The Don & His Cheesecake (A mafia romance novel)

Chapter 3

incertitude (in•cer•ti•tude):

a feeling that one does not know the truth, truthfulness or trustworthiness of someone or something.

***

Ajax Hudson

The three continuous raps on my door had me rolling my eyes. I knew what this was about.

"Come in." I grunted.

Two men walked/stumbled into my office space, one stoic and the other smirking at me before grabbing the chairs placed in front of them and sitting down.

I closed the company merger file before me and tossed it to the side.

Looking at the men before me, I leaned back in my chair and crossed my fingers together, keeping my face neutral.

The air was tense and I felt my headache returning in full force. My brows twitched, unimpressed by the information the men had for me, which I was made aware of via a hastily typed text.

"How did it happen, William?" I asked, my voice low.

William Short, my Underboss and 2nd in command, cleared his throat before speaking.

"We had the package picked up. Just like it was planned. We tracked that slimeball Harry's location from the ping off of his cellphone down to his hideout at the Lower end. Once we got there, we picked him up, took care of him and took the suitcase. Opened that up and just as promised but not delivered – it was half cash, half gold bars."

William stopped in the midst of his explanation and looked over to Liam.

Liam Bailey is my Consigliere, my Advisor and Right-Hand Man, and someone who did not look comfortable at this moment.

"Continue, Liam." I said.

"We picked the package and left. Right when we nearly reached the Upper end, at the intersection with the...café, another black van rammed into us. Thanks to the rain, the roads have been slippery as it is, plus the fact that we got caught off-guard – we swirled off the road and hit...something. The internal wirings of the engine got messed up and short circuited causing smoke and eventually the whole engine to catch fire. We made it out but by that time the other car had got away. We couldn't even get a licence plate."

I took in a deep breath before letting it out.

"Well, we'll work on pulling footage from the security and dash cams around. Good thing it was at night. At least no one saw it. Anyway, let me work on getting footage, that'll be all gentlemen, I'll see you back at the house and celebrate the job well done today."

I opened the side drawer to pull out my phone book that we use STRICTLY for this side of the business. As I flipped through the book, looking for a contact, William cleared his throat.

"Actually... we did have a witness. Infact, she's the reason we made it out of the car – alive."

"Her and our amazing core strength." Liam snorted-laughed, uncomfortable at the information given out.

My hand stilled and the temperature in the room dropped a little.

I raised my head to look at the men before me, a deathly silence enveloping us.

"I will give you 2 minutes to explain yourself." I said.

William and Liam looked at each other again.