Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 65054 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65054 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
This is definitely not rocket science. All I have to do is turn the dials, right? Although it takes me two tries to light the correct burner. Then, when I pull out a frying pan, she sighs and tells me it’s the wrong size. I didn’t even know frying pans had sizes.
Finally, she finishes and brings over the cut-up vegetables and chicken. She adds a little oil to the pan to start cooking the chicken, then turns to the pantry for even more ingredients. She moves so gracefully, so effortlessly, that I can’t help but watch. I don’t often, if ever, pay attention to how my food gets made, so being part of the process fascinates me.
In no time, the food is cooked and she has me pull down plates so she can serve it up. She pulls out a stool at the kitchen island and sits down, gesturing for me to do the same.
“I usually eat in the dining room,” I tell her stiffly.
She smiles. “I know. It’s very weird. That table seats like twenty. Doesn’t it ever make you lonely?”
I shrug. “It never has,” I tell her honestly. “I’ve eaten in there my whole life.”
She stares at me slack-jawed. “You’ve lived here your whole life?”
“Yes. My grandparents purchased the lot decades ago and my father commissioned the building.”
“So, when you said you own the building…”
“I inherited it. I mean, technically Chiara also owns half, but she doesn’t care about that. As long as I let her design the apartments, she doesn’t fuss over the real estate.”
Sofia nods, digesting this information.
“What’s your net worth?” she asks a minute later.
I throw my head back and laugh. I never quite know where her brain is going to take her.
“Do you want the Fortune 500 answer or the real answer?”
“The real one.”
“At least ten billion,” I say as she lets out a startled choke. “I haven’t looked at the books in a while. This building alone is worth nearly a billion now. My grandfather got the land for a steal, and it’s accrued a lot of equity since.”
“That’s… a lot of money,” she manages.
“Which is why I’m very careful about who I let into my circle. Some people are so greedy and power-hungry, they aren’t trustworthy.”
She nods. “And some people barely make ends meet and have to use dirty loan sharks just to survive…” she trails off.
After that, we eat in silence. I think I’ve overwhelmed her, and after the emotional turmoil of the night, she probably needs the quiet.
Things thaw a lot between us after that. She actually agrees to ride to work with me the next morning, and we have dinner together again the next night. She tells me all about her childhood, and about her mom, who died when she was nineteen. She and her father were always somewhat close, she says, but after they lost her mom, she felt the burden of caring for him. It’s more than any child should have to carry, especially when her own life was just beginning.
The following day, Rafe comes into my office with a file in his hands.
“You’re not going to like this,” he tells me gravely. “We’ve analyzed the footage of the garage attack and—”
“It’s Calderone, isn’t it?” I scoff.
He frowns. “It’s worse than that,” he says grimly. “Whoever trashed the garage had internal information about our security. They made sure to cut the feed and they waited until there was a change in the security team.”
“Fuck,” I breathe.
“Also, we’ve confirmed the same with Sofia’s apartment. There was no video footage from any of the doorbell cameras we were given access to, and the security cameras were just as useless.”
“What the hell is going on?” I groan. “How is he doing this?”
“You know how, Dominic,” he says quietly. “Someone on your team is leaking information to him.”
“No.” I shake my head. “That isn’t possible. Everyone on my team has been thoroughly vetted. There’s no way we would miss something like that.”
“Unless it’s someone who turned later. Or someone in the family.”
I stare at him harshly. “That’s a big accusation to make,” I tell him. “Do you have any evidence to back it up?”
“Nothing concrete, but you have to admit, Dominic, this is more than just luck. How else would Calderone have gotten in on the Ardent deal? How did his men attack our building? How did they manage to get to Sofia and Marco without leaving any evidence?”
I pinch the bridge of my nose and let out a long breath.
“We need to smoke them out,” I tell him. “As soon as possible. And we need to start enacting our strategy against Calderone.”
He nods. “I’ll send out some guys,” he says. “We’ll rile up a few of their lesser businesses.”
“Keep it quiet,” I say. “Until we plug the leak, all our movements are going to be need-to-know.”