Page 24 of The Runaway Bride

Watching the monitors thismorning in my office with Bruno standing on my left chuckling more to himselfthan to me, we listen and update security as to what the women are going to doto escape.

“Tommaso, disable the Ranger,”Bruno murmurs into his phone, and hearing, ‘Yes, sir’, we know the two of themhave a flawed plan already.

“We’ll watch this play out, butup the wedding to the weekend. It’s time to nail these two down. Oh, and Bruno,make sure your suite is fit for your wife to settle into.”

“Oh, I have that in hand. Yasmineis making sure everything is in order. She’s having a designer bring clothingfor Tia, then she’ll have everything she needs.”

“Yasmine is busy as I’ve told herto do that for Elli, too. I may need to give Yasmine an increase in her salarybecause she’s stepping up whenever she’s asked.”

“I think they’ll make a movetonight when the house quiets down. I’ll make sure everyone is ready so theycan’t run, but you know Nico, we would never have been happy with meek and mildwomen. I think Tia will suit me fine once we get to know each other. Love maycome later, but respect and care to start should be the priority. Anyway, I’mgoing to take my woman out for a walk around the property, get her away fromElli for a short while, and their never-ending plotting,” Bruno chuckles at thelast of his comment, and whistles as he walks out of the office.

Settling down with the paperworkon the desk, I sigh before rubbing my neck at the tension sitting here too longcreates. Checking my phone when it vibrates on the desktop, I pick it up to seemy casino spy is contacting me.

“What have you got?” I asksharply.

“Found evidence, Boss. Gerald inthe office has been selling information about the casino. I will have theevidence with you in an hour. We also have two of the women on the floorskimming from the bar takings. One is giving the other the orders, but notputting them through the register. They are pocketing the cash and sharing it.”

“Hm, okay, get the information tome. Good job, and I’ll make sure your pay shows my thanks.”

“Thanks, Boss.”

Placing my phone back onto thetop of the desk, I clasp my hands together and close my eyes. More thieving andI’m going to have to make an example of these people. Or maybe I can let Tinyloose on them?

Stepping away from my desk, Iwalk out of the office and to the kitchen, where I’m sure Tiny will be at thistime of the morning. He’ll be filling his belly with anything they are makingin the kitchen for lunch, and more than likely flirting with the new womanYasmine hired last week.

Leaning on the doorframe of thekitchen, I watch Tiny smiling and flirting, as I thought, with the new woman.She’s not responding more than is necessary. Yasmine keeps looking at themboth, shaking her head while smiling to herself.

“When you’ve finished, Tiny, I’vea job for you,” I drawl, and watch him jump from his seat, ready for whatever Ihave for him. He’s maybe not a large man in physicality, but he’s a massive manin temperament and attitude.

“See you later, ladies,” Tinygives them a chin lift as he walks over to the door and follows me back to theoffice.

I only just sat behind my deskwhen Tommaso taps on the door and steps inside. “Courier delivery for you,Boss.” Tiny takes the large envelope from Tommaso, who turns and leaves,getting back to his gate duty.

Opening the envelope, I grit myteeth when I see the evidence that my spy has collected. It seems our officeman has been taking bribes for quite some time. I hand over the file to Tiny,who reads it before giving me a steely-eyed look. “You deal with that one,Tiny.”

“Yeah, I can do that. Do you wantme to make an example of him?”

“Yes,” is all I need to say, andknow it will be dealt with.

Elli and Tia walk into theoffice, giving Tiny and me a sweet as sugar smile. Yeah, they are playing nice.“What can I do for you ladies?” I ask, giving them just as sweet a smile inreturn.

“We have clothes, clothes andmore clothes being delivered. Do you know anything about that?” Elli asks whilegiving me a pouty look. Yeah, she’s not fooling me at all with that!

“Well, you don’t want to bewalking around with no clothing on, do you? I mean, your brother wouldn’t betoo happy if I didn’t look after you. Tia, your intended has provided for younicely too, but I thought you were taking a walk around the grounds?”

“Bruno, the ass, was intending toshow me around. But when he said I was a shortcake, he shit his bucket full,and I walked away.” Tia is looking at her fingernails as though nothing of whatshe said is shocking in the least. But she just turned down the Underboss ofthe largest Mafia in the United States, which has me chuckling.

I watch out the corner of my eyeas Elli leans down and reads the paperwork I’ve received regarding the twowomen at the casino. She frowns, and before she realizes what she’s doing shepicks up the papers and reads more closely. Handing them to Tia who also givesthem a good looking over, I watch Tiny as he is so shocked at what they areboth doing that he looks like an owl, and his mouth has fallen open.

“Do you want us to deal withthese two women? I mean they need a good slap down, and your tech man needs toget into their bank and recover the casino’s losses,” Elli looks at me, thenshe must realize what she’s done and the blush must start from her chest andit’s fascinating to watch it creep up her neck, into her cheeks, which now areglowing.

“Tiny will bring them here, andif you want to deal with it, I’m happy to allow that, but I need to be with youwhile you do it. You are, after all, the Don’s intended, and you have a powerall of your own. Oh, we are having the wedding a little earlier too,” I throwthat out as though it's nothing important, and before she can react I make myway out of the office, my back to the door so they don’t see the huge smile Ihave plastered on my face.

I know that we won’t have thewomen available for at least two hours. They’ll be picked up and taken to themausoleum, blindfolded, of course. I’m intrigued by what Elli will do, but Iwant her to feel she has some control over her life and input into the family.It’s one of the ways I wanted the family to evolve. For too long, it has beenarchaic in its thoughts and actions.

Chapter 17

Nico

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