Except, the makeup stuck this time.
You need waterproof makeup. I can’t stand sloppy women.
His words hung heavily on my mind as I painted on a happy face. I mindlessly walked to my closet and pulled out the first thing I saw: a floral summer dress and a matching pair of heels. I donned a wide-brimmed hat to cover up my lack of time with my hair, and after sliding a pearl necklace around my neck, I made my way toward the kitchen.
Where Lorenzo already had my chair pulled out.
“And here, I thought I’d have to come punish you for being late,” he said with a cheeky grin.
I smiled kindly while swallowing the bile creeping up the back of my throat. “My apologies for keeping you waiting.”
He slid my chair into the table after I sat down. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you a pass since last night was pretty exciting.”
He bent down to kiss my cheek and I had to tuck my hands between my legs to keep from clawing at him. I trembled as he walked around to the head of the table and signaled for his waitstaff to serve me first. I felt his eyes on me as I placed my order. As I sipped my mimosa, I forced myself to engage in his version of ‘pleasant conversation’ while trying not to think about my own death.
“Any fun plans for the day, sweetheart?”
“You know, that dress looks fantastic on you. I’m going to get it in a few different floral prints.”
“And the shoes were a nice touch. I’ve got good taste, if I do say so myself.”
“Are your eggs cooked to your liking? You can send them back if they aren’t. I really do enjoy a woman who pipes up for what she wants.”
A butler came out with a silver tray in his hand, and on top of it was a cell phone. I furrowed my brow softly as I watched Lorenzo pluck it from the lacy pattern of cloth that protected the delicate silver tray before he held it to his face. And when his features darkened, I braced myself.
He cleared his throat before he stood. “My apologies, but duty calls. Feel free to eat whatever you like. After that is up to you.”
My eye twitched. Did he just say what I think he just said?
As I watched him walk away, with my plate of food barely touched, I threw back the rest of my mimosa. I ripped the wide-brimmed hat off my head and took off my heels while being painfully aware of the fact that his men were watching me. I tried to keep my cool as much as possible and I decided to order something else. I feigned as if the food wasn’t good enough, then exchanged it for something to go.
And after slipping out of the kitchen, I started walking around.
I didn’t want to be out of my bedroom too long because then I knew people would get suspicious. But, the more I walked around the house, the more I found that it was monitored by people and not cameras. I found that kind of odd, but I also made sure to keep one eye focused behind me at all times.
This is your time, use it wisely.
I whistled to myself softly as I walked up and down the hallways. This house was an intricate maze, and part of me wasn’t sure if I’d be able to find my bedroom in the first place. So, I decided to use that as an excuse and started opening doors. One by one. Acting as if I were trying to find the place where I had been laying my head for the past few nights.
“Oh, come on,” I murmured.
With every opened door I had a curse, or a frustration to bear. Just in case someone was watching, I wanted them to absolutely believe that I couldn’t find my room. And in the process, I got to see what was behind all of these damn doors.
Then, I opened a door that revealed not a bedroom or a bathroom, but an office.
An office stacked to the brim with boxes.
“What in the world?” I whispered to myself.
I looked in all directions before I slipped silently into the room, closing the door behind me. I held my breath and paused for a little bit, wondering if someone might come walking down the hallway. I kept my eyes trained on the crack beneath the door. I looked out for any sign of a moving shadow that might indicate someone outside.
And when I didn’t see anything, I started opening boxes.
“Now, what do we have in here?” I murmured to myself.
I didn’t have a phone to take pictures with, but damn it, I was pretty good at memorizing information. So, I tried to take mental snapshots of every piece of paper I pulled out of those boxes. Some of the papers were completely blank, like the entire box was a fresh stack of papers for a printer. But, some of the boxes had file folders in them.
Some were color-coated, some were arranged alphabetically, and some were simply scattered.
I couldn’t make sense of most of it. Mostly numbers and jumbled equations and chicken-scratch notes. But, then I came to a box that had impeccable manilla envelopes in them.
A stark contrast to the worn and jumbled papers I’d just born witness to.
“Huh,” I murmured.
I reached in for one of the envelopes and carefully opened it. The last thing I needed was for this room to give away the fact that I had been in it. However, when I slid the chunk of papers out that had been stashed away in the envelope, my eyes widened.
“He’s been researching me?”
I saw the letterhead used by my mother and myself at the firm and I quickly dropped the folder onto the musty, dusty desk the boxes sat on. I pulled out another envelope and looked at the papers and, sure enough, that damn letterhead was there. I pulled out six different envelopes before stopping my crusade and I got curious as to the information and the dirt Lorenzo Lucchese had on me.
But, when my eyes scanned the documents, I noticed my name didn’t appear on any of them.
Not a single one.
“What the fuck?” I hissed.
I did, however, see a lot of handwritten notes in my mother’s handwriting. I did, however, see a great deal of legal documents between Lorenzo and his half-brother, Ronnie, with my mother as the witness. I did, however, find my mother’s name and John Hancock strewn all over these documents.
And when I came to documents regarding a case my mother and I had been working together before I was kidnapped, I felt weak in my knees.
She’s been keeping guilty men out of prison for years.
The papers fell from my hands and they splattered on the floor at my feet. Tears rushed like rivers down my face and neck, dampening my dress and wetting the pearls against my skin. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think straight. And as I bent down, scrambling to pick up the papers so I could rearrange them, I felt like I was going to vomit.
How the hell could my mother work with these kinds of people? And in their favor!?
It brought everything into question now: was that why Mom wasn’t coming after me? Or paying the ransom? Did she arrange my kidnapping to get me away from this case? And why the hell did Lorenzo have these documents? I’d never once heard his name mentioned in the whole of the depositions we had done with our client!
I need to confront her.
After arranging the papers in their former order, I slid everything back into the envelopes. I placed them delicately, one on top of the other, making sure my tears didn’t destroy the impeccable documents. I wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand and dried my tears on the hem of my dress. Then, after sliding all of the boxes back into place with their tops on, I slipped out of the room.
Before going on an actual search for my bedroom so I could lay my head down and forget what I had just seen.
14
Mateo
I slid my diamond cufflinks into the cuffs of my shirt and looked at myself in the mirror. I wanted to dress my best for this meeting with Lorenzo because I wanted him to know exactly who was superior. I was superior in cash flow, style, control, and position in my family’s business. I wanted him to know that, at the end of the day, I could take him down with a pull of the trigger on my rifle.
But, I wasn’t nearly prepared for the surprise he bestowed upon me.
“Where to, Mr. Emiliano?” my driver asked.
I slipped into the backseat. “Lorenzo’s place. I have a meeting with him that will take a couple of hours, so feel free to drive around.”
He peeked at me in the rearview mirror. “Sure I shouldn’t stick around in case you need a getaway?”
I chuckled. “There will be no gunfire today, but I appreciate the concern. And you’ll be paid for your time, so no worries there.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about, if you’ll allow me to speak my mind.”
My gaze held his. “You have permission.”
He turned around to face me. “What makes you so sure this isn’t a trap?”
I smirked. “What makes you so sure that I haven’t already planned for that?”
“I just want you to be safe, Mr. Emiliano. I know I’m not on your security team, but when you’re in this car with me, you’re my responsibility.”
My memory hit me. “By the way, when we get back from this meeting I want to see you in my office.”
He paused. “Have I done something wrong?”
I crossed my leg over my knee. “On the contrary, I want you to sign off on business paperwork. It has to do with your raise.”
His eyes lit up. “I appreciate that, Mr. Emiliano. I’d love to meet with you about it.”
I grinned. “After this meeting. Now, let’s get out of here before we’re late.”
I watched the vineyards pass me by as we took the backroads toward Lorenzo’s place. I didn’t want Ronnie catching any sort of wind that his brother and myself were in bed together, so to speak. Because what I told Lorenzo was true: I wanted to take that bastard down for good.
What he didn’t know was that once Lorenzo’s job for me was complete, I’d kill him, too.
Before eradicating his entire family from this island like the scummy little virus they were.
“Time for a big dose of Clorox,” I whispered.
“What was that, Mr. Emiliano?” my driver asked.
I pointed. “That driveway there. With the yellow blinking light on the fake mailbox.”
My driver took a sharp left and slowly drove us down the gravel driveway. And when three of Lorenzo’s massive men came out to escort me from the car to the back door, I waved my driver off. He honestly didn’t need to worry. This would be a simple in-and-out meeting.
Until I saw Char greet me at the door.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Emiliano,” she said.
My eyes canvassed her and clocked the raunchy outfit that bastard had her in. The fishnet stockings paired with black boots had always been nothing but tacky to me, and the leather shorts she had on clung to her every curve. They slid up her waist and allowed the swell of her ass cheeks to hang out, and I had to fight every single part of me that wanted to toss my suit coat over her exposed body.
But, it wasn’t the shorts or the fishnets, or even the sparkling red bikini top she had on.
It was the fact that she kept her eyes to the floor.
“Char,” I said softly.
She swallowed hard. “May I escort you to your seat, Mr. Emiliano?”
Lorenzo appeared behind her. “Isn’t she a beauty?”
My eyes snapped over to his. “What the hell is she doing here? I was told you and I were meeting in private.”
He nodded. “And whatever you have to say you can say in front of her. After all, she’s already got intimate knowledge of how your life works. This won’t add too much more to her plate, don’t you think?”
The second he placed his hand on her back I made a vow to dislocate every knuckle on it. I saw Char flinch and it boiled my blood, but I tried not to think about the things he’d already done to her. The marks he had left behind and the bruises I’d never see.
I’ll slaughter your family anyway, you sanctimonious son of a bitch.
“Sweetheart, aren’t you going to offer a drink to our guest?” Lorenzo asked.
He slapped her ass and my head almost blew through the fucking roof.
Char cleared her throat. “Are you thirsty, Mr. Emiliano?”
Lorenzo dipped down to her ear. “You have permission to look up at him when asking him a question, sweetie.”
He gripped her hair and yanked her head up, and when I saw the caked-on makeup around her eyes my heart leapt into my throat. I’d never seen her wear so much of it, but when I saw the yellow coloring that trickled down over her cheek and all the way to her jawline, I signed Lorenzo’s death warrant in my head.
I’d make him pay for this.
And I’d make it slow, too.
“I would love a drink, yes. A glass of wine would be nice,” I said.
Lorenzo shoved her back into the house. “You heard him. Go get it.”
I drew in a sobering breath, but I saw his bodyguards reach for their guns. I knew they sensed the tension rising in me. The hatred and the anger that I had for this man was bleeding through, and I had to keep it under control. For all of our sakes. My eyes watched Char as she stumbled back into the darkness of the house before Lorenzo ushered me inside. And after walking through what seemed like a maze of hallways, we finally came to his kitchen table.
Where Char was standing next to my glass of wine.
“Thank you,” I said.
Her eyes fell back to her feet. “If you need anything, all you have to do is ask.”
Lorenzo sat down and patted his thigh. “Come here, sweetheart. Take a load off.”
The meeting was painful, to say the least. I tried to focus on what Lorenzo was talking about so we could discuss plans, but all I saw were his hands rubbing her thighs. His fingertips, dancing up the dip in her waist. I saw Char batting back tears and as her shoulders slumped.
Fucking hell, she didn’t even roll them back anymore.
Your entire empire will burn for what you’ve done to her.
“So, any questions?” Lorenzo asked.
I cleared my throat. “A few, yes. How did you get ahold of your brother’s work schedule?”
He shrugged. “Simple. Our schedules are tapped into one another. He has his own calendar network that he hired someone to create for him, and everyone that’s employed for him in any fashion has to keep their schedule up-to-date on it.”
“This meeting isn’t on it, correct?”
He shrugged. “There’s a meeting on there, yes, but not with who.”
I nodded slowly. “So, you’re under the impression that he doesn’t omit anything from his schedule at all?”
He leaned forward. “On the contrary, I know the code to his schedule. I know how he plans it, how he labels it, why he labels it that way, and what the color-coordination means.”
I saw Char’s ears perk up as she trained her eyes on Lorenzo, and I wondered what was going through her head.
She’s onto something, that beautiful wonderful woman.
I cleared my throat. “Color coordination? Are we in elementary school?”
Lorenzo barked with laughter as his grip around Char’s waist tightened. “It’s simple, really: red means urgent and usually pertains to a last-minute meeting, purple is royalty and usually pertains to a meeting with another family-head he works alongside, green means money and that always means he’s on his rounds to the businesses he owns to cash in, and black means… well, death.”
I blinked. “Right. And those are the only colors he uses?”
He shrugged. “For his schedule, sure. Then, he’s got orange for platonic outings because the man has to decompress at some point in time, no color means it’s a simple reminder for him and there’s usually something in the ‘notes’ section of the schedule, and yellow is for legal issues because the sun always shines on an innocent man.”
I saw Char’s brow tick and I knew that was what she had been looking for. I saw her shoulders roll back and I tried not to smile so myself. So, she was still trying to work against this man even though she was obeying him.
A smart woman, keeping herself alive like that.
“Sweetheart?” she asked.
>
Lorenzo slowly looked up at her. “Yes?”
“Would you care for another drink? I see yours and Mr. Emiliano’s is almost out.”
He grinned. “Good girl. You’ve got a good eye on you.”
Even I saw the anger flash behind her eyes. I knew she hated that nickname more than anything, which was probably why Lorenzo had taken to calling her that. Yet another reason for me to pluck his teeth out one by one.
“Mr. Emiliano? Would you care for a refill?” she asked.
My eyes met hers. “I’d love one, yes.”
She slid off his lap. “Wonderful. I will be back in a jiff.”
Lorenzo smacked her ass and she squealed, but I knew damn good and well it wasn’t a good squeal. She rubbed her butt cheek as she walked out of the room and I had half a mind to fly over the fucking table and strangle him with my own two hands. I could only imagine how pissed off and embarrassed Char felt, dressing that way only to be paraded around like some lowly servant.
Lorenzo continued talking, but I stayed focused on the hallway Char had just walked down. I heard her heels clicking against the fake marble floors as she came back. And when she emerged, I let out a soft sigh of relief. I turned my attention back to him as he rattled on about nonsense I didn’t give a shit about, but I noticed a tremble in Char’s hand as she poured his wine.
Then, she came over to me and refilled my glass.
That is, until her shaky hands spilled it into my lap.
“Oh, my god,” she whispered.
Lorenzo stood to his feet. “What did you just do?”
Char whipped her head up. “I-i-it was an accident. I didn’t mean to.”
I picked up a napkin. “Just a bit of a drizzle on a black suit. It’s nothing.”
But, Lorenzo rushed over to her and wrapped his hand around her neck. “What the fuck did I tell you about being the clumsy little bitch you are.”
Traitor: An Enemies to Lovers Mafia Romance (Sold to The Don Book 3) Page 7