Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90511 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
“Someone flipped it,” I say, eyes roaming over papers tossed to the side, a computer smashed and missing its hard drive, the shelves torn to shreds, drawer upended and junk scattered all over. “They did it in a hurry.”
“Maybe,” Luca says quietly as he picks his way through the room. He carefully kneels down in the very back corner and gestures for me to join him.
The safe is tucked back against the wall. It’s a heavy motherfucker. I’d know because I helped install it. Pure titanium outer shell with a state-of-the-art biometric locking system. Davide, our tech wizard, swore up and down nobody would ever be able to open it.
There’s a hole drilled straight through the top.
“Now how in the fuck did someone do that?” I poke a finger inside. The sides are still warm, like the metal’s holding on to whatever monstrosity pulled off this miracle.
“Starting to understand?” Luca slumps back into a chair. The seat was slashed right down the middle, and some of the stuffing’s poking out.
I stare at the safe, teeth grinding together. “That bastard was such a pain in the ass to haul in here. I’m not doing it again.”
Luca snorts and kicks some of the debris. “That’s your problem? You’re not wondering how in the fuck this happened?”
I look around and don’t answer. Because he’s right. The thought occurred to me the second we walked through that door.
The depot’s locked down tight when we’re not around. Davide’s very good at what he does, and he installed the security system himself. Multiple levels of protection were layered on top of each other, such that if one failed, another would catch any intruders.
“What’s on the camera tape?”
“Static. Not even subtle.”
“Any other data? Davide’s gotta have something.”
“He’s currently kicking around his lair, cursing up a storm and acting like it’s the end times.”
“In his mind, that’s probably how it feels.”
“Someone broke in here, Stefano.” Luca’s face gets hard as he stares at me. “They used your wedding as cover.”
Well, fuck.
I sit back against the wall and glare at the ruined office. A part of me is actually kind of happy this happened. Now maybe I won’t have to sit in here for hours a day doing mundane paperwork to keep this place afloat. I told Luca from the start that I wasn’t cut out for this desk life, but he insisted it had to be me. He said he couldn’t trust anyone else.
Now look at this place.
I’m the boss, and this total fuck-up happens on my watch.
I cross my arms, trying to keep my anger under control. A big part of me wants to go on a rampage and smash the shit out of the rest of the building. But the smarter, more rational side knows I’d better keep it together before I make this trouble worse.
“What’s missing?” I finally ask. The question I’ve been avoiding.
“Everything from the safe. Some shipping manifestos. Mostly Davide says the stuff’s clean.”
“We don’t keep the obviously cooked paperwork on the premises.”
“Which is smart.”
“But.” I look down at the safe. An ugly feeling churns my guts.
Luca’s gaze follows mine. “But?”
“Some of the files in there aren’t exactly legit. If whoever took them is as smart as I’m afraid they are, they’ll be able to make certain connections.”
“Like what kind of connections?”
“Trucks taking routes that weren’t planned. Carrying cargo nobody accounted for. That sort of thing. It’s subtle, but—” I gesture in the air at the mess.
Luca sighs heavily and leans his head back. “That’s not good.”
“Could be worse.” I push off the wall and crunch over papers toward the door. “They could’ve gotten my gold bars.”
“Where are you going?” Luca calls after me.
“Back to my fucking wedding.” I stomp out into the hall, frustration welling up like black oil bubbling from the ground. There’s no way in hell this should’ve happened. And the worst part is, it’s my fault at the end of the day. The depot’s supposed to be my domain, and I’m the one making the decisions. Which means anything that goes wrong is ultimately on me.
I’ll own that to Don Marino. If anyone’s taking a hit for this, it’ll be me.
“Hold on.” Luca hurries after. “We still have work to do.”
“Not right now.”
“This depot’s a major part of our operations. It’s the heart of our distribution center. If someone’s sniffing around—” He moves to grab my shoulder, but I slap his hand and shove it away.
He stares at me in surprise.
“I’m going back to my wedding,” I say softly, meeting his gaze. “My wife’s waiting for me.”
“I didn’t know you care about that.”
“Now you do.”
“I thought I was doing you a favor. Weddings aren’t usually your thing. Especially not your own wedding.”
I start walking again. I don’t want to get into a conflict with Luca. He’s one of my closest friends, but I have new priorities. My world tilted and shifted, and I can’t pretend like I haven’t started thinking about my future in a completely different light.