Page 52 of The Devil Can Be Kind

First thing Monday morning I called the Dodge dealership to arrange collecting my car and got Alonso to take me to the store to purchase a laptop. I spent the rest of the day muddling through a CV and applying to various jobs in the local area. Whether it was common or not amongst women in the Cosa Nostra, I decided that a job was likely the only way I’d stay sane in this new life I was given. Marco was just going to have to deal with it.

On Tuesday, a solicitor came to the house to help me complete paperwork for my change of name and by Wednesday I was officially AdalynRossi. I had gone to collect my beautiful Hellcat that Thursday and Jesse took me out for a track day afterwards so we could both take turns driving it around the Chicagoland Speedway. As it turned out, Jesse was a pretty talented driver, and we had an adrenaline-filled afternoon, which was the most fun I’d had in as long as I could remember.

On Friday, I had decided that if I was to make a real go of it in Chicago, then I needed to have a space that felt like home. The only way to do that: redecorate my room.

In order to gather inspiration for my project, I decided to take a tour of some of the other guest bedrooms in the house. There were six in total, excluding my room, Jesse’s room and Marco’s wing. As far as I could tell, the other members of security and house staff either lived over the expansive garage or in a separate building on the property. Even Jesse hadn’t lived in the main house until I arrived.

Much to my dismay, the other guest bedrooms had all been designed similarly to mine, though none were quite as superior. I was met with dark charcoals, mahogany furniture and muted shades of grey dispersed with colorful artwork on the walls of each one. After I had closed the door to the final guest room, I found myself overcome with curiosity.

Thankfully, Marco had been away for the entire week, and with no risk of bumping into the devil himself… I crept over to the double doors leading to his wing of the house.

I cracked open the door and slid inside once the coast was clear. I was immediately met with a hallway containing four additional doors and I tiptoed my way through the largest of them.

I didn’t know what I had expected his room to look like, but it definitely wasn’t what I saw.

The room was enormous. Two story high windows stretched along the furthest wall, entrapping the bed at the room’s center in light. A grand walnut balcony clung to the edges of the room, accessible by matching brass spiral staircases in the corners and housing bespoke shelving above. Contrary to the other rooms of the house, this room’s design was much more elegant and timeless. Deep caramels and nudes bathed the room, a calming contradiction to the rich polished wood.

I quietly wandered around, noting the relatively uninhabited nature of its decoration. No pictures were hung on the walls or placed on the bedside tables, nor were there any possessions in sight. It was strangely impersonal.

I didn’t linger in the room long, figuring I had pushed my luck enough for one day. I abandoned his wing of the house without exploring any further and went back to my room to start compiling ideas. I wanted something that not only reflected my personality, but complimented the rest of the home’s décor as well, which was proving to be no small feat.

By late afternoon, I had chosen my color scheme and some of the key furniture changes I wanted to include.

I picked up my phone to call Jesse.

“What’s up?” He answered after the second ring.

“Where’s a printer ’round here? I got stuff I gotta print off.” I asked, finishing up on my laptop.

“You can use the one in my office.”

“You have an office?”

He did tend to disappear all day, but it hadn’t occurred to me that it was because he had an office to go to.

“Yes, Bandit.” He sighed in mock exasperation. “It’s in the annex, first door on the left.”

I hung up the phone, slipped my sneakers on, and collected my laptop before making my way down the imperial stairs and out onto the drive. I walked around toward the right side of the house and followed the drive until an enormous garage and an entirely separate building emerged. I hadn’t been to this part of the property before, so when I saw one of the four garage doors open, I couldn’t help but peek inside as curiously as a cat.

My mouth slacked when I did.

Firstly, the garage was far larger than it appeared from the front, going back five car lengths in fact. Secondly, the number of valuable cars it housed was staggering. Lamborghinis, Bentleysand even a Pagani were parked along its length—and those were only the ones I could see. There appeared to be one or two more hidden under satin cloths that I didn’t dare approach.

Most men would have sold their soul to the devil just for a chance to own a collection like his… Or willingly become a gangster.

Opposite the eye-watering collection were three armored security vehicles, including Jesse’s own Mercedes. Only two seemed to be absent from the fleet, their spaces ominously vacant.

After doing my fair share of rubbernecking, I decided it was time to locate Jesse’s office. His office was at the front of the annex building and wasn’t all that difficult to find. Though,officewasn’t exactly the term I would have used for it, given that it more closely resembled a control room than an actual workspace. TV screens ran the length of the wall behind his desk and six computer monitors sat below them. They seemed to be broadcasting various CCTV camera feeds from around the house as well as some other rooms I didn’t recognize.

“I always knew you were a pervert.” I greeted, throwing myself down into the chair opposite his desk.

He let out a chuckle and leaned away from his computer, relaxing further into his chair.

“What are all those?” I asked, mesmerized by all the pictures I was seeing.

“CCTV cameras.” He swizzled around to look behind him. “It’s pretty cool. I can switch to show some of the feeds from our businesses in Chicago as well.” He picked up a remote and suddenly a casino lobby came into view on one.

“That’s awesome,” I said, coming around the desk to take a closer look.

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