Tesio (Phoenix MC Hampshire Chapter #1)

Chapter One

Staring at screens was actually an improvement on the rest of my day, so I put all of my focus into watching CCTV footage, to try and find the evidence the Don requested.

Ha… requested. The Don doesn’t request. He commands.

That shit normally never bothered me, so why, today, was it really grinding my fucking gears?

“Watch thirty hours of fucking dark footage for a tiny movement, Tesio, there’s a good fucking boy,” I grumbled, easing off my suit jacket and tossing it across the room. Fucking suits. They might look good, but they were not comfortable, especially not for hours in a chair.

“Coffee?” I looked up to see Lucy, one of many fucking staff at this mausoleum, in the doorway.

I nodded, and she dipped her head, disappearing to pander to me, like she did all the others.

What was wrong with me today? Did men get fucking periods, because I was starting to lose my mind with everything?

She returned with coffee for me, and I spent the next few hours staring at a screen until my eyes burned, and blinking was the only relief they got.

“Anything?” I groaned, and lifted my head from the screen, to see Luca grinning at me from the doorway.

“Yeah, I figured I’d sit on vital information until someone thought to ask,” I snarked, rolling my neck, and groaning as it crunched, but at least the pressure eased a touch.

“You’ve had a whole three hours,” he said pointlessly, dragging a heavy chair over and sitting beside me. What the fuck was he staying for? I mean, I liked Luca, whether he was higher up in the hierarchy than me or not, but I didn’t need him here right now.

“What, you want to make out or something?”

He laughed, resting an arm on my desk and dislodging the orderly clutter. For some reason, it was pleasing to see it messed up, and if that was what was floating my boat now, maybe I really was losing it.

“Do you mind?” Habit forced me to grab the papers he’d nudged aside, smoothing them into a neat pile again, and moving them further away from him.

“You seriously have nothing for him? You know how impatient he gets.” Duh.

Everyone fucking knew how impatient the Don could be.

I mean, he didn’t have to do the work, he just had to sit there and wait for his minions to do his bidding.

Jesus, what the hell was wrong with me? I loved mafia life, didn’t I?

Didn’t I respect every one of these fuckers, and relish every moment of my job? Was I having some kind of breakdown?

“You wanna look at fucking days of this shit? I can barely see straight at this point.”

Luca smirked at me. “So you might end up missing something vital. Why don’t you take a break, you prick?”

Was he shitting me?

“You just reminded me that the Don is waiting for this! How the fuck do I have time for a break?”

He rolled his eyes, and pointed at the door. “Take five. I’ll cover for you, so you won’t lose time or anything. Might wanna freshen up though. Your shirt’s all wrinkled, man.” Fucking wrinkled shirt. I’d wrinkle his fucking smirk right off his face in a minute.

I guess my resting bitch face failed me, because his eyes widened, and he tilted his head. “Whoa. Someone’s pissed. Don’t forget your place, Tesio. This is your job, but I’m kindly taking time out of my day to give you a brief break.”

I clenched my jaw, biting back the barrage of insults I wanted to sling at him, because he was right. Mafia. Respect. All that bullshit.

“I’m fine, boss. I’ll have something for you asap.” I turned back to the screen, blinking a few times to try and clear my blurry eyes.

“Be sure you do.” He got up and left the room, so yeah, so much for ‘offering me a break’.

Why the fuck was I scouring footage for a fucking intruder around a biker club anyway?

What the hell did we have to do with a biker club?

Was I just not in the know? Fucking heathens, swanning around, drinking all day, and getting easy pussy.

Actually, that sounded pretty good to me right now.

Still, this intruder wasn’t gonna find himself, was he? And I didn’t mean in some fucking existential kinda way. The Don wanted results, and I’d get them for him, just like always. Only another three hours later, I had one thing. Nothing.

He wasn’t pleased. Of course he wasn’t. One thing the Don expected was results, and what did I find for him? Fuck all.

“Surely they have their own people to look into this shit though,” I said idly, leaning back in the seat opposite the huge imposing desk, and the grey haired man opposite me.

He merely raised an eyebrow at me. Oh great.

The silent thing. He always fucking did this.

Waiting me out, and letting me dig my own hole, which I did more often than I should.

“What ties do we have to this biker club, Don Rossi? You never told me.”

The eyebrow raised a little more, and I groaned.

“Look, I’m just saying, the more I know, the more use I can be. There are other cameras around that compound. If I know more about what I’m looking for, I can help out more.”

He steepled his fingers for a moment.

“My daughter has… aligned herself… with the club… and therefore, our eyes will be on them, because her safety is my priority.” His daughter.

Fuck me. Tori. She’d been missing for years.

I’d always suspected someone had aided that escape, and not in a ‘let me get you out of this hellish life’ kinda way.

In a ‘making her dead’ kinda way. It was a huge relief to know she was okay.

“She’s alive?”

The tension dropped from his face for a moment, and shit, how much younger did he look when he wasn’t trying to dominate a room?

“Seems she’s fallen for a,” he paused, pursing his lips slightly, “a biker. She’s… she was in peril, and he rescued her.”

Well, shit. That didn’t bode well for us, because shouldn’t we have known that already? He wasn’t glaring at me again yet, which seemed like a bonus.

“Boss, she’s okay, right?” I’d known her since we were children, so I needed to know she was safe at least.

He suddenly chuckled, and I didn’t know when I’d ever heard that sound when it wasn’t done in that creepy, someone’s gonna die, kinda way.

“She’s happy, Tesio. I’d never do a thing to take away something she loves. That said, if he becomes a threat to her, if any of them do, we’ll take action.” There’s the Don we all know and love to hate, and hate to love.

“So my job is to keep an eye on cameras around their compound? I mean, in addition to the one I was viewing?”

He sighed, glancing at the bar across the room, tapping his fingers before he took a deep breath and turned back to face me. I knew he wanted a drink, but why was he not just ordering me to get him one?

“You want me to get-”

He lifted a hand, so I shut it like a good mafia boy, and waited for him to speak.

“They have their own ‘tech guy’, but I doubt his skills, and quite honestly, I doubt their setup, and preparedness, for protecting a mafia daughter. You’ll add cameras where we see fit, and those will be for our eyes only.

In the meantime, we’ll monitor and stay away, but the threat to her safety was removed, and that benefits us greatly. ”

What the fuck had I missed, while I’d been doing shit work, and out of the loop?

“And the threat was?”

He scowled suddenly, slamming a palm against the desk surface. If I hadn’t been a well trained kinda guy, I’d have jumped, but you don’t show weakness in the mafia, so I simply offered him that eyebrow thing in response.

“Casetti!” he practically spat, leaning forward to glare at me, like I caused whatever the cunt had done, because it was clearly bad.

That guy was a fucking psycho. We’d wanted to take them out for a while, but as with all shit in this life, it had to be done in a certain way, to not upset the balance of power, yada yada yada.

“Uh… boss?”

That eyebrow lifted again, but he wasn’t looking as put together as normal now that he’d let out that little spurt of emotion. It was rare to see, but if anyone could make him feel like that, it was his daughter, Victoria, or Tori, as she preferred.

“When you say ‘removed’… you mean dead?”

Could a person grin like a fucking shark, because that’s what came to mind when he suddenly did exactly that, and grinned at me.

“While I’m frustrated that we didn’t get to do the takedown ourselves, justice was served, and we’ve absorbed what little Casetti had into our own coffers. You weren’t required to be involved, so you weren’t informed.” Ah there it is. My reminder that I’m just a minion, right?

“Understood, boss. I’ll keep watch,” I silently added the ‘like a good little boy’, but I honestly felt like he fucking heard it, because he pointed at the chair I’d just hopped up from. Clearly I wasn’t done. I dropped back down, and forced myself to keep an impassive look on my face.

“It’s a difficult business, running an empire like this, Tesio.

Deciding who’s involved in each operation, and who knows what, is all part of a delicate balancing act.

I needed you on other matters at the time, but you’re fully dedicated now to anything relating to Phoenix MC.

I want to know their comings and goings, their business, their affiliations, and any scandals or confirmed criminal activity.

Their actions could affect us now, and I won’t allow that to happen.

” Right. That made perfect sense to this made man, so what could I say but ‘yes, boss’?

“I’ll get it done.”

“I know you will, Tesio. You never fail me.”

Was it me reading his mind this time, and catching the bit he didn’t voice out loud? I wouldn’t survive failing him, not when the stakes were so high. Tori’s safety was everyone’s priority now.