Chapter 5
Chapter Five
OLIVIA
T he next morning came far too quickly.
The second I got back to my hotel room, I’d flopped down on the center of the bed, fully clothed. I didn’t even bother to kick off my shoes. I just grabbed one of the pillows and curled up in a ball, utterly unsure what to do next.
It wasn’t as if I was well-versed in the current post-one-night stand shame protocol. Was I supposed to cry my eyes out for an hour? Rush into the shower and scrub under hot water until my skin turned red? Order a couple of hot fudge sundaes from room service and gorge myself until I passed out?
I had no idea.
But I shouldn’t have worried. As it turned out, I didn’t last more than fifteen minutes coiled up like a pillbug before exhaustion solved the problem, and I passed out.
Fortunately, my responsible side had set the morning alarm on my phone before I’d even landed in New York. Still, when it went off at six thirty, I was tempted to toss it out the window.
But no.
The last thing I needed was to keep acting like an unreliable ass. My brother Theo already had that job covered.
So, even though I really didn’t want to, I peeled myself off the bed and trudged off to the shower.
For a minute, I thought about throwing the dress I’d worn last night straight in the trash. After everything, I wasn’t sure that I’d ever be able to put it on again. Not if I didn’t want the memories to come rushing back.
Memories of Gabriel’s touch. Of his kiss. Of his…
I jumped into the steaming shower, hoping the sting of hot water would wash the rest of those thoughts right down the drain.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work.
When I dried off a few minutes later, my body was clean, but my mind was every bit as filthy as when I’d started. I should have known better than to hope that I’d be able to scour Gabriel away so easily. Thoughts of him stayed with me as I dressed and ate breakfast, making it almost impossible for me to concentrate on preparing for the meeting in just a few hours.
After all, I may have an affinity for numbers, but there wasn’t a financial spreadsheet in the world that could compete with memories of the most erotic night of my life.
But this wasn’t just any meeting, I reminded myself.
Much to my relief, though, Gabriel hadn’t completely screwed the old me into oblivion. When I walked into the address Theo had sent me—an unremarkable office building near the East River—at nine o’clock sharp, I was back to feeling like the professional I usually was.
Maybe even a little bit better than usual.
After all, it wasn’t as if last night had been all bad. I had shocked myself with my display of confidence, and I wondered if I might be able to tap into a little bit of that self-assuredness again.
God knew I would need it, going into this meeting blind, not knowing who would be on the other side of the elevator doors when they opened. After realizing the stunt Theo had pulled, I was half afraid I’d be walking straight into a subpoena or a line of cops.
The directory in the lobby said the office for Angel Enterprises was on the ninth floor, so I took the elevator up. Flickering fluorescent lights buzzed overhead as I walked down the worn beige hallway, but I paid them no attention.
I was too busy giving myself a pep talk, telling myself that no matter how miserable the meeting turned out, it would all be over soon. After all, my flight home was scheduled for just past five in the afternoon, and there wasn’t a force on Earth that could keep me from getting on that plane.
I found the suite number I was looking for at the end of the hall. Pushing open the door, I instantly realized that “office” was a generous term for the dusty, barren room I entered.
Beside a trio of men in extraordinarily fine suits and the long black table behind them, the place was completely empty. There was no receptionist desk. No cubicles or computers or filing cabinets. Nothing.
Hell, the floor wasn’t even carpeted.
Whatever kind of business Angel Enterprises was, it wasn’t above using a few dirty intimidation tactics to gain the advantage in negotiations.
Don’t worry about the environment , I told myself. It’s the deal that’s important, and they wouldn’t have asked you here if they weren’t looking to cut one.
Besides, after everything that happened last night, I really wasn’t in the mood to be manipulated.
“Good morning, gentlemen,” I said, pulling my shoulders back and greeting them with my most professional smile. I was determined not to treat this any differently than any corporate quarterly earnings or profit estimate meeting that I was used to. “If I had known we’d be meeting in one of your lower-level offices, I would have brought bagels and coffee.”
The three men turned around to face me, their expressions somewhat confused.
“You sure you’re in the right place, miss?” one said, his accent straight out of a Coppola film.
Pretty sure.
“This is Angel Enterprises?” I asked. The men nodded. “Then I’m where I’m supposed to be. My name is Olivia Collins.”
I held out my hand, and the man who was apparently acting as their spokesperson hesitated a second before taking it. He introduced himself—Anthony Silvestri—in a stern tone and with a firm handshake. The rest of the men stayed quiet.
Another intimidation tactic? Probably. But I was more determined than ever not to let my nerves show. I walked over to the table—the only piece of furniture in the room—and set my bag down on top.
“Collins?” Silvestri arched a brow at my last name. “You’re related to Theo Collins.”
“I’m his sister,” I said, pulling my laptop, paper files, and notepad out of my bag and arranging them neatly in the spot I’d claimed at the table.
The men looked at each other.
“And when will Theo be joining us this morning?” he asked.
“I’m afraid he won’t be,” I said, pulling off my jacket and hanging it on the back of the chair. Even though it was only mid-morning, the room clearly didn’t have proper ventilation and was already overly warm and stuffy. “I’m here today acting as a representative for both my family and Collins Liquor Distribution Limited.”
Some of that confidence I’d been feeling a moment before started to slip away as the men shared another look. Clearly, that answer wasn’t the answer they’d been hoping to hear.
“I’m afraid there’s been some misunderstanding,” Silvestri said. “Mr. D’Angelo isn’t interested in meeting with the Collins family as a whole or with an agent for the company. He’s made it clear he’ll only speak to your brother directly.”
Mr. D’Angelo? Why did that name sound so familiar? Whatever it was, a cold prickle of concern ran up the back of my neck.
“Well, I’m afraid that Theo had too many commitments on his calendar to make it here today,” I said, lying out my ass. For all I knew, he was spending the day speedboating on Lake Michigan. “So when Mr. D’Angelo gets here, you can let him know that if he wants to discuss this current financial situation, I am the best he’s going to get.”
I did my best to sound firm even though I was starting to get shaky. The longer I spent in this room with these men, the more convinced I became that something wasn’t right.
And the feeling only grew stronger as all three men stared at me with open shock for a moment. One even had his mouth fall open.
“You’re sure that’s what you want me to tell him?” Silvestri asked.
Well…not anymore. But it was too late to take it back now. The only thing I could do was double down and nod.
Then, the moment the men turned their backs to me, huddling up to whisper about this new development, I quickly pulled out my phone and looked up the name D’Angelo on the internet.
The first page was nothing but recent news articles about the mob family. The New York mob family.
No. It couldn’t be.
My brother might be a Grade A dipshit, but not even he was stupid enough to take out a loan from the mob.
Was he?
True fear began to bubble up in my veins as I scanned the headlines.
Apparently, the previous boss of the family had been killed by his nephew a little over a month ago in a violent takeover of the criminal enterprise. By the sheer volume of articles I scrolled through, it had been a massive story here in New York. No doubt I’d heard rumblings back in Milwaukee but hadn’t paid much attention. Crime news had never interested me.
Like I’d told Gabriel last night, I liked my world boring.
But the tickle of trepidation creeping up my spine warned me it might not stay that way long.
I raised my head to look at the men conversing in the corner. When I’d stepped inside this “office,” I’d assumed they were lawyers or maybe accountants like me. But now I took a closer look.
Sure, their suits were finely tailored, Italian probably, but all that meant was they had access to money. If they were accountants and lawyers, they were the brawniest white-collar professionals I’d ever seen. I’d never met any corporate types with necks that thick and hands that meaty.
And were those bruises on one of their knuckles?
Oh, God .
“Excuse me, gentlemen,” I said, shooting up from my seat at the table. “Is there a place where I might make a private phone call?”
I tried my hardest to keep the fear out of my voice, but there was no way I could swallow down all of it. The men were silent for a moment, their eyes looking far more cold and calculating now that I thought about it. After giving me a second to sweat, the lead man nodded to his associates.
“Yeah, we can step outside and give you a moment alone,” he said. “But we’ll be just outside the door.”
So don’t try anything stupid .
The unspoken threat hung in the air between us.
Shit. How the hell had I missed the lethal sharpness in his voice? Had it been there the whole time?
Somehow, I managed to keep a tight smile plastered across my face until the second they closed the door behind them. I gripped my phone tight, spun around, and dialed my brother.
Just like before, it went straight to voicemail.
“Theo, you bastard,” I hissed violently into the mic. “You need to call me back right now and tell me that you didn’t do what I think you did. I mean, you’ve done some stupid stuff in your life, but this…this is next-level shit.”
So reckless that if it turned out to be true, the mob wouldn’t have to break his knee caps. I’d do it to him myself.
“Tell me this Mr. D’Angelo you flew me out here to meet with isn’t the one I’m reading about online. Tell me he’s not the Mr. D’Angelo, Theo!”
Just the thought was enough to make me unsteady. My heart started to pound, and my breathing increased.
“I don’t care about the money or the business anymore. I don’t even care if we all have to spend the rest of our lives in jail for fraud. Please just tell me you didn’t put our whole family’s life in danger by borrowing money from the goddamn mob.”
“Sorry, Liv,” a deep, familiar voice behind me echoed through the empty room.
Apparently, somewhere along the line I’d stopped whispering into the phone and my shouting had drowned out the sound of the door. I jumped at the surprise as I spun back around.
My jaw fell open. The phone, still mid-call, fell from my hand and clattered against the floor. I could barely breathe from the shock.
Standing in the doorway, filling up all the space, was Gabriel—the man who had shattered my world last night. The one who had taken me by the hand and led me to depths of both pleasure and shame I didn’t know were possible. The one I’d run like hell from when I couldn’t face what I’d done.
He stepped closer, stopping at the opposite edge of the table, his three thugs standing guard behind him, and said, “But that’s exactly what your brother has done.”