Antonio arrived at the office before I did but he did not enter. "Good morning." He opened the office so that I could enter before him. "I let Giana know that we will be having breakfast and lunch here."
"Good morning and thank you Antonio." I nodded. I liked that he was determined to be helping out. We quickly got to work. He took a seat and I paced up and down. "Before we start searching the web, there's something I need to let you know. There was a guy at the New Year's fair. I've been talking to him since then, on my phone of course."
He furrowed his brows together, "Does Giovanni know about this?"
"Yes but the thing is, this guy works for whoever is after Rosa. At the park, I remembered we were under attack and that's how I ended up here." I rested my hips on the desk and continued speaking. "I know this because everyone else was running for their lives but he didn't, he just stared at me, Antonio. Also, he quickly covered his hands after he shook mine." Antonio stood up to attend to whoever was at the door. He set the trays down which had some eggs, bacon, toast and grape juice.
"What was on his arm?" He turned to face me.
"A tattoo, I could have sworn it was a rose, I saw the thorns just like the ones on the men back in Potenza. He also mentioned something about getting promoted to carry on a fundraising project there. I could tell he lied because he said he doesn't know when it is and he will be staying there for a week."
"How do you know there won't be any projects in Potenza?"
"Before I crushed the phone I did some research and there won't be any projects there."
"We're in deep shit." He said, biting his thumbnail. "He has your location. Is there anything else you told him?"
"Only that my brother won't let me leave the house." He watched me then bursted into laughter. I'm being serious here and he is laughing.
"I see." He muffled a laugh when he realized I was not having it. "He works for a company, this is how I see it." I nodded. "The roses are symbols and what is this guy's name?"
"Leonardo and he lives in Avellino." I continued. He went over to the computer and was typing like crazy.
"There's no one by that name in Avellino." He glanced at me. How could I have trusted this man, he was after my daughter all this time, trying to distract me so that the others got to her.
"There's only one company here in Italy and it's called Rosa Rossa."
"What do they do? Does the company have a motto or anything?" He continued pressing keys hysterically.
"Only that they sell jewelry, rhinestones and shoes."
"Shoes?" I questioned. "That makes no sense."
"It doesn't but this is not what we're looking for, they sell for only women. Does this guy have an accent or anything linking him to another country?"
"Fuck, Antonio, his Spanish accent." I flew my hands in the air. I really did miss this one simple clue. At the adoption center there were a few kids who spoke Spanish and I picked up little from them.
"This might be hard to find. If he was after whatever is in the box then this must be an illegal company which means it won't be anywhere online. Get the box, does it have anything written on it?" I spun on my heels and pulled the box, spilling a couple of books. I searched for any written words until my thumb swiped across a few in Spanish.
"I found this." And read it out loud to him.
"This means thick thorns make the unwanted flee." Antonio knows Spanish, that's superb.
"The symbol, Antonio. Rosa also said that women are afraid of roses because of their thick thorns. Have a look at this, it has more writings.
"La Rosa Dorada. The Gold Rose." He said. "I can hack into a few black markets to find something, anything." Just then Giana knocked to bring in lunch.
"Set it on the table please." I allowed her to enter, this time I sat to eat and watched Antonio hack into some accounts. "Did you find anything?"
"Nothing pertaining to a rose." This must be some drug. Rose quartz don't make powder like that and why else wouldn't they be on the internet?
"Hand me the box, Antonio. Do you know anything about drugs, of course you do. What if those were illegal drugs?"
"I've never seen any pink drug like this."
"They're trying to deceive people who don't know about them, Antonio. It's right there. How do Giovanni test the drugs to make sure he wasn't scammed and is buying fake product?"
"We use ampoules. We add some liquid to the powder and if it turns blue then it's cocaine, this is the only product we buy and sell."
"We might as well give it a try. They turned it pink to not give away themselves, think. Where can we find ampoules?" I questioned. At that point he had finished eating his lunch. He gave me a questionable look, like we should just drop it. "I know what you're thinking and no I'm not dropping anything."
"Irina, at the house you can only find these in Giovanni's office and no one enters there without his permission."
"Fuck it, where in the office can I get them? It would be good for both of us if you just told me." He knew he had to let me know where it was. We've come too far to drop this and I wasn't going to give up and let these fucking men kill my daughter.
"Irina."
"Antonio." I shot him a deadly look.
"It's in the last drawer of his desk, you better get out quick and make it seem like you're not looking for something. He has cameras in there."
"Now what you're going to do is hack into these cameras right now and wait a minute or two. Now." I was surprised at my own self giving demands to one of Giovanni's men. He jolted towards the computer and gave me a heads up to leave. When he saw I entered through the connected door, his eyes opened wide and mouth slightly ajar. I wasted no time in searching for what I wanted. It's locked. "Shit." I whispered. I should have thought of that. I only got 1 minute left. I scanned the room until I realized I had a clip in my hair. A woman never dresses her hair without one.
Thirty seconds left, I bent the pin and began picking the lock. "Shit." I whispered again because the fucking clip slipped out my sweaty palms. I reached for it under the desk and quickly opened the drawer. I needed to get out of here right now, I had ten seconds to make a run for it. I slammed the drawer shut and burst through the door, flying across the room. I began laughing. If Giovanni realizes that this drawer is unlocked, we're going to be in big trouble.
"I'm beginning to think that you're having fun doing this." Antonio stood over me. He pulled me up and I dusted myself off. "You're doing this better than anyone I know and not to mention, having fun doing it. I'm now sure you were born to do this."
"Maybe I was. We got nothing to test these in." I looked at him. "Hand me your phone."
"Why do you-"
"Just hand me the phone, Antonio." I searched for any contact with the word maid and he had five of them all with a number at the end.
"Yes, sir." She picked up.
"This is Irina and I need one disposable glass and a pair of gloves in my office right now."
"Yes ma'am." These formal addresses made my blood boil. She got there as fast as she could and returned with the lunch trays.
"Here, you do it." Antonio went straight into experimenting. He slipped on the glove and took some powder out then added a few drops of liquid.
"We wait one minute." This was a very long minute I must say, longer than the two minutes I got to sneak into Giovanni's office. "Holy fuck. It is cocaine." Antonio handed me the glass. We both stared at each other. I knew it. "Pink cocaine as rose quartz, this is smart but why do they want Rosa dead?"
"She's a kid, kids talk. Now you need to hack into their account and get every detail about them and also any information you get on Rosa as well." I disposed of the glass and gloves into the bin and cleaned the surface of my desk. "It's four. I need a nap and so do you." We left the office and went separate ways. In no time I was in bed, thinking of my next step, I had two hours to have a nap before dinner with Giovanni and Rosa at seven.