“Bullshit!” Enzo roared, standing up and flipping the table over so that her coffee went flying and the mug smashed on the tiled floor. Always the flamboyant asshole. Just had to steal the show.
The doors swung open at either end of the room and armed men rushed in, but the moment they realised who was causing the conflict, they lowered their guns and quickly backed out again. No fucker in our organisation was stupid enough to aim a weapon at Martello Romero’s sons, much less fire one.
Enzo cackled with glee as Clarissa remained in her seat, chin raised, waiting.
“I want the heads of every man who was willing to break our rules and do that job for you,” I said in a low, dangerous voice. “The mountain man did most of the clean up for me, but if any of the surviving rats come scurrying back here then you're going to hand them over. Got it?”
Her eyes flashed with some knowledge and I knew, just fucking knew that she’d already seen at least one of them. But she said nothing, only pursed her lips like enduring this conversation was wearing on her.
“Give them up, dear aunt,” Rocco purred, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “If you’re hiding some of those men-”
“Don’t be absurd, Rocco,” she muttered. “If any of them came back here, I’d kill them myself for their failure on that mountain. Do you have any idea of the money I’m going to lose without that crop? I’m going to have to try and source more replacement stock and sell it at a loss if I want to keep the sales flowing and-”
“We don’t give a fuck about your fucking drug deals,” I snarled. “That shit is so amateur it’s embarrassing anyway. But I’m telling you now, that girl has our protection. All three of us. And I want the name of the client who paid you to torture her.”
Clarissa sighed dramatically. “Unfortunately I can’t give you that. It was all done anonymously. The payments are wired through various accounts each month and we return footage of the interrogations via a secure website. I have no way to trace the client directly, that was the way they wanted to do business. And like I said, the money was good enough not to bother questioning it for the sake of some girl.”
The way she sneered told me all I needed to know about any guilt she may have been feeling over what had happened to Winter and I bristled. I fucking hated having to work with her all the damn time. Infuriatingly, I believed her about the stronzo who’d organised the torture though. Which meant I was going to have to go back to Nicoli without the answers he sought. For now.
“Fine,” I snapped, rising from my seat with Rocco beside me. Enzo had picked up a delicate looking pot plant and was tossing it between his hands. Clarissa’s eyes followed the movement with barely concealed rage. She was particularly fond of her plants, always wasting time cultivating things which were damn near impossible to grow. “Papa will be hearing about all of this,” I warned as I turned to leave.
“We’ll see ourselves out,” Enzo added, flipping the pot into the air and laughing as it smashed across the tiles.
Clarissa cursed as Rocco purposefully stepped on it and the three of us strode out of the room without bothering to say anything else.
She was in our shit books but she was still our aunt which luckily for her meant she was untouchable.
At least I could assure Nicoli that Winter’s safety was guaranteed as far as the Romeros were concerned. But I still intended to figure out who Clarissa was protecting as well as track down the mystery client who’d paid for the girl to be tortured in the first place.
All in all, I imagined I had a few weeks of work on my hands. Luckily, this kind of hunt was my favourite hobby.
A couple of weeks slipped by and I knew I was holding onto each day with all my might, trying not to let it get free. But it always did. I knew I couldn't continue to stay in this apartment forever. Now that some time had passed, Frankie had announced to everyone he knew that he’d found their lost brother, so there was no reason for us to hide anymore. Nicoli didn't push me to go anywhere, but