Leave Me Breathless: The Black Rose Collection

by Dakota Willink

  With his back firmly against the wall, Gino tried to watch the fighters in the ring. However, his attention was stolen by the mysterious woman whose eyes never left the ring. Kristine Smith was nothing like the women who surrounded her, jeans and a jacket versus sequins and fur. She was pure and natural, with her lack of makeup and colored hair, and, if he were to be perfectly honest, she was far more beautiful without it.

  As the fighters for the second-round tapped gloves, Niko came to stand beside Gino, remaining silent until the round was over.

  “Still think I’m wrong?”

  “I didn’t say you were wrong, old man. But saying it and proving it are two different things.”

  “So, what are we going to do, let it go and waste the opportunity?”

  Gino absently watched the boxers circle one another, tossing limp-ass punches at one another.

  “I need proof, Niko. Solid as fuck proof before I drop a fucking bomb like that.”

  “There are ways to get the proof. Question is, Giovanni, are you willing to do what it takes?”

  11

  Kristine dropped the box in her hands onto her desk, the action reminding her of cleaning out her granny’s attic. Opening the lid, her eyes gleamed with delight at the mess of ledgers and various receipts, all waiting for her to dive in and organize them. Sully had no idea the gift he’d inadvertently given her. Kristine found serenity and calm in figuring out puzzles such as this, making clarity out of confusion was the best stress relief she knew.

  Opening the first ledger, she found detailed information on a dry-cleaning business in Flatbush. Sliding behind her computer, she typed in the account number, expecting to find the account closed. However, much to her surprise, the account was open and with a substantial balance. Scanning the transactions, she found it odd money was going in every month, but nothing had left in quite some time. Returning to the box, she found envelopes full of canceled checks, the majority of which were made out to cash and the signature on the back too sloppy to read. Kristine tried to do a search on what account the money was deposited from, but her access was denied. Collecting a handful of checks and the ledger, she rounded her desk with determination, heading for Sully’s office.

  As she reached the door, the sound of laughter halted her progression as the man himself walked toward her, Nina wrapped comfortably around his arm.

  “Kristine,” Sully greeted, bending down to place a kiss to her cheek. “You’re here early this morning.”

  “I couldn’t sleep last night, so I came in.”

  “Couldn’t sleep, huh?” Nina wagged her eyebrows suggestively. “Do I know who was keeping you up?”

  Kristine sent Nina a look. The pair had grown closer in their time working from the same office, the easy banter between them a contrast from her previous job. Where Grace had no qualms about showing her lack of boundaries, Nina encouraged her to spread her sexual wings.

  “My inability to sleep was suffered alone, thank you very much. However, I’m glad I ran into you. I found something in one of those boxes you asked me to go through.”

  Sully glanced at the files in her hand, his curiosity piqued. His understanding was the contents of the closet were outdated files he moved from one of his warehouses, making room for the supplies he needed to manufacture the drugs his brother gave him.

  “Show me,” Sully instructed, tipping his head toward her desk.

  Spinning on her heels, Kristine spread the pages out on her desk, explaining in detail what she’d found.

  “This is…wow, Kristine. Looks as if you’ve saved us a ton of money.” Sully praised before pulling her into a tight embrace, placing a kiss to the top of her head.

  Kristine allowed herself to melt into his arms, silently chastising herself for enjoying his touch so much.

  “We should celebrate,” Nina announced, her eyes still wide from the total on the page. “Take you to see Simone at Salon Bougie, let her do the works on you.”

  Kristine had promised her coworkers she would allow them to take her to this salon and have what they termed ‘the works’ performed on her. Trouble was, she hadn’t been able to find a bank to deposit the check Mr. Evans gave her and didn’t feel comfortable using the cash Tony handed out the other day.

  “I need to find an apartment,” Kristine reasoned, having accidentally found out how much her hotel room was costing Sully.

  “I’m sorry, Kristine, I meant to get you one last weekend, but something came up. Give me a couple of days and I’ll get you the best apartment in New Jersey, I promise.”

  “Mr. Vitale—"

  “What did I tell you about the mister, Kristine?” Sully interrupted, reaching into his pocket for his money clip.

  “I’m sorry…Sully.” Kristine reluctantly corrected, still not comfortable with the informal address of her employer.

  “That’s better, beautiful.” Sully smiled, the action making Kristine’s knees weak and the argument on her tongue fade in the sexual haze he created. “Take this,” Sully handed a wad of cash to Nina, Kristine held her shock at the number of bills clasped between his fingers. “And the two of you have fun.”

  Kristine stared at her reflection in the mirror, the silver foils in her hair making her feel more alien than human. With her hair naturally dark, it had given Simone quite a challenge getting it to a light enough shade for what she’d proposed. She’d been waxed, buffed, polished and tanned within an inch of her life over the course of the day.

  “Another ten minutes, and we’ll rinse this out,” Simone told her after lifting the edge of one of the foils and scrutinizing the hair beneath. It’d been like this the entire day; a few more minutes until she could get dressed after her spray tan, another few seconds and she could blink her eyes with the extensions to her lashes. She was ready for the whole process to be over.

  Much like the office, lunch had been brought in by one of Sully’s men. She hated taking advantage of his generosity, but with her inability to cook for herself, she remained at his mercy.

  While the minutes continued to drag, Kristine took a look around the room at her coworkers sitting in one chair or another. What she assumed was a day with Nina had turned into a field trip for the entire office, making her wonder who was answering the phones. With her eyes trained on Cheri, a beautiful blonde with lips that looked as if they’d been stung by a bee, chatting away with Lisa, the quiet girl who’d applied the acrylic nails Kristine was still trying to get used to, she tried to recall the last time she’d heard a phone ring in the office. Searching her memory of the last few days, the only ringing had come from the personal cellphones each girl kept with them.

  “You ready to get this off ya?”

  Startled, Kristine shifted her eyes to Simone’s reflection in the mirror. The tall, curvy girl with bright pink hair and pierced tongue, smiled apologetically at her before motioning toward the shampoo bowl behind her.

  Closing her eyes, Kristine allowed the feel of the hot water and Simone’s gentle fingers massage her tender scalp. She took the time to compare her old office to the new one; phones ringing off the hook, to none at all. Deliveries and mail, customers and salesmen, all came to the Coop, but not a single one came to the car rental. It wasn’t for lack of product she surmised. The parking lot was full of beautiful, high-end cars waiting to be driven. Another thing she pondered, the receptionist at the front door. In the six days she’d worked for the company, there’d been four different women sitting behind the counter. Did they switch out? What exactly did they do? Looking harder at the girls around her, Kristine was forced to ask the same of them. While she and Nina perused spreadsheets and paid bills, the other girls in the room focused their attention on the men who came off the lot.

  The rules… Kristine reminded herself as Tony walked through the door, a woman carrying dozens of handbags on her arms right behind him. “I come bearing gifts!” Tony announced, holding the door as the woman crossed the threshold.

  The smell of leather caressed Kristi
ne’s nose, overriding the chemical fog she’d been surrounded by since walking into the salon. Nails and hair color were forgotten as the woman held her arms out, a swarm of giggling girls descending like locusts leaving her arms bare and a smile on her face. Kristine watched in disbelief as bags were fought over, angry words exchanged and names she’d heard only in movies, slung out like whips against the bare backs of criminals.

  “I was told to deliver this to you personally.” Tony stood to Kristine’s side, the cord of a shopping bag dangling from his index finger, the iconic logo larger than life on the side of the gold bag.

  Without thinking, “Wh…” she began but thought better of it. Slamming her lips closed and reaching into the bag, diving passed the tissue to the box resting on the bottom. Slowly, as if it were a dream, Kristine sat the empty bag by the mirror, cautiously lifting the lid to find a well-crafted handbag with the logo repeated over and over in a classic pattern. Resting in the center of the purse was a small card with her name scrolled across the front. Flipping it over, she read and re-read the note, her mind filled with confusion.

  Every beautiful woman deserves to be spoiled. Please allow my friend Louis to do it in my absence.

  The note was unsigned, and while she suspected Sully was the sender, she wasn’t bold enough to point fingers. She also knew Tony would never reveal their identity, so asking him was pointless.

  “Please extend my gratitude to whomever asked you to bring this to me. It’s beautiful and I will treasure it.”

  Tony nodded his head, but remained silent, turning and heading to the front counter where he pulled a wad of cash from his pocket, slipping off several bills to the woman who’d greeted them as they came in.

  “Still sticking with the story of being alone last night?” Nina questioned, her freshly waxed brow raised nearly to her hairline.

  “It isn’t signed, Nina,” Kristine offered her the card. “I wasn’t lying when I said I was alone.”

  “Well, you won’t be able to say that for much longer,” Simone exclaimed, leaving Nina with a retort on her lips, as she spun the chair toward the mirror. “Because you are fucking hot.”

  Kristine couldn’t believe who she saw staring back at her; it was the same girl she saw in the hotel bathroom this morning, but much-much different. Blonde hair, streaked with caramel highlights framed her face, with her skin at least three shades darker. Thick and full lashes surrounded her eyes, making the odd blue somehow darker. Red, nearly black lips made bigger by the gel which still tingled on her skin.

  “Wow,” Kristine confessed, unable to believe the transformation.

  “Fuck yea, wow.” Simone agreed, removing the cape from around Kristine’s neck. “Now, I’ll need to see you in a few weeks, those black roots will have reared their ugly heads by then.”

  Kristine half-listened to Simon’s instructions on what to avoid in the next few days, unable to tear her eyes from the girl in the mirror. With her lighter hair and faux tan, she looked like all the other girls in the office. Rising from the chair, Kristine reached into the bag she brought in, slipping her fingers into the envelope Tony gave her.

  “Here, this is for you.” She offered Simone, feeling certain this was the best use for money she didn’t earn.

  Simone smiled, slipping the money into her cleavage. “Two weeks, Kristine, and don’t you dare wash that head for three days.”

  Kristine followed Nina out of the shop and into her waiting car. The temperature had dropped significantly during the hours they’d spent in the salon, and as she slipped into the passenger seat, she thought of all the new ‘don’ts’ in her world. Could fitting in be as easy as simply…don’t?

  So it went for several weeks. Every Monday a new set of keys would appear on Kristine’s desk, ones she would ignore for the most part. She only took the car to the corner coffee shop and the appointment with Simone, instead using a service to travel back and forth to work. She searched daily for an apartment but came up empty when the advertised luxury studio was more of a hall closet, filled with bugs and reeking of urine, costing more per day than the hotel. Bouquets of roses graced her desk nearly as often as the women downstairs changed, always red and never with a card. She followed the ‘don’t’ rules and never questioned the girls or the flowers.

  One day bled into the next, the routine of one turning into the monotony of the other, all until the Thursday before Saint Patrick’s Day.

  Kristine took the stairs as always, mostly for the extra steps, but also for the solitude it brought her. All of the girls in the office wore heels so high she was surprised they didn’t get nose bleeds, preferring the convenience of the elevator. Kristine knew something was off the moment the door closed behind her, the normally scantily clad with excessive makeup girls were fluttering around in even more revealing clothing, some barely keeping their cleavage inside their tops. Kristine hurried to her desk, taking her seat before anyone noticed her. She wished Nina were here today, but she’d been called away on an emergency. The running of the office rested solely on Kristine’s shoulders.

  “Gino wants to see you in his office.”

  Kristine looked up from her computer screen, her morning perusal of the internet news forgotten as she locked eyes with Cheri. Gino had been out of the office, the reason, one of those don’t rules she chose to follow. Clearly, his return was the cause behind the sudden change in the girls.

  Without question, Kristine closed the webpage and locked her computer before taking the stairs to the third floor. She hadn’t been up there since their initial introductions, where she found Gino lived up to the hype; intimidating enough make use of his first name off-putting, not to mention completely gorgeous.

  Entering the hall, Kristine found Gino sitting behind the huge desk in the center of the room, his attention captured by something on his screen.

  “Mr. Vitale?” She called, rapping her knuckles on the wooden frame of the door. “Cheri said you wanted to see me.”

  Gino looked from his computer screen to the woman standing in the threshold, his breath catching in his throat at the extreme changes in her.

  “You look…different.” Gino began, unable to hide his lack of appreciation for her new appearance. Clearly, the girls had sunk their talons into her, changing her into one of them. How much was the question Gino needed answered?

  Different, not beautiful. Kristine didn’t miss his choice in words, his dislike stinging more than it should. “Nina wanted me to fit in more, so the girls helped.” Kristine explained, unsure why she felt the need to defend herself with Gino. Sully and the other guys went on and on about how beautiful she was with the changes, but Gino clearly hated it.

  “Yes, well…” At a loss for words, the hurt in her voice affected him the same way it did when he heard it come from his mother and Nona. “With Nina gone, I need you to handle a few of her responsibilities until she returns.”

  “Of course,” Kristine agreed, eager for more work to keep her occupied as the tasks Sully assigned her were simple and easily completed.

  Gino slid an envelope toward her, the contents testing the limits of the heavy paper. “I’ve assigned a password for you to gain access to my accounts.”

  Kristine reached for the envelope, but was halted when Gino held it back. “You tell no one of this, not even Sully, are we clear?”

  Nodding her head, “Crystal. I’ll have this taken care of by the end of the day.”

  Releasing his hold, “Take your time, Kristine. They aren’t due for another week.”

  Kristine ignored Gino’s last statement, working long into the evening scanning each bill to make certain the balance equaled the charges. Her eyes grew wide and her breath hitched several times as she typed the check amount into the system. None so much as the bill from a personal shopping company for twice what she made in a year. With the checks printed and spreadsheets created, Kristine went to log out of the system when she thought of the account she’d shown Sully. Curiosity got the better of her as
she moved her mouse to the search box and typed in the account number, waiting for the page to reload. She expected the words account unknown to appear, but, much to her surprise, the account was not only open, there had also been several transactions executed since she shared it with Sully. Needing to tell someone, Kristine pressed the print screen button on her keyboard, adding the page to the stack she had for Gino.

  Glancing out her window, Kristine hadn’t heard him leave, but that didn’t mean anything as he didn’t come off as an individual who answered to anyone. When she saw his car sitting in its usual spot, Kristine collected the stack of papers and headed for the stairs, taking them two at a time until she reached the third floor. Throwing open the door, Kristine let out a breath when she caught sight of him standing in the doorway sliding his arms into a heavy coat.

  “Kristine, is everything okay?”

  “No,” she admitted. “At least I don’t think so.”

  Gino tossed his coat to the side, reaching for Kristine whose labored breathing made him nervous. “Did someone hurt you?” The thought of any man touching her made him see red.

  “No, no one hurt me…” She trailed off, confused by the concern in Gino’s voice. “Can we go into your office? I need to show this to someone.”

  Gino stood stoic as Kristine showed him the account and the transactions. He listened with earnest as she spoke of the checks made out to cash and her inability to read the signature.

  “Pull the account up on my computer,” Gino had his suspicions of what was going on, and as he waited for Kristine to logon his mind flashed back to his conversation with Niko. Leaning against his desk, Gino couldn’t help but breathe in the scent of Kristine’s perfume, the floral scent making his dick twitch.