Page 37 of The Mafia's Property

“Not with Nico. He loves extravagance, but if you can come up with something cool and interesting, he might be into it.” Why did it sound like he was using fewer ‘we’ words and more ‘yous’ as he spoke? He pulled out a platinum card and placed it on the table. “You can get whatever you want for the party on that. Just don’t spend it on unnecessary shit. I will know if you do.”

I looked down at the card on the desk but did not take it. “Uh. I don’t get it.”

“I want you to plan a fucking party. What’s hard to understand?”

Okay. He has officially lost his mind. I know nothing about planning parties for rich people. What the fuck would I buy? Did he take me for a party planner or something? “Can’t you find someone else to run your errands for you?”

“This is your job, not mine.”

“I thought my job was to suck cock and look pretty while doing it.”

“If you bothered to read the contract, you would know that’s only part of it.” He opened a drawer and took out a tablet, swiped it open, swiped it again a few times, and threw it on the table next to the card. The familiar contract was on screen in big black and white font. He pointed to a paragraph. “Section seven.”

I scanned through the words.

It is the Property’s job to plan and host activities and events on behalf of the Owners and, whenever possible provide entertainment for the guests…

“I can’t plan a party! Who would I even invite?”

The clause was clear as day. I don’t know why I had forgotten that part. If I recall correctly, I thought it would not be necessary. It made the reason they—Rico in particular—thought me to be insufficient in this position. I’m sure all those previous Properties, most of them who were sophisticated women, found stuff like this simple and easy. There was no way I was going to pull off a big party for someone like Nico that would not look like a total embarrassment.

“I’ll send you the guest list. His birthday is next weekend. You’ve got plenty of time to prepare.” He took the tablet, threw it back in the drawer and took out a laptop and opened it. “You can go now,” he said in a tone that was both dismissive and said, “I got stuff to do.”

Rico seemed pleased with himself as he dismissed me. There was no way I was going to plan some birthday surprise for Nico. Where would I even begin? I had no idea what he wanted without outright asking Nico, and Rico would not help me. I’m sure this whole ruse is some sort of bullying tactic of his again. A way to make me feel inadequate. I hadn’t even started, and it was already working.

I was still worrying about the new task I had been given as the elevator descended when I got a message. After Rico installed the spyware, I discreetly bought another phone similar to the one I had and hoped they won’t notice that I had two. The message was on my other phone.

“Tell me you’ve found something, at least.” It read. The man acting as my security, Bennie, was now unlocking the car and opening the passenger door.

I typed a response. “I found something interesting.” My phone buzzed again. Another text message from him. God, he could be a little impatient at times.

“Where to next?” Bennie asked as I entered.

“Back to the apartment.”

Bennie nodded, closed the door, and went over to the driver’s seat.

As the car got out of the parking lot, I read the text he sent. “Have you found anything? My boss is getting a little agitated.”

“How about this?” I typed and sent him the document.

“What am I looking at?”

“An inventory item of some kind.” I added a shrug of emoji. I could be over-hyping this find and didn’t want to seem foolish if this piece of paper ultimately meant nothing.

He took time to respond. He was either analyzing the image or thought it was useless and had dunked out of the conversation. Honestly, it could go either way with him. Three scrolling dots popped up and disappeared. They popped up again and then he sent two words, “Holy shit!”

“They fucking have it,” another message said. Followed by, “Good job!”

“Is it what I think it is?”

“That code doesn’t belong to anything in their system. It can only belong to one thing.”

The jewel, I thought. Well, this changes things. When he initially told me about the jewel, I was skeptical. I didn’t know that such a thing existed and even it did; I didn’t think it was worth the price it was given. But all these men seem to think the opposite.

“Can you find out where it is?”

I scoffed. He must think I have their trust if he thinks I can just ask about this random thing I wasn’t sure they had until now. “This is the best I can do so far.”

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