Envy by Eve Marian

20

Giancarlo

When the door clicked behind her, it was like a bomb exploded in my head. I held it between my hands and screamed at the top of my lungs.

I screamed and screamed until my throat burned and my lungs gasped for air. I screamed until the pain in my head felt worse than the one in my chest.

Fuck!

Why couldn’t this be real? Why did she have to betray me?

She was just like my mother. She kept her secrets and kept me far away from her other life. Her real life. And the Crawfords were behind this, I was sure of it.

Motherfuckers!

I slammed the palm of my hand against the wall and banged my forehead against it. I won’t let this break me. She would not break me. She would not reduce me to feeling like some helpless, forgotten child.

Dammit! I wanted to break something, though.

I turned toward the kitchen table and swept my arm across it, throwing dishes, glasses, and cups all to the floor. A deafening crash sounded but it was still not as loud as the ringing in my ears. I needed more.

I stomped to the dining room and threw down a crystal vase and porcelain plates. Each one shattered to a million pieces next to my feet but none looked as broken as I felt.

My head snapped to the door where Pete stood. His eyes widened and his mouth opened.

“Get out!”

He ran back to his office or god knew where. I didn’t care. I wanted to see or hear no one. I wanted to break everything, tear this whole fucking house down because everywhere I looked reminded me of her.

“Whoa, what the hell is going on?” Vito stood at the entrance of the dining room. “Pete nearly ran me over as I walked in and now I see this. What the fuck happened?”

“I need to get out of here. Drive me someplace.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t give a shit. I just don’t want to be here. Let’s go.”

I ate up the foyer with my steps, and Dominic threw open the front door. A warm breeze hit my face and I wanted to pummel it. I was even angry at the sun for shining. How could it shine when my whole world just went black?

I jumped into Vito’s car and waited for him to start the engine. I stared out the passenger window as he kicked the car into gear and took off.

The speed improved my mood slightly, and I was glad when Vito took empty roads instead of heading into the city. I had no idea where we were going, and I didn’t care. I couldn’t think inside the house.

After nearly thirty minutes, Vito turned to me. “What happened?”

I shook my head. I couldn’t say the words.

“Come on. You fucking got shot and you had more to say then. What the hell happened?”

I swallowed past the giant golf ball inside my throat. “She lied.”

“Who?”

“Natacha.”

“About her resume? Who cares? The food’s great now.”

I closed my eyes. “No, asshole, not about her resume.”

“Then what?”

“She didn’t tell me she was friends with Luke Crawford. I saw a text from him this morning. And there’s more she’s not telling me.”

Vito went quiet, probably soaking in all the ramifications of my confession. Hell, I was still processing it myself.

“Do you think she’s the rat?”

I closed my eyes. “I don’t know. I was shot before she came to work for me. But maybe the rat sent her. It could all be connected.”

Vito nodded. “Makes sense.” Staring at the distance, he added, “What are you going to do with her?”

I knew what he was asking me. And it had nothing to do with firing Natacha. He was insinuating something a lot more permanent.

“I don’t know,” I whispered this time, staring out the passenger window, watching the homes turn into tall trees.

“Yeah, you do, man. If this was another dude, you wouldn’t be hesitating.”

“But she isn’t another dude, all right?” I snapped. “I need time to think.”

“Sure. Just make sure you’re thinking with your head and not your dick.”

I held back a growl because a part of me wondered if he was right. Was I letting my feelings for Natacha cloud my judgment? If this was someone else, would I tell him to just get rid of her? If she was working with the rat, it would send a message to him.

The security cameras. Perhaps they would show me if she’d met with anyone or planted anything around the house. “Take me home,” I said. “I need to check something.”

“Are you sure? I could keep driving.”

“No. I need to get back now. I have to know if I’m right.”

Vito yanked the steering wheel to the left and pulled a U-turn. We were heading back home. But with every mile that brought us closer to home, my heart sank.

When we approached the house, Vito said, “I’m going to drop you off and go. I have some things to check out myself.”

I nodded, not wanting company for this next part. “Thanks for the ride,” I said and tapped the hood of the car, sending him off.

Dominic opened the door for me and I raced up the stairs toward the security room. Walking through the closet, I opened the hidden door and stepped into the room.

I was struck by a familiar vanilla scent. Her scent. I shut my eyes as the smell shook me to the core. It brought me back to holding her, kissing her, tasting her.

But if I could smell her in here, it meant she’d found this room. And it solidified my fear that she was the rat’s accomplice.

I steeled myself to continue and find the evidence before I allowed my anger to convince me instead of proof.

I opened the files, dating back to Natacha’s first day. She wore black pants and a white shirt. She looked like the hired help, yet the way she moved her body was so familiar that my dick stirred.

Knock it off, I told myself. But my body didn’t care. When my eyes locked with the sway of her hips and the swipe of her tongue over her lips, I didn’t care that she had betrayed me. I wanted her still.

On that first day, she looked scared. Was it because she had just realized who her employer was or because she knew exactly who she signed up to work for? She hesitantly opened drawers and cupboards. I lost her in the back pantry for a bit, but when she returned, she was mainly texting on her phone. Was it Luke?

I fast-forwarded through many hours of her in the kitchen and on her phone. The next day, I watched as my grandmother approached and showed her a few things.

My grandmother smiled and they both laughed often. The pang in my chest only heightened my anger. She had fooled us all.

I moved on to the next day and the next. There. On the fourth day, she went upstairs. I lost her after she went inside my bedroom. There were no cameras inside my room because I wouldn’t record women without their permission.

I moved the recording ahead, only to see myself and the redhead climb up the stairs. But Natacha hadn’t come down. As the realization hit that she was inside my room while I fucked another woman, my dick twitched again. If I’d known she was there, I would have invited her to join us. Despite my anger, my body still wanted her. That only pissed me off more.

I moved on to other videos and watched hours of her cook and smile while doing so. Each tug of those lips stabbed my heart.

Then I pulled up the one when she had told me she’d spent the night with Nicky. After I’d left, she pulled him aside. They argued, but kept their hands to themselves. It didn’t seem like a lover’s quarrel at all. Fuck. Had she lied about that, too?

Then a thought popped into my head. I’d gotten shot shortly after Nicky started working for me. I stared at the kid on my screen and watched him closely. Could he be the rat? And Natacha the accomplice? It made sense.

My phone vibrated and I pulled it from my back pocket. It was Massimo from Nero restaurant.

“Hello.”

“Giancarlo, hi, it’s me. I think you should come down to the restaurant right away.”

“What’s happened?”

“There’s something you need to see.”

“I’ll be right there.”

I turned off the computer and shut the door behind me. Asking Nicky to drive me was out of the question, not with my growing suspicion. I grabbed the keys to my favorite Ferrari and pulled it out of the garage.

The smell of the leather interior soothed my anger but didn’t abate my adrenaline. I hugged the curb as I turned down the street and toward the restaurant.

It was still early and there weren’t any customers inside the restaurant, only a few staff milling around. They all turned to look at me as I marched past the hostess. “Where’s Massimo?” I asked a particularly frightened employee.

He pointed to the office at the back. “Thanks.”

I found Massimo staring at his computer screen wearing a headset. He looked up when I entered the room and waved me over.

“I was listening to the audio for a second time to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake. But I’m not wrong, Giancarlo. You need to listen to this.”

The screen went blank as Massimo played the recording from the beginning. I sat in the chair he vacated and placed the large black headphones over my ears.

A table full of men appeared on the screen. It was the private room I’d asked Massimo to bug, the one where the Caruso family held most of their meetings. Sal Jr. was there at the head of the table, Cologero, and Pepe on either side of him. There were two other minor guys that I recognized, but their names had escaped me. They were discussing my acquisitions of businesses in their territory and what this meant to their business. “Why are you showing me this?” I asked. “I’ve already heard them talk about it in other tapes before. I’ve listened to them scheme and complain and I’m taking care of it.”

“Keep watching,” he said, pointing to the screen.

Then I saw it. Or rather—saw him.

He walked into the restaurant wearing his usual dark suit. But his usual smile was gone. Instead, he surveyed the restaurant, eyeing every customer before walking to the back.

He shook hands with Sal. and walked toward the opposite end of the table. Flapping back his suit jacket, he sat at the other head.

“Tell us. What’s Rossi up to now?”

The man leaned back in his chair, looking quite comfortable at the head. “He thinks his cook is the rat.”

Sal smiled. “That’s good. Keeps the trail off of you.”

The man nodded. “Yeah. But it won’t be long until he figures it’s not her.”

“Then make him believe it.”

“I’m trying, but the guy’s crazy about her. It won’t be easy.”

My hand fisted next to the keyboard. I wanted to smash it into a thousand pieces.

“Fine. What else?”

“He’s planning to marry the Russian’s daughter. That union will set their partnership. You have to stop it before it happens.”

Sal nodded. “Ok. We will smooth things over with the Russians. Is there anything else?”

The man looked around the restaurant, then back at the table. “Yeah, I think we need to find a new place to meet. Giancarlo’s expanding and this place will be next.”

“He wouldn’t dare,” Sal growled.

“He would.” The man finally smiled and it felt like acid in the pit of my stomach. I thought I couldn’t get past Natacha betraying me, but this one stung just as bad.

He was right. I had no other choice. I had to kill the rat.

I had to kill Vito.