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Every muscle in my body relaxed and I slumped onto him. He swept me into his arms and set me on his desk. If he hadn’t caught me, I would have landed in a heap on his floor.
“You want to talk about it?” he asked, brushing back a strand of my hair.
I heard him but I didn’t answer. I tried to focus on my breathing. Tried to steady my heart rate. I felt his fingers on chin. He turned my head to face him as tears ran down my cheeks.
“Who’d you kill, Little Red?”
I shrugged.
“You try to act like you don’t care.” Eli brushed the hair away and looked into my eyes. “People think you’re cold, but I know different. I know it gets to you. I know who you are, on the inside.”
I sighed. “I just—”
“Needed a release,” he finished, cutting me off. “I know. Glad you came to me.”
“Yeah, me too.”
He lifted my chin, forcing me to look into his eyes. “Always come to me. I’ll always be here for you… no matter what. Whatever you need or want.”
I nodded, looking around his office. “Let me get my clothes on. Can you take me home?”
“Sure. I’m done for today.”
“Sorry I ruined your meeting.”
“You didn’t ruin anything.”
I slipped back into my suit, grabbed my gun off the desk, and slid it back into my shoulder holster, and covered it with my suit coat. Then I followed Eli to his car, and he drove me home. As soon as I walked in the house, my father met me in the foyer.
“Why is there a box with a hand in it on my dining room table?” his voice bellowed through the hallway as I walked in.
Nate stepped out of the dining room. “Figured you should be the one to tell him.”
“Somebody better start talking… now.”
I poured three drinks and explained the day to my father, leaving out the part about Eli. He didn’t need to know everything about my personal life.
“So, they were working together and skimming the books?” My father didn’t get angry often. He was always a leveled headed guy, preferring to make a plan and then get angry, rather than bitch about a problem. But this made him angry. “If they needed more money, why didn’t they just come to me? I could’ve helped them!”
“That what I was wondering when we left the warehouse.” My father would help any of his people as long as they were loyal and honest with him. “I don’t think they needed the money.”
He had a pained look in his eyes when his eyes met mine.
“Your…demise… is imminent. And because there was no Underboss until now, I think some people weren’t sure where things were going.” I let out a deep breath, running my hand along the box containing the severed hand. “Will the businesses be restructured? Will everyone still have their old jobs? Will they even have jobs?” I shrugged. “It wasn’t about needing the money; it was about getting everything they could for as long as they could until they could jump ship.”
“She’s right,” Nate said. “Frank and Matt were flush. They had a lot of money in the bank. In fact, Frank just bought a new BMW. They didn’t need the money. They were greedy little fucks that are now dead greedy little fucks.”
“And Little Jimmy.” My father shook his head. “I came up with his father.”
“Well, his father’s dead,” I said.
“And he’s missing a hand.” My father looked me in the eye, arching an eyebrow. “Why didn’t you just kill him?”
I looked at my father as I pondered his question, my eyes never wavering. “Well, it sends a better message. He stole from us, so he lost a hand.”
“Very biblical,” said Nate.
I shrugged. “I thought so.”
