Chapter 6: Chapter 6

Before joining Marcello and his men in the parlour, Mason turned on the low jazz music in the den. He needed the soothing notes to temper the storm brewing inside him. Marcello wasn’t the only associate he was expecting tonight, and the phone call with him earlier had been troubling; Elnora was, in fact, meant to go up for auction tonight.

She was neither Marcello’s dame nor did she know anything about the auction, and that was why Marcello was here.

Mason lit one of his Padron cigars and took a deep drag. The smoke burned through him, tightening his lungs with a subtle nicotine high. “Tell me everything, Marcel.”

Then he held up a finger before Marcello could respond. “Wait outside,” he commanded Marcello’s goons. The four of them jumped to their feet and hurried out.

Mason signalled his soldiers standing by the doorway to leave as well. They followed Marcello’s men out the door, closing it behind them. The room fell into an uneasy silence, broken only by the smooth jazz filtering through the air.

“M, you know I only auction off my girls,” Marcello began, but Mason blew out a puff of smoke, eyeing him with barely concealed irritation. He didn’t care for Marcello’s incessant ass-kissing right now.

“Who arranged it?”

“Eliezer’s guys got a computer geek to fix up a private comm network for them a few months ago. You know that shit; the encrypted network only they have access to. So Legs sent us to find the Priest and get set up too, probably get ears on the Russians.”

While Marcello rambled on, Mason’s mind raced. He was familiar with the situation, and Antonio, and he, were trying to track down the Priest. They had put two Capos on it, but the guy had been a ghost for a while now.

“Marcel!” Mason snapped, cutting through the babble. “The dame, who the fuck arranged it?”

He hated losing patience, but Marcello was pushing all his buttons. Mason had no intention of resorting to violence with Elnora upstairs, but Marcello didn’t know that.

“It’s a simple enough question, yes?” Mason put out his cigar in the glass ashtray, savouring the sweet taste that lingered in his mouth.

“That’s what I’m trying to say, M. The Priest arranged it. He wanted us to auction her at the club as payment for his service.”

Mason stared at Marcello with a hard frown. “How’d you find the priest?”

Marcello shook his head with a snort. “Fuck no! He found us, M, and insisted that she be auctioned off to a specific buyer tonight.”

“Why?”

“Priest didn’t say why, M. He just said to auction her off and tell him when it was done. We weren’t expecting you to bid, boss.”

Marcello paused. “Our end of the deal tanked because I couldn’t reject your bid.”

If the hacker wanted Elnora, wouldn’t that mean she knew him? The whole thing was supposed to be a mistaken identity, not a scheme to sell Elnora off as a sex slave.

“You mean she didn’t just stumble into the club?” he asked.

Marcello shrugged, shifting to the edge of the couch. “No. Priest said he’d handle that. M, I didn’t think you’d bid. I’d have reported all of this beforehand.”

His response was a grunt. “Who were you going to sell her to?” As he remembered, Akim was about to bid on her before he joined the auction. Did that sadistic Russian have anything to do with it?

Marcello’s mouth dropped open as he wiped his hand across his temple. “It’s unclear, boss. The priest’s buyer had to bid on the network with his code. He’d only give instructions in real time and once your bid came into the network, the auction ended. We don’t even know who the priest’s buyer was.”

That’s how the bastard slipped under the radar for so long: real-time. If the hacker specifically wanted Elnora, there had to be something significant about her that he was missing.

“What’s the word since I bought her?”

“None, boss. His trail’s gone cold,” Marcello said quietly. “But M, what’s the deal with the dame?”

Mason’s eyes narrowed, and his jaw clenched slightly. He crossed his legs and leaned back on the couch, locking eyes with Marcello. “That’s none of your concern,” he replied icily. “That is all.” He waved Marcello off. “And Marcel, of course, I don’t need to remind you, but I’m feeling charitable today. Keep your big mouth shut about all this.”

He jumped up and hurried out of the parlour. As Mason thought about everything, he pinched his nose. Elnora’s friend Marcy set up the date; could Marcy be the hacker or working with him? Earlier, he had tasked his Lieutenant with doing a background check on Elnora, and he needed that report.

“I thought I heard voices,” Elnora called from the stairway.

Mason slanted a look her way, eyes narrowing at the sight of her in his pale blue shirt. He was elated, recalling that thrilling moment they had shared just minutes earlier. As much as he wanted to make her moan and quiver in pleasure, figuring out who she was and her connection to the priest was more important.

“You shouldn’t be down here,” he said, walking over to where she stood. “In that.”

“Well, someone ripped my dress,” she replied with a playful smirk.

“You were begging for it, El.” Mason muttered, watching her. Now he found himself wondering how she was connected to the priest. Past lover, boyfriend? Was there some sort of animosity between them that drove him to auction her off in the ‘underground’? No matter what the case may be, Elnora had now become a very promising connection to the priest.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“I’m just curious: what do you do? You said your work takes up most of your time, which explains this disaster tonight.” Elnora laughed at his remark; it was a sweet, overwhelming sound. He didn’t like how she was doing things to him by barely doing anything.

This wasn’t him. He was content with occasional, never-repeated dates with models and women he wanted. The predictability and detachment suited him perfectly because it ensured no emotional entanglements or complications. He liked the control. But something about Elnora made him reckless. He found himself unable to resist her since he first saw her on the feed.

“I work a lot with data.” She shrugged.

“M,” Antonio called from the entrée, hands tucked in his pockets with his usual wry expression.

“Wait for me upstairs,” Mason told Elnora, as Antonio’s one good eye raked over her. After a quick, wary glance at Antonio, Elnora headed back up.

As he climbed down into the parlour, Antonio asked, “Who is the ~bellezza~?” and they shook hands.

“No one important,” Mason lied smoothly.

A long pause followed. “How did your meeting with Adrien go, boss?” Antonio asked.

“The bridge is ours.” Mason lowered himself back onto the couch, and Antonio followed. “We can resume the shipment tomorrow. You need to take care of a few small matters beforehand. There are a few pockets to line and knees to break.”

Antonio nodded, a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Sounds like my kind of to-do list.” Then he paused, his grin widening. “I heard you bought yourself a dame, M?” He laughed.

A sigh escaped Mason’s lips, and Antonio laughed even harder. Mason shook his head, a resigned smile on his lips. “Yeah, I did.”

“It’s all over the place. I can’t wait to see who made you break your rule.” Antonio crossed his legs.

Dammit.

“She’s hardly important, Grey.” he tried to play it down, but he knew once he bid, the entire network would be curious about her. It’s why he left Donni in charge of this part of the business.

“Only you would think that,” Antonio replied. “But you know you bid three times over budget, M. That’s what got everyone’s attention. You should put her to work immediately to make up for your losses.”

“Mm-hmm.” His face was expressionless as he watched Antonio.

Put her to work. Mason almost scoffed—that was not going to happen. What he needed to do was find out who she really was and what the priest wanted from her. Access to one of the priest’s secured networks could be extremely valuable, and if El could get him access, then he made a million dollar investment.

“The priest has been in direct contact with Marcel. We need to get Mateo on this and see if he can follow the trail to find him.” Mason shoved his phone into his pocket.

“Wasn’t Marcello the one I passed on my way here, boss?” Antonio sat up now.

“It was. But his job is to run the club. I need to follow up on this,” Mason said. “Continue the investigation into the priest and report back to me.”

Antonio nodded slowly. “Sure thing, M. You ready?”

Mason looked up at the stairs. Yeah, he had other plans with Antonio, but El threw a wrench in the works. Tonight he’d planned to discuss expanding their operations into the Eastside territory, a potentially lucrative venture but one that’s risky. With the bridge now open, he wanted to finalize the details of the ongoing partnership with Zeburgh, the other triangle country.

“My hands are full right now. Let’s reschedule for tomorrow.” Mason pulled out his phone as it beeped.

With a knowing smile on his face, Antonio replied, “I saw.” Then he added. “Is that new dame underground yet? I wanna check her out.”

Mason did not respond. Antonio had a habit of calling dibs on the pretty, new girls, and he wouldn’t let this die down quickly enough. Mason skimmed through the emails quickly, paying no attention to him. He tolerated Antonio’s behaviour because, despite his quirks, Antonio was incredibly effective at his job and loyal. As for Antonio ruining their merchandise, he had no need to worry, Donni would castrate him before he could.

“The Priest,” Mason said, tucking his phone away. “Have you ever considered it could be a woman?”

Antonio’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “A woman? Now that would be a twist. You think this hacker we’re after is a dame? Even if it were so, ~la troia~ is a pain to track.”

“It’s a possibility,” Mason said, leaning back against the couch. “We’ve been looking for a man, but it’s possible we’ve been wrong.” He couldn’t agree more. The priest had been impossible to track even with Giorgio’s hacking skills.

Antonio rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Interesting. That would explain a few things. But what does that have to do with your new acquisition?”

“Who said it did?” Mason smirked at Antonio’s predictable obsession. Just typical. He loved women, and it was his only real beef with the rest of the family. In their world filled with danger and deception, Antonio’s fascination with women seemed almost quaint, if not a little naive. He often wondered how Antonio managed to keep his focus on their mission when he was so easily distracted by a pretty face.

The doorbell rang, and a few minutes later his personal soldiers led Riley in.

“Grey, I’ve got business to take care of,” Mason said, standing up. A quick nod, Antonio followed his lead.

“~Buona notte~,” Antonio said with a salute, then made his way out, throwing a casual nod to Riley on the way.

Mason turned to Riley, who stood there in an oversized brown suit and a tilted black fedora. “Where is it?”

Riley, barely twenty but with a good head on his shoulder, handed him a bulky brown folder. The kid always had a way of looking like he raided his grandfather’s closet. Mason suppressed a smile.

“Thanks, Riley,” he said, taking the folder. “And for goodness’ sake, get a better tailor.”

“Yes, boss.” Riley tipped his fedora and skittered up the steps and out of the house, his grin as wide as ever.

Mason shook his head with a chuckle and turned his attention to the folder. This was everything Giorgio could find on Elnora. Sitting down, he flipped it open.