Page 38 of Mafia Obsession

Some mornings, other gifts wait for me, too. Velvet boxes that contain glittering necklaces and matching bracelets. Pearl earrings arrived the other day. I tell myself they’re professional gestures, additions to my uniform, a way for Ares to ensure I look the part when he brings me to meetings, lunches, or dinners.

He introduces me to everyone. “This is Lourdes. Sheisme.”

I asked for more to do. Rarely does anyone show up at the Wall Street office while he’s at the Aurelian. He gave me access to all the business proposals he’s juggling. When he’s meeting with investors or banking managers, Ares barks numbers at them. Numbers he asks me for. I’ve made it a priority to always be ready with an answer.

This morning, Ares’s brother Ambrose calls me into his office. The attorney greets me with his usual smile. “These need Ares’s signature before noon,” he says, handing me a folder.

“He has a meeting at the Aurelian at ten.” I check the tablet I use. “It’s expected to go until after two.”

“There’s a filing deadline.” Ambrose glances at his phone. “He’s still at the penthouse. Bring the contracts to him there, and I’ll have a courier pick them up.”

The suggestion that I go to his penthouse,hishome, hits me in a way that gives me butterflies.

Logisticstap tap tapin my brain.

“Wouldn’t it be more efficient for a courier to bring them to the Aurelian and wait?” I shift in my seat.

“Ares doesn’t sign anything without questions. You know the details. You fed them to me to write the contract.”

“Right.” I straighten my shoulders.

The trust these men have in me makes me confident that I will be able to get an upscale job like this once I have Sandrine secured somewhere. Zervas & Company on my resume and a recommendation from Ares Zervas will be very valuable.

After I nod, Ambrose makes a call. “Bring my car around to the south entrance,” he says into the phone. “Miss Sinclair is heading to Fifth.”

Thepenthouseon Fifth.

I’ve heard Ares mention it in passing.My penthouse, this.My penthouse,that.

My stomach tightens. I’ve never been there. Never had a reason to go. Not once in the two weeks that I’ve worked for Ares has he invited me to his home. Everything between us has been extremely professional, despite the unexpected intimate dinner at his cousin’s restaurant and the way he has looked at me every day since, when he thinks I don’t notice.

I notice. And God, I like it. Maybe too much.

Ambrose returns to his legal papers, not looking at me. I spin on my heels and go back to my desk. After retrieving my bag, I head for the elevator. At the south entrance, a narrow tributary block for deliveries, Ambrose’s car waits for me.

With a few turns, Wall Street falls away behind me. Glass and steel transform slowly into older stone buildings that sit opposite Central Park. The car slows in front of one of them. This one is understated but unmistakably expensive.

After a signal from Ambrose’s driver, a doorman steps forward to open my car door before I can get my fingers around the handle.

“Good morning. I’m here to see Mr. Zervas,” I say, allowing myself to be helped from the car like I’m a celebrity.

I hate to admit, I like that. For just a split second.

The doorman nods. “Yes, Miss Sinclair. You’ve been cleared by Mr. Ambrose.”

With three Zervas brothers, I guess adding a formal title of Mr. to their first names is a way to identify them in staff circles.

My heels click against the black and white checkered stone floors of the lobby. The air is faintly scented and smells clean and pleasant.

A man in his fifties, wearing a dark suit, approaches me, offering a respectful nod. “This way, Miss Sinclair.”

He hooks a right from a set of steel doors in the lobby and leads me to a private elevator. There are no buttons. And the building is so old, there’s no card pad. It uses an actual key, which the man keeps on a chain.

“After you,” he says, steering me inside.

It’s a smooth ascent for an old elevator. My ears pop slightly, and I consider how high up we’re actually going. When the single brass door slides open, I step into another world.

It starts with a vestibule.