CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHT
MELO
CeCe's car drives by us as we're leaving home. Marco starts laughing as she stops the car and waves for us to come back.
"Should I tell the gate what time she should come back?" He asks.
"Nah. Isa doesn't want to see her so she'll just have to keep coming back untill she catches her at home."
"Damn. I like that. She should suffer."
I shake my head and laugh. "You forget you fucked her. Shouldn't you be a little kind?"
"It doesn't count if I was too drunk to remember it."
I snort and go back to my tablet. I've been getting myself reacquainted with the business since this morning. We're doing better than expected. We have some encroacher's but it's nothing a meeting or two can't fix. My interest now is in meeting with Damien.
The driver parks and we walk in through the back entrance. On the ride over, I took a look at the books. Everything is still in order.
Marco opens the door and I enter. Damien looks stressed and is about to bark at whoever opened the door when he sees that it's me.
He stands immediately and starts shuffling papers on his desk.
"Boss, I heard you were back but I didn't think you'd visit me first. You could have called and I'd have made preparations for you.".
"No need. I owe you a conversation and I intend to get that out of the way first."
He sighs. "Of course. Please have a seat."
He moves and offers me his chair to sit on. I notice he still has the papers in a vice grip.
"What would you like to drink?" He asks nervously.
"Nothing. Marco?"
"I'm good."
"Since that's settled, why don't you have a seat, clean the sweat from your brows and tell me what has you so nervous."
"What? I'm not nervous." He says, eyes wide. "I'm a little sick, is all. It's why I'm sweating too."
He used to be a very good liar. What the fuck is wrong with him?
"You're lying." I simply say.
"Yes boss." He answers.
"Will this affect my business?"
"No boss. I promise It won't."
"Will it lead to a betrayal?"
He shakes his head. "Absolutely not, boss. I would never betray you."
"See that you don't. Now that that's out of the way, tell me why you don't want to be here anymore."
He straightens and meets my eyes. Good first step.
"This place has been good to me. It made my life better and I'm grateful you trusted me with it. When you gave it to me, it was exactly what I needed but now, I like to think that I've grown and I'm ready for more trust."
"I trust you with millions. I don't think it gets better than that."
"I know but I wanted to be involved in the business in other ways. I want my hand on the pulse of this empire. Not just in charge of drunk people and whores."
I nod as he talks. Unfortunately, he's making a bit of sense.
"Alright. We'll give it a trial. See how much you like it."
He thanks immediately and smiles. "Thank you boss, I promise you won't regret it."
"But. You can't come back to the club if you don't like it so think long and hard about this decision you plan on taking."
"I've thought about it boss."
"Think some more. If it's good for you. I expect you at the house tomorrow at 6 am."
I stand and walk out of the office, leaving a grateful Damien behind.
"Find out what he's hiding." I tell Marco when we get to the car.
"You think he was lying?"
"No, but I am curious. He's not an easy man to get shook like that. I want to know why."
"Alright boss. I'll be on it."

I spend the rest of the day meeting with underbosses and partners, letting them know that I'm back and that their business is still in safe hands. As expected, I got a lot of questions about where I was the last few months. Questions I didn't answer.
"Home boss?" Marco asks.
I look at my watch them shake my head.
"No. Drive to the restaurant. Let's go pick up Isa and the baby."
He nods and gives the driver the direction. I meet Rocco at the door of the restaurant and he tells me that Bella is with Carina in her office. When I open the door to Isa's office, her eyes widens in surprise and she gently puts a sleeping Carina down and comes to hug me.
"Hi, sweetie. You could have called." She whispers.
"I wanted to surprise you."
"Well, I'm pleasantly surprised."
There's a single knock on the door before it is pushed open and Evan pokes his head in.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to barge in," He says immediately.
"It's fine, what is it?" Bella asks.
He enters the room and stands tall, still not meeting my eyes.
"There's a situation in the kitchen and chef Gus said I should come get you."
"Alright. Babe, I have to go see what's wrong."
I give her a quick kiss on the cheek and she smiles.
"Alright, let's go." She says to Evan.
"No, he can can stay."
Bella looks back in shock and I mouth 'go'.

"Evan right?" I ask and after Bella hesitantly leaves us alone.
"Yes sir. Evan."
"How has working here been for you?"
"It's been great, boss. I'm really learning a lot."
"That's great. Maybe you can make me something sometime."
"What?" He asks, finally meeting my eyes.
"Did you not hear me?"
"I heard you sir. I'm just surprised. Mrs. Rossi said you don't eat from just anyone."
"You and my wife spend a lot of time talking?"
"Wha-what? No! No sir, it was just something that came up in conversation one time as we were cooking."
I nod. "So I take it your infatuation with my wife hasn't ended."
"Boss?"
"You like her, don't you?"
He starts sputtering, and I chuckle.
"You don't have to lie. It's evident. Everybody knows."
"I'm sorry sir. I apologise."
"You don't have to be sorry, yet. But put one toe out of line and I'll give you a reason to be sorry."
The door opens and Isabella comes back. Evan hastily excuses himself and leaves the room.
"What did you say to him?" She asks.
"Nothing to worry about." I say, pulling her close.
"It didn't look like nothing. He looked scared."
I shrug. "I told told him that he should make something for me sometime."
"You won't eat it." She says, her brows furrowing.
"Yeah, imagine my surprise when he told me the exact thing."
She gets a guilty look on her face and I give her a kiss on the forehead.
"It's fine. I'm not angry."
It just means I should keep a closer eye on the kid. Bella likes him in the way she likes Rocco. Which means she trusts him. He could abuse that trust and I'm going to make sure it doesn't get to that point.