Empress of Savages: A dark mafia reverse harem romance (The 'F' Word Book 3), page 15
Carlo is thoughtful for a moment, while he takes a few pulls on his beer. “Okay, here’s the thing. Whoever it is? They’re down four hefty goons, as of today. So, their options for putting out muscle are narrowed.”
I say, “Meaning?”
“Because we pulled back from trying to protect our own businesses, we have a lot of spare manpower. We could put them watching Don Romano’s people.”
I want to sit back. I hate these stupid button seats. I want to move to a swivel chair but they look so conspicuous, I’m not even comfortable being near them.
Bruno’s eyes gleam. “We know the places Don Romano’s bully boys usually hang out, so when they swing into action, there’s a fair chance that we’ll have advance warning.”
Carlo says, “We may be able to track them. Anticipate what their moves are going to be.”
I look at them both. “That gives me an idea.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
In front of a bright red food truck in a little gravel courtyard sun trap, asian fusion dishes, sushi and sashimi are served up in newspaper-lined baskets and plain wood bowls.
I settle onto a bench and I watch the man on the opposite side of the table. “This place is getting a reputation.” I say, “I can see why it’s popular with senior UW Medical staff.”
He looks up. Then he blinks, almost charmingly. “Ms Fortuna.”
Across the bare wood table, the doctor’s eyes flit around as he peers up at me, over his bowl of fish and rice.
“What a pleasant surprise,” his voice is hesitant. He begins to straighten up. “It’s good to see you up and about. How are you feeling?”
“Donna.”
“I’m sorry?”
“It’s Donna Fortuna.” I smile. “I wouldn’t want you to forget that.”
“Oh. Forgive me. Donna,” his head swivels as Bruno slips in to sit beside him.
Bruno smiles, “You come here for lunch often?”
“Late lunch, I guess,” I say, “Maybe more a light early dinner, would you call it that, Doc?”
Bruno says, “The dumpling soup is supposed to be amazing.”
“I heard that.” I ask the doc, “That’s rice in the bottom there, right? A chirashi bowl, yes? Nice. Mind if I try the seared tuna?” I take a piece of his fish.
“Mm. Tasty. Bruno, you should try it.”
He says, “I like the nigiri, myself. Is there some salmon in there?”
As Bruno reaches into the doctor’s bowl, he looks up at both of us with an awkward laugh and a half-hearted protest. “What is this? Why are you here?”
I tell him, “Relax. What are you so jumpy about?”
“Why would you be worried?” Bruno asks him. “Man like you? Man in your position. What would you have to worry about?”
“It’s a nice afternoon.” I say, “You’ve got a little time to yourself. Nice break from work. You should be enjoying your late lunch. What is it, actually? Clear that up for us, would you, is it a late lunch or an early dinner for you?”
“Yeah,” Bruno says, “Back to work after this? Saw a few more people’s heads open before you go home to the kids?”
“Wait…” the doctor starts to rise up off the bench.
Bruno lays a hand on his forearm.
“You don’t want to leave your dinner, now, do you? All that nice fish? That would be a terrible waste.”
“Is there,” he looks between us, anxiously, “Is there something I can do for you?”
“Ah, now that’s nice,” I tell him. “Isn’t that nice, Bruno?”
Bruno nods. “There is a generous and a gentlemanly offer.”
I nod, too. “I wonder if there is something the kind and courteous doctor could do for us, Bruno. What do you think?”
“It’s a tempting proposition, and that’s absolutely for certain.” He looks into the doctor’s face. The face that is draining to appear a little pale. “I wonder what he might do. What do you think, Donna Fortuna? What might the good doctor have in his gift to do for you?”
I straighten up with a smile. “You know, Bruno, I think that our friend the cultured and well connected senior neurologist might be able to make some introductions for us.”
“We are friends,” Bruno still holds the doctor’s arm, “Aren’t we, doc?”
“Come on. Please. What’s going on here?”
I nod, “And friends like to be introduced to other friends.”
Bruno says, “That is often the way. And that’s how we broaden our circles of acquaintance.”
“Indeed,” I smile. “We widen our our spheres of influence and deepen our interactions in society.”
“What is this?” The doctor’s voice is becoming thinner. Rising a little in pitch. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh,” I say, “Please. Don’t be too modest and coy with us, doc.”
“C’mon, Doc,” Bruno nudges him. “You’ve been meeting some people, now we’d like to meet them, too.”
I open my hands, “Our friend, introduces his friends,”
“Us,” Bruno prompts.
“To his new friends.” I wait.
“Come on, Doc.” Bruno looks in his eye. “You don’t want to be unfriendly, do you?”
“Not with us,” I say, “Surely.”
“We would be offended.” Bruno tells him.
“We’d feel like you didn’t think we were good enough to meet your new friends.”
“You don’t think that,” Bruno gives the doctor’s arm a little shake, “Do you?”
The doctor’s eyes flash from Bruno to me, then back. And then back again.
Bruno says, “There was a time, if I remember right.”
“Oh, yeah.” I say, “ That time a little while ago, when the good doctor was worried. Yes, Bruno. I do remember that.”
“Thinking back, Doc, you were pretty fortunate to get your position as head of surgery and chief neurology consultant. Do I remember that right?”
“Look…”
I say, “There was some mixup with the rostering as I remember.”
“Oh, yes,” Bruno’s eye widen. “Weren’t there two very unhappy patients, talking about bringing malpractice suits against our good doctor?”
“That’s right,” I say, lifting my index finger. “Then at the last minute,” I snap my fingers, “They decided to drop them.”
“A happy result,” Bruno puts his hand on the doctor’s shoulder. “Smiles all around. Isn’t that right, Doc?”
“At the time,” I point my finger straight up, “I remember him saying it was all for his family, though. Do you remember that, Bruno?”
“Yes, Donna Fortuna, I do remember that very clearly.” He turns to smile at the doctor. “You must have loved your family very much.”
I nod. “Back then.”
His eyes stretch and gleam. “What are you talking about?”
Bruno’s head shakes. “Seems like he’s not so crazy about them now.”
“Wait. What is this?”
I shake my head, too. “No, it seems quite sad, Bruno. If he did still love them, I don’t think he would have had secret meetings. He wouldn’t have been collaborating against us.”
“No,” Bruno droops the corners of his mouth. “Giving away privileged information?”
I nod, slow and sad, then shake. “Helping those who would wish us harm.”
The doctor is looking frantically from Bruno’s face to mine and back.
Bruno’s voice drops, almost to a whisper. “Working with our adversaries.”
“Enemies.” I add. “Being…” my mouth twists and my voice comes out with the trace of a hiss, I lean toward him, “a rat.”
Bruno puts up his eyebrows, then lets them slowly droop again. “He really must not care much about the family at all anymore.”
“Wait,” the doctor tenses up. the muscles on his forearms knot and stand out. “Stop it.”
“Calm down, Doc,” Bruno’s hand grips the doctor’s shoulder harder. “Relax. We’re just chatting. Bringing each other up to date with our news, Right? Because,” Bruno lowers his head and gives the doctor an encouraging smile, “I think you may have been a little remiss, not keeping us abreast of your social calendar.”
“Tell me what you want,” his voice is hardly above a croak. “I’ll do anything. Whatever it is. Anything. Just tell me.”
Bruno says, “I don’t know.” He looks at me. “What do you think, Donna Fortuna?”
My head shakes. “I don’t see how we can trust him. Do you?”
He’s quiet for a moment. Takes a breath and gets a hold of himself. “I know there’s something you want. That’s why you’re here,” he blinks. “That’s why you’ve tracked me down…”
“Oh,” Bruno says, “that doesn’t sound very nice. Does that sound nice, Donna Fortuna? We ‘tracked him down,’ he says.”
“No, Bruno. I hate to say it, but that doesn’t sound friendly at all.” I look in the doctor’s eyes. “All we wanted was to come and join you for your late lunch.”
“Or early dinner,” Bruno adds.
I take a king prawn. “And to have a little chat. To see if you might introduce us to your new friends. That’s all.”
“Come on. Please. I can’t do that. Not that. Something else. Please.”
“See?” Bruno says, “He really doesn’t care much about the family at all.”
The doctor tenses up again, “Look, I did all that you asked.”
I nod. “He did. It’s true.” I say to Bruno, “Except for ratting us out. Did you ask him to rat on us?”
Bruno’s bottom lip juts as he shakes his head. “I think I would remember if I had. You’re sure you didn’t ask him to do that, are you?”
The doctor’s face is coloring up and darkening. “They were going to kill me.”
“Oh!” I say, raising my chin, “Like that, was it?”
“Well, now you have to understand.” Bruno snaps his finger and says, “I understand. That’s it. Don’t you understand?”
“I do.” I nod and smile. “It’s kind of sweet, don’t you think?”
The doctor’s eyes widen. The edges of a smile flicker on his face.
Bruno says, “It’s very charming. Really.”
I nod. “I’m touched.”
The doctor looks baffled. “Wait… What?”
“Sentimental, isn’t it?” Bruno says.
“What?” the doctor is agitated again. “What are you talking about?”
I say, “It’s nice that you didn’t want them to kill you.”
Bruno smiles as he nods, “Just because you’d rather have us do it.”
“Wait… NO!”
I shake my head, “Shame about the family, though.”
Bruno says, “Yeah, I’m surprised about that.”
“Me, too.” I take the last piece of seared tuna. “This place is great. The tuna is so nicely seasoned.”
With his fists balled, the doctor says, “If I do what you want, they’ll kill me.”
Bruno smiles and shakes his head. “See?”
Still chewing, I nod and let out an, “Awww.”
Bruno smiles. “He still wants us to kill him.”
I ask him, “Two kids, isn’t it?”
Bruno nods. “And his lovely wife.”
I say, “Oh, yes,” remembering
“She is lovely.” Bruno sounds enthusiastic.
“Isn’t she though?” I smile.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Expanding wet patches under the arms of the doctor’s lovely white shirt are not his best look. All the luxuriant black hairs on his forearm are glistening now, and not in the most appealing manner.
Opposite the food truck is a drinks wagon. The place is famous for the Negronis, more than anything. I wander over and have the very hunky cocktail barman make up two Negronis and I walk them back to the table.
I put both drinks in front of the doctor.
He scowls. “I don’t need this.”
I shrug. “You don’t have to drink it. They really are supposed to be great, though.” Then I say, “Did you want something, Bruno? I’m happy to go back.”
“Thank you, Donna Fortuna, nothing for me. Not right now.
“So.” Easing myself back onto the bench, I say to the doctor, “You get instructions, you carry them out, and then you report back.” I look him in the eye. “How does it work?”
His head hangs so low, he makes me think of a dog that’s been beaten. He’s pathetic. “They call me. They gave me this phone they call a ‘burner.’ I have to have it with me all the time.”
I ask him, “Do you ever call them?”
“I don’t have any way to do that.”
“Okay. So they call. Then what?”
“They give me a place to meet. A parking lot. Usually on the waterfront.”
“Same place?”
His head shakes, “Different place every time. I never know where it’s going to be.”
“And they give you a very short time to get there.” I know how this works.
“Fifteen minutes, usually. I have to break the speed limit to get there in time. It’s always a mad drive.”
“And when you get there, who do you see?”
“Two men.”
“Same men each time?”
He nods. “I go to their car.”
“You sit in the back?”
He shakes his head. “I sit in the front, beside the driver. The other one sits in the back.”
I tell him, “Describe them.”
He frowns and his face creases. “They wear hooded jackets.” his eyebrows stretch, pleading. “All I can tell you is that they’re big, dark-haired and they have a trace of an accent.”
“What accent?”
“I don’t know. Italian. Sicilian I think.”
I say, “Okay. Here’s another burner phone.” Bruno passes him a phone. “As soon as you get the call from them, you drop a pin for the location and you send a text to the number that’s programmed in.”
“What are you going to do?”
I tell him, “Nothing that needs to concern you.”
Bruno smiles, shakes his head and adds, “Way out of your paygrade.”
The doctor’s eyebrows flutter. “Whatever it is, they’re going to know. They’ll know that it was me.”
Bruno tilts his head, frowning, “And your point would be?”
As we get up to leave, I tell the doctor, “If I was your doctor, I’d tell you to drink the Negroni’s, call in sick. Maybe go spend some quality time with your wife and children.”
Carlo is waiting in the car. As we pull away, I tell them both, “It’s Romano. He’s sending his sons to handle the doc.”
Bruno nods, “I think you’re right.”
“He’s keeping it to close family. Only those who need to know. It’s a good strategy.” While I pull Catlin’s number up on my phone, I tell Bruno, “At least, it is to a point.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
As we drive, Alessio calls.
He tells me, “You put an idea in my head earlier.”
“Oh, yes?”
“Yes. When you said, ‘shopping.’”
“I’m intrigued.”
“While you’re still finding or rediscovering yourself, this seems like it would be a great chance for me to buy you whole new outfits, dresses, jewels. Everything. Give you the big pamper.”
“Sounds nice.”
He says, “I have a stylist bringing the pick of the luxury jewelry counters and the couture fashion departments of the Copperhead mall for you this afternoon. Lots of exclusive pieces. I was going to take a suite at the Four Seasons, but the stylist said there’s a much better private lounge at the top of the mall for select HNW and VIP clients, so she booked that.” He’s quiet for a moment. I’m trying not to swoon. “Sound good?”
“Yes. Sounds fantastic.”
I tell Bruno and Carlo, “Alessio wants to take me shopping.”
Carlo laughs. “Of course he does.”
Bruno stands, smiling. “Well done Alessio. Keeping on top of all the important stuff.”
I hug Bruno and press myself close, loving the pull of his magnetism. I give him a kiss and he responds tenderly. We touch each other’s faces.
“Quite a day,” I tell him.
“You were magnificent.” he gives me another wonderful kiss. “As always.”
I tell him I’ll take a cab and I’ll see him later.
As we move to leave, Carlo takes my arm to hold me back.
“Alessio,” he says. “He’s jumpy.”
“I know.”
“Be careful. he can be explosive.”
“I know. I feel like he’s afraid of losing me.”
“I think you’re right.”
“Are you afraid of losing me?”
“Terrified.” I feel like he’s at least half serious. there’s no way to ever really know with Carlo, though.
I go on, “I’m sure a big part of it comes from how much he hates depending on anyone, me included.”
“For such a powerful guy, it’s really surprising, isn’t it?”
“I think I can understand it. I think my nature is a little the same. Especially after the kidnapping, maybe even more after the amnesia, it seems like he’s afraid I’ll go away again.”
Carlo nods.
I say, “There’s something else, though.”
“That thing you said,” he locks eyes with me, “In the old house…”
“Yeah.” I nod back. “I know. I’ve been thinking about it, too.”
The Olympic Excelsior Lounge may have the tallest windows I’ve ever seen.
Stefania is my wonderfully stylish personal stylist and consultant for the afternoon. Olivia and Chartress are on hand for makeup, hair and any other beauty or styling issues, as well as Camilla, who is in charge of making sure we have drinks and canapés and whatever else available.
Two models are ready to demonstrate all of the clothes and looks, prior to me trying them and taking them, or not.
Alessio isn’t interested in hearing why I don’t want the champagne, and I’m not interested in telling him, so I tip the crystal flute to my mouth every once in a while, and when I’m sure nobody is looking, I give the pot plants the most expensive watering they’re ever likely to get.
