Page 37 of The Woman in the Warehouse

“Diss—“

“Gio, the fuck is Ciro talking about with—” another voice said as he came into the room, making me turn to find someone who had to be Gio’s brother standing there.

There was a slight family resemblance, but where Gio clearly spent a lot of his free time in the gym, this guy had more of a sleek swimmer’s build that he had dressed in an impeccably in a tailored 3-piece gray suit, complete with cufflinks, and a handkerchief.

Where Gio was more on the clean-cut side, this guy was covered in ink—on his hands, his neck, sneaking out of the sleeves of his shirt. He had one of those ‘longer on top’ type haircuts that he had slicked back and a small stainless steel hoop in his nostril.

Hot.

The guy was hot.

Just in an entirely different way than his brother was hot.

“Didn’t know we had company,” the new guy said, gaze landing on me, his smile at once going all smoldering and charming. Which made Gio roll his eyes.

“Saylor, this is my idiot brother, Elio. El, this is Saylor.”

“Nice to meet you, Saylor,” he said, extending his hand, and when I took it, he used his other one to cover mine.

“Yeah, you too,” I said, pulling my hand back. I was sure I would be a sucker for his particular brand of charm if fucking Anthony Costa wasn’t sitting right beside me smelling all spicy and delicious. Like I’d smelled when I’d gone home after grinding all over him in the gym.

“Ant and Saylor are just asking about Matej,” Gio told his brother.

“Yeah? He trying to move into Manhattan?” Elio asked, closing the office door, then leaning against it.

“We think an offset of his crew already has,” Anthony told him.

“Hm,” Elio said. “I haven’t heard of anything going on with the crew breaking off, but I don’t really keep that close an eye on that organization. But I could probably get you a meeting with them, if you want,” he added.

“Yeah,” Anthony answered for us. “That’d be good. Any idea on when you could have that set up?”

“Probably not today, unfortunately,” he said. “Know you made the trip all the way out here, but I’d have to track the fuckers down.”

“It’s not that long of a commute,” I said, shrugging. “We can come back.”

“I’ll go get on that then,” Elio said, straightening from the wall to open the door. “Nice to meet you, Saylor. Don’t be a stranger,” he said, his gaze doing a quick sweep over me.

It was barely noticeable, honestly.

But a little growling sound rumbled through Anthony in response, making Elio’s brow lift.

“Got it,” he said, then pulled open the door and disappeared.

“Hate that you came all this way and are leaving without anything new to go on,” Gio said, standing. “How about I get you guys some food to make up for it?”

“She’s never gonna turn down a meal,” Anthony said, smiling at me when I glared at him.

“I mean, he’s not wrong,” I admitted.

“Glad to hear it,” he said, heading toward the door as we stood. “Come on out and decide what you want. Ant, you see my sister lately?” he asked as we moved through the back rooms toward the deli front.

“Yeah, saw her and Santi last week. She hasn’t made it out this way in a while?”

“Been busy,” he said, shrugging. “Gotta drag my ass into the city again to visit.”

With that, we moved out in front of the counter, and he stayed behind, washing his hands, then making our sandwiches himself before disappearing to take a phone call.

“His sister?” I asked as Anthony and I took one of the empty tables to eat our roast beef sandwiches with several sides Gio had added without our asking. Including some sort of cold pasta salad with meat and veggies that smelled fucking divine.

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