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“Why? You own half of it! It’s our territory too!” I pleaded.
“Elenora. If I say it isn’t safe, then it isn’t safe. The Leones are expanding and I have my men in there pushing them back. Fights are breaking out nightly between us. It’s too risky.”
“But it’s just two hours!”
“Gio, is there no way? What if she took Finn and a few others with her? It’s an art gallery,” Liv pushed back. I smiled at my little sidekick.
He huffed, leaning back in his chair. “You can go as long as you take Finn, Maximus and a few others. I will let Leo, our Capo of Venice, know that you are there so he has extra protection around the venue. Send me the address. And you have one hour there.”
“That’s a bad move, Boss,” Maximus interrupted. My heart was racing now. None of this would work. With that amount of surveillance and protection, I would never get to the club.
“What do you mean?” Gio frowned. He never liked to be proven wrong, but Maximus was the only one he would listen to about this stuff. Max was the smartest guy I knew and had a mind for politics and business.
“With that amount of surveillance and men around her, even for an hour, you will be putting a target on her back. It would be a matter of minutes before Lorenzo’s men would clock the activity and come looking,” he replied. “It’s better she goes under the radar. As inconspicuous as possible. Still let Leo know but keep the men patrolling the area and not in one place. Finn alone with her will be enough. It’s your safest bet. If there is any sign of Lorenzo nearby, you will have enough of your men to distract him while Finn gets Elle out.”
I held my breath as Gio sat back and scratched his stubbled chin looking between me and Max. “Fine. But I am serious, Elle. One hour.”
I nodded with a smile, “One hour is all I need. Thank you, Gio.”
Panther
Staring out of the hotel window over the city of Venice should have relieved my mind of a certain woman but once again, I found myself zoning out and thinking only of her. Her eyes. Those lips. That body. That sweet innocence mixed with sharp sass. My dick, instantly strained against my grey joggers, even though I went to town on myself in the shower over her this morning. I imagined it was me between her legs, making her moan and shake in pleasure. My tongue devouring her pussy. My fingers inside her. I came so fucking hard it was stupid. I had lost my fucking mind. She was causing this maddening lust that I had never experienced before. The girl was a siren of some kind. Had to be. I was in her company for less than an hour and I couldn’t get her out of my fucking head. And it seemed my dick wasn’t going to calm down until it was buried deep inside her.
I rarely dream. Nightmares. They’re another story. Flashbacks of my past. My childhood. The woman who birthed me. Fucked up shit I’ve done. Kissing a teenage Elenora Buccini and obsessing over it. They come no matter how hard I try to force them out. But last night, I dreamed of only her.
“I thought we were only meant to be going to the club for one night?” Fabi questioned as he sat opposite me in an armchair.
“We were, but I have some unfinished business I need to take care of,” I smirked at him as his eyes lit up.
“That hot girl from the club? You’re going back to get the full experience, no?” he chuckled.
I ignored his question and glanced out the window again. If I was honest with myself, yeah. I wanted to fuck her. Badly. But I had never fucked an employee before. And I wasn’t about to break my only fucking rule. I didn’t have many rules in life. Never kill women or children. And never fuck workers. Those were my only two. But damn, this girl. I knew I had to see her again. We were leaving for my home in Sicily tomorrow so tonight was my only chance. When I saw she wasn’t on the schedule to work, I invented a bullshit complaint about her being shit at her job and I needed to assess her skills. Lorenzo was pissed. He assured me that she had experience and he didn’t understand why she hadn’t known what a butt plug was. I had to stifle a laugh at that. But I had another more concerning problem. The more I thought about the fact that she worked at the club and would be giving pleasure to so many other men bothered me. It really fucking bothered me. I didn’t want anyone else touching her. I didn’t want anyone else hearing her moans. I wanted them all for myself. And that just could not happen. I needed to sort my fucking head out.
“You got the map?” I asked, changing the subject to something that would hopefully take my mind off the seductress.
“Yeah, Lorenzo emailed it this morning,” Fabi said, pulling up the territory map of Venice on his iPad. I took it from him and scrutinised it carefully. The Buccinis and Leones were at war over this territory. It was one of the biggest cities in the North, hence why they both wanted it. Not only because it had direct access to the channels for drug cartels but also because it was old money. Huge influencers that needed mafia protection. Giovanni Buccini was dominating the North. He owned 60% of the most influential businesses on this side of our country with the Leones only at 30%. The Aianis held 10% but they had important connections with weaponry in Europe—making them very valuable allies for the Buccinis to have.
“Giovanni has taken over another 5% of Venice in the last two months. He needs to be pushed back if you have any hope in Leone gaining favour,” Fabi explained and I nodded. Even with my family’s investment in some of their businesses it wasn’t going to be enough. The Leones were just a pawn in my father’s grand plans. But my papi’s days were numbered. His illness was stripping him of the man he once was and I was already pretty much running things now, not that anyone on the outside knew that yet. He wanted us to knock the Buccinis down to a point that they were begging for our help to maintain their hold on the North. And that’s when we would have them exactly where we wanted them. In the palm of our hands. But I wasn’t as optimistic that it would be as easy as that. I could only see this going one way. War between the North and the South with only one victor.
“Lorenzo seems to be getting desperate,” Fabi added, lighting up a cigarette and puffing out the smoke. I narrowed my eyes on him. He knew I fucking hated it when he smoked in front of me. I quit a few years ago when papi was diagnosed with lung cancer but the want never goes away.
“Put it out,” I ordered. He groaned but stubbed it out, sending me a glare as he did. “What makes you say that?”
“Word on the streets from his men is that he’s getting sloppy. Letting his men attack Buccini men will only cause the commission to get involved, which you don’t want.”
No. The commission is a ball ache. Assembled entirely of important members from each mafia family in the North to keep peace between the families, the commission can commend or punish certain families for their behaviour involving others. Thank fuck, we no longer have a commission in the South. It was the first thing Diego Barbieri scrapped when he gained power over all the families. They all answer to us. If there is a feud or quarrel between them, we finish it.
“I’ll deal with it. Riccardo handed over more responsibility to Lorenzo, but it seems he just doesn’t have the creativity for it. He needs to think outside the box in dealing with Buccini. Not just getting his men to open fire on sight.” I flicked through the major investors that were linked to the Buccinis. “Look. This one. Veril is a new contact on the Columbian lines that could easily be swayed to the Leone’s side. If we help source the funds and contract, I am sure we can steal Veril from under their noses. He would be bringing in 27 million a year to the Buccinis. That will be a major loss.”
“They don’t call you the Panther for nothing,” Fabi chuckled, shaking his head. I smirked. Honestly, I liked the legitimate work better, the businesses and investments to keep our money moving around, but by nature, I was more suited to the extortion, drug-running, and gambling operations. Not everyone had the stomach to do what sometimes needed to be done but I did. I was born into chaos and then raised to thrive in it.
“I’m going for a massage and a swim,” I said, tossing the iPad into Fabi’s lap. “I’ll be back in a few hours. Check in with Elio to find out how much we can offer Veril for a change in contracts. I want it ready to present to Lorenzo tonight.”
“Yes Boss,” Fabi nodded.
Grabbing my swim shorts and a towel, I made my way down to the spa on the ground floor of the hotel. We were staying in one of Leone’s five-star hotels while we spent two days in the North. Normally, we did all our secret dealings with the North via burner phones and emails so we weren’t spotted breaking the treaty my father and Salvatore Buccini created all those years ago.
That had been an interesting night, not only because I kissed the Buccini princess but because both Giovanni and I had been told to wait outside with the soldiers while our fathers and his uncle discussed the treaty. He had threatened that my family would never be welcome in the North and if I set foot in his estate ever again after that night, he would gut me like a fish. I laughed in his face, said I looked forward to it and walked outside which only angered him more. That’s when I knew we were very different men. He came from a place of protection and love, knowing his family was everything to him and he would fight to the death to defend them. Whereas, I came from a place where I had nothing to lose but everything to gain in being successful. Love was never something I knew or yearned for. It made men weak because once you had something you loved, others could use it against you.
