same conservatory as last time, sipping coffee in a move designed to look casual, but I could see the hasty way her hair had been styled and the slight flush to her complexion which said she’d been exerting herself. No doubt she’d been racing to get into this position to await our arrival from the moment she was informed of Rocco’s car pulling up, and I couldn’t help but grin at the fact that she already knew this was an ambush.
We greeted her with fake warmth, pressing kisses to her cheeks before taking seats around the table with her. It didn’t escape her notice that the three of us all sat together on one side of the table either, a united front as always.
“What a fucking pickle you got yourself into with that mountain man, Aunt,” I said casually and her face instantly darkened. “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes I’d have had to worry that your story was bullshit, but it was a fucking massacre up there. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a complete and utter disaster to take place on a Romero run enterprise.”
“You said you killed him?” she asked irritably, clearly not needing the reminder about her destroyed cannabis farm, though I knew the shame of it would be haunting her forevermore. Even better than that, I’d heard that Papa had been over here ripping her a new asshole the moment he’d found out about it for bringing shame on the family name. It was definitely all working out in our favour.
“I did,” I agreed. “I managed to sneak up on him while he was tending to his wounds in his cabin. It was too easy, all things considered.”
Enzo barked a laugh, leaning back in his chair and draping himself all over it as he widened his legs.
I took my cellphone from my pocket and brought up the photos I’d taken of the body we’d used as our fake mountain man lying dead in the middle of Nicoli’s cabin. She scrolled through them, glancing at them with little interest and only a slight sense of satisfaction at his death. She seemed a little more pleased as she scrolled over the shots of the cabin burning, but it still didn’t warrant a smile apparently, much less any thanks.
“This whole thing is a total shit show,” she growled eventually, sliding my phone back across the table to me with a huff of frustration. “Why the hell did some freak in the woods decide to attack a whole host of my men?” Though something about the way she said it had me wondering if she already knew the answer to that and was just lying about it.
“I actually have an answer to that,” I said, the real reason for this visit hanging in the air between us.
She looked up at me sharply as she detected the irritation in my voice and Rocco leaned forward to drum his knuckles on the table.
“Have you been breaking any rules lately, dear aunt?” he asked in a low voice that promised violence.
“Is there anything you wanna say in your defence?” Enzo added, making it clear there was no point in her lying to us. We knew.
She pursed her lips, glancing between the two of them before settling her focus on me again. I was the one leading this little chat, so it only made sense.
“Perhaps you want to explain to me,” I said in a dark voice, leaning back in my chair and fixing her with a stare. “Why it is that I found an innocent girl up there, covered in cuts, bruises and scars?”
Clarissa raised her chin but I didn’t miss the flash of panic in her gaze before she stifled it. “The girl isn’t innocent,” she said firmly. “She stole something apparently. And she holds the information required to get it back. My client pays a lot of money for us to retrieve that information and never misses a payment, so-”
“So nothing,” I barked, slamming my hand down on the table and making her coffee slosh over the rim of her cup. “That’s not how we conduct our business and you know it. Cutting up girls for information that isn’t even for us? Letting some stronzo pay you to do it like we’re a bunch of common street thugs for hire? What the fuck?”
“You bring shame on our family by doing this shit,” Rocco snarled. “Not to mention how fucked up it is.”