Page 95 of She Belongs to Me

“Yeah, well, join the club.” I had a bad feeling this was a warning of some kind, but from which illustrious party? Maybe both.

“Get this. I received a call from one of the guards. There was no attempt to break into the locked facility where the party favors are.”

Party favors. It was the term used for cocaine, our product purchased and used by high rollers in New York. We had connections in the port of New York. We’d never had any trouble, but if there was some suspicion we were hiding illegal drugs in the cargo crates, our reputation would be ruined.

The business within the United States would be toast.

I wasn’t in the mood to entertain the possibility. “Let me guess. These thieves attempted to break into the office instead.”

“How did you know?” Luca turned his head in my direction. He’d often wondered where my instinct had come from; they were usually correct.

“A hunch. Someone is playing just as we suspected.” I was driving like a bat out of hell through the streets of Palermo, eager to confront the bastards. They would tell me something.

Enzo was in another vehicle with three other soldiers. It was enough firepower to provide encouragement, although there were some enemy soldiers that would prefer death to betraying their masters.

It would seem our family would find it difficult to be free of the past or the criminal activity plaguing the world. Maybe it was an oxymoron considering we were still in the party favor business, but we weren’t out destroying others and their territories. Although I was beginning to wonder if a hit or two might be necessary to bring this to an end.

The building didn’t appear to be a production facility. It was a requirement of the city and we’d been happy to comply. With the top three floors housing true commercial businesses, two of which the family owned, there were typically at least a hundred vehicles in the parking lot.

That usually helped stave off thieves of this nature. Only I had a feeling they’d broken into our offices in the middle of the night.

It was a fascinating break-in and one I would savor going over when speaking with them.

As I pulled into the parking lot and around to our side of the building, nothing appeared to be amiss. There were no broken windows or locks pried off. The fact they’d simply walked in, able to disable the system meant they were professionals.

With the Ferrari in park, I jumped out immediately. In my mind, time was of the essence and I wasn’t certain why. With the men trailing behind me, we entered. The front area was set up like any reception room. I had hired a part-time girl who manned the office to a point, keeping an eye on delivery workers and the production staff. This just happened to be considered a holiday, which meant the building was only halfway filled and it was likely the employees of the other businesses would be leaving soon to celebrate a long weekend.

The hollow sound of my footsteps as I walked through the front room to the back wasn’t lost on me. Maybe I’d never paid attention to what the empty facility sounded like before. It was strange.

Haunting.

And for some insane reason felt foretelling.

My world had been infiltrated in a way I hadn’t anticipated. The two men had been placed in the back, far removed from the office.

I walked by there first, noticing there had been an attempt to jimmy one of the locks. The bastards could easily get into the main door, but had been forced to go to these lengths to try to get into the office?

At least they’d been interrupted.

“Enzo. Make certain they didn’t get inside.”

“How will I know?” he asked.

“I have a feeling if they’d gotten inside, they were prepared to do a smash and run.”

Enzo grinned. “I’ll check.”

“Why do you think that?” Luca asked.

“Just a hunch. My guess is they hadn’t been told exactly what they were looking for, just records.”

“Of all of our transactions.”

“Yes.” Our illegal ones. Coupled with the cargo ship on its way to the port, it was a perfect remedy for revenge. It wasn’t a bad objective. Perhaps they’d thought guards wouldn’t bother checking on the area given the holiday. They would be long gone with the information they’d been sent to find if that had been the case.

Thank God old-fashioned security methods were still in place.

As soon as I strolled into the room where they were being held, I slowed down. Yes, I didn’t want to take but so long with the interrogation, but I also needed time to observe them. Instead of being dressed in suits, they were in workers’ uniforms. No one would typically question seeing someone coming into the office. There was equipment to be serviced.