“You absconded with Celia last night and didn’t come home until after the sun came up. If you got laid, you wouldn’t be this cranky.”
He isn’t wrong. I spent the entire night in Celia’s apartment, searching for any clues that might lead us to whom she is working for because she has to be working for someone. Girls like her don’t just show up for work at Club Sin without a reason. It took a few months, but we finally discovered what that reason was—us. Lyra alerted us immediately that the new girl was snooping around, looking for information on us, worried that we would hold that against Club Sin, but it did the exact opposite. It piqued our interest, specifically mine. Matteo started gathering information about her but quickly hit a dead end. With nowhere else to go, Antonio suggested we meet the girl ourselves and see if we can feel her out. That meeting did not go as I had expected.
“I’m not cranky,” I snap before pulling in a deep breath. “We need to find out more about your newest obsession before I let her anywhere near this family.”
Antonio and Matteo were instantly smitten with Celia, something I’ve never seen happen with either of them before. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel the attraction toward her, as well. Ever since I laid eyes on Celia, I wanted her in a way I’ve never wanted anything in my life, and it terrifies me. Having one person have that much control over another human is dangerous, let alone if that person is the head of a powerful mafia family.
What the hell makes her so special?
She’s charmed her way through the entire staff at the club, my brother, and my stand-offish best friend. I can’t put my finger on it, but there is something about Celia that screams for my attention. My every thought is slowly being consumed by her and my need to know everything about her.
“And who said anything about her coming near the family?” Antonio raises his eyebrow in question, a devilish smirk on his face.
Fuck.He’s never going to let me hear the end of this. I may as well own up to my attraction and give in to my desire for her body. Admittedly, it was nice to have her in my arms last night, completely at my mercy. I could’ve easily taken advantage of her weakened state and fucked her right out of my system, but that’s not who I am. I refuse to take anything from a woman she’s unwilling to give—either sexually or not.
Celia is a mystery that I can’t seem to crack. We have some of the best connections in all of Chicago, but everyone is coming up with nothing. Celia Johnson didn’t exist before a year ago, but who was she before then? Someone has gone to great lengths to hide her identity from us, but last night changed everything.
“If we’re sleeping with her, she’s involved with the family.”
“We? When did it becomewe? You didn’t seem interested in anything besides torturing information out of her,” Matteo chimes in before taking a seat beside me at the table, his eyebrows shooting up in question.
He stares into my eyes, waiting for an answer to his question, but I refuse to back down. Everyone knows that I only share information when I’m ready. Until then, he’ll just have to wait. They both might have a talent for getting information from someone who doesn’t want to speak, but it won’t work on me. I’ve been fighting silent battles with these two my entire life. I needed to learn to keep my secrets safe, even from these two.
“Enough with the pissing contest, you two.” Antonio groans loudly. “Are you going to tell us what’s going on?”
Antonio and Matteo are the two people I trust most in the entire world. They may give me shit, but they always have my back. I can’t tell them about my feelings for Celia yet because I don’t know what they are beyond the insane attraction I feel toward her, but I should tell them what I found in her apartment last night. I had planned on keeping this information to myself until I spoke with our technical team, but now is as good of a time as any. Maybe between the three of us, we can figure out who’s behind all this.
“I found bugs all over Celia’s apartment last night. There are also cameras in all the common areas and infrared sensors covering most of the apartment.”
“Someone is really interested in keeping tabs on this girl.” Matteo finally breaks eye contact, cursing softly before leaning back in his chair.
I nod my head slightly before continuing. “I cleared the place of all the bugs and had our tech team clear the data on the cameras for the last twenty-four hours. They’re working on backtracking the signal on them, as well. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“I highly doubt that it’s going to be that easy,” Antonio quips.
“I also found a framed picture of her and another girl on her bedside table. They seem close, family even. I gave it to the tech team too. They’re working on gathering as much information about the other woman as possible.”
Antonio nods his head. “If we can’t find any more information about Celia, we locate the other woman. Either way, we get the information we need.”
“A sister.” Matteo looks over his shoulder into the distance, a vacant look in his eyes. “She said something about a sister after that bastard…”
His voice trails off. None of us want to relive what happened to Celia last night, each of us having our own reasons for wanting to find the asshole that attacked her and make him pay. After I got Celia settled at home, I called the security team at the club and demanded they show me the video footage of what happened, hoping to get a glimpse of the man who did this and see if his face would look familiar, but no such luck. No one seems to have seen him before or have any knowledge of how he managed to find his way into the club and onto the upper floors. His ID came back bogus, as expected. The only thing we know for certain is that she knew this man, but I don’t know how. However, whatever he said to her triggered her unimaginably.
Security escorted the man from the building and promise to be on the lookout if he comes back, but I doubt that’s going to happen. If we want to find this asshole who attacked Celia and what he has to do with her sudden appearance at the club, we’re going to have to do it ourselves.
“We have a meeting set with the team in a few days. Gabriel will call with the specifics once he finishes processing the information.” I lean back in my chair, steepling my hands in front of my face.
“The last thing we want to do is tip them off that we’re onto them,” Antonio chimes in.
“Since we’re all here…” Matteo’s voice trails off before he clears his throat. “Luca is stealing from us.”
“Great segue, asshole,” Antonio grumbles.
“Shit.” I frown, our earlier confrontation completely forgotten. “How much?”
“I’m not sure.” He shrugs. “But enough that the accountants noticed when they were reviewing the books from last quarter.”
A huge smile spreads across Antonio’s face as he cracks his knuckles. “I was trying to figure out a way to burn off this excess energy. I made an appointment at the club with my favorite girl, but beating someone to a bloody pulp will do the trick.”