Working For A Living II

Torquato Lozano. To the business world he was a hard-nosed businessman but to those who knew what la famiglia meant, he was the Don of the Lozano family. He’d boldly and brutally overthrown his own father for the title when his grandfather stepped down. He’d been thirty-two when he took control of his family. He’d done so only one year after his family rescinded the marriage agreement once they found out she wasn’t a virgin any longer.

Now he’d be roughly thirty-seven years old, a Don for five years now and he’d made a hell of a name for himself. Her brother and he were the same age and while her brothers still talked to her and kept her in the loop about things which she needed to be aware of for her protection, the one thing her eldest brother always said was Don Lozano scared the fuck out of him, and they’d grown up with Edgardo Mariani for a father.

To this day, there wasn’t a single direct photograph of the Don of the Lozano family. Unlike his father who frequently postured and grandstanded for the notoriety of it all, Torquato operated in the shadows. Rumors swirled that he was ugly with scars running over his face and a temper to match.

It was why, of course, she’d gone through the lengths she’d gone to avoid marrying him. The last thing she wanted was to be the unwilling bride to a sadist who was ten years older than her and wanted a wife who was nothing more than a brood mare to be raped and bred day in and out until she popped out the heir to his throne.

She’d taken a big risk doing what she’d done but it paid off. Auctioning off her virginity on the dark web had been a burst of insanity. Nobody could trace who she was because she was a damn good hacker so Bruno would never be able to find out anything more than the backstory, she meticulously created and left breadcrumbs about. Her family would never figure out who to whom she’d sold herself because all traces of the experience were wiped clean, by her own hand. Once her mother threw her into her room to await her father’s arrival, she’d been on her computer in seconds, eradicating all the images of her from the hotel surveillance and nearby traffic lights, she’d transferred the money she’d received to an offshore account and erased every digital print of the night as if it never happened.

She knew she’d also done Bruno a solid because in removing every trace of herself from the computer system, she also got rid of all the evidence of his men disposing of the three bodies.

Emerging from her memory she crinkled her nose at Tank, “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“I need you upstairs with me to help me set up the two offices. I can do the programming for the security systems we need to run but I need a second set of hands to get this done.”

“Tank, I must get the other desks set up. I’m already working overtime.”

“Not my problem. You’ll stay later.”

“Are you going to arrange the babysitter?” she shot back at him angrily, shoving her glasses back up her nose. “In case you forgot I have a kid at home who I’d like to at least see for a few minutes before he goes to bed.”

Tank sighed, “look, let’s set the offices up upstairs and then you and I will come down here and get this done.”

“Which part do you not get? My sitter is only there for two more hours. Not a minute more. If I lose my sitter, I will quit my job and then you lose one of our IT team.”

“Fine. You can come in early tomorrow.”

“Do they call you Tank because you run roughshod all over people like a tank?” It was a comment she’d made multiple times over the years.

He chuckled. “I’ll call one of the other guys to come in early. Deal?”

“Deal.” She dropped what she was doing and followed him down the hall towards the elevator. Her stomach was still churning. “When you said they were upstairs, they’re not in the offices, are they? I mean there is nothing set up yet.”

“They’re working out of the boardroom for now. They showed up unannounced or, according to Kylen with one hour’s notice.  Also, the secretary or admin assistant or whatever the socially appropriate name is now for the woman who gets his coffee and dry cleaning, is a piece of work. She’s wearing six-inch heels, more lipstick than a Vogue cover girl and makes me feel every bit as insecure as I did when I got picked on by the cheer captain in middle school. I swear she’s every nerd’s worst nightmare.”

“You were a nerd, Tank?”

“I got big in the army, Alcee and switched my coke-bottle glasses for contacts but in here,” he tapped his chest, “fifteen-year-old skinny Ezekiel who preferred playing chess against the computer than talking to people still doesn’t like bitchy women who chew little boys like me up.”

She chuckled, “she can’t be so bad.”

“She took one look at Kylen, and he made sure to put the entire length of the board room table between them. I’ve known him a long time and let me tell you, even he is steering clear of her. Her name is Genevra and she’s the reason the term mean girls was coined.” He pushed the button to the top floor and jammed his fists into his pockets. “These are the days I miss mine-clearing operations.”

As the doors opened to the top floor, she found herself heartily agreeing with him. A sinking feeling the risk of her being on this floor or doing the task he’d now mentioned were equally devastating if the Lozano family found issue with her working in their building.