Page 98 of His Vicious Desire

The issue is, I’m at work all the damn time.It hasn’t been easy adding in what he needs me to do and still handling the money laundering.Not anyone can handle the money laundering, it requires knowledge of all we do and experience.So it isn’t something I can hand off.At the same time, Sandro hasn’t wanted anyone but me to be his second.For a few weeks, I wondered if he would.

Sandro is waiting in his office.

Per his usual, he doesn’t say anything, waiting for me to start the discussion.

So I tell him.

He’s quiet for a long time, considering my words.“What if you don’t need to handle the business of the property in old Vegas?”

I shrug.“It would mean I could do this and not lose my mind.The only problem comes with me not making any money if I do.If I could come here full time, maybe as vice-president on the paperwork.”

“You’re working for me and the Outfit.You deserve a salary from the Outfit.I’m not going to be able to pay you what you’re worth.Let me call Carlo.”He says as he picks up his phone.

Sandro relays what we’re thinking to Carlo.Fuck.Carlo isn’t open to it at all.He’s pissed, saying I don’t work hard enough to earn a salary.

I’m clocking Sandro opening a few documents and adding up shit on a calculator.I wonder what the hell he’s doing.

Shaking his head, he puts Carlo on mute.“How does six hundred a year sound?”

I consider the number.Right now, I have a little more than eighty-five million in the bank, spread around from investments.Before I took over the hotel, I earned around three hundred a year.Even though my money is doubling, so are my responsibilities.I nod.“That will do.”

When Sandro gives the number to Carlo, I wonder if Carlo is going to keel over from a fucking embolism or some shit.

It’s almost twenty minutes before Sandro can calm him down enough to get a word in edgewise.

Somehow it happens.Carlo agrees as long as the income for the hotel on the strip goes up by my salary.Then he slams the phone down with a last curse word.

“How the hell is that going to happen?”I wonder.

Laughing, “I don’t make a deal without being certain.The income is going to increase because of the traveling Van Gogh exhibit.It’s what Luca worked out when he went after bringing it here.The projection is for an extra seven hundred and fifty thousand.”

Gaetano

Sandro and I are a little easier now.I’m aware of how much it hurts Bianca that she’s no longer close to Sandro.She pretends she’s fine.Hell, she’s even had lunch with Carina a few times, yet she won’t talk about Sandro.

I’m trying to figure it out without being disrespectful to him.

“What’s the matter?”Sandro nods at me.

Giving in, I sit down in front of his desk.“Bianca, she’s…”

“Your problem now.”His hands go up.

“It’s things like that.She’s not as much of a brat as I called her.I told you long ago, she was what you made her, and I still believe it.Jesus, Sandro, the way Marissa walked away from her.One by one, she lost everyone.The only person she had left was you.And you left her in the end too.At least with her father, she didn’t have to see him walking away from her.”

He loses his smile.“It was a joke.And watch yourself.”

“Watch the truth?”

His jaw works.“It wasn’t like that.”

“It was exactly like that.Do you have any idea all the damn programming of fear she’s been living in that I have to undo?She’s afraid to pick what she wants to eat.”I give in and tell him what Bianca told me about her dad cheating on her mom and the awful shit they told her.

“My mom didn’t tell her that.”He’s begging me to lie to him.

I’m not letting him off easy.If I have to know, so does he.“She sure as fuck did.”

Shaking his head.“I had no idea…”

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