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“Doyou know how bad this looks for me?”
Bad doesn’t even come close to covering it.
The issue is, now I have to keep my emotions in check and make sure I look unfazed by anything that happens.
A feat I thought was easy until this very moment in time.
When I left the house an hour early, Sebastian and I were merely meant to go to a bar, kick back, and celebrate this new promotion.
Not how the head of The Company is meant to behave, but I’m a rule breaker, and I’m restless already.
I vowed never to follow in the shoes of Nicolas Abernathy or Alistair Knight, purely because their ways were archaic, and it’s time The Company benefits from fresh blood.
My father—surprisingly—didn’t object. I questioned it, but he merely waved me off, telling me it’s time for new ways to modernise the entire system. I’m not about to forget the basics of how the Abernathys ran the game, but if we are to match whatever new blood hits the streets of London, I want to be at the forefront of it, waging war on anyone who threatens to take even a sliver of our turf.
“Technically, wasn’t done while you were boss.”
Sebastian drags me back to reality with a thud, and the stench in the room infiltrates my senses.
“Sebastian.” I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “There is a room of dead bodies two days into me taking the job.”
“I don’t care.”
I know what he’s doing, and while I appreciate it, another part of me wants to punch him.
Dead bodies never worried me, but dents in my reputation do. More so now than ever before.
“You don’t care?”
“I mean, I could try, but I never lied to you before. I’m not going to start now,boss.” He smirks with that toss of a name, his eyes narrowing. “Look… these have been here more than a day or two.” Sebastian kicks Bobby’s foot. It moves with force, but not much, springing back instantly. “The rigor on him is enough to prove this happened when there wasn’t a boss.”
“You think that makes it better?”
“No, but what do you want me to say? You couldn’t step up immediately. We all knew that. We had to have that resting period to allow Natalia a chance to show her face.”
“We need to call Benny.”
When we were kids, we’d run around these streets, visit this very deli to get lunch, and never knew what sort of organized chaos went on behind the doors.
Bobby Mancini kept his deli because my father and Nicolas lined his pockets and made sure his bills were paid. I had no idea of racketeering when I was younger; now I know how integral it is.
When I came of age and I started to learn the tricks of our trade, Natalia and I would frequent here still, but the way Bobby shook my hand changed, and the way he addressed Natalia shifted.
“Everything’s gone, and we need a quick clean-up before anyone sees this.”
“Already dropped him a text,” he states, already five steps ahead. “He’ll be here as soon as he can, and he’ll get looking into who’s behind this.”
Always efficient, I leave him to deal with the mess as I inspect the room. Stopping, I look at myself in the mirror, a sea of corpses behind while Sebastian paces between them, but it’s not the scene behind me I’m looking at. That’s nothing compared to the red cross on the mirror’s surface. The mark stole my attention the moment we walked into the room, but I resisted marching to it, instead moving through the room to expect the handy work involved.
Rubbing my jaw, I laugh under my breath and hope my gut instinct is correct on this one.
Suddenly, Sebastian’s behind me, eyes glued to the same mark I’m yet to look away from.
“Are you thinking what I am?”
His question is unfounded, and I needn’t answer, but locking gazes with his in the reflection, I smirk.
“The bitch is back in town.”
