Blood Oath (Ruby Rose/Ares fan fic)

Nineteen

Ares drives calmly back to New York after having lunch with Stefano and spending the afternoon chatting. Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye too soon since we have a long drive back but I've promised to go visit him some other time and I intend to keep my word. I've had the time of mi life talking to Lombardo, he's met so many people and has seen so many things... I could write several books with his life. And his stories are always funny. Once upon a time one boy of the D'Antonio family thought that it would be a great idea to pour some detergent in the fountain of Piazza Fontana in Milan to fill it with bubbles. Ares was in charge of climbing to the top to pour it in the water but a police officer caught them and tried to climb up to arrest her. The assassin climbed down the other side of the fountain like a little monkey and ran away while the cop yelled soaking wet since he'd slipped on the moss that covered the stone base.

I chuckle while unlocking my phone to check the alerts remembering the assassin blushing every time Stefano told me one of her mischiefs. I'm glad she had a group of friends to play with and have fun sometimes despite everything that happened during her childhood. All of a sudden, a thought makes its way through my mind like a flash and I start typing to check it. As I suspected, the computer security system of the retirement home is very weak and I need less than ten minutes to gain access to it and start reading their accounting files; with my own computer I could do it faster but I manage with what I have at hand. This is pretty much what I figured... payments are biannual and Gianna D'Antonio had already made the first transfer before her death but the second one comes from an unknown bank account. I fight for a while with web servers trying to find out the origin of the money but that bank account of the Cayman Islands lead me to another one in the Maldives Islands and then to another one in Cyprus... Damn! This won't be easy...

"Ares, do you know who is taking care of Lombardo now that Gianna can no longer do that? Is Roberto D'Antonio the one who is paying for the retirement home?" The assassin clears her throat and fidgets in her seat nervously, that makes me look at her and I open my mouth in shock when I see her blushing. "It's you... you're taking care of him." My bodyguard stares at the road obstinately, not answering me for a while, till she finally nods reluctantly. "You don't like to admit that you have feelings, do you?" I think looking at her and trying to hide my smile. "I guess the family have forgotten about the old man with everything that's happened last months, in case they knew he was here because it could have been Gianna's idea and she didn't tell anyone." Ares nods slightly again. Shit! That biannual payment is very big since that home is expensive. I'm pretty sure the assassin has made good money but, if you live in the underworld, you need to save some money if you don't want to end up like Stefano without a penny; also, the renovation of her loft cannot have been cheap. In addition to this she bought the car that's still parked in my garage and she has to buy new guns every now and then to keep up with the latest technological advances. I guess that's the reason why she took the job as my bodyguard, 15 million dollars could solve all her problems. "Don't think about that Nira, every time you remember that you're just another job for her you get sad and we were supposed to enjoy as much as we could, okay?" My conscience is right, she's being very reasonable lately...

I focus again on my phone trying to find a solution to Lombardo's problem. Maybe I could include his name on Winston's charitable foundation list... wait, I have a better idea. I start typing furiously... minutes tick by while I'm looking for what I need, there must be something... Sitting next to me, Ares looks at me from time to time probably wondering what the hell is wrong with me, she places her hand on my thigh but this time I don't pay attention to her caresses... I'm busy.

"Got it!" The assassin stares at me with an eyebrow raised, I haven't said a word to her in an hour while I was working. It took a little longer than I expected but it's done. "Have you ever heard about Winston's foundation? No, of course not, he keeps it a secret so please, don't tell anyone." Ares nods reassuringly with her eyes fixed on the road. "Listen, the big mafia families handle a large amount of money, sometimes is clean money and most of the time not, and they move it all around the world from bank account to bank account. They have so many accounts open at the same time that sometimes... they forget about one. Usually, those forgotten accounts don't have much cash, maybe one or two millions, and they remain dormant for years. Finding them it's not an easy task, they're well-hidden and that's why the owners sometimes lose track of that money, but occasionally I run into some of them during my researches. If he has good relations with that family, he tells them about what I found and they get their money back; they appreciate the gesture even if those millions are small change for them given that they make billions. If Winston doesn't like the mob and the bank account has been untouched for the last ten years without movements or transfers, he takes the money and puts it into his charitable trust: he's founded it for widows and orphans of the poorest members of the crime syndicate."