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Trino looked at her, clear disgust on his face as he said, “We could never prove it, but we’re certain that Massimo killed my nephew. Or had him killed. I sent him to the city to keep an eye on Dario and Massimo. There were…discrepancies in their profits versus the product I was sending them. I knew they were stealing from me but needed someone closer to keep an eye on their operation. I sent my nephew. He got close. He let me know he was going to get the proof we needed the next day. I never heard from him again. No one knows what happened to him. Or more like no one will say what happened to him.”
“What’s your nephew’s name?” Sephie asked. It was an innocent enough question, but I knew she was only asking because she might be able to give him a definitive answer.
“Mateo.” I felt her squeeze my hand, still resting on her thigh, but she said nothing further about his nephew. I knew she would tell me later. I didn’t want to tell him too much until Sephie had a chance to “approve” Trino. I would wait to tell Trino about the information Sephie had on the other bosses until after she gave him the okay, not before. Trino continued, “It’s only out of respect for you, Jefe, that I don’t put a bullet in his head when I eventually see him.”
I scoffed. I caught Ivan shift his position as well. We’d gotten confirmation that it was Massimo’s men that had tried to get to Sephie when they left the piano gallery that day. “You’re free to put a bullet in his head, Trino. If you don’t, I will,” I said. I felt Sephie squeeze my hand again. She mumbled, “Amen to that,” causing Ivan to chuckle.
Trino looked at me, surprised at my reaction and curious as to what Sephie had said as well. She looked at him, frankly saying, “Massimo is the reason that Ivan almost died and Andrei got shot a few days ago trying to keep me safe. Massimo can choke on a bag of dicks for all I care.”
Trino looked to me again, trying to contain his laughter. He was clearly not expecting that to come out of her mouth. Ivan and I both laughed at her. She never ceased to surprise us with her comical creativity. Even Martin, who was normally quiet was trying to hold in his laughter.
She looked at both Trino and Martin. “It’s okay to laugh. You know you’re thinking about the image of him choking. You can admit it.”
That was all it took. They both erupted into laughter. We all did. Trino, still chuckling, said, “I can see why she’s so special, Jefe. You better keep her or I’ll convince her to move to Colombia.”
Before I could answer, Ivan said, “Good luck getting her to do anything she doesn’t want to. The day that Massimo’s men tried to grab her? She killed more men on her own than the rest of us did that day.”
“Dios mio. Really?” Trino asked Sephie. She just shrugged her shoulders, leaning closer into me. I put my arm around her and pulled her closer. Trino, now curious, asked, “Why did Massimo try to grab her? To get to you, Jefe?”
“Possibly, yes. Right now, we just know that it was his men,” I said.
We continued to talk about business, the other bosses, and what had been going on recently. Trino wasn’t happy with any of the bosses, except Armando and I. Considering Trino controlled the pipeline that delivered all the product we needed to fund our illegal enterprises, it was important to keep him on your good side. I didn’t feel like this was a difficult task, but clearly the other bosses were struggling with it.
Armando and Giana joined us eventually. Armando seemed at ease with Trino. Giana seemed slightly terrified, but at least she was being quieter than on the plane. I watched Sephie watching Trino and Martin carefully, as well as how Armando and Trino interacted. Eventually, Trino’s men showed up, as well as Andrei, Misha, Viktor, and Stephen. Sephie stayed mostly quiet and watched everyone for most of the evening.
I would catch her eye occasionally, but each time she would smile sweetly at me, indicating that there was nothing to worry about at my end. After dinner, I pulled her aside and asked her what her thoughts were. I was almost positive I knew her answer but wanted to make sure before I went into any more details with Trino.
“I don’t see anything weird with Trino. Martin is a little harder to get a read on because, well, he never says anything, but I don’t feel like he’s got any hidden agendas. I get a good feeling from both. From what I’ve seen so far, you can trust him. It’s obvious he respects you and, to a lesser extent, Armando. He has zero respect for the other bosses, especially Massimo.”
“I’m seriously considering letting him put a bullet in his head for me,” I said, pushing a stray curl from her face.
She looked at me seriously, then quickly looked around to see if anyone was close enough to hear. She stood on her toes, her mouth next to my ear, “I know what happened to Mateo. I heard them talking about him after one of the meetings when they stayed later than everyone else. I’d never heard Mateo’s name mentioned before, so it piqued my interest. Massimo had him killed. I also remember Dario yelling at him for it. He was scared. More scared than I’d ever seen him. I didn’t know about Trino at the time. I don’t know if he was scared of Trino or you. Or Massimo. Or all three.”
I looked at her as she stood in front of me. I could see the fear in her eyes. Knowing so much information about Massimo had already brought one kidnapping attempt on her, almost killing Ivan in the process. She was scared to tell anyone about what she knew. I inhaled deeply, trying to think of options. On one hand, Trino would be even more in debt to me for knowing what happened to his nephew. I could also get him to take care of Massimo for me. On the other, it put Sephie in danger for others to know just how much she knew about the organization.
I kissed her forehead. “We’ll sleep on it. We can discuss it with the guys in the morning. As far as I’m concerned, being able to trust Trino is the main concern right now.”
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. She silently nodded her head, leaning into me, resting her head on my chest.
Trino and his men enjoyed partying just as much as they enjoyed business. Every time I met him on the island, he would go to a popular nightclub until the early morning hours. He usually had friends flown in to party with him, along with plenty of girls for his friends and his men. Before Sephie, I would go to the club with him. It was never a bad time. It also gave the guys a chance to relax slightly. Now that Sephie was with us, I wasn’t sure she would want to go. Giana was very excited about going. I found it amusing that Giana was a few years older than Sephie, but acted like she was the younger of the two.
“We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” I told her as we were changing clothes.
She stopped and looked at me, half-serious, half-joking. “You know as well as I do that Trino will take it personally if we don’t go with him. At least for a little while. It’ll be fine. It’s not something I regularly look forward to, but I can manage for a bit. Hopefully.” She paused, then added, “I don’t know if I’m more curious about how much a drunk Giana is going to talk or if I’m dreading it.”
I cursed under my breath. “I didn’t think about that. At least the music will be loud,” I said, smirking at her. I walked behind her, sliding my hands around her hips. “At least it gave you a reason to wear a dress. I’m not complaining about that.” I slid my hands down her legs to the hem, pushing it up higher on her thighs as my hands roamed over her legs. The dress was short, but not so short that she needed to worry about bending over. It had long sleeves and a high neckline, covering all her scars. It fit her like a glove, though, which is what made it incredibly sexy. She leaned back against me, catching my hands and wrapping them around her waist.
“You’re going to distract me,” she said, smiling up at me, while she pulled the skirt of the dress back down on her legs. “Giana offered to help me tame my unruly hair and I’m trying to be nicer, so she feels more comfortable around so much testosterone. She’s supposed to be here in a minute.”
“But I love your unruly hair. It’s one of my favorite things,” I said as I turned her to face me, so I could push her rebellious curls from her face. It had become a game for me to see if I could get her curls to do what I wanted. I lost every single time, but I still loved the game.
We heard a soft knock on the door. Sephie reached up and kissed me quickly. “I just love you,” she said as she went to open the door for Giana.
Giana came with equipment. I wasn’t sure Sephie’s hair was going to win this round. Clearly, Giana was some kind of professional hair tamer. “I’ll leave you two to it,” I said, kissing Sephie on the cheek.
“Hopefully this won’t take long, but don’t hold your breath,” she said.
I heard Giana tell her, “Don’t worry, Sephie, I know what to do. My sister has curly hair. I’ve been doing her hair since we were kids,” as I left the bedroom. Definitely some kind of professional.
