Chapter Five
Enzo
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Gabby.
I knew for a fact that it was Gabby. But what the hell was she doing here and how the hell did she get caught up in all this mess?
I keep walking until I find a room that held the liquor. Looking around the compound I realize since it was in my name, this place belonged to me. I don’t care that Domenico paid for it. He wanted to use my name to do his dirty work then I needed to get compensated for it. By taking this condo from him.
He walks in after me, but I don’t give him the chance to go further as I whip around, grabbing his shirt front and slamming him against the wall next to the door. He was so caught off guard that his eyes bugged out of his head. I stare him straight in the eyes but don’t say anything, because if I did, I was afraid I was going to kill him.
So, instead I let him go.
“You’re angry.” Dom stated as a known fact.
Finding what I was looking for, I snatch the Brandy, pop the lid off and took a long swig straight from the bottle. That shit burned and nearly made me regret drinking it in such a way. Almost.
“I wonder what gave that away.” I snapped at him as I parked myself right in the chair that was displayed next to me. Looking around I realize this must be a study room.
Dom quickly comes in front of the desk looking a bit frantic. “Look, I know I screwed up alright. But she keeps stringing me along and I couldn’t take it anymore.” He begs.
“So, you go and kidnap the wrong girl? What the fuck Dom?” I spat.
I lean forward feeling flabbergasted. “Kidnapping? Really? What the hell is wrong with your head lately?”
He sighs dramatically taking the seat that was on the other side and plops down with his head in his hands. “I wasn’t thinking at all. Ivy keeps fucking with me and I guess I wanted to show her that I’m man enough to take what I want.”
I deflate a little hearing the turmoil in his tone. “Out of all people, why Ivy Russo?” I ask, knowing the she-devil was the worst sort, and my cousin could do a hundred times better than her.
He looks up at the ceiling. “I don’t know. She’s just so…erotic and sexy.”
I stared at him like he was an idiot. Actually, he was an idiot. “That’s the grounds you’re going with here? Because she’s a sex goddess to you? Do you even love her?”
He turns slowly to me. “Of course, I love her.”
I roll my eyes at his theatrics. “Do you even know what love is, Dom?” I asked, rubbing my face in my frustration.
“What? So, just because I’ve never been in love before, I can’t be in love now?” He asks defensively.
“If Alejandro came through that door right now with a dozen of his men and demanded his daughter back or he would kill you here and now, are you saying you’ll stand your ground for that love?” I demanded him.
He hesitated a moment.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” I remove myself from the chair and start leaving the room.
“Where are you going?” he follows.
“To figure on how to get your ass out of this situation. I’m taking the girl home.”
“But I already sent the emails. If you take her back now, then I’m a dead man!” He panics.
I stopped immediately, making him run into me with an umph. Slowly turning to face him, my anger beginning to boil, I ask carefully, “What emails? Who did you send them too?”
He took a few steps back from me and was once again not meeting my eyes. I fully face him ready to pummel him to the ground if he didn’t start talking soon. He must see the rage in my gaze because he quickly spiels out what I wanted to know.
“I-sent-emails-to-Alejandro-blackmailing-him-forcing-his-hand-to-allow-me-to-marry-his-daughter.”
He said it so fast that it sounded like one long drawn-out word that it took me only a moment to figure out what he just told me. My entire body went cold. He did what now? I wanted to strangle him. Covering my face with my hands I crouched to the ground shaking from the overwhelming urge to beat the living shit out of my cousin.
“What the fuck Domenico.”
“Okay, now I know you’re angry.” He mumbles like a little child, taking another step back.
I stood up so fast that he flinched away from me, thinking I was going to hit him. But I just swing my body around back to the stairs. “We need to take her back.” I determinedly state.
He scrambles after me. “We can’t do that! If we do, then I’m dead!”
Swinging myself back towards him, halfway up the steps, he falters and nearly trips on the step behind him. I don’t bother reaching out to make sure he doesn’t fall. That was the least of his worries.
“And why the hell not? She isn’t Ivy, so what does the emails matter?” I wanted to yell at him, but I refrained myself.
“Because she’s Gabriela Russo! Alejandro’s actual blood related daughter! Kidnapping her is a thousand times worse than kidnapping Ivy!”
My mind goes completely blank. No way. There was no way that Gabby was a Russo. She was born and raised in Colorado. How would that be possible that she was Alejandro’s daughter?
“You just asked her on who she was, so why are you suddenly stating that she’s a Russo if you didn’t know that before?” I demanded.
He rakes his hands in his hair in frustration. “I thought on it and it has to be her. Jones said she was with Alejandro and his wife and must have thought she was Ivy at the restaurant. Not many people know that he has a biological daughter. Fuck, I didn’t even know until about three months ago. Apparently, she came out of nowhere a half a year ago.”
My mind starts to go haywire on that information. It was definitely something to look into. I backpedaled down the stairs, shoving him out of my way and out the front door where my bodyguard, Matteo, sat on the porch looking around the place as he was trained to do.
Once I came out, he stood to full attention. “I need you to call Charlie, tell him to look up someone named Gabriela Russo.”
He nods his head and takes out his phone. God, I hoped my cousin was wrong on this. But if he wasn’t, then we were both royally screwed.
I stare stupidly out the large window of the study room. A slow fire crackled in the fireplace that I had started up for some light, since the somber feeling of a fire always made me feel calm. I sat on the ground leaning against the side of the large desk so I could stare up at the stars, a glass of amber liquid sitting beside me half drank.
I held the document that Charlie sent via fax in the Study. I had to pry information from Domenico what the number was, him being all secretive and worried that a trace could be linked to this location. But I wasn’t worried about that right now.
My main concern what was written on this piece of paper that didn’t take Charlie more than an hour to retrieve. There was a reason Charlie was my secretary after all. He was the best at extracting information from anywhere. He was once a hacker that got into my father’s hidden business, and he would have succeeded too if it hadn’t been for me figuring out what was going on before my father did. He would have been killed if I didn’t get to him first. If he would have ever gotten caught that was.
It was by big fat luck that I just happened to be looking into my father’s computer system to make sure everything was up to code the day that I caught the weird bug that was eating around the hard drive files. And being a computer whiz myself I was able to quickly track him before the wire went dead. I didn’t care that he was snooping. The fact he was able to break down my firewalls was what impressed me.
I didn’t necessarily care for my father’s illegal gambling business, so the fact that he could have lost half his resources, if not all, didn’t bother me. But when I found his location, he tried to run, but my men were ready for that antic and caught him within moments.
He thought I was going to kill and hide his body, or worse torture him. But when I asked him to work for me, he was completely caught off guard, staring at me like I had lost my mind. I found out that he hacks into drug lords, Mafia lords, criminal records for fun. Just knowing he could, at any time, screw them all over gave him a thrill that he held the power over such powerful men that I knew he was completely unhinged for it.
He did it for fun, not for a purpose. Which made me want him on my side even more. Charlie had been with me for five years now, happy to do any of the work I sent him out to do. He was also my biggest asset since I had him do annual hacking reports on my father and the other Mafia clans to be sure to stay ahead of the game.
But I never have him take money or their resources. I wasn’t about that, wasn’t about stealing another’s personal gain, regardless them stealing from others. I just wanted to be sure where I needed to head next and never be caught by surprise. It was his favorite pastime. I even thought he would get bored playing the secretary, but he loved that job just as much as he loved to hack people.
And I’m grateful he was still around. It was also why I kept him heavily guarded too. I can’t have someone else taking my guy for their own gain, or worse, murdering him for getting into what they all think were impenetrable cyber walls if they ever find out what he’s been doing.
So, him finding the info I asked for in such a short amount of time was no shock. The contents of that document however, was. I sit there heavily, not understanding how this could even be remotely possible.
My heart was hammering away, not sure I still wanted to believe what I was seeing, wishing it wasn’t true at all. But then anger flashes through me along with resentment. I take out my cell phone and call the one person I haven’t heard from in such a long time.
It rang four times before his voice was on the other line.
“Hello?” He sounded curious, probably because he doesn’t know my number.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?” Was my first question to him.
Silence was met on the other side. “You’ll have to be more specific than that, Tesoro.”
I closed my eyes at the endearment I didn’t think I would ever hear again, didn’t think I still deserved.
“That Gabby is a Russo.” I nearly choked, getting a little emotional hearing his voice in nearly eight years.
He sighs deeply. “Does it really even matter that she is?”
“Yes! And you know why, Nonno.”
“Didn’t think that mattered to you. You always wanted to pull away from the family legacy, so why does it matter now?”
I clenched the phone tightly in my hand. “It still doesn’t erase the family’s history. I wouldn’t be stupid enough to believe that it doesn’t affect me too, regardless of leaving the legacy behind.”
Another silence on the line. “Tell me Tesoro, is it the fact that she’s a Russo or is it more of the fact that she’s suddenly back into your life that’s bothering you?”
My eyes burn from the tears that wanted to be released. I didn’t think this phone call would be so difficult to handle. No matter how many times I talk to him, he gets me to spout out the truth every single time.
“It’s both, Nonno.”