Page 68 of The Devil Can Be Kind

“Are they going to be alright?” I questioned, but one look at his face told me he was done answering my questions...and I could probably guess the answer.

When our elevator reached the underground parking garage, we briskly marched over to his SUV and climbed in without saying a word. The tense silence continued during the twenty-minute ride back to the house.

I kept steeling glances at him from the corner of my eye, but his expression never changed. I had never seen Jesse bothered by anything before and it was putting me on edge.

As soon as we pulled up to the house, I could see a whole squadron of armored vehicles out front, most of which I didn’t recognize. When we entered through the door, Jesse excused himself to Marco’s office and the dining room, where the rest of the men seemed to have started gathering, judging from the voices I heard echo down the hallway. I could easily spot at least twenty people present with more arriving every minute.

I didn’t see Jesse, Marco or anyone apart from Lucia for the rest of that evening, their meeting dragging on until the early hours of the following morning.

The daysthat followed were less than normal.

Jesse and Marco seemed to have disappeared off the face of the Earth, and the house was filled with more men than an all-you-can-eat strip club. Security was clearly to the max with faces I didn’t recognize stationed across the property. Even my Brabus was off-limits, and apart from going to work, I was once again under house arrest.

To top it all off—I still hadn’t a clue what was going on.

So, like a good little hostage, I went to work and pretended I wasn’t bothered by all the new meat-heads at home.

On the plus side, by the end of my first week, I was much more settled at work and had had meetings with most of the department heads. Keeley and I had developed a good understanding of one another too, and her endless kindness toward me only made my transition that much easier. Jon, my new manager, seemed to like me as well, often inviting me to his office to impart some worldly knowledge or sometimes just for a chat.

I was starting to really love my new job.

The weekend rolled around quickly, and I spent it by myself.

I was exhausted after a long working week and both Marco and Jesse were still nowhere to be found. My earlier unease at their absence had quickly turned into panic as the weekend passed, still without any sign of them reappearing.

I texted Jesse on Tuesday evening out of frustration, but he never responded.

I wasn’t sure whether they were still in Chicago anymore and everyone I asked wouldn’t confirm nor deny my theory.

Thankfully, the security nightmare began to die down, and by the middle of the week I was allowed to drive myself to work again. Though the more substantial entourage of Mafioso that followed me persevered, much to my dismay. Two would station themselves at the main entrance of Diamond City, two more in the underground parking garage, and Alonso and Tom would never stray far from the entrance of my office.

By Friday, I still hadn’t heard from Jesse or Marco and pure desperation had set in. I was clean out of ideas.

I checked my phone for the thousandth time that day and as usual, there were no new messages.

Me: Jesse if you don’t start telling me wtf is goin on ima start screaming

I texted him for the tenth time in twenty-four hours.

Nothing.

After five minutes passed, I ground my teeth in irritation. Jesse always responded to my messages. Always.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I tapped on Marco’s name and pressed ‘call’ before I could chicken out of it. It rang twice before someone picked up. I sighed in relief.

“Marco?” I called down the phone.

“What’s wrong?” Marco’s bored voice filtered through the connection.

I was instantly enraged by his flippancy.

“What the hell do you mean, ‘what’s wrong’? Where is everyone? What thefuckis going on?” I yelled down the phone at him.

“Nothing is going on. Jesse and I have been away on business, but it’s sorted now.” His voice sounded guarded. Clearly there was more to it than he was willing to let on.

“That’s it? That’s all I get?” When I was met with nothing but steely silence on the other end, I continued. “Care to explain why my entourage has tripled?”

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