Chapter 38

**Matteo**

“You just let her go?”, Vita asked, her eyes wide in surprise. I nodded.

“Just like that, you let her go?”, she asked again, as if she couldn’t believe what I had done.

“Yes, Vita, I let her go. What did you want me to do? Lock her up?”, I asked, hoping I added enough sarcasm to my voice to make her understand I didn’t mean the last part.

“But we don’t even know what happened!”, she shouted, throwing her hands up in the air out of despair. To say that Vita is a drama queen is an understatement.

“Well, if I kept her here against her will, she would for sure not tell me.”, I said calmly. Vita screamed in frustration while she paced the room. “You didn’t hear anything on the streets?”, I asked her, to which Vita shook her head.

“You better keep close to Lily.”, Vita threatened me. I just shook my head at her threat.

“Don’t, Vita. You don’t want to get in trouble again over this.”, I told her, and Vita clapped her mouth shut at my warning and she stayed quiet for a while.

I felt my phone buzz and pulled it out. I couldn’t help the grin spreading on my face when I read the text from Lily.

‘Thanks for letting me go home. I appreciate it this much.’, she had sent with a picture of her in her bed, covered up.

‘I want you to be safe, and I miss you around here’, I typed back. I did miss her, even in the short time that she had stayed here, I had gotten used to her being around. I liked being able to touch her when I wanted, and I liked her sleeping in my bed. Even though it had also been the longest we had been around each other without having sex because of her being in shock, it had been really satisfying having her here.

‘I miss you too, babe. Emma is staying, so I’m safe.’, she sent back. It gave me a little relief that she was not alone in her house. I had assumed the worst when she was in shock and couldn’t tell me what had happened in her office. Over the days she had come out of her shell a little, but I missed her being herself. And I missed fucking her.

“You do know you have a silly grin on your face, right? Are you texting Emma?”, Vita asked, looking at me curiously.

“Yeah, whatever. Don’t you have a street to run?”, I asked her sharply, at which she just smirked and left my office.

I leaned back in my chair, pinching the bridge of my nose with my fingers. There were too many things demanding my attention and I felt myself getting frustrated by it. I just wanted to get to our goal of wiping out the Bruno famiglia. When I looked at the clock, I saw it was already close to midnight, so I figured I could take a break. I went to the kitchen to get a drink from the fridge.

When I got there, I saw Luciano sitting in the kitchen at the table, also drinking a beer. I grabbed one for myself, and took a big gulp.

“You okay?”, I asked Luciano. He nodded.

“Yes, I suppose so.”, he answered. I frowned.

“That didn’t sound so convincing.”, I contested. Luciano sighed and took another swig.

“I’m just ready for all of this to be over, and to get back to normal business.”, he sighed. I grinned, like normal business for us was ever going to be considered normal. Luciano looked at me and smiled.

“Yeah, that didn’t sound right.”, he chuckled. We sat in silence, drinking our beers next to each other for a bit.

“Are you and Vita alright?”, I asked. Vulnerability didn’t happen a lot in this family. Luciano nodded.

“Yeah, but between me tailing Bruno, and her punishment, there is not a lot of time together.”, he said. “We’ll get through it.”

They had been together for years, and together they had been a stable force in my life. Luciano calmed Vita down, and together they had been beside me when we planned our revenge.

“How are you and Lily?”, he asked.

“What about me and Lily?”, I replied, looking at him. He seemed to contemplate the words to speak.

“You seem protective of her. It is not like you to care so much about a woman.”, he stated. I thought about his words but stayed quiet. He got up and put his bottle away.

“See you tomorrow.”, he said and left.

*‘When can I see you again?’*, I texted Lily when I finally went to bed. My bed felt cold and empty without her.

*‘I miss you sleeping next to me’*, I sent. She was probably sleeping already, so I didn’t expect her to respond.

*‘I meant it, Lily. I want you to move in here. I don’t want to sleep without you beside me anymore.’*, I sent and fell asleep.

I sat in the meeting room, waiting for everyone to join me. I was there early, savoring my coffee. My sleep was short, disrupted, and not very restful, so I needed the caffeine to wake up properly. The fact that I didn’t have any response from Lily made my mood worse. So, here I was, tired, frustrated, and horny.

I grunted as a greeting to the people coming in and drank my coffee.

“Let’s start”, I said, and looked at Vico as a sign to start the update.

“Thanks to the information that Valeria got from Lily, I have been able to find quite a lot. One of the accounts that the Brunos used, was owned by Mary Brown.”, Vico said. The room was silent, we were astonished by that news.

“Wait, you are saying that Lily’s mom was laundering for the Brunos?”, Ennio asked. I was too surprised to ask anything. Vico nodded.

“Yes, that is what I’m saying.”, he confirmed. My mind was running a mile a minute trying to figure out what this meant.

“So, what does that mean?”, Ennio asked, his brows frowned in confusion.

“That is the weird part. Mary was definitely part of their network, she was their key to getting the money cycles fast.”, he said.

“But Lily never mentioned this.”, I started.

“Because Lily doesn’t know this about her mom.”, Valeria said. “I’ve been talking to her when she was here, and texting with her after. She doesn’t know. Obviously, she knows her mom was laundering money, but it was a big surprise to her after her mom died. She doesn’t know for who.”, Valeria added.

This was messed up. Did this mean that Lily’s mom was in with the Bruno clan? Is that why Tommaso is chasing Lily?

“But the interesting part is that Mary embezzled some of the money she was supposed to launder and shipped it into a fund. Our theory is that she did not agree to do this.”, Vico said, nodding to Valeria.

“She didn’t agree? Then why do it in the first place?”, Guilia asked.

“That we don’t know. Blackmail, threats, family pressure?”, Vico answered. Another thing to investigate. I sighed, we solved one thing and got many more questions out of it.

“You are on it?”, I asked, and Vico and Valeria nodded. I looked at Valeria to speak.

“I didn’t get any further. Lily didn’t have time to look at the property deeds yet, because she had to go into the office today. And the name Mary Brown just has too many hits to find something to connect it with Lily.”, she said.

I was surprised to hear that she did have a response from Lily. Even more so to hear that she went back to the office today. What did it mean, that she would reply to Valeria and not me? I knew I couldn’t stop her from going, but I sure as hell wanted to. I felt the anger in me flare up, I shouldn’t have let her go home!

I took a deep breath and continued with the meeting.

“Guilia?”, I asked, and I looked around the table to find her.

“Yes, legal business is doing well. Thanks to the adjustments we made with Lily, we maximized profits and are keeping our cash flow on the down low.”, Guilia snickered. “For the illegal business, obviously Lily has not been involved, but we’re implementing the lessons we learned there as well. Because of the fast cash cycles we have in the legal part, we are now capable of laundering our own money fast.”, Guilia explained.

“All our businesses are running at a profit, except for Golden. Plans are in place to turn that around.”, she added. I nodded and glanced at Vita to see her sporting a proud smile. She taught Guilia well.

“Valeria?”, I asked.

“I have been working with Lily, but she hasn’t sent me the information I was looking for yet. I keep running into dead ends. There is definitely more to Lily’s mom than Lily knew, otherwise you wouldn’t go to such lengths to hide it. I am on it.”, she shared.

“Luciano?”, I continued around the table.

“Not much happened. We heard an argument between Tommaso and Nero a few days ago, but it was too coded to figure out what it was about. Both men and Mario stayed put in their house ever since.”, he shared.

“When was the argument?”, I asked for more details.

“A couple of days ago. The day you brought Lily here.”, he said.

“Could it have to do with each other?”, I asked. Luciano shrugged.

“Possibly, but I just don’t know.”, he said.

“Vita, Ennio? Anything on the streets?”, I asked.

“Territories are expanding, we are slowly taking back from Bruno. Their men are getting more and more aggressive because of the frustration of losing to us. Likely that they will try to hit us sooner or later.”, Ennio said. I nodded, the risk came with the job.

“Rumors out there are on a lost family member returning to the Brunos, but we haven’t been able to figure out who or what. The other thing worries me a bit more. They are aware of a civilian staying on our grounds. You know what that means Matteo.”, Vita said. Turns out her punishment was actually a benefit to us.

“They are listening to her.”, I said. It was a statement, not a question. “We need to get rid of that.”, I said and looked to Luciano and Renzo.

“Any idea how?”, I asked them. “She didn’t bring much here when we got her here.”

“So, it must be something on her that she always wears. Handbag, rings, necklace, earrings, the likes. How do you want to do it?”, Renzo replied.

“Maybe best to raid her house and blame it on the Brunos. It will make it easier to make her come here where we can control and protect her.”, I suggested.

“I will work on it. Will check where their eyes and ears are.”, Renzo said.

“Lastly, Nino?”, I asked. He sighed before he said anything.

“The girl is a pain.”, he said, frustration evident in his voice. “Serena is still in holding but trying to get out. Juan better cooperates.”, he huffed. “Anyways, she did confirm that Tommaso came by to visit. I think that he has been flirting with her to get his way with Juan. She seems enamored with him still.”

“Keep her locked up.”, I said, and Nino nodded.

“Thanks for the update.”, I said, and the meeting was finished. I pulled out my phone as I walked to my office. Still no reply from Lily.