Marcello
I have arranged for a meeting with the new doctor from India. He has flown in and I have already organised for his accommodation so that everything of his will be taken care of leaving him with no excuse for not doing his work perfectly. He is going to check on the patient this afternoon and then he will meet me next week about his progress. I will have to fly to Emilia-Romagna. I update it on my calendar and contact my personal assistant to fix it on my schedule for Monday next week. I hope this gets Roberto to improve wake up and most importantly talk. He has the information we need to overthrow Federico from his position in the Sicilian Mafia. He looted half of Roberto’s cocaine business and his shipping. Lorenzo got to know about it but couldn’t do anything about it since we didn’t have any evidence against him. Roberto was known to be very discreet with his illegal dealings and even kept his right hand out of it most of the time. Lorenzo has all the information about the legal establishments, but when it comes to Roberto’s drug business, he is as blue as a stranger. Roberto and I were the ones bringing in the most money into the association, until Federico looted him, and attempted to kill him a few weeks later. I was smart enough to come in quickly, still Roberto’s body, before it had gone cold, brought the corpse of the old man I met in Florence that looked exactly like Roberto. I know Elsa will hate me for meddling with her father’s body and burial but she will love me thereafter for saving him.
There is a knock at my office door.
“Come in,” I respond, sipping on my expresso.
Elsa walks in dressed up in a grey jumpsuit and black hills. She looks like the badass mafia queen she is. I am amused rather than being surprised because I had no idea her appointment was there in the morning.
“Good morning, don Marcello,” she says, throwing her white purse on my table and leaning over the table her eyes shining in the morning light. We had been together in bed the whole night but I had to leave her at five for my workout and prepare myself for work. She looks dazzling and fresh. Not the kind of energy she had three months ago.
“Good morning, Elsa De Luca. Are you heading to work or something?” I ask, helplessly touching her hip and caressing it down to her thigh.
“I am going to work on my birth control, ignore Marcello Viscuso. Apparently, it’s my biggest priority to ensure I don’t get pregnant for the Viscuso family in the next few years,” she adds, smirking.
Dio! Those last words!
What is the meaning? Those words seem to hold a promise, a future.
I grin at her.
“I am on my way out but I am sure you have a bunch of rules you want to put on my head so that it becomes almost impossible for me to leave,” she says, standing upright.
“Oh, you know me too well. It pleasures me so much, Bella,” I tell her.
“I know how to pleasure you in many ways, no?” she gives me a coy look.
“That, you do,” I respond. “I have no complaints. I would have come with you but I still have a lot of things to do here. How long is it going to take?”
“Two hours if it delays,” she responds.
“Good enough. You will take the car I have selected, with two guards. Keep your phone on at all times and pick up when I call,” I tell her. She rolls her eyes at me. I let that slip.
“Come down, Marcello. I will be fine without a convoy of guards. I am only going to the hospital,” she says.
“You clearly have no idea how insecure you are right now, Elsa. Federico is back in the country. Yesterday, he was seen around your friend’s apartment. If my men had not been there to watch the building, God knows what he could have done to the both of you. He left when he noticed that he was being followed. He knew you were there. I am not sure if he had people following you or if it is your stepmother keeping him updated,” I tell her. She looks stupefied at me as if all the information is hard for her to take in.
“I was m not making things up, Elsa. I don’t joke when it comes to matters of safety especially yours. You had put your friend in trouble too. I hope you understand what I am talking about. Federico can use her as a target. You know he is capable of anything. I am not saying that you stop talking completely to your stepmother but you should be cautious about what you tell her. I would prefer you don’t engage with her a lot because she is capable of tracking you. That phone you have, I want it checked. It might be bugged or had a training chip implanted. You never know. But I highly suspect. I can give you a new phone meanwhile. It would be better off if we just destroyed it,” I tell her.
Elsa sits in one of the chairs in front of my desk, looking resigned.
“Why the fuck do I have to live my life in hiding, threatened by that half rain as if I owe him a reason to live?” she speaks through clenched teeth.
“Our lives are never free of insecurity, Elsa. We always have people who hunt us. The more successful you get in life, the more the enemies you have. No one wants to sit back and admire the other’s happiness.”
“Fuck this life. I didn’t choose it. I was just born to a mafioso and turned out to be his only heir. That is the biggest crime I have ever committed,” she says, then gets up.
She removes her phone from her purse and puts it on my desk.
“When do I get my new phone?” she asks. I like her energy. I like it a lot.
“I will have it delivered before you get back,” I respond.
“Okay. I don’t want anything else ruining my day today. I have heard enough shit,” she says pushing her hair behind her shoulders.
“I can’t go out like this. I need to blow off some steam,” she looks down at me. I rub my chin, hoping she is thinking what I think she is thinking.