Chapter 17
Nico
After having lunch, I’m holding my hand on Elli’s lower back as we walk into the basement, seeing no sign of nervousness.
She must have seen far more than I imagined from her father when he was my Underboss.
Although Alex has told me he protected Elli as much as he could.
Tia, however, is looking far more worried, and I can see she has a tremor in her hands as she clutches them together in front of herself.
Bruno is close behind her, guiding her and making sure she is okay.
I know he’ll remove her from the situation if something untoward happens.
Entering the room, the two women are sitting on the chairs in the center of the room, not tied down but with a soldier on each side of them.
Intimidation is the intention.
Elli takes a deep breath and waves the soldiers away from the women.
The men look to me first and I nod slightly for them to comply.
“Your lives are in my hands.
Whether you live or die rests solely on the answers you give me.”
One of the women looks around Elli to see what I have to say about that, but I ignore her completely.
“Why are you looking at the Don? Do you not understand what I just said? He does not need to waste his time with such as you any longer.
You women are now my concern, and as such, you will answer to me.”
Seeing a sneer form on the woman’s face, Elli holds her right hand out to one of the soldiers.
As he glances at me again, I realize that I’m going to have to reinforce her position once we are married.
I can’t have all the soldiers looking to me before they respond to her every request.
Bruno steps in quickly and hands her his Glock, which has her giving him a slight nod of thanks.
Taking the woman’s face in her left hand, she squeezes her cheeks hard and forces her mouth open.
Slipping the gun between her lips, Elli stares into the woman’s eyes and I’m convinced she is going to pull the trigger.
“Let’s try this again, shall we? Your life is in my hands.
Do you have the slightest doubt about what I’m telling you?”
Elli tilts her head questioningly, and the woman tries to speak past the weapon in her mouth.
Hearing the muffled ‘no’, Elli smiles the evilest smile I have ever seen, and we all hear the splatter as the woman pisses herself.
“Why did you steal from the casino? More importantly, from the family?”
Removing the gun barrel from her mouth, Elli puts it against the woman’s forehead and waits.
“It was easy money, that’s all.
I bought luxuries that I wanted but couldn’t afford on my standard salary.”
Tears spring from her eyes and she sobs uncontrollably.
Shaking her head with a look of disgust, Elli states, “Greed.
Plain and simple greed.
Now, the money you have stolen will be retrieved from your account.
You will continue working for the casino under strict supervision until you have reimbursed the same amount again.
If you try to quit before that is achieved, you will die.
If you run, you will die.
If you do anything that I don’t like, you will die.
Once all financial remunerations are complete, I will decide what happens to you from that point. Are we clear on this?”
The woman nods rather than trying to speak, and tears continue to roll down her cheeks.
Signaling for a soldier to take her away, she gives the second woman her attention.
Before she asks any questions, the woman looks Elli in the eye.
“I am sorry for what I have done.
I felt I had no choice but to risk my life to help my mother.
Her medical bills are crippling my family, but I couldn’t sit back and watch her die without doing everything I could to help her.
We have all given everything we have to pay for her medication and treatment, but we haven’t been able to stay on top of it.
When she approached me with her idea of skimming the bar money, I was easily swayed.
I can offer to pay it back, but I have nothing in my bank to do so. I can work the debt off willingly or forfeit my life to the family. All I ask is that my family are spared. They will have enough to grieve over when our mother passes.”
Throughout her plea, she holds her head high and never breaks eye contact with Elli.
“You should have approached the management for support in your dark hour.
I’m sure that the Don would have been able to put something in place without you having to resort to theft.
I will take personal responsibility for your mother’s medical bills going forward.
They will be documented accurately, and you will now become a part of my personal staff.
You will work to pay off your debt.”
Elli hands Bruno his pistol and then looks at the remaining soldier.
“Take her to Yasmine and have her delegate duties to her and a room in the mansion.
She will be free to come and go when she is not working, but will be required to return here every night to sleep.”
Elli was magnificent.
She showed these two women that they could not fuck with the family and walk away unscathed.
One was a greedy, money grabbing bitch.
The other I had empathy for, as she needed the money to pay for her dying mother’s treatment.
Elli dealt with that issue firmly yet kindly.
I am proud of the way that she handled the women and when word of this spreads, which I’m sure it will, it will cement her position as my wife and a force to be reckoned with.
It also seems she may be coming around to the idea of being the Don’s wife.
Later that evening, Bruno, Tiny, Aeron, and I watch as Elli and Tia sneak through the house like two little mice scurrying away from the house cat.
But reaching the garage, they come to a stop while looking around for the Ranger, I’m sure.
But we’ve moved it to the far corner behind three other vehicles, one being the armored Escalade.
We all snicker as we watch the exasperation and annoyance flow over both their faces.
Tia recovers the fastest and heads to the wall where the keys are hanging for all the vehicles.
But before she can take the keys for any, three soldiers appear and stand firm in her way.
“Come on, let’s go recover our sneaky brides, shall we?”
I stride out of the tech room where we have been watching the monitor, knowing what they had planned.
Rubbing his hands together, Bruno chuckles, “I can’t wait to get married.
I always dreaded the idea, but like you, Nico, if she is going to be fierce, I will more than enjoy the challenge.”
Aeron mumbles something about stupid idiots, and becoming pussy whipped, but I don’t care what he says.
I’m also looking forward to the future with Elli by my side.
Tiny surprises me when he speaks.
“Well, I’ve got my eye on a nice little woman in the kitchen.
I’m going to woo her until she can’t say no any longer.”
“Idiot!”
Aeron snaps as he surges ahead and reaches the garage before the rest of us.
That is where we stop in our tracks, seeing the standoff that is happening.
Elli has a damn shiv in her hand.
It is obviously a piece of the mirror she’d broken in her bathroom, with a piece of bed sheet wrapped around the base to stop cutting her own hand.
But she’s threatening my men without a blink of her eye.
Tia is standing at her side looking proud as can be, and I’m thinking maybe this bride thing isn’t as good an idea as I first thought.
“Now, Elli, put down your weapon,”
I calmly say, trying my best to not shock her into doing something hastily.
“No.
We are leaving, and you are not going to stop u…”
Before she can finish what she’s saying, Bruno and one of my men has snuck up behind them and grabs one each.
Elli's struggling, but at least she's not trying to shiv my man.
Once Elli is back in her bedroom, without Tia as she is in her room with Bruno watching over her.
I take a seat and cross my legs, showing that I’m in no hurry to leave.
“Now, this is the last attempt to run on your part.
You dealt with the women perfectly.
You will be a Don’s wife, you know this, so you need to quickly come to terms with it.
Make life easier for yourself and Tia, who I think will make a superb wife to the Underboss.”
Sighing, Elli rubs her hands together before looking me in the eye.
“Okay, but I’m not a doormat, and I won’t ever be a doormat.
I want to have power with the women of the family, and I want children.
If you ever think to take a mistress or cheat, I will cut off your man parts and feed them to you.”
I love her threat, and can imagine she’d try to do it, but I would never stray.
It is not who I am, so I easily reply, “Okay.
Now, we are having the wedding on Saturday, so you need to get things arranged.”
Not waiting for Elli to respond, I stand and step over to her, take her head in my hands and kiss her.
I make use of the fact she gasps and deepen the kiss.
Eventually leaving Elli with a flush on her face and watery eyes.