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“I actually am the most unlucky man on earth at this point,Serafina.”
“You have no idea how much more unlucky you’re going to get.” I seethe and pull his hand away from his door handle. A little bit rough, but I’m getting desperate. “I have information, Ferro. Enough to put every one of you in detention until we can visit your houses and comb through whatever we can find enough to finalize the sentence. All I'm asking is that you make my work just a tad easier, and you can be exempted." I shrug.
“I have been monitored by you for nearly three months, accosted, drilled, and tormented for information on a criminal sect I don't even belong to!" he puts his hands on his face and pulls at the skin as if to tear it.
Huh?
“…anymore. I don’t belong there anymore.”
Well, that should explain why there's so much civilian presence around him and also why there is an official quote of his net worth online. Still, I cannot believe that he has left.
“What do you mean you’re not a part of them anymore? Of course, you are." I prod him. I'm not unfamiliar with the tactics of the mafia. I'm sure they made him the page boy just to explain away their frivolous spending in relation to their relative's bank account. Smart, but not enough to fool a determined lawyer who is ready to see past those loopholes in the judiciary system.
"I've left the mafia for more than a decade now, and the fact that you're bringing this up again makes me feel like reverting back to my former nature. Maybe I'll snap your neck." He begins to come menacingly closer to me, and I follow his movements with opposite ones, taking a step backward as he does so forward. "No? That might go wrong and just end with you paralyzed. I could slit your throat, but I wouldn't want to make a mess. Strangling, you sound cool…." I feel a cold hard wall slam against my back. Turning around, it is indeed a cold hard wall. I look back to his face just mere centimeters away from mine. Suddenly terror mixes up with something…something completely new, and I have this strong urge like I want to pee…but not urine.
What is going on?!
“…but then, there’s way too much time that’s going to be wasted. In essence, there are five different ways I could kill you off the top of my head, and all I'm asking for you not to be a part of it is that you turn around and go. For the very…last…time." He growls.
This should scare me, and believe me, I'm doing all it takes not to scream, but still, his full lips are so close to mine…and his scent? Oh goodness. I move my face just a little closer…testing the waters. He should be moving back by now, but he stands, transfixed.
I am about to just screw it and go for his juicy lips when my alarm blares in my phone pocket, coinciding with his ringtone from a call. The both of us immediately revert forms, and he answers the call with swiftness, taking wholesome steps away from me.
“Uh, yes. The party will take place at my house. Send in the crew. It has to be done by the Saturday or never again…."
The rest of his conversation with the person on the receiving end blurs from my ears as I make my way away from the parking lot. I already have my next course of action.
Time to see what the house of Ferro Russo looks like.
I have an entire week to prepare, so I make as good use of the time as I possibly can. It doesn't help that Yelena, my Boss keeps asking me to do the most mundane things for her. If only she knew how good I am in the court and would just let me handle a case on my own, things would've been a lot smoother between us. However, as the case seems now, our relationship is miles below rocky, but for some reason, we manage to keep it afloat. It turns out she really does need me more than I thought she did, which is a mutual understanding. I'm not sure any other law firm would want to hire a youth whose only life goal is set on a continuum that puts the entire organization and its workers at risk.
Yes, when I started my job here, I told Yelena Svyatova that I wanted to make sure everyone in the Ricci family was behind bars before I clock thirty. Yelena didn't share that optimism, and I know why. She was scared. Sheisscared. Everyone is of the Ricci family, and it sickens me to see an entire group of people put under the spellbound of mere criminals…the runt of the society. They have to be stopped, and even if I die doing so, I will prove to Yelena that I'm more than just a child with the guts of a honey badger.
As the day of the party draws closer, my preparations also reach the final stage, most of which entails research about the layout of the building, hacking my way to get an invite as a journalist, and purchasing a beautiful velvet dress.
Ferro isn't going to know what hit him, and peradventure he finds out, he's going to love it.
Chapter five
The Party
Caught
The party was rumored to start by eight in the evening, so the paparazzi were here way too early, almost halting the progress of the preparation for the actual party that should start at around nine.
Damn social media. No one minds their business these days, and it's up to a level where it just gets irritating, especially where I have to keep to my nice man persona and smile through the entire dispersion process when I could just have simply brought out my gun and shot high into the air.
The crowd of journalists eventually disperses to a level space enough to complete preparations, which has to be sped up so much by the time it's done, I feel like I have just run a seven-mile marathon. It seems to be worth it, though. I zap to my room fifteen minutes before the event, only at a sincere plea from Hannah, and begin rendering myself to the preparations. I already know I'll be some minutes late, but I intend to keep it that way. Just minutes late. Eventually, when Hannah comes to fetch me like some high school teenager who’s not ready for his first prom date, all that’s left to fix is my tie and some loose ends here and there.
All turns out well when I eventually get downstairs, and I address the attendees of the party heartily. The purpose of the party is to commemorate a new merger between one of the branches of my conglomerates and another company that has way more expertise in the field. My financial advisor told me it'll be to my utmost benefit that I allow a more experienced company into the fold to boost expertise and dominate a healthy portion of the industry in doing so. Besides, they are just taking part in the control of only one in seven aspects of the entire company, so I have very little to be afraid of. The fact that the company is not so far from making the list of the fortune five hundred means a popularity advantage to not just the branch of my company that they're merging with but also a new light on other branches of my company as well.
“So, ladies and gentlemen, here’s to Daytona and Russo." I raise my glass in a toast. The equally pleased attendees do the same and repeat the chant. It's almost like saying the words 'I do' at a wedding because, just like that, our fate as a company is sealed. I lean back and take a sip of my martini, exhausted from all the people that have had to meet me and all the exclusives with journalists that I have had, and just….relax…or at least, I try to do so when my eyes catch something moving. Red dress, beautiful legs, but not in the direction I want them. Whoever that is, moves with enough determination to a room completely off-bounds by guests and with a determination that tells me they're not planning on just getting lost.
I stand up and give a soft chase after the person, only to find the library door slightly open. Smart. If I approached, whoever that is can get into character and pretend that they are lost or just doing something innocent. Instead of moving straight up, I press my back against the wall to avoid the light casting an obvious shadow until I'm right where I can spring on her, and when I do, it's much too late for her to even react.
“Serafina," I growl, torching her up with my eyes. She looks just as deadly as she is in that beautiful dress and makeup to match the tone, but I’m not pleased. Not one bit. “You have three seconds to tell me what you’re doing here before I call the police on you.”
I caught her going through a compartment that I know I locked so vigorously it's impossible for her to lie. Even she knows that.
