Chapter 6
Genevieve
“ W here is he?” I yell as I enter the mansion through the front door.
After that meeting earlier today almost everyone knows I live here now. There is no point in going through the passageway anymore and hiding the fact that a female lives here too. As soon as I walk through the door, everyone drops whatever they are doing and just stares straight ahead. From the front door I am able to see down the hallway to his office. The door is slightly ajar, which means he is there.
I march towards his office just as a large man steps out from one of the adjacent offices. “I’m sorry Miss, but you are not authorised to be down here.”
Oh, no he fucking didn’t . “Of course I ran into the one person who wasn’t in that meeting, or you’ve just been sleeping under a rock.” I look back at Mason, my voice laced with sarcasm.
Turning back to the wall of muscle, I step closer to him. “Who are you to tell me where I can and can’t go,” I begin. Mason makes a choking sound just behind me. “This is my fucking house and I will go wherever I want and see whoever I want.”
The big guy just looks at me, dumbfounded for a moment, before regaining his composure. He takes a deep breath and repeats, “I’m sorry Miss, but you are not authorised to be down here.”
I glare at him. “Who are you anyway?” I ask, my eyes narrowing.
“I don’t have to give you my name, little girl,” he begins, but then I hear the movement of Mason stepping closer. To intervene or to get a better vantage point, I’m unsure.
“Atlas!” I hear my father call from the door of his office. “What is all this goddamn commotion out here!”
I smile as his eyes widen at the sudden voice of Sal, his body going stiff. “Well, you better tell him, Atlas,” I spit his name.
“Nothing Sir, nothing that is of your concern,” he responds, still blocking my view of my father. “I will resolve the issue and remove it.”
There is no sound of my father moving and the big guy in front of me stays put, feet still planted in the same spot. All Mason can do from behind me is laugh. “Viper?” my father questions. “Why are you here and where is Genevieve?”
“She is right here, Sir,” he responds.
I raise a brow at Atlas. “Are things starting to ring a bell to you now big guy?”
“Genevieve?” My father makes his way down the hallway.
“I am right here, Father,” I say, smiling as Atlas’s cheeks go red and his head dips ever-so-slightly. “I was on my way down to see you but Atlas here is blocking my way.”
As my father nears us, his body shakes with the red-hot anger that possesses the majority of his life boils through him again. He raises his hand, striking Atlas across the face, and, if I am ever going to see a grown man cry, it’s today.
The emotion in the air is so thick you could cut it with a knife — my emotions aimed at my father are not helping the situation. Atlas’s jaw bobs up and down, as if he is trying to say something but the words won’t come out. My father just glares at him until he turns and retreats.
As my father turns towards me, his stare softens slightly and he tilts his head, leading me towards his office. I follow, my shoes staccato against the floor. Mason starts following too but my father holds his hand up, telling him to wait outside. He grunts in disapproval but leans against the wall.
I hear the click of the office door closing into place. The click that signifies me alone in this office with my father, unprotected.
“Why all the commotion out in the hallway?” he asks as he walks behind his desk and sits in his oversized chair.
“Well, I don’t need to use the hidden passage anymore.” I shrug. “And it’s not my fault that half the dimwits in the place don’t know who I am.”
He only nods, then glances down at the papers in front of him, reading over the words. It makes me feel more at ease around him because it means that his focus isn’t fully on me.
“But the main reason I am here is to get information,” I continue, keeping the shaking out of my voice. Being in the same room as this man makes me uncomfortable and I hate that I am in here alone.
“Ok, what information do you need?” he asks, his features calm and unreadable.
“Firstly, who have these threats come from?” I lean forward, my elbows resting on my knees. “If you don’t tell me now I will find out eventually and I’m pretty sure there are ways to persuade your men into telling me.”
He blinks once, considering what to say. “Blackmere.”
“Why would Blackmere be after me?” Knowing that Blackmere are the ones who protected my mother and me, I find it hard to believe they would be threatening my life. Unless the threats aren’t about me and more about taking me back from my father.
I sit up straighter, eyeing my father, trying to see if there is anything else behind his cold eyes.
His left eye twitches slightly. The old man is becoming more paranoid by the day. I know that the Blackmere Mafia has a new boss. He is only in his thirties. He is young, fresh. So maybe they aren’t really threats, but more the new Blackmere boss wants me for himself? Combine the two most powerful gangs and rule both Blackmere and Murwood as one? It isn’t a bad idea, but it isn’t a great one either — my mother signed a contract stating that we would always be protected by Blackmere regardless of who is running the organisation.
Tonight I will have to sneak in here to find those letters. I know this level is always quiet at night, from my nights of sneaking in. I’ve always heard everyone on the next level up either partying or fighting. There is never anything in between the two.
“They have their reasons, which is why when you are outside of this property line you are to be accompanied at all times.” He coughs. “Preferably by Viper. He is the one I trust the most.”
“But why, Father? What do they want with me?” I glare at him. “I feel this is vital information.”
He just shakes his head. “You will find out in due time, child.”
When he calls me a child it makes me feel like I am ten again. Always being told what to do and that children should be seen and never heard. It pisses me off and he knows it does.
If I said a word when I was younger he would hit my mother for not keeping me in line, but it would always be behind closed doors, never in front of company, and this meeting with him right now is giving me a sense of déjà vu. “Well, then can you do one thing for me?” I fold my arms across my chest.
“What is that?” His tone is becoming unamused. He is tired of my tantrums . What he calls tantrums, I call warranted outbursts.
“Can you at least tell Mason to back off from trying to kill everyone in the hallway at college?” I stand, and all my father can do is shrug.
“I’ll see what I can do but maybe for now the best thing would be for you not to attend your classes and just study at home,” he says, standing up. “I will make the arrangements now and while we are at it, you are no longer allowed to work at that bloody dive bar on the outskirts of town.”
“But Father!” I raise my voice, but he holds up his hand. I huff and stamp my foot. Is it childish? Maybe a little. Did it help with my anger? No, I just want to scream.
“No, Genevieve, it is too dangerous for you to be out there.” He pinches the bridge of his nose.“You know that it is close to the Blackmere town line and that Rico’s men frequent that bar. It is the only common ground of the Underbellies.”
“Why are you doing this to me? What did I do to you?” A single tear slides down my cheek but I wipe it away before he can see it. Weakness is not something you show in front of Salvatore De Luca. Even if you are his daughter or not.
“I am not doing it to punish you.” He can see how much this hurts me, but he waves his hand at me, shrugging it off like it’s nothing. No matter what I say, he just doesn’t give a shit about how I feel. His words say one thing, his body language says another. “I am doing this to protect you. You will find out in due time why I am taking these precautions, but for now you just need to trust me.”
A knock on the door makes me jump. I need to get out of this room, I need to do something. Focus on something else.
There is a gym in this place. Maybe I just need to go and run until I can’t stand anymore. Until all this rage subsides.
I need to put my plan into motion as soon as possible. I can’t let my father get to me anymore. He is a paranoid asshole; no wonder my mother left him all those years ago.
He would spend the days talking to himself, always watching over his shoulder, and, when one of his men asked him a question, he snapped at them, thinking they were trying to question his motives. Still to this day, he yells at everyone and is hiding away in his office. But now, it seems to be worse. He knows the late boss of Blackmere is my uncle, and I would put money on my father being the reason he is now dead.
I stare at my father as he moves around his desk towards me as the door to the office opens just a crack. “Please, Genevieve, just trust me.” I have never seen my father beg, but I guess there is a first time for everything. Maybe the pleading is just a show for whoever is walking in. “Please.”
I shake my head and step back from him. “No. No, I don’t think I can. You have been nothing but controlling since I came back to Murwood.” I begin to pace his office. “I just don’t think I can until you can give me just this little bit of information.”
I turn around and start walking back to the door. “Please, Genevieve, don’t walk away.”
I ignore him and reach out for the door, but the door flies open, almost whacking me in the face.
“What the fuck!” I yell, my hand balling into a fist ready to hit whoever just barged into the office.
“Easy, Princess, easy,” Mason says, hands resting on my shoulders. “Just relax, it’s only me.”
“You’re lucky I didn’t knock your ass out,” I growl. I’m not the best at fighting but I can hold my own. Growing up around boys, you learn how to fight. “Now I’m going down to the fucking gym, I have some frustrations to work out. Don’t follow me.”
I walk out the door and into the hallway.
My father’s voice is a mumble from where I am standing. He must have his back to the door. “Let her go, I need to talk to you.”
“What’s up, Sir?” I hear Mason, he is clearer than my father, which means he is facing the door.
“What happened earlier today when you followed Genevieve to class?” Shit, he is going to tell my father what I am studying.
Mason clears his throat. “Well, some kid ran into her, knocking her to the ground. I saw red, pinned him to the wall. I just wanted to teach him a lesson.”
“Viper! You cannot just assault people in broad daylight.” I hear my father’s footsteps move closer to his desk again and the creak of the chair as he sits down.
“I’m sorry, Sir.” He is hesitant. “Just, after the meeting this morning and being put on babysitter duty, I am feeling antsy. You know the takedowns help me.”
“I know boy, but with these episodes you’ve been having…” He pauses for a moment. “I just don’t want to take any chances. I put you in charge of Genevieve because it is lower stress and less chance of another one of your blackouts.”
“I know, Sir.” His voice drops. “But I need to do something. There has to be something for me to do?”
I hear a sigh from my father. “Alright. There is a target, similar to last night’s target. He frequents the underground tunnels on the south side of town as well as that dive of a bar you always go to.”
Who is this guy? Why does he frequent Gravel and Grit? I hear the shuffle of paper exchanging hands. “Thank you, Sir,” Mason says as his voice grows closer to where I am standing.
I run down the hall to my room, closing the door behind me, trying to calm my racing heart. Mia lets out a little whimper as soon as she sees me. “It’s okay, girl.” I walk over to her crate, reaching in and scratching her head. “We will go for a run as soon as I can drop these brutish bodyguards.”
I put on a pair of leggings and a tank top. Once I release this frustration, I will start on my plan of Mason helping me. I have to make sure that he is not the evil soldier that I think my father has turned him into.
After I saw him walking down the hallway the other day, I’m not sure if he knew I was there because, even though he couldn’t see me, he glanced right at me with a coldness in his eyes that I had never seen before. Us working together would help the both of us, that is for sure.