*Elio*
“What’s wrong?”
Even with her voice riddled with nervousness, she still sohow managed to sound like a boss being told his workers fucked up. I couldn’t help the pull of my lips at the image of her in a suit, dwarfed by a huge black swivel chair, trying to be serious all while looking more adorable than a kitten.
“Elio?” Cat asked, worry bleeding into her tone.
I coughed into my hand, throwing away the brief fantasy as I focused on the task at hand.
“Nothing wrong,” I told her calmly. “It’s good news, actually.”
I heard her breath of relief over the phone. “That’s good. So, what’s going on?”
I smiled to myself as she switched from stern and worried to excitent all with one breath. She was so goddamn adorable sotis that I felt like screaming into the void.
“I actually wanted to take you to New York as soon as you’re done with classes for the week, just for the weekend,” I said cooly.
“New York?” She sounded dubious, and my heart skipped a beat as I swallowed uncomfortably. If she said no, I had more chances, but it would no doubt raise so flags in her head. The last thing I needed was to raise her suspicions.
“Why do you suddenly want to go to New York?”
“Just because,” I lied smoothly. “You’ve always wanted to see New York, right? And it’s been a while since we had a trip with just the two of us. Italy doesn’t count since I was working, and it wasn’t really our choice to go there. I figured, why not New York.”
“I do want to go to New York but....”
She hesitated. I could feel that she knew sothing was odd about this request, and I could only hope my lying skills ca in handy.
“It’s okay if you don’t want to. We can stay ho this weekend if that’s what you want. I just figured it’d be a nice surprise.” I let a little bit of disappointnt leak out through my tone, not even faking it because if she didn’t go, I would truly be disappointed.
“No, no! I want to go!” she hurriedly responded.
I gave a faint smile, a little sad to know how well I was able to manipulate the woman I loved.
“New York would be lovely,” she said. “Thank you so much for doing this for . I love you so much. I’ll have to get ready—oh, we have to see the Statue of Liberty and the tropolitan, oh and the Aquarium! Jeez, there’s so much to do!”
“We’ll do our best to see it all.” I laughed at her enthusiasm. “But if not, we can always plan another trip later down the road, so don’t worry about it too much.”
“I’m just excited,” Cat said happily, and I could almost see the grin on her face as it stretched from one cheek to the other, beaming with happiness.
There was the tiniest twinge of guilt in my stomach, but nothing more.
“Oh, I have to go,” she said. “I’ll see you when I get ho. Love you.”
“I love you too.” I had barely finished speaking when she hung up, the phone falling silent.
In that silence, I could have sworn that I could hear Alessandro’s words repeating in my mind.
‘Slowly move her out of the active role. The less you tell her, the less likely she is to end up in jail.’
And that thought, that persistent worry that was slowly becoming a deep-rooted fear, ca back to , of Cat and her tear-streaked face, wrists rubbed raw from the tal around her arms, dragged off with no rcy because in the eyes of everyone around her, she was a criminal... because of .
I was realizing now exactly why my father had never wanted to discuss his life as the Don with , and why Mom and he had kept tight lips around , even after I got older.
And I was realizing now, why he had left the life—to protect , to protect my mom.
There was a deep guilt growing like a hungry carnivorous plant in the back of my mind, devouring up every seed of truth that I dyed with a lie. This was how things had to go now.
But despite that guilt of bringing Cat into this world, whether she was willing or not, I knew Alessandro was right. This was the best decision.
Cat needed to have plausible deniability in case the worst happened. If she was ever to be dragged into the illegality of everything, then her hands needed to be clean. I was willing to dirty every part of my body so long as she stayed safe.
But to do that, I had to cut her away from the front lines.
I sighed, straightening myself in my chair as I set my phone on the long mahogany table in front of . It was only a minute or two later when I heard a firm knock on the door—three in succession.
“Co in.”
Franky appeared first with Leo ducking in from behind him.
“Heya, boss!” Leo waved, taking his seat to my right while Franky took the one to my left. “Did Cat agree to New York?”
“Yes,” I responded a bit too quickly.
Leo raised an eyebrow, clearly having caught onto my rushed answer, and I cursed myself for giving him the opportunity.
“And yet, why do you seem so discontent about that?” Franky smirked, leaning back in his chair with a goading look on his stupid face.
I pinned him with the coldest glare I could muster, clenching my fists under the table to stop myself from decking him.
“Never mind,” I shot back harshly. “We’re here to work, so let’s work.”
“Touchy,” Franky said, tilting his head amusedly.
“Alright, alright, let’s chill out for a minute, okay?” Leo asked. “I’ve got the folder you requested, Boss,” He glanced between and Franky warily and patted the manila folder on the desk in front of him, sliding it toward with another copy to Franky.
I flipped open the folder, a portfolio and list of restaurants—first with locations in Los Angeles and after I flipped to the back, several for New York.
“There are a couple good contenders for LA, but nothing too exciting. All the main ones we want are in New York, so I’ve made up a list. Our math guy made up so predictions based on revenue and so other IT bullcrap. I failed math in high school, so I don’t pretend to understand any of it.” Leo shrugged.
“You failed math? Shocker,” Franky said sarcastically.
“I’ll have you know I got straight A’s in every other class, thank you very much.” Leo glared at him. “But once they started adding letters and shapes to math, they lost pretty quickly. It’s a bunch of nonsense to .”
“Stay on task,” I reminded them once Franky opened his mouth, no doubt to give so biting sarcastic comnt that would’ve sent either or Leo on a rage.
I glanced at the restaurants, looking through the reports. “Take off D and E. They’re too conspicuous. There is way more money flowing in than their revenue reports. Most likely they’re getting help from outside resources.”
“So? We do the sa thing,” Leo snorted. “It’s not a cri.”
“It very much is a cri,” I stared at him blankly. “Money laundering is taken seriously in the US, especially in places like LA or New York. If I can guess dirty money from just a glance, no doubt the police can too. I’m not doing twenty years because so dumbasses can’t cover up their tracks.”
“Not to ntion the fines,” Franky said with a smirk at Leo. “They’re twice whatever funds are involved.”
Leo reeled back, a look of horror on his face. “Fuck that shit.”
“Exactly,” I told him with a sigh, brushing through the places.
Most of it was just projections and graphs, numbers that even I could barely follow.
“Besides, that would defeat the purpose,” I added. “We want to buy these restaurants to help clean up our flow of money and give us so legitimate businesses so that we don’t get investigated. Taking on a business that already has dirty money would just be stupid.”
“Fine, fine, I get it,” Leo shrugged, “I’ll take them off. But which ones do you like then?”
“A and H seem the best candidates,” Franky said definitely, sliding the folder away from himself. “They’re similar enough that we won’t waste too much money with providing resources but different enough to stand out in their locations. Their revenue varies per season, so if the feds do co sniffing, we’ll have an excuse for the fluctuating reports. Low-cost with high revenue is exactly what we need.”
“I have to agree,” I said with an annoyed look at Franky. “Get the team ready for this weekend so we can make the purchases quick and efficiently. And keep it quiet.”
“Yes, Boss,” Franky said as he got to his feet, taking the folder with him as he left.
As much as I disliked him as a person, he got things done. I’d keep him on for now, I thought, but the minute he made a mistake, he’d be the first to be cut off.
“I’m guessing that Cat doesn’t know about the restaurants?” Leo asked once we were alone.
“No,” I admitted. “Not yet, and I don’t want to tell her for now. If she knows then she’ll want to be involved, and I need her to not be. As long as she doesn’t’ know, then if sothing does go wrong and our tail gets caught, she’ll be able to escape the accusations. If she doesn’t know, then she won’t get dragged down with the rest of us.”
“True,” Leo nodded sagely. “We’ll need soone to bail us out.”
“That’s not what I ant,” I snapped.
“Hey!” He raised his hands in defense, getting to his feet with a playful grin. “We both know Al won’t do it. Plus, I’m ninety percent sure your dad will let us both rot in jail to teach you a lesson.”
I had no response to that. Leo chuckled to himself, heading to the door before he paused, one foot outside. He looked over his shoulder.
“I understand where you’re coming from, Elio, but I think you’re underestimating Cat too much. She’s too smart to buy your lies for long. She’ll figure it out.”
I clenched my jaw.
“That’s why I’m going to surprise her today. It’ll keep her off our trail, at least for a while.”
Leo raised an eyebrow. “You know, I wonder if you actually believe that.”
Then he stepped out, leaving alone in the empty room. I stared at my phone as the monster nad Guilt ca back to whisper in my ears.
‘You don’t,’ it said.
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