Chapter five

C H A P T E R  F I V E

Giovanni had made his way back to his seat after a few hours. Elvio was scrolling through his phone last time Athena checked. When Giovanni had made his way back to where she and Elvio sat, she quickly closed her eyes and relaxed her body, pretending to be unaware of her surroundings. She heard footsteps coming closer to her but then did not hear a shift in the air indicating that the man who walked up to her had walked away.

It was crazy in her mind, but she could literally feel his eyes on her. She did not know that it was possible for her senses to detect someone looking at her without even seeing them.

“She asleep?” she heard Elvio ask, but no reply from Giovanni. She assumed that he had gestured his thought to Elvio, by either nodding or shaking his head. Either way, she made sure to not move a muscle and made sure to breath as normally as she could. She counted 4 seconds for her inhale, and 4 for her exhale, knowing that if she started overthinking her breathing she would mess it up and make it clear to the man standing over her that she was not asleep.

“I pointed my gun at her head, asked her if she felt afraid and she stared me down and said no.” The man over her made a little noise.. a chuckle..?! She almost opened her eyes to see the look on his face, but she controlled herself and did not move.

Why did he chuckle..?

Did he suspect something..? Did he know that she actually was scared shitless and wondering whether she was way in over her head? Time passed and she felt his gaze still on her.. he did not even move. That was the last memory she could remember before actually drifting off to sleep.

***

A noise rattled in Athena’s ears. It was barley heard at first, but once her mind gave it the slight attention, she could not forget it and thinking about it. She opened her eyes, stretching her tired limbs and letting out a little yawn. She had fallen asleep..

Her head felt heavy, but the lights in the jet were not as bright anymore. It was dark out, and only some light illuminated the seating area. She stretched her sore back and turned her head to find both the men on her left fast asleep.

Not even in his sleep did he look like he head peace anywhere in him. His eyebrows were furrowed, and his arms crossed. His head was leaning towards her, and she remembered him having stared at her for god knows how long. He truly loved to observe everyone around him did he not..

That rattling noise filled her ears again, and she looked around confused before her eyes landed on a sleeping Elvio with his mouth slightly open. Elvio Mancini was snoring, or rather purring like a little cat. She really fought the urge to laugh, is this the man who she heard countless stories about? He looked nothing like Giovanni when he slept, he actually looked almost.. angelic. Ironic is it not how the devils brother looks like an angel..

Her eyes wandered to that long, brown curtain that Giovanni had spent hours behind. She could not stop wondering what was there, and her curiosity won making her stand up and head towards the closed off section.

She pulled away the curtain and stepped inside. It was bigger than she anticipated, after all the jet did not look so huge on the outside. A round table was in the middle, with a few seats around it. There was a screen hanging to the right and under it sat a few paper files. She took a few steps towards them and let her eyes quickly scan the top, without lifting them.

They mostly looked like data, perhaps shipments. There was a payment column that wasn’t filled in on every box, and where it was filled, it was either filled with the words “AUTHENTIC” or “CO”.

She looked up, touching the round table and admiring the rich feel of the glossy, dark wood that covered this jets interior.

*click*

Athena froze, feeling the cold metal pressed into the back of her head.

“What are you doing Ms. Vaccarelli?” A voice questioned, but this time it wasn’t Elvio’s.. it was the silk smooth voice of the man who smelled like musk and coconut.

She slowly turned around, looking at his slightly tilted head and eyes that burned into her own.

“Looking for the bathroom,” she quickly lied.

“Did your parents not teach you that it is rude to snoop in someone else’s space?” he added, as if she hadn’t just spoken.

His mention of her parents made her blood boil… he out of all people did not get to mention them..

She felt her eyes darken and bit the inside of her cheek in order to keep herself from taking the gun out of his hand and pointing at his stupid face.

Is this what her mother saw last.. a gun pointed to her head?

“I was looking for the bathroom” she spoke once again, this time her voice stern.

“Next time you ask.” He said, strapping his gun back into his pants.

“I am not your prisoner,” she spoke, and he almost looked surprised, maybe not having expecting her to say something.

He took a few steps towards her, and she made sure not to back away, even when she felt his warm breath on her face. He leaned towards her ear, “oh no Ms. Vaccarelli, you are my slave.” He whispered into her ear before turning around. Her blood boiled. He did not get to walk away from her, not without her getting to say her word.

She reached to the little table under the tv screen were some paper files laid, and she grabbed a hold of the first thing she could before throwing it at him. He stilled. Not even turning around or throwing something back at her.. not even his words. He just stilled for a few seconds, before continuing to walk back to the seating area and closing the curtain behind him, which only managed to piss Athena off more.

***

The elevator doors opened as a ding noise announced that they had arrived at their floor.

“Jesus fucking Christ!” Elvio jumped slightly at the dog barks that welcomed them. She looked up to find the cutest black and brown Dobermann. He was barking and his tail was going crazy. Elvio seemed tense as soon as they saw that dog.

“Can you please shut your dog up?” Elvio begged Giovanni, making him mutter a “silenzioso Sage.” that was so quiet yet a command that the dog immediately recognized and followed.

The two men walked in front of her, Giovanni hurrying off somewhere as Elvio turned around and looked at her. She could not help but smile as she leaned down and reached out her hand for the dog to smell.

“Hey cutie..” she smiled, speaking with her dog and baby voice as soon as the dog walked towards her and let her pet him.

“Cutie? He looks like a fucking monster..” Elvio said looking almost disgusted making her chuckle.

“What was his name, was it Sage?” she asked as the dogs started giving her kisses.

“Yes, Giovanni named him.. and Sage apparently likes you..” Elvio spoke, quiet confused at the sight in front of him.

“Such a lovely boy..” she said, scratching his head.

“Trust me, he is not. Come on, let me show you to your room,”

She nodded as he lead the way and walked down the huge corridor. The penthouse was mostly white marble, but huge glass windows covered a big part of it too. You could see the whole city from here. Especially since they were on the 18^th floor. It was truly breath taking. She could not take her eyes off the view as Elvio swiftly moved towards her room. She almost had trouble keeping up.. her eyes could not believe the city and car lights that looked like tiny dots from here.

Was she actually going to stay here? Her stomach flipped in excitement.

“There you are..” Elvio said, opening the door to a room and gesturing for her to go inside. “I’ll be at my house while you settle in. I have a meeting to attend and then I will be back, won’t take more than a few hours. Until then, you could set up somewhere to work. There is a screen on the table you can connect to if you want.”

“Your house?” she asked, raising a brow. She thought this was his house..

“I live on the floor above, this is Giovanni’s floor. I could never live with that god forsaken dog.”

Of course they had a whole floor each, hell they probably owned the whole building.

She wanted to ask him why she was staying with Giovanni and not him, but she was unsure whether it was wise or not.

“Gio’s home is bigger, that’s why you’re staying with him.” Elvio said, as if he had been reading her mind. She nodded and he turned around, walking back to the elevator and pressing the button to open the doors.

She stepped into her room, switching on the light switch before closing the door behind her.

The room had the same white colour as the rest of the penthouse, with huge windows showing her the city. They were not as big as the windows in the living room, but they sure as hell were bigger than any window she has ever had in any house she stayed at.

There were two other doors in the room, one taking her to a “little” walk in closet, and the other to a bathroom. The white marble here looked much better with a hint of green from all the plants that decorated the bathroom. There were even pink flowers sitting near the window that looked over the city from her bathtub. Athena literally could not wait to fill it up with warm water and soak her body in it. She quickly got out of the bathroom and took out an outfit she had packed in her bag along with a change of underwear, laying them on the bed before going back into the bathroom and filing the tub with hot water. She even found some toiletries in the cabinet behind the bathroom mirror. She got some body wash and shampoo, taking off her clothes and throwing them on the marble floor before lathering the shampoo on her hair and quickly rinsing it off in the shower as she waited for the bathtub to fill up. When the shampoo was out of her hair, she quickly dipped her legs into the bathtub and sat down her body in the warm water. A little sound escaped from her lips as she relaxed her shoulders. The warm water hugged her body, making her tilt her head pack against the bathtub and close her eyes, letting it relax every tense muscle she had.

This maybe would not be so bad after all…

When a few minutes had passed and the water was getting colder, she got out, draining the water, and grabbing a towel to dry her body before wrapping it around her. Walking out to her room, she almost let go off the towel that covered her body when she saw a man sitting on her bed, looking down at his phone as the huge dog sat between his legs.

“Fuck!”

He looked up, barley glancing at her before looking back at his phone, as if she was not just wearing a little towel only.

“About time, I thought you had drowned.” he spoke.

“Wouldn’t you like that,” she replied without thinking, knowing he probably would not complain if she in fact did drown.

Her comment earned her another gaze, but this time it was much more serious.. she did not really know what his eyes were saying, but whatever it was, he did not look very pleased. He looked down again at his phone and spoke, “a few nights ago, Elvio’s office at one of our clubs got broken into. The surveillance cameras seem to have been disabled. We need you to find out everything you can.”

“Could I at least get changed first?” She said as he stood up looking at her. His body inched closer to hers, just like on the plane, and just like she did on the plane, she did not back away. He stared into her eyes, almost no emotions behind his.. almost.. there was something but Athena could not make out what exactly it was. She doubted it was emotions, but it was something..

“You have five minutes.” he whispered, before walking out the door and Sage followed him without even being told to.

She let out a sigh, dropping her towel and quickly putting on the clothes she took out earlier.

Making her way out of the room, she moved to the room where Giovanni stood near the window, looking over at the city. She was unsure if he heard her make her way into the room. For once he looked actually relaxed. His back muscles were not as tense as always, he had his hands in his suit pant pockets and stood there quietly. For once he did not look like a ruthless man wanting to burn the world down, and instead he admired it.

“Do you have your set up with you or do you need someone to bring anything?” he asked, not looking back at her, but well aware that she was in the room.

“No, I’m good to go,” she said, and he did not reply, going back to his trance and staring out the window. She took the hint to go grab her laptop and set up. She connected her a hard drive to the screen that Elvio had told her about before leaving. “Which club was it?” she asked, not looking up at him as she typed away on her laptop.

“Chloros.”

Chloros..? It meant green in Greek.. she wondered whether he was the one who came up with that name himself or someone else did.

“When was it?”

“Last Friday.”

He did not turn around as he answered her questions, he just kept looking out through the glass window on the city that was shining the night sky.

“Do you have surveillance cameras in the office?”

“No. It is a dead end either way, the cameras outside the office were disabled.”

Hmm.. this was not going to be the easiest, but she did not believe that the cameras were a dead end either. To disable the cameras, you need to get into the system itself and turn off the switch. It is quite difficult not to leave a track of footprints when doing so.. you’d have to be pretty damn good at what you do to erase all your tracks and throw out your mop without leaving a trace.

The elevator doors open, and Elvio Mancini walks in, looking at her and Gio.

“Anything?” he asks, making his way over to the fridge and taking out a water bottle.

“I’m taking a look at the cameras, I am hoping I might find something there,” she spoke, not taking her eyes off the screen in front of her as she kept typing god knows what.

“The feed was stopped, we had people upgrade the firewall to prevent it from happening again. It might take you a min-“

“I am in.” She cut him off making Gio turn around for the first time since she got here. He walked closer towards her and looked at the screen, watching the live surveillance footage she had just pulled up in front of them.

“How easy was that for you?” Elvio asked in disbelief.

“Could have been faster had I known that you recently upgraded the firewall, but you told me that when I was like half way done so,”

“Now what?”

“I can try tracking back the footage from the date of the break in,”

“October 14^th.”

“You know a specific time?”

“Around 01.”

“Found it.. there is some interference already starting at 12.49. I can try tracking it to its original source and see where from they disabled the signals of the cameras…” she spoke, as the two men just looked at her while she was too focused on the screen in front of her.

Athena knew that the bureau had set up a break in into the office to rise Giovanni’s need for a tech. expert, so she was fully expecting a signal coming from Washington that she was supposed to erase.. but when her eyes came across a pin coming from New York itself, she stopped typing and re-read the numbers on her screen to make sure she had not made a mistake..

“What?” Gio asked, noticing her furrowed eyebrows and her fingers not typing anymore.

“Hmm..” she said at first not knowing what to do. Someone else was actually trying to interfere in the Mancini business, and it was not the bureau. She considered not telling them at first, but she knew that informing them about a lead that she actually could follow would help her gain their trust eventually. Had she been working like planned instead, she would not have had anyone to put the blame on and instead would have to pretend that she just came back empty every time. This would also take the eyes off of Loris, protecting him if there actually is another traitor among them that she can catch..

“Whoever disabled the cameras did it from New York.” She looked up at the men and Elvio’s eyes wandered to Giovanni’s who was already looking at him with his forehead slightly wrinkled from his raised eyebrow.

“Can you track it?”

“I don’t think so.. best I can do is prevent it from happening again.. your digital footprint is almost non-existent but if someone was to really look they’d find a few shortcuts that would get them in your system,”

“We updated it last week?” Elvio said not expecting her to be able to actually crack anything.

“Last week, before or after you had three shipments of purchases returned after buying them with counterfeit cash?” she asked looking up at him as Gio’s eyes immediately shot up to hers.

“How did you find that?” He spoke.

“It really is not that hard to get in, I can see your shipment logs as well as what you paid for with genuine and counterfeit cash,”

His eyes stared into hers, dare she say with a sense of surprise like he was impressed by her work.. but whatever it was that he was feeling behind those dark eyes, disappeared as fast as it made its way there. Still he did not take his eyes off of hers, it was not a secret that he felt nothing, but he thought of so much. His eyes might be cold, but they spoke a thousand words, and she heard them but did not know what they meant.

A notification sound coming from her laptop made her take her eyes off of him and instead look confused at the other problem in front of her.

“My signal keeps bouncing back whenever I try location the Ip address of whoever interfered from New York…”

“Meaning?” Elvio asked.

“Whoever is behind this did not only interfere with your business, but they even made sure to protect their secrets. They could have easily put their location behind that firewall as well and stopped me from accessing it, but they did not. Whoever this is, they know what they are doing, and they want you to know that they’re in New York..”

Giovanni turned around, walking away as soon as Athena had completed her sentence.

“I am going out. Do not do anything stupid.”

Her blood boiled at how one second he was admiring her work, almost impressed by her skills, and the other he was talking to her like a two years old child. He truly believed that he had full control of her and expected nothing else, and that pissed her off. She had heard stories about the infamous Giovanni and the Mancini’s as a whole, no one dared question them. Especially not the three men leading the family, so him not being used to being a follower instead of a leader did not come as a surprise to her. Yet she still let it make her blood boil.