Page 20 of Temptation
One that I don’t want to leave.
“I need you to find someone.”
The smile snaps off Mattia’s face, and he’s all business.
“Who?”
“A boy called Chad. He’s staying at the lodge with some Ivy Leaguefiglio di puttanas.”
My fist clenches as I think about what Greta told me. How he tricked her into going to the lake, and then their entitled asses thought they could have a little fun.
My fist slams into the desk so hard my monitors rattle.
“Bring them in.”
“To the vault?” Mattia asks.
“To the vault,” I confirm. “But don’t rough them up too much. I want that pleasure.”
Mattia nods. “It’s done.”
He turns to go, and I call him back. “Be discreet. I don’t want any trouble with Axel.”
The owner of The Emerald Heart Resort is an old friend, and I respect him too much to bring trouble to his door.
“Don’t worry, boss.” Mattia slips into an Italian accent and shrugs his shoulders innocently. “I’m just the Uber driver.”
Mattia leaves and my finger twitches, eager to turn the monitors back on. But there’s another call I need to make first.
I dial Axel’s number, and he picks up on the first ring.
“Lorenzo,” he purrs down the line. “I was just about to call your big brother.”
My chest tightens, and I sit up. No one calls Carlo Berone without good reason.
“What is it?”
I hear the sound of a tumbler being brought to his lips and the clink of ice cubes. “I’ve just watched his daughter stroll into my club.”
Axel’s like me. He sits behind a wall of monitors. Nothing that happens in that place gets past him.
If it’s only my wayward niece causing him concern, then it’s not my problem. I don’t babysit the girl. But Carlo will be furious.
He’s as protective a father as I’ve ever seen, especially since her mother passed. He keeps her in a gilded cage. The girl can’t take a shit without a security detail.
The irony isn’t lost on me as I think about the sleeping beauty in my cage upstairs.
“Carlo will have your balls if he knows you let her into his club. She’s only just turned eighteen.”
Axel takes another sip of his drink.
“She showed some pretty convincing ID to the doorman. It’s his first shift, so I won’t take his job. It’s lucky one of my bar staff recognized her.”
“She can’t be in there, Axel. If Carlo finds out you’re serving his little girl, he’ll have your balls.”
It’s not an idle threat. I’ve seen my brother slash a man’s face because he turned to look at his wife.
When she was alive, Eliana was the most beautiful woman in the state. Too bad she was taken tragically early. And too bad her daughter is the spitting image of her mother. Carlo was always a hard man, but the grief made him mean. Too much like our father.
