In Your Clutches

Part 6: Delancy And Jealousy

ASHER

Amelia's stuff came this morning. I was going to go through all her things personally. Never can tell what that old fucker might have put in there.

I was surprised when he agreed to have everything sent over. It was everything she packed up for Cambridge. It was already packed, so I didn't know why that fucker took such long send it when I requested it just after the meeting.

There were over five suitcases and five small bags she was supposed to carry on her flight.

Too many bags. Ironic how she packed up to move to a different state and ended up with me.

It took me a little over an hour to go through her stuff. I sorted through her clothes first. Then I got lost in her books. She was a good medical student and she had packed up all her books and notes in a separate bag. I heard she went to Harvard for two years. This was going to be her third year before.... I got her kidnapped.

And because of who runs it, money can't buy you a place with them. You have to earn your spot. She seemed really good at what she did, just like Ma.

Ma was an artist. She was a landscape person, and she liked doing portraits too. She loved painting people and did many paintings of us. When I checked out Amelia, I had to admit that the first thing to strike me about her was her passion. Now I'd seen it, too.

I zipped up all her bags and sent the one containing her clothes and accessories to Claudia so that she could give them to her later. As for the ones containing her books... I was not going to give her that to add salt to her wounds and rub it in.

I left my room and went downstairs into the office where many of my men were already seated.

We began going through work stuff. About the Syndicate, and the new responsibilities that I got once I officially became boss at twenty-five that was just a year away.

"All right, what have we got here?" I asked after a few hours, lighting a cigarette as I spoke.

It was late afternoon and we had been going through it for hours. My men were probably bored, and they hadn't got much sleep since a few days, but they knew I had zero tolerance for errors. We were seated in my office.

Everybody had almost left, leaving only me and Marco in the room to discuss some other matters.

Of course, I knew what it meant to be Asher Salvatore, and everyone understood what it meant to work for me. I was man who pursued perfection, down to the very last detail. I was meticulous and painstakingly vigilant and I expected... demanded this of everyone who worked for me.

I wasn't a forgiving man either—I was cold, calculative and as ruthless in my business as I was in my pursuit. I was not the type of man to take no for an answer, even if that meant that people got hurt sometimes.

'A cold and heartless bastard.'

That's what people had described me as, and hey, I didn't argue. It was the truth and I appreciated knowing the truth. If the other knew about how I was and who I was, they would be more careful about upsetting me in the future.

"It's what you thought. The Irish. They have been found human trafficking just the south of The Garfield Park," Marco said.

"Garfield Park? Past the prep school?" I asked, surprised but Marco shook his head.