“You motherfucking idiot,” I yelled, storming into the room. “Who turns their phone off at night? Do you think this is some nine-to-five gig? I’m sorry, you’re not a manager who checks out at the end of the day and turns off their goddamn phone.”
Gunner’s head appeared on the opposite side of the bed from where I was, eyes wide with terror. “Wh… what happened?” he stuttered. Then he grabbed a pair of glasses off his nightstand and looked at me with his hair sticking out all over the place.
“You would know already if you had answered your goddamn phone,” I snapped.
He lunged across the bed to where his phone was on the other nightstand and looked at it. “Fuck, I forgot to add you to my list of people who can call me in the middle of the night.”
“Excuse me?” I questioned. “Why the hell can’t anyone call you? What if I don’t have a phone handy and use a payphone or a business line? Do you have any idea how stupid that is?”
Gunner looked like a fish on dry land with the way his mouth kept opening and closing, trying to come up with some logical response.
“Turn that shit off right now,” I ordered. “Come on, I want to see you delete that setting with my own two eyes so I know that when I need your ass, I can get a hold of you.”
Gunner righted himself and flicked through the screens until he got to the one he wanted. Turning the screen to me, he showed me where the setting was and slid the toggle to off. “Done.”
“Good, now follow me,” I directed.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” he asked, jogging after me as I left his room and headed up the stairs to my own space.
I glanced back at him for a second then shook my head. “No, you get to suffer for a while longer knowing you fucked up in so many ways. Just for the record, I’m not talking about just this moment. I mean, you almost ruined the entire Caprioni Family in one fell swoop.”
“How? How is that even possible?” Gunner spluttered.
Ryker was standing outside my door with a sleepy Atticus at his side.Smart boy, knowing I was going to want him here too. Seems he was trying hard to make up for being a jackass.
“Head into my office while I change into something more comfortable,” I commented as I unlocked my room and entered.
“Why did I get dragged out of bed, Astin?” Atticus asked, his voice rough with sleep. “My body requires a full eight hours if it is to properly function. Any less than that, and I fear I might make a mistake of some kind.”
“I promise this is important enough to warrant the interruption,” I offered as I entered my office that connected to my bedroom. “Ryker, would you please see if they can make us coffee? We’re going to need it.”
“Sure thing,” he answered.
I slipped into my room and shut the door behind me leaving the guys in the office. I kicked off my shoes, yanked my dress over my head, and tossed it on the bed. In my closet, I grabbed a pair of sleep shorts and an oversized T-shirt with a Korn album cover on it. It was one of my favorites and not just because it was a concert Ryker and I managed to sneak out to go see. Grabbing a scrunchie, I tossed my hair up in a messy bun and washed off all my makeup. Now I was ready to get down to business.
When I stepped back into my office, the three men were standing there waiting at attention like I was some military commander. “At ease, boys,” I said, taking a seat at my desk.
My phone started ringing inside my purse I’d left on the desk. Grabbing it, I smirked as I saw it was Braxton so I turned it to Gunner. “See how you can call me, and now I’m going to answer it to see what they might need.” Swiping my finger across the screen, I picked up the call then hit the speaker button. “Hello?”
“What the hell, woman? Did you seriously just leave us here at the club?” Jace demanded.
There was the sound of a scuffle like one of them was trying to wrestle the phone away from the other. “Fuck off, man, don’t piss her off even more,” Braxton yelled. “Astin, you still there?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I’m home in my office with the others,” I commented. “You might want to do the same thing. We’ve got some shit going down.”
“Why didn’t you come find us?” Braxton questioned.
“This isn’t a matter that could wait, and I didn’t have time to track you down. So I suggest you two get your asses back here right now,” I ordered.
“What about Luca? We can’t find him either. Is he with you?”
“Leave him be. He’s doing exactly what I need him to right now. I’ll explain things when you get here. Don’t take too long,” I said, then hung up.
Soon enough, these men will realize there’s no such thing as a night off in this life. There was always someone younger, hungrier, or smarter trying to take what we had. Something was going on that I hadn’t been able to see through with just the information they sent me thatsomething was going on.Why the hell would they think Daddy was losing his touch? From everything I’d seen, he was acting as he always had.
“Now, Ryker, do you have what I need?” I asked.
“I sent everything I could to your tablet, and I have a few guys working on the rest,” he shared.