Chapter 2
Chapter Two
ENZO
My phone buzzes.
As I ride the elevator up to Louie's floor at Barwon Industries, I push my sunglasses to the top of my head, trying to hide my grin.
I know who it is.
But this is not the time for her. I can't afford to be distracted.
Except, I'm alone.
Fuck it.
I pull out the phone and look at the picture the hot 'wrong number' sent me.
They are pretty. Little red roses all over them and cotton as cotton can be.
But she doesn't realize that when she put them in the bottom drawer, she left them in a certain position.
"Oh, Lola..." I smirk, tongue swiping my bottom lip.
The gusset is on display, darkened by a wet patch. And I'm glad when the elevator stops at a floor to let two gossiping workers on.
It stops me from getting hard. It makes me close the photo.
I write back, Nice. But since they're cotton...I want you to photocopy them. Send me a pic of them on the copier and the copy.
I grin and put my phone away, needing to get in the right frame of mind.
The elevator stops, and the girls get off.
I continue to the top floor.
When the doors open, I sail past the receptionist, who rises out of his seat. I go into the CEO's office and close the doors.
"Sir—"
Louie waves a hand as the guy opens the door. "I'm busy for the afternoon, Luke."
I lean back in the chair and set my iPad down, the black leather case shut. "What's so important I had to cancel my plans for the day?"
Louie's hair is thinner and fluffier than usual, like he has been on top of a building on a windy day...or he has been worried it with his fingers for hours straight. And there are dark circles beneath his eyes.
He also needs a shave.
I run a hand down my tie.
Usually, he is like me when he is doing business—in a three-piece suit.
Today, his vest and jacket are off, and his tie is loose.
I'm no stranger to mess or casual wear. The majority of my work is done in jeans and hoodies. But Louie is the CEO here, and he is going for rich and successful to woo older money and investors.
This disheveled aura? Not a good look.
Regardless, I have better things to do than spend my time here, looking at him and waiting for him to just get on with whatever this is. I need to get back to poking at Lola, who is so much fucking fun to poke. Not literally, but she is sassy and up for a challenge.
I like it more than I thought I would.
He reaches for the bottle of water on his desk and pours some into his glass. Then he opens a drawer and pulls out some rum, splashing it in.
Louie holds the bottle up to me, but I shake my head.
It's ten fucking twenty in the a.m.
Louie guzzles some of his drink. "I'm in some serious trouble, Enzo."
"What kind?"
"Life and death kind."
I wait.
He takes a deeper swallow and leans forward. "You're the only one I could think to call."
"Get to the point. And don't ask me to get Uncle Gino involved. You don't want that."
Louie shuts his mouth.
I look him in the eye. "You're in trouble now? It will be worse if you owe him."
Advice given. Warning made. His decision.
Uncle Gino is not someone you can play with. The only person I know who can handle the old man is Violet, my best friend's wife. Violet seems to make Gino all soft.
But as far as I know, Louie doesn't have a Violet in his back pocket like Cade does.
"I didn't ask."
I smile and motion for him to continue.
"You know how things are, right?" He refills his glass, this time more rum, less water. "Anyway, one thing led to another and I, uh, found myself in some shady shit."
"Dude."
"I, uh, might have inadvertently double-crossed Edoardo Costa."
Should I laugh or cry? I don't even know.
"How the fuck does someone, in this case, you...mess with one of the most notorious mafia figures on the East Coast, in Cuba, and Puerto Rico without realizing it?"
A dark expression crosses Louie's face. "You don't need to make me sound like an idiot. I know I screwed up. I feel like a fucking noose is hanging around my neck already. If that is how you will be, just take your fancy ass and get the fuck out of my office."
"Okay." I get up, leaving my iPad on his desk.
Panic flutters over his features, but he puts his pout on firmly. "That's right, go back to getting your precious pedicures and manicures at thousand-dollar salons."
I raise a brow. "Not sure those exist. Do they? I guess you would know."
Louie sniffs. "Hot pink glitter nails for you this time?"
I waggle a hand at him. "I like pastel pink, more subtle, and no one does glitter anymore, baby cakes. We do motifs. Glitter butterflies? Better yet, crystal."
He doesn't answer. Just downs his rum.
I turn and go behind Louie to the small collection of top-shelf drops he saves for his best meetings and clients, and I grab a bottle of Japanese Hibiki whiskey. Then I nab two glasses and sit again, sloshing healthy shots into each glass.
I push one at Louie, and after he just picks it up and drinks it too, I fill mine to the halfway mark.
Not even a note of green about his skin shade.
Fuck.
It must be bad if he is not reacting to me pilfering this five K bottle and drinking it like it cost five bucks.
I down some from my glass. "Okay. Start from the beginning. The facts, okay? Just the fucking facts."
Louie takes a breath, and words then spill from him like a mini dam bursting, and I sit here and listen.
"The company was sinking. Not my faul—"
"The facts, Louie. I don't give a fuck about fault or excuses. Facts."
He nods. "It was sinking, so I started looking for ways to supplement the revenue. I somehow got sucked into doing jobs for Dominic Rebecci."
Another fucking mafia figure. Shit, Gino would come in his pants hearing this. He could fuck over a whole lot of people and have them owe him.
"Rebecci? As in the mafia family Rebecci?" I need to be sure.
"Yes." Louie's eyes narrow into slits. "I had no idea the jobs were to fuck over Edoardo until it was too late."
"Fuck, dude."
He slams his fist on the desk. "I should have fucking known something was up when all Dom wanted in return was details on a few of the employees here."
That stops me. "Which employees?"
Louie frowns and huffs. "I don't fucking know. Everyone we have hired in the last six months."
Cold pricks my skin everywhere.
Fuck. I'm pretty sure I know exactly who Dom is looking for.
The same person I have been working to protect.
My wrong number girl.
Lola.
Lourdes Carino Mancini. Or Lola Winters, as she is going by since the manager at Data Stables gently pushed her into using Lola, not Lourdes as the papers did, as her father did, and those who knew her socially in her previous life did.
Lola was the nickname she had from when she was a kid, and it wasn't really used in public. Not that she had a public persona.
But her dad's associates, friends and foes know her as Lourdes.
I'm betting if I went up and introduced myself to her, she would never remember me in a million years.
Why would she? She was only a little kid when we met.
But I remember her.
Perfectly well. She is now a little kid, all grown up. And she is still someone to keep safe.
Not even a friend, just a girl to protect.
She is my text girl, full of sweet sass and humor. Someone designed to be a friend only, a trusted text in the dark.
I don't think I could go and say, "Hey, I'm your wrong number guy, pleased to meet you."
She has been through hell.
And it might make her stop texting.
I can't have that happen.
She thinks the texts were a mistake. An innocent mistake.
But they're not. They have been calculated. Deliberate. All designed to make sure that I become the trusted unknown guide she can turn to.
And when this all started, my texts were meant to be innocent. Friendly. Soft-core flirting at its most G-rated. And I stuck to that... for as long as I could.
But plans don't always pan out like you imagine them.
Even if I do have an ulterior motive.
A good and mostly virtuous one.
I figured, what better way to protect and watch her than by talking to her?
And texts are easy. They feel safe.
Honestly, I was meant to stay friend-zoned only.
But things spiraled.
Through my mistaken text to the G-rated texting, I learned Lola is not just pretty. She is intriguing, innocent, with the mind of a madame waiting to break free. Smart too, with a wit that makes me smile and keeps me wanting more.
I should have known. Watching her from a distance, without dipping a toe in to see what she was like as an adult, wasn't going to do it for me.
The sad truth is, I have been obsessed with her since I was twelve, when the little girl with curious eyes and a loneliness that haunted me drifted into my consciousness.
This was before our fathers had a massive falling out.
It wasn't creepy. Back then, I just wanted to protect the kid because her mom had died. I wasn't anything more than an older friend in my mind.
Our fathers stopped talking when I was...what? Fifteen? Sixteen? And by then, the kid followed me around everywhere.
But Dad is sharp-eyed.
I protected them both and watched over Lola when no one else would.
I told my father I didn't think about her after the fallout.
Lola who? And Lourdes? Did you mean the religious Lourdes, Dad?
I think I said that to him at seventeen.
I don't know if he bought it then or would now. We don't talk about that family these days.
But yeah, I still felt like her protector during my later teen years, and then... I don't know. I just kept on doing things to protect her.
And when I heard her dad offed himself a year ago, I... I felt bad. Bad that the kid was alone. Bad that she lost everything. Or so it might seem for her.
I know that her fortune might be tied up, but she will get it back one day.
And I was too aware she was a target.
So, full-on protection mode activated again, that old obsession back in a grown-up way.
Lola doesn't know she is in danger, and I have been quietly erasing her online footprint, with help from Cade when I need it.
And this is all her fucking father's fault. The coward panicked and took his own life because it was torture by the mafia or torture in a lifetime's worth of prison and losing his kid anyway.
But that didn't erase the shit he put her in.
I bring the fucker to life just to kill him myself. Slowly.
It is hard making someone disappear when they don't even know they have to disappear.
I didn't have a hard time getting that manager at Data Stables to put the idea in her head to change her name to get a job and to guide her to apply at Barwon.
I guided her here, and Lola's skills did the rest.
But however much I have accomplished in keeping her hidden, the one thing I haven't been able to do is uncover the identity of whoever is hunting for her.
Fucking fake names and covered tracks—those are old-school offline things.
It might be Rebecci, but getting Louie to hand over the names of new hires is so ham-fisted it sounds like Dom was doing a job that had to do with Edoardo.
And what does fucking Edoardo have to do with anything concerning Lola?
I don't fucking know.
It might not have anything to do with him.
I should just leave it be and help Louie.
But I have already gone to a lot of trouble to protect Lola, and I can't just take this at face value.
An idea comes to me where I can kill both issues with one well-aimed stone. Though maybe I shouldn't use the word kill... not where Lola is concerned, anyway.
"Tell you what, Louie. I will protect you."
"You?"
"I have got clout."
And he knows it, too. After all, why call me in? He would have asked straight out about Uncle Gino if that is what he wanted.
I'm guessing he was thinking Gino was a back-pocket final gasp ask.
I lean forward. "But your company is mine."
He frowns. "No—"
"Do I look like a man who wants to run this fucking company?" I have no wish to be a fucking CEO for life. There are better ways for a man like me to make money.
If Louie wants my help, he can damn well take me at my word.
There is silence.
"You will get it back. I'm not interested in your startup. If you can make it through this mistake, I will just take some shares, and you can then concentrate on making your billions." I down my drink, stand, and hold out my hand.
Time to get out of here so I can check in on Lola.
Louie slowly stands, too. "But..."
"There is one way to do this, and I need you out and me in. Your name is mud in certain circles, so I will clean that mud."
His shoulders deflate as he puts his hand in mine.
And we shake.
I nod. "You will sign over the entire company to me. Effective immediately."