Deluca

SIXTEEN

"Only call if something goes wrong." Francesco had warned Henri and Louis before he dismissed him that morning over the phone. The instructions were clear, meaning when Francesco's phone rang, something must've gone wrong.

No — something better had gone wrong. When Francesco answered he could hear Louis and Enzo arguing in the background.

"Somebody better be dead or dying," Francesco answered once he was out of earshot from the now likely passed-out Eleanor.

"It'll be the latter if you don't get here soon mon ami." Henri muttered into the phone, "This is a conversation to be held in person."

Francesco removed the phone from his face wanting to scream into the void of frustration he had felt. Not only mentally, but physically. He adjusted himself before grabbing his keys.

"Fine meet me at Horizons," Francesco demanded before disconnecting the call and making his way to the car.

During the short drive there, he had managed to real in his own emotions, knowing that while he was frustrated, he must act level-headed.

So as much as he could've, Francesco pushed Eleanor out of his mind before exiting the car and walking into the clinic.

Horizon had been an idea of Giselle's that had of course fallen through. It was until earlier that year Francesco decided to pick back up the project of opening a free clinic for locals.

The building was still in its early stages of construction with not so much as floors installed yet. The bareness of the clinic would make for a perfect meeting, especially with Francesco being two hours from home.

He slammed the doors, and the sound echoed through the vacant streets. There wasn't a soul outside from what Francesco could see as he walked in.

But he was soon greeted with the noise of an argument continuing. Upon seeing Francesco, Henri let out a shrill whistle causing Enzo and Louis to finally hush.

Unbeknownst to Francesco, Andreas was sitting in the room with them all silently staring down as if he had little interest in the conversation at hand.

"What do you want?"

"Francesco!" Enzo clapped and stood up, "Good that you're here. Tell the man of your fuck up."

Louis started swearing at Enzo in French, his words quick and indiscernible by everyone in the room aside from Henri.

"Louis, English or Italian, please," Francesco said with an exasperated sigh. It was already like he was called away to visit a daycare filled with children.

"When we went down to meet with Dom he said that he and his men no longer require our services anymore. Said he was shutting down the deal, wiping two-point-give off of the books." Henri explained.

"We don't know who did it, that is why Enzo is here." Louis pointed to Enzo who rolled his eyes.

"I am not here to play Nancy Drew, I am on vacation." Enzo insisted, "If you want to know who did it go to your new buddy."

"Again, Paolo would have nothing to gain from this, he is losing money in this deal too!" Louis argued.

"No problems for years, you make an ally and now your deals are being taken from you? You don't have to be Sherlock to figure this one out." Enzo said.

"Do we have names?" Francesco asked, ignoring their fighting in return to get a better understanding.

"We have nothing, not even the men knew who they are working with."