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I glance past Jamal and toward the wing Zakiya and Jinx use for their activities. The desire to delay Jamal’s report and seek her out to seduce Zakiya into agreeing with me is almost strong enough to overpower my duties to the organization. The only thing stopping me is the echo of her tortured sobs from last night.
How bad can her secrets be to make her deny herself something she desperately wants? To believe she doesn’t deserve a chance at happiness? I know she wants me. With all her protestations, not once did she deny she wanted me. Everything was about the impossibility of us being together. Like I would ever let that shit slide. Zakiya is headstrong and knows herself. That she chose me to be her first was as intentional as her hiding all traces of her identity.
“Sansone,” Jamal huffs, impatient for my attention.
“You have news for me?”
“We have a problem.”
I arch my brow. He knows better than to open with a vague statement.
“Our downtown warehouse got hit. They took all our product.”
The news halts my tapping. “Do we have survivors who can identify the culprit?”
Jamal shakes his head. “They left no one alive. Whoever it is, is sending a message. There’s a new kingpin and our time is up.”
“Yeah, that’s worked well for their predecessors.” I scratch my beard as I ponder my previous conversations with Valentino. “What do our allies have to say?”
“All of them have been hit in one form or another. Even Luxe Locations have been implicated. I would have reached out to Kent, but with everyone watching him because of the murders, I didn’t want to bring more trouble to his doorstep.”
“Good. He’s been good to our family. We need to repay the favor.”
Jamal nods, eager to fulfill my orders.
“Under the radar,” I say. “Once he clears his name, he’ll be indebted to us.”
“Got it. We still have to find out who is messing with our business.”
My prior conversation with Valentino comes to mind. “You think this mess is connected to that fica stronzo talking to the police?”
“It’s possible, but whoever it is has a hacker on their payroll. Our security system went down right before the hit and came online once they cleared out.”
“We have hackers, too. What’s stopping them from doing whatever the fuck they do to find the testa di minchia interfering with my business?” I slam my palm on my desk.
“You don’t want to hear my thoughts on that.”
I glare at Jamal. He’s my number two for a reason. Of course, I need to hear his unfiltered opinion.
“Our guys have been outclassed. Whoever stole from us has better trained hackers and possibly a more skillful attack force.”
“And how do you propose we handle this situation?”
If Jamal hopes to take over an arm of the organization one day, he has to lead without me holding his hand. I pepper him with questions, identifying the holes in his logic and the dangers in his strategies.
“Before we go off and make a spectacle ensuring I lose money, men, and the respect of my don, we need to find where else the hackers targeted. Although the downtown warehouse was where they hit, they must have done some recon first. Have our hackers look for traces of someone accessing our system in other locations.” I glance toward where Zakiya should be again.
Jamal follows my stare. “Do you think she’d help? Whoever wiped her from all the systems has got to be god-tier in the hacking world.”
“Only if she can safeguard her anonymity.”
As we discuss how to entice Zakiya into aiding us, a disturbance at the door interrupts us.
“Sorry, the boss is in a meeting.” Mattia’s voice filters through the closed door.
“I understand. I didn’t realize Jinx wanted to see her father. Why don’t you practice painting with the new supplies we bought?”
Before I know it, I’m opening the door. “Jinx is looking for me?” Although I inquire about my daughter, it’s Zakiya’s reaction that interests me.
