Chapter Six
Elio
I should have killed the short one when I had the opportunity.
While audacious, she constantly placed her foot in her mouth.
Aggravating.
I looked away from her to take them all in individually. I could tell they had a tight-knit relationship, built on trust and relatable life experiences.
My gaze moved to Devil, and my stomach curled. Was this a feeling of irritation—or anger—or was I simply reacting negatively to the countless cigars I had smoked today?
“Should I proceed?” Casmiro asked, and I nodded once, my gaze shifting to the short one again when I caught movement from her end. Her face was pulled up in a tight frown, her posture rigid as Casmiro stood up to retrieve whatever case file he had put together about their first task.
I tuned him out, choosing some time alone in my own head to study these people, starting with the one who claimed to speak for this …
band of thieves: Zahra Faizan, a twenty-six-year-old woman whose mouth spoke before her brain filtered the words, a woman whose eyes remained impossible to read.
Her looks were deceiving, with a diamond-shaped face, and curly dark brown hair cut below her jaw; careless and uncared for, she looked too innocent for the character she portrayed.
It disturbed me. Her appearance. Her face, her hair—if my mother were here, she would have whipped out a brush and styled the hell out of it—though the color suited the warm undertones of her light brown skin and sharp brown eyes.
That pointed nose and those full lips—her gaze caught mine, and her frown deepened, her upper lip turning up in an irritated snare as she raised a brow as if to ask why I was staring.
Quite fascinating.
The fear I saw the other day was gone. It made me question if that emotion had been fear or defeat. Over the years in this business, I’d learned that there was an extensive line between those two feelings.
“Marino?” I caught myself, blinking before looking away from Zahra to Angelo, who wore a cautious look on his face while Casmiro stared with slight concern.
“What?” I asked them, discarding the cigar.
“Oh.” Angelo cleared his throat. “You were supposed to update me on Dion Juan Pablo’s next visit to Lazzo Blu, but I never heard—”
“In three weeks. It should give the girl’s shoulder time to heal so it won’t raise suspicions.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw her raise her hand like she wanted to ask a question, and this was a classroom. “The name’s Zahra, in case you’ve forgotten. I know old age can be a bitch.”
I paused.
Annoyance and irritation had me clenching my jaw.
I looked back at her. “Don’t force me to make the unpleasant thoughts running through my head a reality.”
She dropped her hand. “Maybe when you start addressing me by my name, you won’t have to harbor unpleasant thoughts, or kill me, which would eventually result in you killing us all, and then who would help you with whatever you need to get from Dion Juan Pablo, who, mind you, isn’t going to be at Lazzo Blu, but at Eden, because he probably knows people like you would want to pay him a little visit, hence why everyone who isn’t us would think he would be at Lazzo Blu. ”
“Hold on; you know Dion Juan Pablo?” Casmiro asked.
“Uh…” the Upper one said. “He’s kind of like a public figure?
You lot know what the gram is, right? He posts everything about his life there.
We also happen to know through the gram that he is gunning for control over state affairs in Turin, and of course, we know it’s for the Pablos, and they’ll most likely handle private affairs; the people don’t know that though, hence why there’s massive support from them because he markets himself as a people person. ”
“Dion is also a very cunning and foolish man, getting high on his drug supply,” Devil added, “while boning for the power at the high seats, just like Marino is. And we know how difficult it is to breach his walls.”
“For your people, not for us,” Zahra completed.
Then there was silence, save for the ticking of the grandfather clock behind me, as we all watched each other until—
“And we killed his dog.”
“Oh my fucking God, Milk,” Dog said.
“You just had to contribute,” Zahra said.
“Why would you say that?” Upper said.
“Fucking hell, Milk,” Devil said.
They all spoke in sync.
“What!” Milk whined in defense. “I thought we were all saying stuff we knew about Dion.”
Zahra groaned. “Not that kinda stuff.”
“You killed his dog?” Angelo asked with confused amusement.
“It was an honest mistake. I sincerely thought it was dog food, and the big guy was giving me the I am hungry eyes. Please feed me, kind lady; what the hell was I to do, leave it to starve?”
“Yes,” they all chorused at the same time.
“That would have been cruel.”
“And accidentally killing it wasn’t?” Upper voiced.
“At least I tried to feed it; what did you do, Upper?”
Upper gasped. “He sniffed the bloody cocaine. How was I supposed to know dogs love sniffing things.”
“You can ask the one beside you.” Devil pointed to Dog, who allowed a small unfeeling smile onto his lips before raising his middle finger at Devil, who answered with an appreciative nod.
Milk scoffed. “Maybe the thingy in the can wasn’t what killed it; the cocaine probably did, so technically, Upper and I murdered Dion’s dog. Don’t blame me because I’m the only girl in the group.”
Zahra blinked in shock, shooting Milk a look of disbelief before Milk corrected herself by saying, “Yeah, and Zahra too.”
Devil bit back a laugh, which earned him a glare from Zahra.
“Okay, so what I’m getting from this is that you all have seen Dion and have some kind of personal relationship with him?” Casmiro asked.
“No, man.” Dog answered this time. “We have seen Dion, yes … but he’s never seen us. No one ever sees us.”
I shook my head at this group. “But, somehow, you managed to enter his home and harm his dog,” I stated, very confused.
“We were pursuing a lead for a mission. But we did also go there for free food and the amazing bathtub he announced on his socials; we stayed for just two hours … wasn’t anything personal,” Dog answered.
“They’re serious; they actually killed the dog. Dion held a funeral for it,” Angelo said, his eyes glued to whatever article he read on his phone.
I took in a breath and then let it out. “I’m afraid your first mission for me would require some of you letting Dion see you. Are you certain Dion will be at Eden?”
“We are,” Devil answered.
I nodded, thoughts filtering through my head before finally letting out the less obnoxious one. “Then that’s where he’s stationing for his stay. Dion is probably the only man with power who surrounds himself with incompetent soldiers because he is ignorant.”
“That I can agree on,” Dog said.
Angelo sat up. “Our people would need direct intel on him and the entire Pablo syndicate. We want to see and hear everything, from their business meetings to past and present associations and collaborations, legal and illegal; everything. We need a chain, and we need them not to notice until we are done with them. This means an invisible non-existing server they would never be able to trace back to Marino. Can your team arrange that?”
“It’s possible,” Upper said, looking at Dog. “Right?”
Dog’s gaze settled on Zahra, and I looked back in her direction to find her deep in thought before she looked up. “It is possible. But our method is to not be seen. I’m finding it hard to understand what you meant by Dion seeing some of us?”
My tongue poked the inside of my cheek as I thought about her question. “Dion’s only going to see what we want him to. I would assume your team is well-versed in creating narratives.”
“We are,” Milk said.
“So”—Devil leaned forward, eyes locking with mine—“you want to get into Pablo’s affairs. That can be arranged. We’ll relay the plan to Angelo once we have it. But the sooner we can get started, the better. Permission to leave?”
“Permission granted,” I said, and he began to stand before I added, “for everyone but you.”
He winced, closing his eyes and letting out a silent curse before sitting back down and turning to a confused Zahra and an even more confused crew. “It’s okay, guys. I’ll catch up.”
Zahra glanced at me, the frown still on her face.
“Z, I’ll explain later—leave; I promise I’ll come back alive.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” I said, eyeing the two of them.
Zahra’s scowl deepened as she got up, signaling to the others to do the same.
I watched them all file out before looking over at Casmiro and Angelo and raising a brow.
Casmiro frowned. “Us too?”
“Yes, Casmiro.”
His eyes shifted between Devil and me before he asked, “Is everything good?”
“Everything is perfect,” I answered.
“Okay,” Casmiro said, nodding to Angelo as they both walked to the door before Casmiro turned back to me. “Hey, if he tries—”
“If he tries to stab me in the neck, I’ll cry for help; now leave.” My knee was bouncing rapidly underneath the table.
Rolling his eyes, he and Angelo walked out. I allowed a minute of silence, closed my eyes, and let out a long, controlled breath before speaking.
“What the fuck have you gotten yourself into, Elia?”