Page 84 of Stalking Ginevra

When she doesn’t answer, he clicks a remote. The sounds of our conversation at the Meat Show filters through the speakers. She recoils, her gaze snapping to the screen behind him. Fear flickers across her face, and I savor my victory.

It’s just the opening moments of the recording before things get exciting. In a minute, the screen will go dead, but she’s not to know.

“Turn it off!” she cries.

Nick pauses the replay and stares at her across the table, letting the silence stretch. She squirms in her seat, her pretty features twisting with anguish. I tilt my head, wondering what’s going through her mind.

Will she continue turning to Brisket for help or finally realize he’s a villain bent on her destruction? Just as it looks like she’s about to make up an excuse, Nick finally speaks.

“These antics go against our firm’s code of conduct and the ethics of an attorney. You could lose your license.”

She whimpers.

I lean in closer, relishing her reaction. She’s teetering on the edge, and the threat of losing everything she’s worked for is exactly the push she needs.

Nick launches into a lecture about her shitty performance and how her presence is a distraction to her colleagues. It’s all true. Nick, the receptionist, and Martina Mancini have kept alive rumors about what Joseph Di Marco might have done with the firm’s missing millions.

Di Marco ran the organization to the ground, since the majority of his work centered on non-paying clients. He protected Frederic Capello’s illegal operations from the law, never sending out a single invoice.

Pro bono work for a demanding client and his cohorts is the quickest way to go broke. Bellavista also never paid a dime in legal fees for the five years Di Marco took control. The firm also defended relatives of the old man, such as Gianni and Valentino Bossanova, for free.

With all this shit uncovered, everyone in the organization can’t help but ask if Ginevra knew about her father’s fraudulent dealings.

She didn’t. According to Martina, Joseph kept her far from his schemes. She wasn’t even allowed to work with the firm’s gangster clients.

But Martina knows Di Marco’s dirty secrets. She thinks fucking her new boss will make her immune from the fallout. Nick only keeps her around because he wants to know if Di Marco has any hidden accounts.

“What about you?” Ginevra snaps, her voice pulling me out of my musings. “Screwing Martina over a desk doesn’t exactly scream ethics.”

“Your father had me struck off, remember? Don’t deflect the conversation away from how you fucked a client.”

Her breath hitches, and I can almost see the anger giving way to desperation.

“It wasn’t my fault,” she says, her voice cracking.

Nick leans in, his expression darkening. “Are you accusing Mr. Brisket of sexual assault?”

She freezes, her eyes widening, her mouth opening and closing but making no sound.

Nick doesn’t give her a moment to recover. “No? Then what do you have to say for yourself?”

The room falls back into silence.

“Give me something,” Nick growls. “Your performance is shit. You’re distracting my staff, and you’re bringing the firm to further disrepute. You’re a dead weight—just like your father.”

When her face crumples, my nostrils flare.

Nick didn’t need to go so hard.

“Miss Di Marco,” he says over her sobs. “I have no other option but to let you go. Leave the building. You’re no longer an employee of this firm. One of my interns will pack your things and deliver them to your home.”

She’s crumbling, her armor falling away. This is the downfall I engineered, but the part of me that still loves Ginevra wants to rush out and protect her from the world.

The meltdown lasts less than a minute before she forces her features into a mask of composure. Without a word, she rises from her seat and walks to the door. I lean back in my seat, torn between guilt and satisfaction. This never would have escalated if she hadn’t refused my proposal.

I’m a bastard, but still determined to make her mine.

As she walks out of the office, I make a quick call to the loan sharks. “Be outside the Di Marco house in thirty minutes. Offer her twenty-four hours to find the money or she will be trafficked. If she invokes my name, tell her you checked, and she isn’t engaged.”

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