AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ChapterEleven
I’d been expecting another trip to their favorite location. That little warehouse where they seemed to spend most of their time when they weren’t doing Gio’s bidding. It seemed to be their safe haven. The place where they felt the most grounded and in control.
So, it surprised me when we pulled up to a little house on the outskirts of the meatpacking district. It wasn’t too far from their comfort zone, but it was certainly cozier than the warehouse.
It stood out against the dreary backdrop of the rest of the houses surrounding it. Instead of dingy stucco walls, bare dirt yards, and broken fixtures like the small cottage style houses on either side of it. It stood tall as a two-story modern structure that could be mistaken for an upscale office building of sorts. I’d seen it several times when moving around the section of the city closest to the docks, and I’d always felt as if it was a little out of place. Every time I've been here the building has been dark. Not once had I witnessed anyone from the Valentino syndicate walk into the building either.
They’d made a mistake bringing me here.
The place hadn’t even been on my radar, but now that I knew it was theirs it would be one of the places I staked out and investigated next. They were showing more of their hand. They most likely assumed I already knew about this place from all the work I’d done before, and I had no intention of letting them know about the nugget of information they’d supplied me with.
Looks like this trip had produced some fruit after all. Jasper would be happy about that at least. It would give him something else to investigate. Hopefully, that would give him something else to focus on other than me.
“Why are we here?”
None of them said anything as they filed out of the vehicle. Cole held the door open for me to follow. A slight hesitation gripped me. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d hesitated in anything I did. I couldn’t afford to. Now that I was sitting there about to go into that house with all of them, I couldn’t help but second guess my thoughts of coming here.
There was no telling what they would do to me once I cleared the doorway and was trapped inside with them.
I had a feeling it wouldn’t be like anything I’d been fantasizing about late in the night.
“Let’s go. We have other things to do today,” Cole said as he gripped my wrist and pulled me out of the car. Slamming the door behind us, he dragged me up the wide concrete steps into the house.
The interior was an open floor plan with the back wall nothing but windows that let in all the afternoon sunlight. If I wasn’t here to have a war meeting with my lifelong enemy’s men, I would fall in love with the space in front of me.
A large stone fireplace graced one wall. A large flat screen TV hung over the mantel. Soft well-worn leather furniture sat around a marble coffee table. Soft ash gray hardwood floors spread throughout the space with a colorful area rug in the center of the living room. I could see this was a place where they came to relax and just hang out. The space was comfortable and airy. It wasn’t cramped with a lot of clutter or a bunch of things to entertain themselves with.
It was a place of peace.
There was even a soft looking throw blankets on the back of the couch. A thriller novel was laid open on the coffee table with a pair of black rimmed glasses on top of its opened pages. I wanted to know whose book and glasses those were. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask, but I kept the question to myself.
I already had too many questions that needed answers, and I had a feeling I wasn’t going to get as many of them answered as I wanted.
Moving further into the house, I dropped my body down onto the couch. It was just as comfortable as I thought it would be. The supple leather molded around my body and pulled me deeper into the cushions. I had the urge to kick my shoes off and pull my feet up underneath me. Wrapping myself up in the throw blanket didn’t seem like too bad of an idea either.
They all followed my lead and found places around the room to sit. They all made sure to keep me in their line of sight. Not even one of them put their back to me. Smart men. I couldn’t be sure if I would try to kill them or not. Not since I was lacking my afternoon coffee, had been dragged to a house I wasn’t familiar with, and was surrounded by men who had already taken me hostage once.
“We should probably get this show on the road. I’m sure we all have better things to do than sit here staring at one another all day.” Crossing one leg over the other, I stared at Nico with a look of indifference. Or at least that’s what emotion was spread across my face.
“Why are you going after our men?” Enzo wasn’t the type of person to waste time beating around the bush, and this question just further proved that fact. He seemed to agree with me about having better things to do and asking the question that would get to the root of our problem right out of the gate was a sure way to get us all out of here faster.
“I don’t see why it matters. I already told you I wouldn’t be going after any more of them. They're safe from me.” Since the bad intel about the kidnapped girls that I allowed myself to be distracted by was done and over, I needed to get myself back on track with my original plans.
“You killed our men. It matters. It matters to us, and it matters to my father.”
Grinding my teeth together, I cast my gaze out the floor to ceiling windows to the left of us. I didn’t need to go off on Nico right now but leave it to him to bring up the one person that would put me on edge. I was already feeling out of my depth with this whole meeting being out of my control. I didn’t need the rest of my restraint tested with him bringing up his father.
“It’s just like I said in that warehouse. I had received some information that said Gio was kidnapping girls off the street and forcing them into the sex trade. That is unacceptable to me. That meant I needed to figure out what the fuck was going on and put a stop to it. Your men were easy to get to but didn’t have the information I needed. I was originally under the impression that they were so loyal to the Valentino syndicate that they were willing to go to their grave before giving up any information. Turns out it was all bad from the beginning.”
It made me wonder on more than one occasion since leaving that warehouse, if the information was bad, and Gio’s guys were dying before they had no clue what the fuck I was talking about, did he really have any loyal men.
If I wanted to try and turn a few of them to my side, would it work? It might work in my favor to have a few of Gio’s men in my pocket. I didn’t like being blindsided by shit, and that’s exactly what happened to me with the information about the kidnapped girls. I’d got to the docks thinking I had everything under control.
I’d been wrong.
More than wrong. I’d been almost dead.
“Our family might be into some serious shit, but we don’t promote forced prostitution. My family is as dirty and shady as they come, but even we have our limits.” Nico leaned back into the plush leather chair across from me. Anger and disgust flashing in his jade green eyes as he stared me down.
