“Fuck.” I slammed the command center door closed, realizing what he was saying. “Explain,” I demanded, barely getting the word out with how tight my jaw was locked.
“I went into the restaurant over on ninth to give them their usual order, and when I came out, I saw someone take a bag out of my trunk and hand it to someone else.” He halted a few feet away from us. Dammit. They’d stolen one of the bags he delivered each week. Each one had at least a hundred thousand dollars worth of product in them. “I don’t know how the fuck they got into my trunk. It was locked. And I—”
“Where was your backup?” Lorenzo asked, his voice calm. Calm was good to any other person, but with him, I knew it wasn’t. He was getting ready to deal out a punishment, one that would send a message to anyone else who thought they could steal from us and get away with it.
“Rafael was inside with me—”
“So you left the delivery items unattended?” Lorenzo boomed, jerking forward. He grabbed Romeo by his collar and slammed him against the wall. “Is that what you did?”
“I…” Romeo’s gaze darted to mine, but I wasn’t going to help him. I’d told him he needed to take Rafael and Mario with him. They were both new soldiers, but Romeo wasn’t. He knew the score, he knew we had to take precautions.
“Where was Mario?” I asked, leaning against the back wall, my body turned to face the door, but my attention was solely on Romeo. I was an expert in giving off a vibe that nothing was wrong, but inside I was a raging fiery ball.
“He…” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. Romeo never showed emotion. He was a brick wall, unreadable, never giving a single thing away. But right then, he looked like he was about to shit himself. Lorenzo may have been his cousin, but that didn’t matter when it came to Mafia hierarchy. He was a soldier, and he hadn’t listened to orders. “I didn’t call him.”
“So, you ignored my orders?” I raised a brow, not moving a single inch.
“Is that right?” Lorenzo tacked on. Romeo opened his mouth, but Lorenzo didn’t let him get a word out. “There are ranks for a reason.” He slowly let go of him. “You learn the business.” He took a step back, his rage coming back over him in lightning speed. “You do as you are goddamn told!” he shouted, his emotions flipflopping. “Mistakes mean death.” His voice was low. “Mistakes mean people we care about get hurt.”
I swallowed, knowing exactly what he was talking about. He’d made a mistake and Aida had paid the ultimate price.
The silence stretched on in the room, not one of us moving or speaking a single syllable.
Finally, I asked, “Did you get the thief?”
“Yeah.” Romeo nodded. “In the car with Rafael.”
Lorenzo turned to face me, his dark eyes lighting with fire. There would be no holding him back, not when he was this angry. Whoever the thief was would get the full wrath of his temper.
“Get the thief,” he barked. “Bring them to the basement.”
Romeo darted to the door, inputting the code that I’d made him memorize, and for a second, I doubted him having it. He hadn’t been able to listen to a single order that I’d given him, so could I really trust him to have the code to this room? He may have been Lorenzo’s blood, but that didn’t mean anything. People harped on about blood being thicker than water, but it wasn’t. I had more loyalty from people who didn’t have the same blood as me running through their veins.
I made a mental note to have a conversation with Romeo once this was over. One that would put him in his place once and for all.
We followed Romeo out of the room then headed into Lorenzo’s office. A secret door at the back led us to a set of stairs and down to the basement.
A single light was on overhead, but it lit the majority of the room. It wasn’t the small, dark space that you saw on the movies. Lorenzo liked to be able to see everything clearly when he was about to do some damage.
He stood in the middle of the room, his feet hip width apart, and I took a spot against the back wall. The light was darker back here, allowing me to slip into the shadows and reappear if I