Eight
R ossi wasn’t so bad, although, to be honest, when you don’t expect much of someone, it’s not that difficult for them to meet those low expectations, is it?
He offered his resources to help hunt the serial killer, but he made it clear that it was a favour, and we’d need to return it at some point. That was even with Ice pointing out that his own daughter could be at risk from this bastard, which should have made him get off his high horse and help. I guess mafia guys really aren’t all that easy to manipulate, but he tried.
“This is Tesio. He’ll assist you with anything you need, technologically or otherwise.” I guess that was us dismissed, because this Tesio guy, a weaselly guy with slicked back hair, was already walking out of the room and clearly we were expected to follow him.
I caught up with Ice as we reached the door.
“Are we supposed to bow or something before we leave his lordship?” He snorted, casting a glance back into the great hall where we’d had to wait for nearly twenty damn minutes before he even deigned to show up.
“I wouldn’t put it past him, pretentious bastard.”
Tesio stopped moving, and turned to raise his eyebrows at us.
“For people who came to the boss for a favour, you sure are a bunch of ungrateful bastards.” We both zipped it when we realised we were busted, but then Tesio smirked.
“Besides, he prefers it if you kiss the ring.”
“ I’m not kissing his fucking ring ,“ Ice sounded positively disgusted, and Tesio rolled his eyes.
“The ring on his finger, dickhead… it was a joke. Come on, it’s this way.”
Honestly, I’d never realised hanging out with Ice could be such a laugh, but then I don’t think he was ever really a laugh while he was so hooked on drugs that he was never not on something. I knew enough about addiction to know that the burning urge was always there, no matter how hard he worked to fight it.
“This place is huge, right?” We were led down long marble hallways, and down into a fucking basement, because of course the tech lair is in the fucking basement, and not in a nice plush room with actual daylight.
This place though… wow… it was literally like the batcave, and even Ice was in awe of it, as he stood in the middle of the room, his eyes darting this way and that as he took in every detail.
“Brother… this makes your tech room look like a bag of shit.”
He didn’t even look at me as he flipped me off.
“Hey, Tesio. This favour… can I get me one of these rooms?”
The guy smirked, and sat in front of a pretty sweet setup, tapping away at keys, and Ice went over to lean on the desk and watch. Well, that’s great, but what about me? Why the fuck am I here for this tech shit? Oh yeah, I needed to get away from Elise, before I gave in to temptation, and fucked that sweet virginity right out of her. Jesus… don’t get a boner here in the batcave.
“So… I’ve been looking into the guys in the club, and-”
“Wait, what?” I joined them at the desk in nerd central. “Looking into us?”
Ice rolled his eyes at me. “What the fuck did you think we were here for? I can do this, but it would have taken me a week. Then we realised these nosy fuckers would have done most of the work for me already. I mean, I do a deep dive on each new prospect, and I keep files on everyone-”
“And they’re very thorough,” Tesio interrupted with a smirk.
“You got into Ice’s files?”
Ice was pacing, and looking frustrated.
“You hacked Ice?”
Tesio looked at him before he answered.
“He sent me his shit, man. What am I, some kind of snoop?”
I glanced around at the screens and shot him a smug look.
“Looks like it to me. Look, whatever you found on me-”
“Like this, you mean?” He tapped a few keys and suddenly every damn screen in the room showed me, fucking various women, and from every possible damn angle.
“Jesus Christ. Warn a guy next time .“ Ice lowered his head, although let’s be honest, he’d probably seen all of these before, what with being tasked with pulling them.
“You stored all that shit, man?” Ice shook his head, and then we both looked at Tesio.
“What? Don’t look at me! You’re not my type, asshole. No, these are all live right now.”
What. The. Actual. Fuck?
Elise
W hen the phone rang again, I answered it out of desperation, because I was afraid and alone, and I hoped it was someone who could help.
“Hello? Hello?!”
There was nothing there, then suddenly I realised I could hear someone breathing. Why weren’t they speaking?
“Hello? Can you hear me?”
The breathing sounded a little raspier. Were they trying to talk?
“Are you… uh, who is this?”
Still no response. I was starting to feel really freaked out, because people speak, don’t they? They phone people and they speak. Why hadn’t I ended the call yet? I needed to end the call.
“If you don’t speak right now, I’ll hang up,” my voice was panicked and higher than normal, and there was a response, but it wasn’t what I expected, and it sent a chill of terror down my spine.
A groan. No… not a groan. A long slow pleasured sound, a masculine sound. Oh god, it sounded like something out of a porn video… it sounded like someone getting off!
I jabbed the button to end the call, and the phone slipped out of my hand. What the hell was that? Who was it? Surely… surely it wouldn’t be anyone I know, right? It had to be some random caller, because the only people who had my number were some college ‘friends’, my brother, and Reacher. Not even Has-Been, and right at this moment, I wished I had his number, because I’d have called him.
I couldn’t tell my brother though. He was already so overprotective that I was on lockdown. If he knew about this, he’d take away my phone too. My only contact with the outside world. I’d go insane without it.
I finally pushed up from the floor on shaking legs, and grabbed one of the dining chairs, dragging it across the floor, to tuck it under the door handle. It didn’t really make me feel that much safer, but it was the best I had right now. I wished there was something heavy I could drag in front of the door, but even if I could move something like that, it probably wouldn’t be that much of an obstacle for a large guy, would it?
All that was left for me to do now was cower in my room like a pathetic loser, until someone bothered to stop by and I trusted them enough to open the door. Right now, I wasn’t sure if I’d even venture back outside of the room unless I was forced to. I grabbed a bottle of wine and a glass, and climbed into my bed with my kindle. At least I had food, and alcohol, and as many books to read as I could possibly get my hands on. What more could a girl want?
Just the little things… company, friendship. Love.