CHAPTER 7 - RED
CHAPTER
Red
GLARING AROUND MY OFFICE, I meet eyes first with Liam, then Oscar and finally, Cal.
I’m not happy, and they know it. As do the other members of the second tier who were still on duty last night when I finally returned.
The visit with Galvatore riled me so deeply I felt unable to return to the casino for several hours, choosing instead to while away some time into the early hours in a bar in Soho: one where no one knew me. Or if they did, they didn’t show it.
Anonymity was what I needed.
There was also a small part of me hoping that by mere chance, I might overhear something useful in my fruitless search for Arianna, but the grapevine was silent.
By the time I returned to the Scorpio Lounge, it was the middle of the night, but the telltale traces were clear. Despite my distinct instructions to keep the casino closed until I said otherwise, it had been opened during my absence.
And I have a good idea who took that decision.
“Well?” I snarl, already pouring my second whiskey of the morning.
Liam’s dark brows furrow. “Well, what? Aren’t you telling us what happened with Galvatore?”
“Which of you made the call to open last night despite my wishes?” I roar, splashing whiskey from the bottle onto my starched cuffs, such is my rage.
“We have to get back to normal. That reporter being here yesterday proves rumors are circulating. People know something is wrong, and we can’t allow chinks in our armor.”
Liam shrugs, proving my suspicions who was behind this to be correct. “Fuck the armor!” I angrily wipe Scotch from my sleeve.
“There were no incidents, so everything went well,” Liam continues.
Although I’m inwardly fuming, I’m relieved to hear there’s been no trouble. “I understand we must show an outward sense of normality, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy my decision was overturned.”
“Okay, so apologies for that, but I’m trying to do the best for all of us.”
“No, you’re not! You’re doing what you’ve always done – attempting to override me!
This is about you!” I snarl. “You gave me your word that you’d do everything in your power to help get my wife back, but that didn’t last long, did it?
You never liked her, and now you’re trying to take over and do the opposite of what I want! ”
“Come on!” Oscar snaps. “That’s not fair! Liam has...”
“You’re no better! Hovering in the background, never saying jack shit to my face, yet you’re the same as him!” I jerk my head in Liam’s direction.
“What I said the night Arianna was taken was true and still is.” Liam eyes me coldly.
“We are and will continue doing whatever you need to get her back. We’ve got men scouting all corners of London to catch a word, but what we won’t do is allow the firm to collapse at the same time. You’re wrong on both counts.”
I want to retaliate and throw Liam out of my life for the second time, except that he’s right.
Exhaling loudly through my nostrils, I push myself to think of the bigger picture. Without the firm, we’d have nothing. We’d lose our power, and then there would be nothing to bring Arianna back to.
Liam’s eyes lock defiantly with mine, waiting for my expected reaction. Getting none, he nods imperceptibly. “So, moving on...” He pulls a cigarette from his top pocket and lights it. “What’s the upshot with Galvatore?”
I clench my teeth. The outcome of that meeting was also the opposite of what I hoped.
Refusing to allow Galvatore’s denial to deter me from continuing my quest, I shrug my shoulders.
“Point blank refused everything. He didn’t believe a word.
He didn’t know about Matteo killing Bristoni, though. I saw his face.”
“Hardly surprising that he denied it all.” Oscar says, jumping on the rare defusing of mine and Liam’s anger. “It would be surprising if he believed shag all about his golden son!”
“Yeah, but he’s got his reservations, even though he won’t admit it.
” I then think about the sister, and my lip curls into a smile.
“It was thanks to his other daughter - Maria - dropping daddy in it. She let slip that Matteo has gone AWOL, however, Galvatore remained shtum, so all I could do was leave him an ultimatum.”
“Which was?”
“That if he cares about either of his daughters, he’ll release Matteo’s location. The trouble is, I think he genuinely doesn’t know where he is.”
“So, all in all, a pointless fucking visit?” Liam stubs his cigarette out in the ashtray with enough force to break the crystal. “I bet groveling to him for nothing sticks in your craw though, bruv?”
I glare at my brother. He can never resist, can he? “I’ll just think of another plan. We’ll keep looking. Some fucker in the city knows where their bastard safe holes are. We just need to find them and will pick through every single house if we have to.”
But whether someone knows or not, I don’t and every second without that information is too long.