” Her voice came out low and harsh as she spoke through near gritted teeth.

“I can’t throw knives at the wall until something sticks or stops moving. I need solids that I can work with to find out what is going on behind the scenes.” Lena hated not being in control and once again, this situation put her exactly in the one position that she wanted to avoid more than anything else. Richard knew that by the mere fact that she was making an unspoken demand for his help. More than he’d already been giving her.

.....

“You’re not out of options though. Surely there are people you’ve taken with or dealt with involved in this situation who have something you can work with?” Richard offered, wiping his mouth with a napkin, his eyes not leaving the other’s face. The princess’s expression however didn’t hold much to answer his questions. The slowly building anger was the only thing that reflected back in her eyes no matter how long Richard kept staring at her.

“You tell me if you can work with this and I think that will give you more than enough information regarding the question that you’re asking.” Lena sat back down. She pulled her phone out and opened it to the information that Jovani had sent before she slid it across the table. ƒ𝑟𝐞𝗲𝘄𝙚𝚋𝑛ｏ𝙫𝒆𝒍.𝒄𝘰𝓂

“You tell me what you would do with this and who you would put this at the feet of to manage something like this?” Richard pulled the phone closer using his a clean napkin and looked over the information that the Princess had pulled out.

He didn’t stare at it for long before he let out a low whistle. His eyes scanned both and forth rapidly as he scrolled through the list.

“I think that there is actually someone in mind who would be able to do this. I don’t recommend that you cross paths with them. Where did you get ahold of this from?” Richard hesitantly handed the phone back over to the other. His hand lingered on it a second longer, the few seconds were hardly enough for him to take in all of the information in front of him. The list was like a treat anyone within the underworld would want to have a bite of. Just a small piece would be worth a fortune if people were willing to pay for it.

“Jovani got it. Made a claim that it came from one of the people that we picked up the other related to the incident going on right now.” Lena put the phone away before anyone could potentially catch sight of what she was showing off. She began to pick at her food as Richard mused over her words.

“Your tone tells me that you think he lied about that. Then tell me where you believe it came from? If your thoughts algin with mine, We might have the answer that we’re looking for already. Also, do you have the master copy? It would be easier to look through in a larger format.”

“Jovani either paid a pretty penny for it or worked with someone else to get it on a case unrelated to this. This just wound up being a convenient cover to bring it up. We do have the information in another format. It isn’t available for anyone else to look at right now. Not even you.”

Damn it. He couldn’t be blamed for inquiring about it.

What price though would Jovani have been willing to pay to get a hold of it and why hand it over to Lena instead of keeping it for himself?