Page 26 of The Prices We Pay
“Nah.” I wave her off. “He loves us. Dante would die before he hurts the people he loves.”
She smiles, and her eyes soften. Over the last week, I’ve seen how she interacts with Dante. She’s got a soft spot for the big guy already.
Not that I blame her.
“What is it that you needed to meet with me about, Lorenzo?” I love that she uses my full name. Despite it only ever being used when people are upset or annoyed with me, the way she says it is… endearing.
Not to mention that my name has never sounded as beautiful as it does coming from her lips.
I wonder how it would sound while she screamed it.
Focus, Enzo.
“I wanted to…” Oh shit, what’s my excuse for bringing her in here? “Oh yeah. Did you get a chance to look into the paperwork for the missing Angelo’s shipment?”
She leans back in the chair and slides her glasses to the top of her head, pulling some of the hair from her face. She pinches her brows, and I can’t help but stare at her gunmetal-blue eyes. I’ve never seen anything quite like them. Sometimes, they look gray, but in the right lighting, they look like the purest shade of soft blue. They’re absolutely stunning.
She’sabsolutely stunning.
“I did this morning, actually. All of the paperwork seems to be in order. The delivery got signed off at the port last Thursday, showing it was delivered and it cleared customs inspection, so it must have gone missing after it was loaded onto the delivery truck.”
Grabbing the pen off my desk, I bite the end between my teeth, a habit I picked up a long time ago that I have never been able to quit. No matter how many times Luca has warned me that I’m going to chip a tooth.
Joe continues, “But as I was flipping through paperwork, I did notice a handful of small shipments that got delivered to the port but were never received by their designated retailer. Nothing over twenty grand, just small enough not to get flagged by insurance when it was reported missing, if it was even reported missing. Shipments get lost all of the time. But this many in such a short amount of time seems odd.”
“The only reason I noticed Angelo’s was because it was jewels, and he notified me the day it wassupposed to be delivered. What were the rest of the missing items?”
“Just a few pieces of clothing in each delivery.” I can practically see the gears in her brain spinning as she speaks to me. She’s a smart woman—extremely smart, actually. And I’d bet a lot of people she meets wouldn’t assume that based on the way she looks.
I understand this all too well, and I’m eternally grateful for it. Luca has never, nor will he ever, let the way I choose to express myself reflect the opportunities that have presented themselves in front of me.
I’m an extremely smart and capable person—well, besides computers—and people have always underestimated me. They take one look at me and assume I’m nothing more than a degenerate. As far as ourextracurricularsare concerned, that suits me just fine, but when it comes to the business world, it’s always been a bit of a hindrance.
That is, until I open my mouth and people realize I actually know what the fuck I’m talking about.
“When did they start going missing?”
“About a month ago,” Joe answers as she crosses one leg over the other. The hem of her pant leg rides up ever so slightly, and I can see the edges of another tattoo covering the base of her calf.
“That makes sense. That’s when Luca fired the consulting company that was handling everything you’re doing now. He tried as hard as he could to keep up with all of the necessary paperwork in the interim, but he’s only one person, and he has a million and one other things to get done during the day.”
She smiles, clearly amused. “How close was he to going insane?”
“I would have given it two more days. Tops.”
She giggles, and I swear I can feel it in my chest. “Anything you want me to do about it?”
“No. I’ll talk to Luca and see how he wants to proceed. It might be as simple as changing delivery services.”
She uncrosses her legs and sits forward in her chair. “Okay, sounds good. Well, I’m going to continue going over that mountain of paperwork that Luca ‘attempted’ to fill out.”She’s sure to put air quotes around the word attempted, letting me know Luca wasn’t even close to doing any of it correctly. Joe stands and begins to walk out of my office.
Shit, she’s leaving already.
“Wait.” She stops in her tracks and spins to face me, hands clasped in front of her, pushing her cleavage together ever so slightly, and it takes every ounce of my willpower to look up at her face. But when I do, I find her wearing a sly smirk, like she knows good and well exactly what I was looking at. “What are your plans this weekend?”
I wonder if she’d want to meet us all at Kings for a couple of drinks. I bet she and Harper would hit it off in a heartbeat. And selfishly, I’d love to see what she wears outside of work, considering how sexy the clothes are that she wearstowork.
“I have plans tomorrow night, but not much on Sunday. I’m probably going to spend the day binge-watchingThe Officeand cleaning my apartment.”
