Marco POV
"We found him," Ortega said as soon as I walked into the meeting room. I had landed two hours ago and taken a 1 hour nap, only to be awake up until now figuring things out and adding the finishing touches to the plan.
Zhara's chat with Matteo was informative, as she had suspected. He told us about Rosalies plan to build a headquarter closer to me so she wouldn't have to travel to get things done. She'd masked these headquarters in the form of a hotel expansion. He'd loaned her money to do so—and she'd taken the freedom of helping herself to some more from our accounts— and we guessed, correctly, that she'd given it to Romano.
Now he was housed there with his men, hidden in plain site.
"We can't afford any major bloodshed right now so just have someone send a message to set up a meeting," I said. Ortega pulled out his laptop and listened.
"Say we will agree to his terms. In lieu of recent events, we find it unreasonable to start a war over something as futile as some land. Tell him to meet in 2 hours or he can forget it."
"What if he decides to fight?"
"We're broke in finances, not in men. We could go if he wants to, but I feel he's wiser than that." Ortega nodded at my response and finished typing.
"Sir," said a maid.
I turned to face her and motioned for her to come closer.
"The birthday flowers just came in. The woman wants you to come choose which ones you'd like."
"I'll be there shortly," I told her. I turned my attention back to Ortega. "Also tell him to bring the account information. All of it. When he comes, send him to my office."
I followed the maid out of the meeting room and into the living room. The coffee table was littered with bouquets of different sizes and colors. I pulled out my phone and on the dot, as we'd planned, I got a FaceTime call from Zhara.
"Daddyyy," the twins whispered together.
"Principe e principessa," I said. "Did you make sure mommy couldn't hear?"
"She's cooking with Aunty Maïna," Angelo informed me.
"Yeah. We're hiding in Angelos closet," Sofi said. I laughed, when she opened the closet door to show me.
"Okay, here's the spread," I said, showing them the flowers.
"Ooooo so pretty," Sofi gasped. "I like the purple ones and if I like them, mommy probably likes them too." I nodded towards the florist who wrote it in her bill book.
"I like the white ones,"said Angelo.
"Then that's settled,"I told them, filling out the check before handing it to the florist.
"Can we choose the colors for the balloons," asked Angelo.
"I though we were going to stay on theme with the flowers," I said.
"No, Angelo wants us to pick the balloons so we'll pick the balloons," said an assertive Sofi. I smiled at the two teaming up.
