Page 25 of Rise of Temptation

With Frankie gone, I continue on my original path to the kitchen. Enzo stopped having breakfast delivered to my room, which means I have to go find it myself now. But I prefer it this way. At least I can tell myself that no one is coming into myroom while I’m sleeping. Whether or not that’s true, I have no idea.

The kitchen is blessedly empty, so I make myself a quick breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee and eat it in peace at the island. Now that the thought has occurred to me, I want to find Enzo and talk to him about bringing the other three fully up to speed. I put my dishes in the state-of-the-art dishwasher and walk down the hall to Enzo’s office. He’s not in there, but I hear music coming from the gym.

The universe must be on my side, because he’s in there by himself. I wait until he’s done with the set of reps he’s in the middle of and then I turn off the sound system. He glares at me while wiping sweat off of his forehead.

“What do you want?”

Oh good, he’s in a bad mood, and I’m about to make it worse. That always works out well for me. My pussy clenches against my will, reminding me that it actually does tend to work out well for me, but I ignore her. What does she know?

“Have you looked into the tip from Lydia?”

“Have you considered minding your own business?”

“This is my business. I’m working on it on my end, but I need to know you’re taking it seriously.”

He goes back to his workout, so I change tactics.

“I want you to tell your friends the truth.”

“What truth?” he asks with a grunt, not pausing his current set.

“Mine.”

He doesn’t respond at first, and his expression is unreadable.

“I just think this whole thing would be easier if I could be a real part of the team. We could combine our resources and work more efficiently.” Surely an appeal to the business side of him will work?

“No.”

Apparently not.

“Why?” He makes me want to stomp my feet on the ground and throw a tantrum like a fucking toddler. He’s infuriating.

“Because I said so. Turn the music back on when you leave.” With that non-explanation, he moves on to his next exercise and turns his back on me.

I’m tempted to stay and argue, but I know a lost cause when I see it. I storm out of the gym and back to my room, intentionally disobeying him and leaving the music off. Too late, I realize that could give him a reason to come after me and punish me. Or maybe my subconscious knew that and planned the whole thing. Either way, I’m not going back down. I’ll just have to deal with whatever the consequences of my actions are.

Enzo

In what universe does she think I’d be able to admit that I let a federal agent move into my house? That would backfire faster than my grandpa’s old Studebaker, which I inherited from my father. I have yet to risk turning it on. Much like Elise, it’s beautiful but has the potential to blow everything around it to smithereens.

If I told Frankie, Sal, and Joey about Elise, how long would it be before word got out to the rest of the Family? Not that they’d intentionally tell anyone, but they could be overheard talking about it or accidentally slip up. That’s all it would take for the older generation—the ones still loyal to my dead father—to plot to take me out and replace me with one of their own. They’d immediately undo all of the progress I’ve made to modernize us and separate the Family from the rest of the criminals in this city.

That’s the last thing I need.

I think back to the night I killed my father, but I picturemyself on the lethal end of the needle and shudder. No, thank you. Being at the head of a criminal organization puts a fairly large target on my head as it is. I don’t need to make it even bigger.

The tip about the Irish still seems completely unfounded to me, but I have put out a few feelers to see if there’s a modicum of truth to it. I just haven’t brought anyone into the loop, and I don’t intend to unless something comes of it.

Chapter 20

Sal

Club X is pretty much always busy. I’ve been the owner—on paper, at least—for long enough to know that there are depraved people in every circle in this city. Granted, most of our customers are criminals, but there are plenty of outwardly upstanding citizens who live a secret life behind closed doors.

This afternoon, Joey and I are here to find Karissa and see if she’s up for a little side job to help us with our pesky trafficking issue. For some reason, we haven’t been able to make any headway in figuring out exactly what the process is that the traffickers are using. We know from people we have embedded in other organizations that Club X is the hub, but no one has been able to tell us if there is a code or a certain time or date when the communications take place. We aren’t even sure how so many other people seem to know about it when it wasn’t on our radar at all. Frankly, it’s embarrassing, and it’s pissing us off.

“Do you think she’ll do it?” Joey asks from his seat next to me at the bar.

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