1 - Chamomile tea

Federico's POV.

"It was quite a fun night, what do you say, Boss?" Dante, my right hand man, asked as we made our way out of the Casino of the hotel.

I nodded in agreement as Mike came to open the door of the waiting Rolls Royce for me, bowing his head in respect. I moved in, followed by Dante and off we went.

It had definitely been a fun night, to say the least. We had each played, and won, a few hands at poker. Not to mention the constant flow of drinks and the hoards of women dressed scantily roaming about, to do with as you pleased. It had been a much needed reprieve from all the stress of work lately.

Unfortunately for me, I couldn't indulge in frivolous activities as much as I would like ever since I had been forced to take over the family business after my father's death three months back.

It had always been my brother, Sergio, who had been groomed to become the Boss of our family from the get-go while I had been the black sheep, choosing to stay away from all that and pursuing my job as a lawyer back in the city. Which was ironic considering my direct ties to the Mafia. But it had been the only profession my father had allowed me to pursue, probably to save face in front of others, assuring them that I would handle the legal framework of our family.

As if.

My father and I both knew there was no way in hell I was going to do anything like that, but as long as it allowed me to do as I pleased, I didn't give a shit what he or anyone else thought.

But all that had changed when my father and brother had been murdered in broad daylight three months back. Frankly, the only reason I had taken over was so I could avenge their death. And avenge it, I would. Though, the only person who knew any of this was Dante, my right hand man and confidante. To the rest of the world, I was Federico Mancini, the ruthless Mafia Don who hated everything and everyone with a passion.

Sighing, I patted the inner pocket of my grey suit jacket to ensure that the small USB device we had procured tonight that would lead me a step closer to finding out who was behind the murder of my family members was still there.

Only, it wasn't.

Panicking, I put my hand into the pocket, only to come up empty-handed. I cursed up a storm as I began to pat the rest of my pockets in hopes that I had somehow put my wallet which contained the small device in some other pocket. I came up empty handed just as I knew I would've.

"What's the matter with you?" Dante asked me, a deep frown on his face as he looked at me.

"Gio, take us back to the hotel," I instructed my driver instead.

I was going to fucking kill whoever had dared steal that drive from me.

I had tortured and killed enough people in the past eight months that murderous thoughts like that didn't surprise me anymore. And I usually made good on them, too.

"Some motherfucker stole it," I told Dante, my jaw clenching in anger.

Dante let out a low curse from beside me, urging the driver to speed up.

"No one knew why we had really gone to the casino. Who could've done something like that? How could they know what to take?" Dante spat from beside me, clearly getting worked up over it.

"Whoever did sure as fuck has a death wish. And I'm going to fulfill their wish when I find them out," I seethed. I knew letting anger take over all rational thought wasn't going to help but I couldn't seem to control myself. It had taken me fucking months to get the information and now it was all gone.

Having not been far from the hotel, it took us barely a few minutes to get there. Before I knew it, I had ripped the door open and was making my way towards the manager's office, ready to rip him a new one.

The door to the manager's office slammed against the wall, almost coming off its hinges as I kicked it open, making the manager jump in his seat.

"Mr. Mancini, what... what's the ma-matter?" The manager stood up, clearly scared out of his wits as he took in my angry disposition. Good.

"Someone stole something important from me tonight. I need to see the CCTV footage and find out who it was," I spat out, glaring down at the shivering mess of a man.

"Of course, sir, right away, sir," saying so, the manager hurried out of the room to what I supposed was the security room.

I followed in behind him and within seconds, I was looking at a large screen which displayed all the cameras present in the casino downstairs.

"Show me all the footage of table number twelve of the past two hours," I ordered the techie manning all the cameras.

The techie looked at the manager for confirmation but one look at the revolver I took out from where I had tucked it into the waistband of my pants, and he didn't need any more convincing to do what was asked of him.

Soon enough, I was looking at a grainy image of Dante and me as we sat at the table.

It took hours of combing through the footage meticulously until I had pinned it down to a brunette who had sat on my lap at some point during the night. She was the only one who had come close enough to me the entire night to be able to lift my wallet out of my inner coat pocket.

"That bitch!" I muttered as I looked at her closely. I couldn't quite make out at any point if she had actually done anything, but I was almost positive it was her.

"She works at your bar, doesn't she?" I turned to the manager who had also been with us in the room the entire time that we had been in there.

He was looking at the screen when I asked him and jumped at the sound of my voice. "She, uh, she seems to be a new girl. But we must have her employee information. I'll, uh, I'll get it to you right away," he said and then he was off.

A few minutes later, the manager bumbled his way into the room, holding a piece of paper with the girl's address on it.

I handed it to Dante and we rushed out of the hotel, hoping to catch the woman at her residence and retrieve the USB drive.

Dante rattled off the address of the woman's residence, which was, surprisingly enough, a dingy basement somewhere near Central Park, to Gio and then we were off. I briefly wondered if she had actually given her right address if she knew she was going to do something like that. No one other than the man who had gotten us the USB had known anything about it or the information it held. So I was almost positive the girl had only swiped my wallet off for the money.

It took us about half an hour to reach the place. As soon as the car rolled to a stop in front of the building, Dante and I rushed out at once, entering the building and practically shouting at the woman at the reception to tell us where the entrance to the basement was.

The petite woman gave us a rather funny look before pointing to a door off to the side. Wordlessly, we all but ran towards it before pulling it open and walking down the dimly lit concrete steps only to end up in what looked like a half converted garage if the rustic old Chrysler in the corner and the jumbled web of cables hanging overhead were any indication.

Dim halogen lights flickered overhead, illuminating the barely furnished space which had just enough room for a worn out couch and a couple of used bean bags.

Suddenly, something large and furry scurried past me, and I would've nearly lost my balance had Dante not supported me as the black cat rushed past us before jumping onto the Chrysler and meowing loudly.

"I know they're here, Whiskers. I'm just pouring tea for our guests," a soft female voice replied from somewhere behind the Chrysler, clearly talking to the cat as if it were human, making my brows rise in surprise as I shared a look with Dante who seemed to be just as surprised as me, if not more.

Before either of us could react, the owner of the voice herself walked towards us, setting down a tray with three cups of tea on the couch.

Flashing us a grin, almost as if she was greeting long-lost friends, she said, "You're just in time, guys. I hope you like chamomile tea."

What?