Chapter 22
Enzo
M y office is full of people. Too many people. But it’s for a good reason. Or it better be. The people I sent out to investigate who might have a grudge against the Russians are ready to report their findings back to me. In addition to them, I have Sal, Frankie, and Joey here. I also invited Elise, knowing she’d want the information straight from the source instead of through me, but it’s taking everything in me not to laugh every time I look at her.
She’s sitting in the corner on a cushion, and I had a leash and collar delivered to her room before the meeting in addition to the new lingerie she’s wearing. I’m not sure if she’s even trying to hide how absolutely fucking pissed off she is, but it’s not working if she is. If I’m being completely honest, I’m hoping she’ll want to take her anger out on me after this meeting. Her rage always translates to an intense sexual energy.
“Okay, let’s get started. You’ve all been looking into different organizations to figure out if anyone has a grudge against the Russians. Who’s up first?” I nod to Matteo, indicating for him to take the lead.
He shakes his head. “I wasn’t able to find anything between them and the Kings,” he says, naming one of the larger gangs in the area.
The next two soldiers have similar reports. It’s not until the fourth and final man that we get some good news.
“The Irish—” I cringe internally, knowing I’ll never hear the end of it from Elise, “have a pretty good reason to hold a grudge against the Russians. Their princess was promised in marriage to a wealthy businessman, but she ran off and married a low-ranking Russian soldier instead. She ruined their chance at seizing some extra power, and the two of them haven’t returned from wherever they ran off to. No one seems to know where they are. I also haven’t figured out who the jilted rich guy is.”
I turn to look at Frankie, who nods back at me. That’s a pretty strong motive—loss of power and money, not to mention being humiliated by your daughter and your enemy. I’m not sure how we didn’t already hear about it. Something like that should’ve been big news. It’s definitely going to require more digging. It annoys the fuck out of me when I’m kept in the dark about something that could affect my Family.
Now that we have the verification we needed for the tip from Elise’s coworker, I need to figure out our next steps with just Sal, Frankie, and Joey. Elise will stay on her cushion so she can listen.
I gesture towards the door to let everyone know they’re dismissed. My soldiers are used to my preferred methods of communication. I will never add unnecessary niceties or beat around the bush about anything. It’s not my style. Anyone who doesn’t like it can keep their mouths shut about it.
Everyone is almost out the door and I’m whispering to Sal and Frankie that they should stick around when I hear Elise make a sound.
“Nobody move,” I state.
Elise
As the men start to file out of the room, I stay where I am. This is by far the most humiliating moment of my life. I’m not a fucking dog. I know that Enzo is doing me a favor by letting me hear the information firsthand, but he’s pushing his luck with this little stunt. At least I know that Lydia’s tip was a good one. I really didn’t want to find out that I was being fed bad information by the people who are supposed to be the good guys.
The corner of the room that I’m in means the men are facing me when they walk towards the door. I could keep my head down and pretend to be a demure, scared woman. And if I wasn’t so pissed off, maybe I would. But in my current mood, I choose to watch each and every one of them as they leave.
One of them—I can’t remember his name—has a predatory gleam in his eyes when he makes eye contact with me. He quickly looks over his shoulder to make sure that Enzo is occupied and finds him deep in a whispered conversation with Frankie and Sal. He turns back to me triumphantly and when he’s next to me, he puts his hand over his crotch, thrusts, bites his lower lip, and wraps the whole disgusting package up with a smarmy wink.
I make a noise of disgust, roll my eyes, and look away. Men like that are a dime a dozen and always think they’re God’s gift to women. Ten bucks says he can’t keep it up long enough to do anything worthwhile.
“Nobody move.” Enzo’s voice isn’t particularly loud, but it’s authoritative. Everyone instantly complies. I’m not sure if anyone is even breathing anymore. I look up at him in question, and he asks, “What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“You wouldn’t have made that noise if it was nothing.”
It really wasn’t a big deal, and I have no desire to blow it up into something it wasn’t. “I was clearing my throat.” Nice one.
“Are you fucking lying to me right now?” Shit. Maybe it wasn’t such a nice one.
“Hey, Benny. Do you happen to have any idea what made Elise sound like someone forced her to smell a dead cow?”
I whip my head around and glare at Joey, who apparently witnessed the whole thing. He’s smirking at Benny, who has gone white as a sheet. Everyone in the room is looking at Benny now, who seems to have recovered from his life flashing before his eyes. He’s bright red and stuttering excuses. “Oh, uh, I-I-I don’t—no, I—you didn’t—I mean, I didn’t—”
“Answer the question, Benny,” Enzo says. His voice is deceptively calm. I’m sure we can all tell that he’s a coiled snake, ready to strike. Benny definitely can; he isn’t saying anything anymore, but his mouth is still opening and shutting.
“Joey?”
Joey jumps in at the prompt from Enzo and explains what happened. Enzo doesn’t move a muscle or change his facial expression for the duration of Joey’s fairly accurate description of the events. When he finishes, we all wait for the inevitable fallout. I’m close enough to Benny to see that he’s shaking like a leaf. I’d feel bad for him, but he’s disgusting and got himself into this mess.
I’m having an internal debate over how hard Enzo will be on this guy when I see Enzo move. It happens so fast, and it wasn’t even a consideration in my mind. He pulls his gun, aims, fires, and sets it down on the desk. I scream in surprise. Then I’m embarrassed that I just screamed like a little girl. It’s not like I’ve never seen a gun before. I carry one for my fucking job. But it occurs to me that the scream is very in-character for me. I’ll just pretend it was intentional if Enzo tries to make fun of me for it.
“You three, get her out of here,” Enzo says to Sal, Frankie, and Joey. “The rest of you, clean this mess up. And make sure word gets out. I wasn’t joking about keeping your fucking hands to yourselves.”
They lead me upstairs to my room, where I try to ditch them in the hallway. Unfortunately, they’re not having it, and we all pile into my room.
“I’m sorry you had to see that. Are you okay?” Sal asks. He looks like he wants to comfort me with a hug or something, but he isn’t sure how I’d react.
“I’m fine,” I answer honestly. None of them look like they believe me, and none of us say another word until Enzo walks in.