Page 15 of The Runaway Bride

“No need to call us, Mister. Youare an equal with Enzo, so you call him by his name. Although I have a higherposition, I would prefer you call me Aeron when in private settings. If we arehaving a full meeting, then yes you would call me by my given title,” Aeronreplies, and he is correct. I do not want my men having to bow and scrape toothers. They all work for me, and they all need to show respect.

“The west side that was EnricoMarchese’s territory will now be held by Andre Franzone. Mario Bianchi'sterritory will now be held by Luigi Di Marzo from this time onward. I expectall of you in this room to assist in any way that you can if you are asked forit. Your territory borders touch each other and if I see any sign of troublefrom any of you, you will answer to me.” I make sure that I look into every eyein the room, and again I notice the only one to not hold my gaze is TerizoGambolini.

“Aeron, I want you to call MateoFerenzi and TJ to see me. Silvio, please stay behind, and Terizo, I want tospeak with you in the morning.”

Aeron quickly gives me a ‘Yes,Boss,’ along with Silvio, but everyone notices Terizo scowling and with a sneeron his upper lip. When he mutters something under his breath, Silvio lungesforward and grabs Terizo around the neck, and one swift movement would snap it.Silvio looks up to see what I want him to do, and I look at Bruno with a raisedeyebrow.

“I’ll take him to the basementand see what is going on. Philip, you want to come and keep us company?” Brunoasks. Terizo struggles more, but Silvio isn’t letting him go, no matter howhard that fucker struggles.

Luigi stuffed a handful ofnapkins into Terizo’s mouth, so he hadn’t been able to say a word. I look atLuigi, who shrugs as he states calmly, “I didn’t want to hear a word ofwhatever bullshit he was going to spout.”

Bruno, along with the twosoldiers he’d called into the room, drags Terizo out, and I can hear Brunocracking his knuckles as he walks past, which, of course, has me smirking.

After dismissing the Capos who Ididn’t need to continue speaking with, or informing them of other matters, Ican continue with the issue at hand. “Okay, let us look at this file you havefor me, Silvio.”

The next hour is spent goingthrough the information that Silvio has accumulated. Terizo Gambolini wasforcing his daughter into the arranged marriage, even after I told him she hadto agree to it. It also seems he was going to force her to spy on me, with hersister under threat if she didn’t. He also had been skimming from thecustomized armored vehicles company we run, which has run into three milliondollars at this point.

I throw the papers from my handonto the table, turn to Aeron and snarl, “Tell Bruno to finish it, and if hedoesn’t want to, then I will.”

Aeron nods and walks out of theroom to fulfill my order. Silvio takes a seat and points at the file once more.“You need to see Enrico and Mario also were skimming. But I’m sure that Andreand Luigi will find more than I did. One last thing,” taking a deep breath, helooks me right in the eye. “You have Elliana Palmeri promised to you, but youknow that her mother, Renata, is as evil as her husband, don’t you? Now thatLorenzo is dead, you can bet Renata will blame Elliana even though she is nothere and on the run.”

“I have a team watching her atthis time. Alex warned me she may go after Elli. If she makes a move, I’ll haveno regret placing her next to her husband, and they can both eat swamp.” I’mnot joking at that either. I would dump their bodies and let the gators havelunch. “I have eyes on Elli, and if I think she’s in any danger, I’ll have herbrought in. I want to clean up all the mess before I do that if I can.”

Alex taps his fingers on thetable, and we all turn to look at him. “Boss, Elli is more than capable oflooking after herself. You’ll be surprised what she can achieve when she putsher mind to it. She sees things from a different angle than we do, as men Imean, and I can tell you she’s not worried about what she sees, or how to dealwith it.”

Tapping on the door has Mateo andTJ walking into the room. “You wanted to see us, boss? I’ve left my family withfive soldiers, so they should be safe.”

I am impressed he added that lastpart, or I would have thought he didn’t care about his family. Sofia needs tobe kept safe because I’m sure Elli would kick up a fuss if anything happened toher.

“Yes, I want you to step up asCapo, Mateo. I want to step out of my territory. I only ran it because I hadto, but I want you to take it over. I’ll guide you, but you need to step upquickly. I’ve a mansion in mind for you in that territory which you can haveand then settle in. TJ here is a good soldier, young, but loyal. I want you totake him as your right-hand man, teach him to be the best he can. I have ideasfor him in the future.”

Both look shocked, but thank me,and place a hand over their hearts while dipping their heads to show respect.I’m feeling very satisfied with how this meeting has progressed. I makearrangements for the meetings, and directions that need to be held or givenbefore walking over to my office, and taking a stance in front of the floor toceiling window which looks over the city.

A tap on the door has me turningmy head, and Gail steps inside. “I have laid a report on your desk, regardingMiss. Elliana Palmeri.”

“Thank you, Gail.” I step over tomy desk as Gail leaves and closes the office door. I grin when I see the imageunderneath the sheet of paper I just lifted. Elli has had her hair cut. She’salso had some highlights added. They look good, and I would think she wanted tochange her look somewhat, but it’s too bad. I see you, I think to myself andgrin because she’s one beautiful young woman, and I can’t wait to get to knowher.

Chapter 10

Nico

Today four soldiers are going tothe church to pick up the woman if she turns up. The CCTV revealed a smallperson dropping the letter into the mailbox, wearing black, with a hoodiecovering their face, as you would expect. It was impossible to identify whothis person was, but from the size, it had to be a woman. All I can do now iswait for them to bring her in.

The week has flown past with theamount of work that has had to be done. I’ve had my new Capos situated, andthey have all my instructions of how, when and what is needed. Mateo surprisedme as he left his family for the moment in the safe house, and is securing hisposition before he moves them into the 8-bed mansion he settled with.

Terizo lasted three days underPhilip's and Bruno’s ministrations. I checked out the basement and wassurprised to see Terizo had no fingers, toes, eyes or ears. But they both hadleft his tongue as they wanted as much information from him as possible beforethey cut his throat.

The information they gained ledto recovering millions of dollars from offshore accounts, and removing six mademen that were also benefitting from Terizo’s skimming. Terizo’s wife anddaughter have been allowed to leave, as they knew nothing of what washappening. It seems they lived mostly with no contact with Terizo, so I allowedthem to live in a small house on the edge of Philip’s territory, and he’ll keepsurveillance on them for a while.

It looked as though Varina wasbeing pressured to marry. He allowed her to flee the wedding before he forcedher car off the road to stop her from telling me about his treachery.

I’m thinking this friend is goingto give me the information Varina collected against her father. Sadly, we knowit all now and he has paid for all he has done. There was no reason for Varinato die, but I can be thankful she was loyal to the family. I’ll make sure hermother and sister live outside of the family, and have recompense for all theymust have lived through.

Looking and discarding the lastreport on my desk, I am at last free to chase my woman. Yes, she's going tomake a run for it, without a doubt. But, I am looking forward to the challengeand the chase if it comes to it.

Picking up my phone, I send amessage to my housekeeper at the mansion.

The Boss: Make the secondsuite ready for my wife. I want everything that she will need at hand.

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