What?” I bark into the phone as I close my bedroom door behind me. My cock is still throbbing in my pants, demanding attention, which Elena seemed too happy to provide.

This fucking call had better be important.

“There’s something you should know,” Giovanni says on the other end of the line. He sounds nervous. It’s not a good sign.

“So tell me.” I pace the floor impatiently.

“Uh . . .” Giovanni hesitates.

“Fucking tell me, Giovanni.”

Jesus. I have idiots working for me. I can’t wait until I make enough money to hire better men who won’t waste my time. For now, I have to settle for the ones who aren’t happy about something Enzo did.

“I just met Stefano,” Giovanni says.

“What? Where?” I run my fingers through my hair and massage my scalp.

This doesn’t sound good. Stefano is one of Enzo’s most trusted men. Depending on what Giovanni was doing and what the idiot said, this could be trouble.

“At the club.”

“At Dive?” I ask.

“Yes.”

Great. Fucking great. This was supposed to be one last day of fun before business takes over, but now it looks like we won’t be able to avoid open confrontation for long.

I say a silent prayer. “Tell me he didn’t see you selling.”

“He, uh, saw me passing a baggie to some girl.” Quickly, he adds, “But I told him it was from my own personal stash, and I was just trying to impress the girl, which I was. She was smoking hot. So it was believable.”

My temple is throbbing now that all the blood has rushed up to my head.

So not only was Giovanni caught trying to move my product, but he was also trying to score with a girl on my time. No doubt he was distracted. Probably didn’t pay enough attention to his surroundings, and that’s why Stefano saw him first and not the other way around.

“Damon?” Giovanni asks from the other end of the line.

“Did Stefano try our product?” I ask.

“No, man. We just talked. That’s all. Just a friendly chat.”

“Anything else?”

“I just want to give you a heads up before you hear it from someone else. It went okay, just so you know. Stefano was smiling and nodding. He bought my story. I threw him off the scent. Don’t worry about it. Everything is taken care of.”

Giovanni probably believes his own lie, but I don’t. I can’t.

Stefano saw Giovanni making a transaction in one of Enzo’s clubs. He had probably been watching for a while before he finally approached Giovanni. He probably saw more than one transaction and drew his own conclusions. He wouldn’t have said a word had he actually thought Giovanni was just trying to impress some girl.

Maybe I still have some time. It all hangs on one thing . . .

“Did you mention my name at all?” I ask.

Giovanni falls silent. Strange. He was so talkative before.

“I said, did you mention my name?” I repeat, louder this time.

“Well, yeah, but I didn’t tell him I got the stuff from you,” he says. “He just asked me what I was doing later tonight, and I told him I was meeting Antonio and you.”

“Fucking idiot,” I curse. “I told you to never mention my name. And I told you not to sell in any one of Enzo’s club too, didn’t I?”

Giovanni says nothing.

“Didn’t I?” I ask again.

“Yes.”

“And what did you do? Not only did you sell in Enzo’s club and say my name to one of his men, but you were also distracted while doing it.” I take a deep breath. I feel like I already know the answer to the question I’m about to ask. “Were you high?”

“Damon, it’s all taken care of, okay? Stefano, all he knows is I was trying to hit on a girl—unsuccessfully.” Giovanni laughs nervously.

I bite my tongue and stop myself from repeating to him all the things he’s done wrong. Giovanni is stupid enough normally, but if he’s high he won’t even remember most of this conversation afterward.

“I asked you a question. Did you snort some of that coke before you went out and tried to sell it?” I ask.

After a long pause, he admits, “Yes.”

Fucking imbecile.

“You knew this was a dangerous operation and I didn’t want anybody to see you deal,” I say as calmly as I can.

“I’m sorry, Damon. But I told you. Everything’s under control,” he says, as if repeating it enough times would make it come true.

“No, everything is not under control. Are you still at the club?”

“Why would you say that, man? Yeah, I’m still at the club,” he says.

“Okay. Someone’s probably going to follow you tonight when you leave so don’t come to my place. If you forget our whole conversation and only remember one thing, it’s this. Do. Not. Come. To. My. Place. Understand?”

“Geez. Yeah, okay.” Giovanni isn’t taking this seriously enough and he’s too dumb to realize it.

Enzo’s men are aware of him dealing coke that doesn’t come from them in their territory. There’s no way they’re just going to let this go. Hell, maybe Enzo himself has heard of this.

Giovanni even gave Stefano my name. So if Enzo can somehow link this to the failed Russian transaction, then he’d know who’s behind this. He knows Giovanni is too dumb to pull off anything that requires this much planning.

There’s no need to share any of this with Giovanni. What good would it do him to know that he might be captured and tortured for information soon? May as well let him enjoy his last few moments as a free man.

“When you get home, get rid of all the coke you have,” I say.

I’m glad I only gave Giovanni and Antonio just enough product to sell in one day. At least, if Enzo’s men discover their stash, I won’t lose millions of dollars’ worth of coke and advertise just how big of an operation we’re running.

“That sounds like a waste, Damon,” he says. “That’s a lot of money. I’m telling you, everything’s fine.”

“Just do what I say. Go straight home and dump everything down the toilet,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Come on. Let me keep it,” he says.

“You don’t seem to get it, so let me spell it out for you.” I pause and speak slowly. “Enzo’s men already know something’s not right. So you’ll go home right now and get rid of all the evidence.”

“You’re making a big deal out of nothing, man,” he insists. “Let me keep the coke. I always have some stashed at home anyway. I’ll tell them it’s mine.”

“What I gave you is way better quality than what you normally have. You know that, and that’s probably why you don’t want to see it go down the drain,” I say. “But that will be a big mistake. You’re lucky Stefano didn’t sample your stuff because he would’ve been able to tell it didn’t come from Enzo, and you’d be fucked. Your only hope is to make it seem like our product didn’t exist at all.”

The line is silent for a few seconds.

“Giovanni? You still there?” I ask.

“Yeah.” His voice is trembling. Good. At least he understands how serious this is.

“Look. You could be right. Everything could be fine. But you have to go home right away and get rid of what you have,” I say.

He’s quiet.

“Okay? You understand what I want you to do?” I ask.

“Okay. Okay,” he says. “Shit. Do you think they’ll do anything to me?”

Working with Giovanni can be frustrating but the damn moron tries his best. I have to give him that. And I don’t want to punish someone who’s loyal to me. That won’t be a good foundation on which to build my business.

“I can’t tell you what they will and what they won’t do,” I say. “But I want you to be safe. That’s why you should do what I say. If they can’t find anything at your place, they may leave you alone. Hell, maybe they’ll think you were just trying to get your dick wet.”

“I don’t know, Damon. That girl, she was way out of my league.”

“There’s no use panicking now. Just do as I say. If things go south, at least I have the girl as collateral. Enzo won’t be rash if he knows what’s at stake.”

Giovanni pauses. “Yeah. Okay. I’ll go home now.”

“Good. If they check your phone and ask you why you called me, tell them you wanted to cancel because you weren’t feeling well after all the coke and booze you’d taken.”

“Okay. Yeah. I can do that.”

“Good.” I hang up.

I take a few deep breaths.

Elena is still sitting in the living room, and she’ll probably expect me to pick up where we left off.

That’s not a bad thing, of course. There’s nothing I can do now except hope Giovanni will be able to follow my simple instructions, so I may as well have some fun while I wait.

I have no doubt Elena will take my mind off my problems. The way she squirmed on the couch, her face flushed red as she frowned in concentration. She was fucking ready for me.

And I’m now ready for her. I can feel my cock growing hard again.

Damn, there’s just something so sexy about Elena. I can’t tell if it’s because of the danger of because she’s so fucking sexy, but maybe I’ll figure it out after I fuck her.

I pull my bedroom door open, eager to get my dirty hands on Elena again.

And I find her standing right in front of me, her face a frozen mask of fear and confusion.

How much of that phone call did she hear?