Page 19 of King Of Order

I began started with the biggest firms, the ones everyone recommended.

After five rejections, I moved on to the smaller operators, hoping for better luck. But none bit, and their answers were always the same.

‘Ms. Tirone, scusa, but we are fully booked for the next few months.’

‘I’m sorry, Ms. Tirone, but our team specializes in corporate security, not personal contracts.’

I didn’t believe any of them.

It wasn’t about capacity or specialization.

No, this number of rejections was shady as fuck.

I caught it in their voices, the hesitation, the subtle shift in tone when they grasped my background.

Did the name Tirone carry such a foul stench that they didn’t want to touch it?

Or was there another reason for their reticence?

After the seventh rejection that day, I hung up the phone, pressing my fingers to my temples to stem back the frustration.

‘Cazzo!’

I had cause for needing protection.

My ass was underwater and sinking fast.

My father lay on his deathbed.

Worse, Claudio and Aldo’s debts were mounting, and my brothers kept chasing me to push through more fraudulent art deals.

I suspected they’d made backroom compromises with the most vile bottom-feeding scum of the criminal world. At the same time, they were using me to whitewash our family money.

How deep their shadiness went, I had no clue.

I had no visibility of the books.

Neither did I have any proof, only hints.

All I grasped was that they were mismanaging the business my father had left in their care. Taking advantage of his weakness while he recovered from cancer, I suspected they raided his finances with greed. From what I gathered, the Tirone accounts were in severe arrears.

They also borrowed from pitiless loan sharks to fund their excessive lifestyles.

Lucia, my assistant, had two brothers who were capos for Claudio and Aldo

She’d overheard them discussing how myfratellinow owed a significant amount of cash to the Barbieris.

One of the most ruthless Maltese drug syndicates.

Fuck me.

I had one name left on my list.

Ciprioni Security.

No number, however, for the mysterious Rio had provided none.

I flipped open my laptop and searched.

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