Chapter 29 – Alessandro
S hepherd appeared at the opposite door to the kitchen. Dante stopped talking, looking between the aged butler and me.
“Mr. Baldwin is here, signore,” Shepherd intoned.
The old man looked prim and proper despite the two body bags on the floor and the overwhelming stench of bleach.
Dante let out a low whistle. “Better go see what the shark wants.”
My shoulder blades shifted as I worked the muscles of my upper back. First Joe’s unscheduled appearance, and now the businessman’s? Did none of the men who worked for me have a self-preservation instinct?
“Fix Baldwin his drink and show him into the office,” I ground out.
Thankfully, the clean team was making a trip back to the vans and hadn’t heard the announcement that one of the elite members of society and top dog in the business world was there. Baldwin and I kept a great deal of public distance to our interactions. I ran the darker side of our business, and he was our organization’s biggest front. Our symbiotic relationship was so secretive that even my men didn’t know it existed. And while I trusted my men not to betray us, I didn’t need to give loose tongues fodder.
“Did you know he was coming over?” Dante questioned, rubbing his chin.
“No, Baldwin generally schedules our meetings weeks in advance.”
“How healthy of you two,” Dante chuckled.
I clenched my jaw tight. My number two knew more than most, but he didn’t have any true insight into the careful scenario Baldwin and I took years to concoct, fine-tune, and maintain.
“You got this?” I snapped.
Dante saluted. “Course, boss.”
Needing to find a release—a punching bag would do, but a warm body across the ring would be better—I stalked into the office. If my muscles were still weary from the sudden and intense illness, I ignored them. It might be the punching bag for the time being.
“Tonight’s not a good night,” I snapped, slapping the door closed behind me.
“I heard,” the leather-clad figure at the window with his back to me said. “Don’t you have a rule where your capos need your permission to come here, and your presence is generally a requirement?”
I worked my jaw back and forth. “You know damn well that I do.”
“And yet Joe sniffed an opportunity and came uninvited?” The businessman turned but stayed in the shadows. His arms crossed over his muscled chest.
“An action for which I taught him a valuable lesson.” I crossed my own arms over my chest. “Do I need to teach you the same one?”
“As if.”
“What are you doing here, Leo?”
His black gaze looked me up and down. “Serena messaged the other day.”
Now that was surprising. I went to the tray where my neat whiskey sat next to Leo’s gin martini. I passed the business shark his drink. “I didn’t know she had your number.”
“In case of emergencies.” Leo gave me a pointed look. “She considered your illness an emergency.”
I threw back my drink. “I’m fine.”
“You should have messaged, Sandro,” the businessman said tightly.
His tone made me do a double take. Like me, he didn’t show emotions. Having it hammered out of us was one of the bonding experiences we shared.
“I would have sent you an update, especially if it was serious—which it wasn’t.” I raised my voice at his skeptical look. “But it seems I’ve misplaced my phone.”
A beat passed.
And then Leo threw back his head and laughed.
The explosion of mirth had me staring wide-eyed at the man in front of me. Disbelief rocketed through me. In the thirty-four years I’d known this man, I could count the times he’d laughed on one hand. The most recent was a decade ago, at the late don’s funeral.
“You’re whipped,” Leo wheezed, wiping his eyes.
My fingers curled into fists. Maybe my body wasn’t that tired from the illness to kick his ass. “What do you want, Leo? If this was about Serena’s text, you would have been here several nights ago.”
Gasping for air, Leo waved a hand. “I’ve been keeping touch on your condition with Shepherd. He’s fiercely devoted to your wife. Serena too. And now…this? You stayed in bed and let her play nursemaid? I’m going to have to meet her.”
Leo wasn’t ever breathing the same air as Penelope if I could help it.
He must have read the resolve in my face, because he cracked up again.
“Leonardo,” I snapped. “Tell me why you’re really here.”
“That fed—the one with a chip on his shoulder—infiltrated your ranks,” Leo gasped as the hilarity died. “You have a leak.”
The seat of my rolling chair rose up to meet me as I collapsed into the thing. Oh, dio bono.
Leo perched on one of the leather seats before my desk. “I came over as soon as I found out.”
“How did you hear?” I managed to ask the semi-intelligent question.
“Poker match. Has Mier said anything?”
I shook my head. “He hasn’t—”
I stopped short. Scowling, I stared at the door.
“Because you don’t have your phone, you don’t know,” Leo surmised. “Incredible. She has you by the balls.”
“Fuck off.”
“Make me.”
I should. If I hadn’t spent the last five days in bed….
“Look, with the special agent in town, we need to take care of this mole. And possibly the agent. Do you want me to see if any of my connections can have this pest removed?” Leo threw back his drink.
“No, I told you the other night, we don’t want to owe any politicians favors right now,” I said, shaking my head. “Plus, we don’t know if this special agent would go after them.”
Leo flicked a brow. “True.”
“We find the leak in the organization. We take the mole out in a demonstration that will leave the men questioning ever crossing us.” I leaned forward, mimicking the businessman’s stance. It was an unconscious habit, one that we worked hard to hide. Right now, the unity felt right. Leo was one of the few who could be relied upon without question.
“Work fast, fratello.”
I nodded. “Always do.”
Leo plucked his helmet and moved to the door but paused to look back at me. “You don’t look so good. You sure you’re okay?”
The note of concern in his voice was as foreign as his laughter. “Fine.”
“I would have come if Shepherd said it was dire. I only stayed away because, well—” he shrugged “—it’s the way things are between us.”
The rare display of vulnerability tugged at the dead place in my chest where most people had a working organ. I had the famiglia, and for what it was worth, Serena preferred me. Leo was alone, living as a banished king up in that ivory tower our enterprises had built.
So I threw him a bone. “Should have seen me a few days ago. I was pretty out of it. But my wife wouldn’t take any protest from me. Kept me in bed, rested, shoved heaven only knows what witchcraft down my throat.”
I stopped talking, realizing that I’d been waxing on about the merits of my bride.
A sad smile played at the corner of Leo’s mouth. “Sounds like you enjoy married life.”
“It’s not bad.” And it wasn’t.
The fact that I still hadn’t done more than tease my wife was a tragedy. We hadn’t even taken that shower together, a fact I lamented greatly. But I wanted Penelope to be intimate willingly. I needed that. After everything I’d seen as a kid, I needed that knowledge that she was here and with me of her own free will.
Until then, the ache in my groin was nothing.
“Talk soon, Sandro.”
“Soon. Don’t let anyone see you on the way out.”
Leo lifted his matte black helmet, pushed it over his head, and flipped me the bird. “I know the drill, fratello.”
I grumped, not that he could hear it through the muffled layer of the helmet. When he was gone, I left my office, putting the problem of the leak behind me. A good shower, a small nap, and I would be able to tackle the problem. Just because I would never admit a weakness to anyone else didn’t mean the exhaustion in my bones should be ignored. I’d been sick—actually sick—for the first time in decades. And overdoing it would only give the mole leverage to wiggle.