by Leah Wilde
“Why the hell would I do that?” Fiona snapped, beyond denying the sex with Vince at this point. There was no point. Guido knew the truth anyway, even if he had no idea about the exact nature of their relationship.
“Because pretty soon I’m going to be the boss, babe,” Guido said, his eyes twinkling with something between mischief and satisfaction, like he’d already won their argument and gotten her to agree to fuck him. “And you want to keep your job, don’t you?”
“Wh—what?” Fiona whispered, unable to raise her voice any higher under the weight of the fear that suddenly crashed down over her head.
“You heard me,” Guido said, but then he went on to repeat himself anyway. He probably liked the sound of his own voice, Fiona figured. “You sleep with me, soon, or you won’t have a job anymore. And you can’t afford to lose this position, right? What are you going to do instead? Be a bookkeeper at a coffee shop somewhere? Or actually serve the coffee? How’s that going to keep your dad alive?”
“How do you know about my dad?” Fiona asked indignantly. She’d never talked about her personal problems at work before, except a little bit with Paulie here and there before he died. But he never would have talked to his son about it. He just wasn’t that kind of man.
Guido shrugged, apparently unwilling to give her a satisfactory answer. “I have my ways. You shouldn’t worry about that. Instead, I suggest you focus on the problem standing in front of you. Now, I don’t want to fuck you right now. I’m not really into sloppy seconds, if you know what I mean. But you better get ready to fuck me soon, and it better be good. Otherwise…” He trailed off, shrugging again and smiling meanly at her, his eyes reflecting the moonlight shining down from above in the ugliest way imaginable, as if there was some nuclear bomb inside of him, just ready to go off and consume everything that Fiona was.
Fiona stared as meanly and coldly as she could back at Guido, wanting him to be perfectly aware of how much she hated him. She’d always disliked him, always found him rather disgusting just based off the way he harassed all of the women in the office. But now it was beyond that. He’d never made threats like this before, or she would have found herself looking for another job a long time ago. It must be because of Paulie, Fiona realized. He never would have done this if Paulie were still alive because he would know that he wouldn’t be able to get away with it. But now that his father is gone…. there’s nothing stopping him.
Except for Vince, of course, she realized belatedly. Maybe Vince would protect her, despite the fact that they’d only known each other for a couple of days. They’d really connected, bonding in a way that Fiona had never expected. He could keep her safe, defend her from his brother. “So, what do you think your brother is going to say about this when I tell him that you’ve been threatening me?” Fiona said, narrowing her eyes at Guido, who looked unbothered. “Do you really think you can just get away with saying this kind of shit to me? Vince is the boss now. Not you.”
“Not for long,” Guido muttered under his breath.
“What? What does that mean?” Fiona asked, feeling her pulse start to pound in her throat, fear collecting at the bottom of her stomach.
“Nothing,” Guido said dismissively, waving his hand as if she was imagining things. “Nothing at all. But to answer your question, nothing’s going to happen to me. Because you’re not going to tell my brother a thing.”
“What? Yes, I am. I’m going to do it right now,” Fiona said, turning on her heel and beginning to march up the hill, back in the direction of the apartment building, where Vince was probably getting ready for bed.
But before she could scale the hill, Guido’s hand clamped down on her shoulder, keeping her in place in much the same way as his brother did earlier. Chills reverberated inside of Fiona’s bones, freezing her in place even as she felt Guido’s hot, sickly breath hit the back of her exposed neck. “You’re not going to tell him shit,” Guido whispered into her ear. “Because if you do, something might just happen…”
“You’re not going to kill me,” Fiona said, even though she didn’t feel nearly as confident as she sounded. Who knew what Guido was really capable of, seeing as how he was essentially conning her into fucking him?
“No,” Guido agreed. “I’m not. But something else might happen, something that would be worse than death for you.”
“What--?” Fiona asked, feeling utterly confused.
“Let’s just say, I’d hate for something bad to happen to your father,” Guido said casually before stepping back and removing his hand from her shoulder. “That’d be a real shame. I know what that feels like now, losing a father. It’d be terrible for you to experience that.”
Fiona slowly turned back around to face the little shithead that was threatening her, swallowing the bile that cropped up in her mouth as a result of Guido’s words. “You’re not serious,” Fiona said, forcing as much confidence into her voice as she could possibly muster. She couldn’t show him how afraid she really was, how much she’d shaken her. In reality, her fingers were still shaking around the handle of the knife in her coat while her other hand balled up into a fist, preparing to strike the little man in front of her at the first sign of trouble. “You’re just fucking around with me,” she said.
But Guido just shrugged again, raising his eyebrows skeptically at her. “Who knows? I’m a fucking mystery. Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. But you can’t be sure, can you?”
“I can tell someone that you said this to me,” Fiona said, recalling the fear and cold certainty she’d felt earlier in the day when she was going over business information with Vince. “I could go to the fucking cops. You don’t even know all that I know.”
But Guido didn’t look intimidated, not even in the slightest. “Go right ahead, Fiona. You just do that, and then you see what happens.”
“You can’t hurt my father if you’re in jail!” Fiona argued, her voice getting higher than she’d intended, starting to feel panic sweep over all of her internal organs, making every muscle in her body clench up.
“I can’t, no,” Guido said, nodding at her encouragingly like she’d just made a really good point. But he was mocking her, because then he smiled sharply and added, “But the men I have watching over him might.”
“You’re bluffing,” Fiona said, shaking her head and turning on her heel again to head back up the hill. This time, Guido didn’t follow her or try to stop her.
“You just keep telling yourself that, Fiona. I’ve been pretty bored lately anyway. Maybe I’ll head over to your dad’s place myself, pay him a little visit. I’m sure he’d like to hear all that you’ve been doing with your employers.”
“Fuck you!” Fiona shouted over her shoulder, continuing to struggle up the hill in her heels.
“You will. And soon,” Guido said, right before the sound of his footsteps informed Fiona that he’d walked away from her, in the opposite direction, towards the main road. He probably had a car waiting for him to take him back to the Romano compound.
Fiona kept walking until she was sure that Guido was gone for good, taking her knife from her pocket and bracing it between her fingers, ready if anyone jumped out at her from the shadows again. “Goddammit,” she muttered as she stared up at the lights of the penthouse apartment above. “God fucking dammit!”
What should I do? Fiona wondered silently, the cold handle of the knife contributing to the trembling of her fingers. Should I tell Vince? Could he really protect me? And what did Guido mean when he said he was taking over, that he would be the boss soon? Are there people in the Romano organization willing to defect over to Guido and overthrow Vince’s control?
She couldn’t be sure. Even though she’d worked at the Romano compound for over a year now, she didn’t really have any relationships with anybody there except for Paulie, who was gone now. Maybe Guido was just pretending, acting like he had a lot of sway in the organization, lots of men under his control, when really, he was just pissed that his father had passed him over in favor
of Vince. But on the other hand…Mama Romano was definitely a lot closer to Guido than she was to Vince. As far as Fiona could tell, her older son hadn’t talked to her at all in the entire time that Fiona was working for the family. That didn’t bode well, as Mrs. Romano was the longest-running authority figure in the entire organization at this rate.
Fuck, Fiona thought, turning back around and heading downhill, stopping before she got to the road, hiding in the shadow of a large tree in case Guido was still watching her. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Even if she did tell Vince, she had no reason to trust that Vince would believe her word over his brother’s. Despite the fact that the two men clearly competed with each other for their whole lives, they were still family. That had to take precedence over a fuck buddy, no matter how deeply they’d connected with their bodies. If Fiona were in Vince’s position, he’d probably fire her right on the spot, just for the crime of accusing Guido of such a terrible thing. Fiona couldn’t even blame Vince for it. After all, they’d only fucked once, and they’d only met a few days prior. Vince had no reason to take her word over his brother’s, even if she didn’t have any reason to lie.
Slowly, terribly, a sick sensation of certainty sunk down over Fiona’s head, removing any and all doubt, any and all hope from her system. She couldn’t tell Vince. That much was obvious to her now. The risks were too high, and there was no reason for Fiona to believe that Vince would or even could protect her, if Guido’s brags about the men under his control were anything to believe.
Fiona began walking away from the protective shadows of the trees around her, heading further downhill toward the road where a town car was indeed waiting for her, a servant opening the door to the backseat as soon as he spotted her. Fiona faked a polite smile and told the servant thank you as she slid inside the vehicle, pressing her head against the opposite window and staring down at the city below.
“I’m fucked,” she mumbled as the car roared to life, rolling in the direction of her home.
Chapter Fifteen
Vince felt like the sun was shining directly down on his head the next morning as he headed toward the Romano compound. He couldn’t keep this stupid smile off his face, even though he knew he looked ridiculous, walking around smiling at absolutely nothing. But he just couldn’t help himself. His body was so content, so happy, so relaxed for the first time in what felt like years, honestly. Even with previous subs, he’d never felt this way before after sex. It was the most satisfying, invigorating experience of his entire life, and this was all after the first time he’d fucked Fiona. He couldn’t even imagine what things could be like between them if they got to know each other’s bodies more intimately.
He was whistling a little bit as he headed into the office, nodding at people who still looked back at him with flat, mournful faces, allegedly sympathizing with him over the loss of his father. Vince knew it was terrible, and he was also aware that he was probably going to pay the price for this down the line when the full reality of his father’s death actually hit him, but for the moment, he was practically grateful for the loss. If it hadn’t happened, he never would have met Fiona or at least, not for a long time. He felt so free, so full of glorious, healing light. He felt like all of his wounds were closing up, one by one by one by one, just because of Fiona’s wonderful, submissive touch. God, he was so lucky. He’d never felt this happy before.
“What’s the news, kid?” Vince said as he stepped into his office, where Fiona was waiting at her desk already, her hair tied back into an impossibly tight bun at the top of her head. Vince couldn’t wait until he saw her that night when he could let that hair down about her shoulders again, mess it up, get it dirty and wet from sweat. God, he was getting a little hard just thinking about it…
“Um, you have a visitor,” Fiona said, staring down blankly at her desk. There was a stack of papers in front of her, but Vince could tell by watching her facial expression that she wasn’t actually reading any of the words on the page. She’s trying not to look at me, Vince realized, feeling a small twinge of pain in his chest as a result. But he tried not to let himself feel offended by it. She probably just feels awkward because this is the first time she’s seeing me at the office after we fucked, Vince reasoned to himself. It’s normal for her to feel weird around me right now. She’s a good girl without a lot of experience in this kind of thing. She’s not used to this situation yet. But it’ll get easier as time goes on.
“Who is it?” Vince asked, even though he really didn’t care that much. He was disappointed that he couldn’t devote every last minute of his work time to Fiona, to learning more about what she knew while staring at her gorgeous face and body in the process. Anything else felt like a waste of time in comparison.
“It’s your mother,” Fiona said, her tone stiff and strange, like she was nervous. Vince felt a little bit of worry strike him as he stared down at her for a minute, wondering if anything else was going wrong. It took him a few seconds to realize what Fiona had actually said, but when it hit him, he felt the old familiar crushing sensation of dread return to him. Goddammit. His fucking mother. What did she want?
“How long has she been waiting?” Vince asked, trying to cover up how disappointed and annoyed he felt, even though he really wished he could whine and stomp his feet and refuse to see his mother. She wasn’t like other Italian moms. She didn’t go around trying to feed everybody, laughing too loudly and drinking too much wine. She was a weapon of a woman, sharp and hard and frightening. She’d forged her sons out of the flames of disapproval, and she was continually disappointed that they still hadn’t turned out to be good enough. Vince really didn’t need to have his good mood brought down by maternal judgment.
“She’s been in there, um, about fifteen minutes,” Fiona answered, still not looking up from her piece of paper to meet Vince’s eyes. He silently wished that she would look at him, at least once, if only to give him a little spark of strength to prepare for the battle he was about to face. “In your old office, that is. She didn’t want to wait in here with me.”
Vince couldn’t suppress an eye-roll at that, for numerous reasons. For one thing, it was just like his mom to make him meet with her in his old office, practically telling everybody in the compound that she didn’t accept him as his father’s replacement yet. He didn’t need that kind of disrespect when he was still fighting to get people to recognize him as the leader. And for another thing, it was obvious that his mother still thought Fiona had slept with Paulie before he died, which Vince now knew was completely ridiculous. Anybody only had to meet Fiona a few times before they’d be able to realize that she was incapable of sleeping with an old guy just to get at his money. She just wasn’t that type of woman.
In any case, Vince inhaled deeply and steeled himself, trying to build up an emotional wall so that his mother wouldn’t be able to say anything to damage his ego. “Right,” he said, more to himself than to Fiona now that he realized it was pointless to try to get her to acknowledge him right now. “I’ll try to be quick, and then we can pick up the conversation from yesterday and keep going.”
He quickly exited the office and crossed the hall, highly aware that his mother was certain to be incredibly annoyed that she’d had to wait on him for several minutes already. She wasn’t going to be soft on him today. That much was for sure.
“Mother,” he said as he entered his old office, shutting and locking the door behind him so that they wouldn’t be disturbed by anybody.
“Hello, son,” Mama Romano said, sitting behind Vince’s old desk and gesturing for him to take the other seat, as if he was the visitor in this situation rather than the new boss of the whole organization. “How have you been?”
Vince had to bite back a laugh at that. He knew his mother didn’t care about his life, especially since he hadn’t bothered to check in with her at all before Paulie died. He couldn’t help but notice that she’d lost weight since the last time he’d seen her, over a year before. She looked a little ragged, all of the b
ones and veins in her neck sticking out prominently every time she spoke or breathed.
“I’ve been fine,” Vince said. “Of course, except for the obvious. I’m so sorry, Ma. I know Dad was everything to you.”
“It’s all right,” his mother said stiffly, putting down the newspaper she’d been perusing to look him directly in the eyes. There was already something hard and sharp, something accusatory hiding within her eyes. She wasn’t happy. “Have you been adjusting well to the new position?”
Vince was a little taken aback by that. He’d expected her to launch into a tirade right off the bat, telling him all the ways that he’d already failed as boss. But instead, she was acting genuinely interested, maybe even concerned about him. What was going on? This wasn’t the way his mother usually was. She was all business, no bullshit, no time for any mushy feelings or anything else that might possibly detract from the business, from the bottom line. It was all about profit for Mama Romano. Vince was convinced that she was incapable of understanding anything else.
“It’s been fine,” Vince said a little awkwardly. “I’ve only been on the job a couple of days, you know. Still figuring stuff out, going over old documents and things like that.”