"Nothing, sir," Lorenzo said.
I rolled the dark bourbon around my glass before gritting my jaw. "Didn't I tell you not to come back without her?" I asked in a low tone.
What was the point of having authority if no one actually gave a fuck about what you were telling them to do?
"You told me to come back after a week, sir," Lorenzo responded.
I looked at the ginger man in front of me.
He didn't look scared. Was I not scary enough?
I grunted as I remembered the last words I'd told the man a week ago. "I suppose you're right."
Relief washed over his face even though fear was never there.
I stood up from behind my desk.
Where did he take her?
Better yet, what should I do when I get her back?
He was going to die when I got my hands on him for taking her away from me.
"Leave," I mumbled, sitting back down in my seat.
Lorenzo nodded and left without another word.
I gulped the rest of my liquor down, gritting my teeth as the burning sensation filled my throat.
"Fuck," I mumbled before slamming the glass against the desk.
I knew I'd lost her for good.
Me and my pride.
I thought she was making me better. She was supposed to.
She ran away from me. She hated me.
Me and my pride.
She wasn't coming back. I wanted her to come back to me. I needed her to come back to me.
Whipping my phone out of my pocket, I ignored the dozen of messages from my family and found her contact information.
If you don't come back, I will find him and I will kill him.
Send.
A red exclamation popped up by my message.
Did she block me?
"Fuck," I muttered again.
"Is that the only word you know?"
I looked up to see that I was too caught up in my head to notice Cassius wandering into my office.
"What do you want?"
Anger immediately took over me. If he wasn't family, he would be dead. Cassia and my father would be dead as well. How dare they take Caesar's side over mine? The three of us were big on loyalty.
He was the last person I wanted to see.
"I have something you might want to see," he said, bringing a maroon folder from behind his back.
He stretched his arm out, giving me the folder. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
I opened the folder as he sat down in one of the seats in front of my desk.
"What the hell is this?" I mumbled, flipping through the pages.
The folder was full of pictures of mom and a lot of pages had data on them.
"Read, Rowan," Cassius said.
Death of Victoria Traian- "September 1st, 2007," I read the last part aloud.
I looked up to see Cassius nodding.
"This doesn't make sense," I said, throwing the folder on my desk.
"The hospital reports say that she died September 1st, 2009 from a drug overdose," he replied.
I walked around my desk so that I was leaning against the edge in front of him.
"Well, who made these false accusations?" I asked, instantly getting angry at the fact that they were messing with my mother's life.
He shrugged. "You're the one with the private investigators, Rowan."
I struggled to hide my shock, but my brother saw right through me.
"You didn't think I'd miss this random man going in and out of the building, Rowan?" he asked me in a louder tone than before.
I gave him a warning look, and he leaned back in the seat with a dissatisfied look on his face. "You knew something wasn't adding up from mom's death, Rowan," he told me.
I sighed, running a hand over my face.
He gave me a look of understanding, mixed with sympathy. "Father kept telling you your worry was a grieving stage."
"He wouldn't lie about something like that."
I remembered all the times I could've sworn I saw an image of mom in the newspaper somewhere and Caesar would snatch it away, pretending to read it. When I went to look at the newspaper, it was gone. All of them.
"It's just a stage of grief," I remembered him saying. "Let's go talk to Ms. Paige."
Paige was my therapist.
She always did more than help me.
I continued scanning through the pages until a surveillance photo caught my attention. It was a black and white photo that was a little grainy. I could make out the image perfectly.
"What is he doing?" my brother asked, thrusting the photo at me.
He looked at me, and I looked back at the photo.
There father was; wearing a trench coat and a dark fedora. He had a briefcase in his hands.
You could easily make out the image of eight men. I spotted John who was the first person I killed.
"Maybe he got caught up in bad business," I mumbled, pushing the folder away. It was no mystery that the men who worked for Terrance Espanova owned a club. Father was known for his terrible gambling.
"Rowan."
My head snapped up to Cassius who was looking at me with worry on his face.
"What are you thinking?"
"We need to talk to father," was my immediate response.
Cassius blinked. "Are you crazy?"
I frowned at him. "I need him to tell me why he's associated with the men who killed mother. I also need to talk to Scarlett."
Cassius stood up from his seat and shoved his hands in his pocket before giving me a once over.
He rose an eyebrow and I watched the muscle in his forehead, meaning he was gritting his teeth. "So, what do we need to do first, brother?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's been a week, yes. I ghosted for a week because I was super busy. And, when I wasn't busy, I was being lazy. And, when I wasn't being lazy, I was stalling because I don't want this book to end, but it has too. So, I'm here. With an unedited chapter. But, i
VOTE, COMMENT, TELL A FRIEND!
~djdiamondmind1738