The Underboss's Prince

Chapter 8

"Hey Kenji, will you come with me, please?" Antonio calls from his office as I walk by the room in search of Alessandro.

Walking backwards to his open office door, I head inside with a curious expression, whispering; "Yes?"

"Are you ready to start working for me?" he asks seriously with a hint of a smile on his lips, and I eagerly nod.

"Have a seat, and we will get started then," he replies, gesturing with his head toward the chair across from him, and I quickly sit down, bouncing in my spot.

He grins at me while grabbing a laptop, and a thick, dark blue file folder, and hands both to me before grabbing a blank notebook, a calculator, and a sharp, number 2 pencil, and hands these to me. Taking everything from him, and getting these settled on the cleared off space on the desk in front of me with a grin, and a continuous wiggle of my body as I get everything settled.

Opening the file folder, grabbing out the small stack of printed on papers, opening the laptop while I scan over the top paper with a company name on the upper left hand corner, and l silently look back at Antonio for further instructions.

"I need you to make sure the out-going money and the incoming money do not have any discrepancies, okay?" he tells me, and I eagerly nod in reply. "I need you to do this will all the sheets in your hand. If you find anything that is wrong, write the information down in the notebook. Take your time, and when you finish, let me know."

Nodding eagerly I start working on the numbers in silence, and I am so focused on the numbers, I do not notice Antonio watching me for several minutes. An hour later, I finish with the seven sheets, and only found discrepancies in three of the sheets from one of his business' - one of his bars.

Softly clearing my throat once I have finished, and he does not realize because he is super focused on whatever he is working on that he has not noticed I have finished. Antonio moves his eyes off his computer screen with raised eyebrows, and a soft smile.

"What have you found?" he asks with his right hand out towards me for the notebook, and i hand it over to him while biting my lower lip.

I hope he is not mad at me for what I found, but I only did what he asked me. He scans over what I wrote down in the notebook before looking over the three sheets from the bar. He deeply frowns at the sheets, and the notes I made in the notebook before looking up at me.

"You did a nice job, Kenji," Antonio praises with a small smile. "You can keep this job as long as you can keep up on your school work."

Widely grinning at him with a nod while dancing in my seat; "Awesome! Thanks, Antonio, I promise I won't let you down!"

"I know you won't kid," he says with an even wider smile. "I am gonna have you do this for me at least twice a week, along with anything else I might need you to do. How does that sound?"

"Okay, that works for me," I happily reply, bouncing in my seat. "Thank you again, Antonio. You are one of the best people who have come into my life."

Blushing deeply to the tips of my ears at his intense stare, and his voice thick with emotion as he says; "I highly doubt that I am, and I definitely do not deserve the praise, especially from someone who is as sweet and innocent as you, Kenji. I have done some horrible things in my life, and some I am not proud of, and the rest, I am proud of what I had to do."

"To me, it does not matter what you have done in the past, or why you had to do whatever it is that you are not proud of," I murmur with a tiny smile. "You and the rest of your family have kept me safer than I have been in a while, healthier than I have been in a long time, and feel loved for the first time in years."

"You are the best person to come into our family because of your kindness, innocence, and everything beautiful about you, inside and out," he sweetly replies, and I can feel my skin darken again. "Now, were you looking for someone or something before I called you in here?"

"I, uh, was looking for Alessandro," I answer, a little uncomfortable as to why I am looking for him.

When he silently raises his eyebrows in question, I let out a soft sigh before explaining; "I, uh, wanted to ask him about the guy from school earlier this week. I am wondering what happened to him because he has not been at school since that day."

"Let's just leave it at this," Antonio softly sighs with a guilty expression. "The guy from school has been taken care of, and he will not be bothering you again."

"What does that mean?" I softly ask, now nervous of his possible answer, and his cryptic answer. "Did you guys murder him, or something?"

I was joking with my last question, but when Antonio remains silent, fear grips my entire body, so I nervously say; "I was joking with my last question. Please tell me you guys did not murder him?"

Antonio continues his silence, and I nervously and slowly stand from the chair, backing around the chair, and away from him toward the door. Antonio stands carefully to his feet, and slowly makes his way toward my retreating form with his hands up at waist height, and palms out toward me.

"Kenji, please stop, and listen to me, okay?" he softly and calmly requests, and I instantly freeze in the doorway of his office. "We took care of the problem, so you aren't being harassed again by him. He was a horrible person, and had to be stopped before he hurt you terribly."

Thickly swallowing as I silently stare at him with wide, fear filled eyes as he stops a few feet away from me, and he continues; "We did what we felt was in your best interest, and we do not regret what we did either."

"Aren't you worried about repercussions of your actions, or whoever did whatever was done?" I ask with a trembling, soft voice.