by Leah Wilde
“All right, all right,” Guido said, his voice becoming more muffled, as if he was heading back out of the apartment. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”
“Yep,” Vince said before slamming the door shut.
Fiona stayed in place, standing awkwardly in the middle of the bedroom, waiting for Vince to fetch her. It was probably fine for her to go ahead and leave the penthouse, but she was nervous about doing something that Vince disapproved of. She knew that, outside of the playroom, he wouldn’t be unreasonable about Fiona making her own decisions, but she still cared about doing what he wanted. Maybe I like him more than I thought, she thought to herself, her stomach sinking as she considered that possibility.
In any case, Vince appeared a minute later, opening up the bedroom door and gesturing for Fiona to follow him outside. “Sorry about that,” Vince said, sounding genuinely apologetic.
“No problem,” Fiona lied, even though her heart was still pounding a little too quickly in her chest, making her feel queasy and off-balance. “It was your brother, right?”
Vince nodded, placing his hand at the base of Fiona’s back to lead her away from the bedroom and back towards the main entrance area of the penthouse. “He’s always butting in where he doesn’t belong. He’ll behave, though. I’ll make sure of that.”
Fiona found herself smiling despite her latest surge in anxiety. Vince seemed to have that effect on her, helping her calm down even when her nerves went wild. “Well, thank you for tonight. I really appreciate...everything you did.”
For a second, Fiona was sure she was hallucinating, but she thought she saw Vince’s cheeks go a little red. Is he…blushing? Fiona wondered, biting the inside of her lip to keep herself from smiling and giving herself away. God, he was so cute. It was unfair, honestly, not to mention amazing, that someone so sexy and so commanding could also be so adorable. “You’re welcome,” Vince finally said, his tone stiff and uncomfortable even as his cheeks became more and more pink.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Fiona asked as she pulled away from Vince’s touch, resisting the urge to run back into his arms and sweep him up into a kiss.
“Definitely,” Vince said, and Fiona was relieved to see a slight smile spread across his lips, lighting up his eyes in a way that Fiona tried to commit to memory. She didn’t want to forget this moment, this one beautiful, soft moment between them, before they had to go back to pretending that they were just colleagues.
She forced herself through the front door, turning on her heel and heading down the hallway outside his apartment, fighting hard to keep herself from rushing back inside and attempting to stay the night. God, it was so tempting to try, but she held herself back, heading downstairs to the ground floor of the fancy apartment complex, going outside into the bitter cold. She was halfway to the road, where a town car presumably waited for her as it did the night before when she left Vince’s apartment, when a figure, all in black, sprung out of the shadows, stopping her in her tracks.
“Hey, there, pretty lady,” the man said, smiling so viciously that the white of his teeth cut through the night’s darkness like a knife. It was Guido. Of course. Fiona inwardly berated herself for not waiting longer to leave Vince’s apartment. Of course, Guido would be waiting outside like a disgusting little creep. It was just the way he was. It was stupid of Fiona not to anticipate that, honestly. Now she’d have to come up with an excuse, quickly, before Guido figured out the truth.
“Hello, there, Mr. Romano,” Fiona said, hoping that if she was polite and overly respectful that Guido would leave her alone. “Visiting your brother?”
“Just saw him, actually,” Guido said, a slick smirk sliding across his face. “You know, you look better than usual, Fiona. What is it? Pilates, yoga? Fucking my brother?”
“Excuse me?” Fiona said, summoning up as much manufactured outrage as she could and screwing up her face to show that she was offended. “How dare you!”
“Oh, save it,” Guido said, his smug smile slipping off his face as quickly as it had appeared, replaced by something scarier, something more disturbing. He looked hard and mean, older than he really was, his shoulders squaring up under his jacket like he was preparing for a fight. Fiona felt chilled to the bone, backing up a pace to put more distance between their bodies. Guido just walked forward, cutting the space between them in half. He could probably see how scared she was, how hard she was breathing now that he was closer to her. But that didn’t stop him from narrowing his eyes, looking at her like she was a piece of trash standing in his way. “I know what you’ve been doing tonight. Quite the slut, aren’t you?”
“You don’t have a single idea what you’re talking about,” Fiona said through gritted teeth, maintaining a mask of confidence, even though it probably wasn’t very convincing, given how much she was trembling. He could probably see how her fingers were shaking, even as she reached inside her coat pocket, her hand scrambling to find the handle of the knife that she carried around with her. She’d never had to use it before, and she was hoping and praying that she wouldn’t have to do so tonight either. But she had to be ready, just in case.
“I think I know exactly what’s going on here,” Guido said, practically snarling now as he stepped a little closer to her. Fiona stood her ground, refusing to back up or yield any space to him, the knife in her pocket giving her strength, even though she knew she could really only do minimal damage with it if it came down to that. He would prevail in a physical fight. No, instead, she’d have to do something she hated. She’d have to scream for help. But not until he actually got physical with her, otherwise she’d lose her job and Vince in one fell swoop. “You’re fucking my brother. You met him, what, a few days ago? And already you’re letting him in your pants? You haven’t even done me once. What’s up with that?”
Fiona shook her head and shrugged. “Maybe I don’t fuck around with losers. Maybe that’s got something to do with it.” She knew it was foolish to taunt him at a time like this, but some part of her wished he’d just attack and get it over with. She could handle him if she had to, but the anticipation, the gradual build-up of fear inside of her was too much to take.
Guido clicked his teeth, making a popping sound from deep inside his mouth with his tongue before smiling again, cheerily, like she’d said something hilarious. “Funny. You’re a funny girl. I like that. I like you, you know, in general. You’re a pretty hot girl with a good head on your shoulders. So, I trust that you’ll listen to me when I tell you this because I’m not fucking around.”
He paused, maybe for dramatic effect, maybe to let her talk. Either way, Fiona didn’t take the bait, crossing her arms across her chest and glaring at him silently instead.
“You fucked my brother. What’s done is done. You can’t take that mistake back, no matter how hard you deny it, baby. So let me tell you what’s got to happen now. You’re going to fuck me, too. In fact, you’re going to stop doing him and focus on me exclusively.”
“Why the hell would I do that?” Fiona snapped, beyond denying the sex with Vince at this point. There was no point. Guido knew the truth anyway, even if he had no idea about the exact nature of their relationship.
“Because pretty soon I’m going to be the boss, babe,” Guido said, his eyes twinkling with something between mischief and satisfaction, like he’d already won their argument and gotten her to agree to fuck him. “And you want to keep your job, don’t you?”
“Wh—what?” Fiona whispered, unable to raise her voice any higher under the weight of the fear that suddenly crashed down over her head.
“You heard me,” Guido said, but then he went on to repeat himself anyway. He probably liked the sound of his own voice, Fiona figured. “You sleep with me, soon, or you won’t have a job anymore. And you can’t afford to lose this position, right? What are you going to do instead? Be a bookkeeper at a coffee shop somewhere? Or actually serve the coffee? How’s that going to keep your dad alive?”
“How do you know about my dad?
” Fiona asked indignantly. She’d never talked about her personal problems at work before, except a little bit with Paulie here and there before he died. But he never would have talked to his son about it. He just wasn’t that kind of man.
Guido shrugged, apparently unwilling to give her a satisfactory answer. “I have my ways. You shouldn’t worry about that. Instead, I suggest you focus on the problem standing in front of you. Now, I don’t want to fuck you right now. I’m not really into sloppy seconds, if you know what I mean. But you better get ready to fuck me soon, and it better be good. Otherwise…” He trailed off, shrugging again and smiling meanly at her, his eyes reflecting the moonlight shining down from above in the ugliest way imaginable, as if there was some nuclear bomb inside of him, just ready to go off and consume everything that Fiona was.
Fiona stared as meanly and coldly as she could back at Guido, wanting him to be perfectly aware of how much she hated him. She’d always disliked him, always found him rather disgusting just based off the way he harassed all of the women in the office. But now it was beyond that. He’d never made threats like this before, or she would have found herself looking for another job a long time ago. It must be because of Paulie, Fiona realized. He never would have done this if Paulie were still alive because he would know that he wouldn’t be able to get away with it. But now that his father is gone…. there’s nothing stopping him.
Except for Vince, of course, she realized belatedly. Maybe Vince would protect her, despite the fact that they’d only known each other for a couple of days. They’d really connected, bonding in a way that Fiona had never expected. He could keep her safe, defend her from his brother. “So, what do you think your brother is going to say about this when I tell him that you’ve been threatening me?” Fiona said, narrowing her eyes at Guido, who looked unbothered. “Do you really think you can just get away with saying this kind of shit to me? Vince is the boss now. Not you.”
“Not for long,” Guido muttered under his breath.
“What? What does that mean?” Fiona asked, feeling her pulse start to pound in her throat, fear collecting at the bottom of her stomach.
“Nothing,” Guido said dismissively, waving his hand as if she was imagining things. “Nothing at all. But to answer your question, nothing’s going to happen to me. Because you’re not going to tell my brother a thing.”
“What? Yes, I am. I’m going to do it right now,” Fiona said, turning on her heel and beginning to march up the hill, back in the direction of the apartment building, where Vince was probably getting ready for bed.
But before she could scale the hill, Guido’s hand clamped down on her shoulder, keeping her in place in much the same way as his brother did earlier. Chills reverberated inside of Fiona’s bones, freezing her in place even as she felt Guido’s hot, sickly breath hit the back of her exposed neck. “You’re not going to tell him shit,” Guido whispered into her ear. “Because if you do, something might just happen…”
“You’re not going to kill me,” Fiona said, even though she didn’t feel nearly as confident as she sounded. Who knew what Guido was really capable of, seeing as how he was essentially conning her into fucking him?
“No,” Guido agreed. “I’m not. But something else might happen, something that would be worse than death for you.”
“What--?” Fiona asked, feeling utterly confused.
“Let’s just say, I’d hate for something bad to happen to your father,” Guido said casually before stepping back and removing his hand from her shoulder. “That’d be a real shame. I know what that feels like now, losing a father. It’d be terrible for you to experience that.”
Fiona slowly turned back around to face the little shithead that was threatening her, swallowing the bile that cropped up in her mouth as a result of Guido’s words. “You’re not serious,” Fiona said, forcing as much confidence into her voice as she could possibly muster. She couldn’t show him how afraid she really was, how much she’d shaken her. In reality, her fingers were still shaking around the handle of the knife in her coat while her other hand balled up into a fist, preparing to strike the little man in front of her at the first sign of trouble. “You’re just fucking around with me,” she said.
But Guido just shrugged again, raising his eyebrows skeptically at her. “Who knows? I’m a fucking mystery. Maybe I am, maybe I’m not. But you can’t be sure, can you?”
“I can tell someone that you said this to me,” Fiona said, recalling the fear and cold certainty she’d felt earlier in the day when she was going over business information with Vince. “I could go to the fucking cops. You don’t even know all that I know.”
But Guido didn’t look intimidated, not even in the slightest. “Go right ahead, Fiona. You just do that, and then you see what happens.”
“You can’t hurt my father if you’re in jail!” Fiona argued, her voice getting higher than she’d intended, starting to feel panic sweep over all of her internal organs, making every muscle in her body clench up.
“I can’t, no,” Guido said, nodding at her encouragingly like she’d just made a really good point. But he was mocking her, because then he smiled sharply and added, “But the men I have watching over him might.”
“You’re bluffing,” Fiona said, shaking her head and turning on her heel again to head back up the hill. This time, Guido didn’t follow her or try to stop her.
“You just keep telling yourself that, Fiona. I’ve been pretty bored lately anyway. Maybe I’ll head over to your dad’s place myself, pay him a little visit. I’m sure he’d like to hear all that you’ve been doing with your employers.”
“Fuck you!” Fiona shouted over her shoulder, continuing to struggle up the hill in her heels.
“You will. And soon,” Guido said, right before the sound of his footsteps informed Fiona that he’d walked away from her, in the opposite direction, towards the main road. He probably had a car waiting for him to take him back to the Romano compound.
Fiona kept walking until she was sure that Guido was gone for good, taking her knife from her pocket and bracing it between her fingers, ready if anyone jumped out at her from the shadows again. “Goddammit,” she muttered as she stared up at the lights of the penthouse apartment above. “God fucking dammit!”
What should I do? Fiona wondered silently, the cold handle of the knife contributing to the trembling of her fingers. Should I tell Vince? Could he really protect me? And what did Guido mean when he said he was taking over, that he would be the boss soon? Are there people in the Romano organization willing to defect over to Guido and overthrow Vince’s control?
She couldn’t be sure. Even though she’d worked at the Romano compound for over a year now, she didn’t really have any relationships with anybody there except for Paulie, who was gone now. Maybe Guido was just pretending, acting like he had a lot of sway in the organization, lots of men under his control, when really, he was just pissed that his father had passed him over in favor of Vince. But on the other hand…Mama Romano was definitely a lot closer to Guido than she was to Vince. As far as Fiona could tell, her older son hadn’t talked to her at all in the entire time that Fiona was working for the family. That didn’t bode well, as Mrs. Romano was the longest-running authority figure in the entire organization at this rate.
Fuck, Fiona thought, turning back around and heading downhill, stopping before she got to the road, hiding in the shadow of a large tree in case Guido was still watching her. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Even if she did tell Vince, she had no reason to trust that Vince would believe her word over his brother’s. Despite the fact that the two men clearly competed with each other for their whole lives, they were still family. That had to take precedence over a fuck buddy, no matter how deeply they’d connected with their bodies. If Fiona were in Vince’s position, he’d probably fire her right on the spot, just for the crime of accusing Guido of such a terrible thing. Fiona couldn’t even blame Vince for it. After all, they’d only fucked once, and they’d only met a few days prior
. Vince had no reason to take her word over his brother’s, even if she didn’t have any reason to lie.
Slowly, terribly, a sick sensation of certainty sunk down over Fiona’s head, removing any and all doubt, any and all hope from her system. She couldn’t tell Vince. That much was obvious to her now. The risks were too high, and there was no reason for Fiona to believe that Vince would or even could protect her, if Guido’s brags about the men under his control were anything to believe.
Fiona began walking away from the protective shadows of the trees around her, heading further downhill toward the road where a town car was indeed waiting for her, a servant opening the door to the backseat as soon as he spotted her. Fiona faked a polite smile and told the servant thank you as she slid inside the vehicle, pressing her head against the opposite window and staring down at the city below.
“I’m fucked,” she mumbled as the car roared to life, rolling in the direction of her home.
Chapter Fifteen
