Impressing the Clients

77

Marco's POV

I can't remember when was the last time I was this nervous. I sat uneasily in the car as I waited for my brother and Paula to come.

It was around two in the afternoon, a little late for lunch time but we figured that she needed more time to rest. And we needed more time to compose and prepare ourselves for this date.

As soon as the car door opened, she went in and sat beside me. All glamed up with her light make up and stunning black silk dress with a neckline that's too fucking low and the slit on its side was to fucking high in my opinion. But it didn't bother me that much anymore. And I chose and learned not to comment on it. She can wear what she wanted as long as the important bits were for our eyes only.

She was absolutely breathtaking.

Mason and I always went for the classic. Our black suit and tie tailored just for us.

We're taking her to a nice restaurant overlooking to the city. Mason made sure that the whole place was ours. Only a few staff and we pre-ordered our food. A delicious four-course meal.

I asked Paula which food she wanted but unsurprisingly she was more concerned about her drink after the meal. Anything hard on the rocks.

We sat by the balcony table. A bottle of wine on a bucket of ice was already served just the way we told them.

"Wow," she took in the view of the city while I took in the view that's right in front of me.

Yes, definitely wow.

Mason cleared his throat and spoke up, "Marco told me you want to know everything."

She only nodded.

And as promised, we told her everything about our problem. She knew there was an enemy just lurking around us but she didn't knew how grave the danger it can do to her.

We told her that because of this, the business was slowly declining with our divided supervision.

We told her the nasty things we did to keep our family business afloat. She was frozen in her seat. She didn't know what to react. She just sat there, holding her glass of wine on the table.

We told her that even if we wanted to avenge for our dear friend and even if we wanted to retaliate to get this whole damn shit over with, we can't. Because we didn't have any clue who our target was.

"I hope you now understand how complicated and gravitating this problem to us. I hope you now understand why we're overprotective of you. We don't want to caught up in the crossfires. We are dangerous people, Paula. And we have an even more dangerous enemy out there. And as much as we hate to admit, our investigation on this matter is at dead end. We don't have any solid who this person might be. He or she might be watching us right and all we can do is up the security, wait and plan for the attack. That's the only thing we can do right now," Mason warned her.

"We're not scaring you, love. This is the truth. The only way to protect you now is to keep you beside us, to have you heavily guarded," I reached for her hand and thankfully she took mine. "We're sorry."

It took the longest minute I can ever imagine before she decided to speak.

"I-," she stammered, her voice shook, "I didn't know."

We kept silent. I braced myself for the worst.

I braced myself for a deserving slap on the face for keeping her with us even if it can endanger her. I braced myself for the disgust she didn't knew she had until now that she learned that we were not just businessmen—we're murderers, torturers and criminals. I braced myself for the most painful sight of all—her walking out of here, from us and never turning back. I braced myself for the worst and I was absolutely clueless how I would take it if that ever happen.