14 Days With The Mafia Lord

~ Obsession In A Photograph ~

GIOVANNI

I poured a drink from the crystal decanter I kept on the tray I had in my office. It was my personal opinion that there was nothing a good, clean glass of alcohol couldn't solve, so I always made sure to have some at my fingertips.

And after the day I had, I needed it more now more than ever.

Taking a sip of the whiskey, I returned to my desk and sat. On the table in front of me was the picture I'd been staring at for the better part of the day.

It was taken four years ago, on the night my life changed completely.

I'd been less than ten minutes inside that ballroom when my eyes zeroed in on the angel in red at the bar.

Her black hair was held up by an assortment of beautiful flowers to reveal her delicate neck. Her soft curves under the sensual floor-length dress called out to me, every whisper promising to fulfill my deepest darkest fantasies. Every time she lifted the glass to her lips I imagined them wrapped around my cock. I had a hard-on like I never experienced before.

I'd taken a candid picture of her, and I loved what I saw so much I had it printed, and now I carried it everywhere with me. Whenever I needed a pick-me-up, I'd bring it out and stare at it, remembering that one wild night.

But the woman in this photo was certainly not the same woman brought bound and gagged into my warehouse. I knew I shouldn't waste a single second thinking about her but try as I might, I couldn't pull my mind away from her.

There were two things about her that I found immensely troubling.

First of all, she had a child. A fucking child!

She was most definitely not married, but she had a child, which could only mean that sometime after I fucked her, she managed to find another man who gave her her son. Someone had touched her after me.

For some reason, that particular thought put me on edge. Made me—dare I say it— jealous.

I didn't know if her child's father was in the picture or if she had someone she was seeing. Neither did I care. I was going to fuck her as much as I wanted and as hard as I pleased until the length of our deal expired.

That thought took the edge away from my chest.

The other thing that baffled me was her current financial status.

According to the information I received, she was dirt poor, working three jobs and barely keeping her head above water.

It was almost impossible to picture her broke because she was the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Italy. The same man I hated with a passion.

"Blanco Martinez, you old piece of shit," I hissed into the air in front of me. "How could you?"

Her father had more than enough money to throw around, so why would he leave his own daughter, and only child, out to dry? Why would he allow her to live in a dingy two-by-four at the end of a cul-de-sac?

I was shocked to my core when my men came back from dropping Elaine's unconscious body in her house with a bleak description of the property she lived in with her son.

That was when I knew her situation was dire.

There was so much I didn't know, so much I didn't understand. And the only person who knew the whole story was as stubborn as a mule.

It didn't matter, though. All would come out in due time.

A smirk found its way to my lips as I recalled the interrogation from last night. She was so damn defiant and feisty that I'd wanted nothing more than to take her up against a wall and fuck her senseless. It was a struggle to conceal just how turned on she made me.

Ever since I laid eyes on her, she held a power over me that I couldn't shake. Whenever we were in the same room, I found it hard to control my urge to fuck her. She'd awoken magnificent things in me with a mere look. Things I had thought were long dead.

This was not good. Not good in the slightest.

The idea of someone else—much less the daughter of my enemy—having power over me was unthinkable. It was the worst thing that could possibly happen. Not only because I hated the idea of being controlled, but in my line of work, it was incredibly dangerous.

Common sense told me I needed to stay as far away from that woman as possible. But there was just something about her. I couldn't keep her out of my thoughts.

But why? Why was she different?

I was so lost in thought I didn't hear my door open, and two men stepped in.

A snap in my face finally brought me back to the present.

"Morning, boss," Butch greeted, his thumbs hooked in the pockets of his jeans.

Billy acknowledged me with a nod from his brother's side.

"Morning, fellas," I finally said.

Billy and Butch were identical twin brothers who served as my personal bodyguards. If there was something I wanted doing, they were the ones I trusted to do it. From breaking the knees of late payers to finding dirt on whoever was unfortunate enough to cross me—they handled it all.

Two big, beefy men who could scare the devil himself, they were effective every time.

I wouldn't have expected anything less than the best considering I had gone out of my own way to help them when they had been abandoned by their parents as young teenagers, left to fend for themselves in a city where one wrong move could very well be your last. I had fed, housed and clothed them all out of the very limited kindness of my heart. They owed me big time and their loyalty was the least I expected from them.

"We got that info you wanted on the shipment."

I took a sip of my drink and motioned for them to continue.

"It was supposed to arrive last week, but there was some hiccup at the border," Butch started. "Apparently, some goody-goody cop at the Mexican border decided to take a second look at the shipping manifest. But don't worry, boss. Our friends at the top have straightened everything out. Our goods should be here by the end of the week, and that cop will never be employed again."

"Good," I took another sip. "What about Blanco Martinez? Did you check him out, as I asked?"

Billy and Butch shared a look before Billy reached into his jacket pocket and brought out something.

He dropped several black and white photos on my table.

Putting my drink down, I picked them up.

"Speaking of Blanco Martinez," Billy's scratchy voice sounded out. "Did his pretty little daughter pay her debt? Is that why you let her go so easily last night, boss?"

My lips curved into a smirk. "No. But I'm not finished with her just yet."

I left it at that, and my employees understood I wouldn't say more and didn't push for details.

"In other news, we've got three more distributors for the coke," Butch informed me. "We should see an influx of cash any day now."

"Excellent, just make sure they know that not a single dime goes missing. I'm very attached to my money."

I dropped the pictures and picked up the receiver on the landline on my desk. Pressing a button, I put it to my ear and waited.

"Sir?" came the feminine voice of my secretary.

"Laura, cancel all my appointments for the rest of the day. I'm going to be out of the office."

"Alright, sir," she answered, and the line went dead.

"Alright, boys," I said to my bodyguards, rising from my chair. "Let's hit the road, shall we?"

.......

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