*Leo*
The mont my eyes opened, I felt an ache spread out throughout my lower back. The leather couch in my office was certainly not made to be slept on night after night. At the rate I had been going, I would have been better off putting a single size mattress in my office instead.
I had to admit, I hated to think that way. I hated not sleeping next to Bianca every night. Sleeping in my office had beco a bad habit that I had been getting used to. I could have even said I assud I’d end my nights alone in my office rather than with my girlfriend in our bedroom.
Perhaps, sowhere in my mind, I figured everything would go back to normal once I took down Michael. I had hoped that would be the case, anyway. However, at the sa ti, that was sothing that I didn’t have room to prioritize at that mont.
I needed to focus on Michael. I needed to focus on protecting Bianca, as well as the rest of my family within the mafia.
My relationship with Bianca had to co second, for the ti being. It was unfortunate, but it was necessary. I wished Bianca would understand that. It was nothing personal against her. It was the opposite. I was doing this for her. For us. For our future.
I stretched out as best I could before walking over to the drawer where I now kept extra clothes. There had been so many nights already where Bianca didn’t want coming into the bedroom. I wanted to respect her space, so I started keeping extra clothes in my office for when I needed to leave the house before she’d wake.
With my clothes in hand, I headed out into the hallway to grab a quick shower in one of the guest bathrooms. It didn’t take any longer than about ten minutes before I was getting dressed.
I headed down the staircase to find a dirty blond-haired man in my kitchen.
“Taylor...” I acknowledged his presence in an unemotional tone of voice.
“Leo,” he replied, a little cheerier than I would have expected. “Good morning. There is coffee ready in the pot, if you want so.”
I stared at him as I walked over to the coffee pot. “Thanks.”
“It’s the least I could do,” he said, taking a sip of his own cup of coffee as he leaned against the kitchen counter.
“Alright,” I replied without looking at him.
I grabbed my stainless steel portable coffee mug out from within the cabinet and filled it to the brim with black coffee. My hands spun the lid on top of the mug until it was nice and tight.
“Are you headed sowhere?” I heard Taylor ask from behind .
“Yeah,” was all I felt was necessary to respond with.
Taylor didn’t need to concern himself with my whereabouts.
“Does Bianca know you are leaving?” he inquired, nosily.
I turned to face him. “That doesn’t concern you. However, when she does co downstairs, I don’t want you ntioning anything about her going ho to Italy.”
Taylor nodded his head and raised his coffee cup slightly in the air. “Well, see you later then.”
I gave him one last look before turning away to walk towards the front door. The last thing I needed was Taylor getting into Bianca’s head and making her think it would be a better idea to go to Italy than to stay here with .
Bianca and I may not be on the best of terms as of now, but we still loved each other. She was fully aware of just how much I loved and cared for her. I was risking my life to protect her every day that I walked outside that door.
I couldn’t imagine not having Bianca here with . I didn’t want to imagine it because it wasn’t going to happen. She wouldn’t leave . Leave us.
As the front door slamd behind , I also slamd the door on all of those thoughts. It was ti to focus on Michael’s demise.
I climbed in the black car that I always used when I had to et Franky at the warehouse. It was better to drive around in a discreet car rather than one of my sports cars. Especially, when I had no idea where Michael’s n could be hiding around the city.
As I drove to the warehouse, I prepared myself for the interrogating session I was going to give to Liam when I got there. Franky had found out that Liam answered directly to the big bad leader himself. Liam was our key to taking Michael down. We just had to get him to talk and give us the information we needed to co up with a foolproof plan.
When I pulled up to the warehouse, I saw Franky waiting for outside. This ant he either needed to talk to without hungry ears listening, or sothing had already gone wrong and he wanted to avoid exploding in front of our other n.
As the Don it was important for to show control and a sense of level-headedness. Although, I had to admit, it had already been proven to be difficult at certain tis.
After I park the car, I jump out and slam the door behind . I wasn’t in the mood for anything to be wrong.
“Bad news?” I asked, gruffly.
Franky shook his head slowly. “Quite the opposite, boss. We received new intel.”
“Well, spit it out,” I replied quickly, feeling impatient.
“Liam has a kid brother working under Michael. He’s about fifteen,” Franky inford .
I nodded my head softly, processing this new information. “We can use that as leverage.”
“My thoughts exactly,” Franky agreed. “That is how we are going to get him to talk.”
“Let’s not reveal the fact that we are aware of his kid brother right away, though,” I suggested. “Let’s keep that close to our chests for a bit.”
“We’ll wait for the perfect mont to ntion it and that will be what will ultimately break him,” Franky replied, almost as if he had read my mind.
“All right,” I spoke, giving Franky a knowing look. “Let’s do this.”
I felt incredibly more confident with this new information. Franky and I will make him sweat as we attempt to extract the information we need out of him. Liam is young, so, it could go either way. He could crack under the pressure right away, or he could be stronger than he looked and keep his mouth firmly shut.
His loyalty was about to be tested. The question was, however, was he more loyal to Michael or his kid brother? Only one way to find out.
Franky and I headed inside the warehouse to find Liam strapped down to a tal chair with large zip ties. Four of our n were standing around him. It was a bit excessive having that many n boxing him in, but I appreciated the effort.
I made eye contact with my n and nodded my head once, letting them know it was all right to back away. They obeyed imdiately, but remained close, just in case.
Liam laughed.
As I got a good look at him up close, I realized he must have put up a real fight. Which my n obviously wouldn’t stand for. Liam had a fresh cut above his eyebrow and his bottom lip was split open.
“Are you laughing because you know this is the end for you?” I questioned in a deep tone of voice.
“The end?” Liam laughed, again. “You’re not going to kill . Your lot obviously doesn’t have the balls to end a life. Just look at Elijah; you put his ass in jail instead of in a watery grave like my boss would have done if he would have gotten a hold of you or that pretty little girlfriend of yours.”
It took everything inside of not to lunge forward and slit his throat. I could feel Franky’s eyes burning holes into , waiting for to lash out on Liam. However, I was trying to remain cool and calm. As the Don, I need to appear unbothered by the rats of this city.
It didn’t stop my knuckles from turning white as I balled my hands into fists, attempting to fight back the violent urges coursing through the entirety of my being.
Instead, I smiled at Liam. nacingly, of course.
“Your boss must be desperate if he continues repeating old moves,” I said, flatly. “Going after the girlfriend is child’s play.”
Liam spat on the cent floor beside himself. “The only desperate man here is you, Leo!”
I nodded my head, slowly. “Here’s how it’s going to go, shithead, you’re either going to confess all of Michael’s dirty little secrets, or my good friend here is going to remove your fingers one by one.”
I gestured at Franky who was holding a tool you’d find in an average tool bag.
“They aren’t very sharp and they’re a bit rusty, so it might take a while to hack through your skin and bone,” Franky replied, holding the tool up and looking at it, as if he was unbothered by the requested task.
“I call bullshit,” Liam sneered. “Elijah didn’t have any missing fingers.”
“Did you get a good look at his toes, though, I wonder,” I said, an obvious lie, but a good one.
For once, Liam didn’t have a smart-ass reply.
“How is Michael getting unlimited resources?” I asked.
Liam was silent.
I continued to interrogate him, but he refused to spill Michael’s dirty laundry. I wasn’t in the mood to get blood squirted on , so I finally went in for the ntal kill.
“You know, Liam, I heard you have a kid brother working for Michael,” I smiled, viciously.
Liam’s eyes grew wide. “What did you do to him?”
“Nothing,” I said, simply. “Yet.”
“Fine!” he shouted. “I’ll tell you whatever you want as long as you let my brother go free, back to our mother, when you take Michael down.”
I turned to Franky, staring at him, as if to ponder this deal. Franky shrugged.
My head turned back to face Liam. “I think we can manage that.”
Liam exhaled a sigh of relief. “Michael isn’t as powerful and put together as he’s making himself seem.”
“Continue,” I told him, listening carefully.
“Each blow caused massive damage, he was running out of money and resources fast. Then, he bragged one day over a bottle of scotch that he started black mailing a CEO of so big company to do all his bidding. That’s how he has been able to get the funding and the connections he needs to terrorize you lot.”
“What company?” I inquired.
“That, I don’t know. He never said the na of the company or the na of the CEO,” he replied, easily. “But if you find out and you learn what the blackmail is, Michael will be cut off.”
I nodded my head. “We can work with that. Thank you for finally coming to your senses and cooperating.”
“You’ll keep your promise?” he asked, as I started to walk away.
“You have my word,” I told him. “When I take Michael down, your brother will go free.”
Liam nodded his head.
When Franky and I walked outside, I told him to have a few of our guys track down Liam’s brother and keep a watch on him. After that was done, Franky and I needed to work on finding out what CEO Michael had blackmail over.
Unfortunately, it was going to be a long day once again.
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