OWN HER: A Dark Mafia Romance(190)

“What’s that?” he asked.



“Oh, you definitely want to see what it is,” I told him, handing him the phone. “This is from the office upstairs. They have all kinds of files.” I flipped through a couple of pictures for him.



“Files?” he asked. “On what?”



“Take a look. Here.” I handed him my phone as I ducked off to the side to head to the bathroom.



“Hey, we’re going upstairs,” Cole called after me.



I figured he would be. When I got out of the bathroom, I met them in the office. Cole and Dante were looking a few sheets of paper while two other guys were pouring gasoline all over everything in the room.



“This ought to teach their boss a lesson,” Cole said as he lit a match and tossed it into the room. The gasoline quickly ignited and everything in the office started to catch on fire.



“Come on,” I told him, “let’s go.” I ran a hand along his chest and pulled him away from the room.



“We took everything out of the file cabinets, everything out of the desks, and we put all of it on the floor,” he told me as we left.



“You’d be surprised what they had on everybody,” Dante chimed in. “They even had information on you.”



“But it was old.” Cole laughed. “They still had photos of when you were working for Fang. They had pictures from when you were at his hideout.”



“Wow. That means that they’ve been collecting information for a long time, Cole. This isn’t a new operation,” I told him, glancing at Dante to back me up on it.



“No, it’s not new at all, but it’s done now. When they show up tomorrow, they’ll find four dead guards and an office that’s been torched completely,” Cole said.



“But what about a cleaner? Don’t you need someone to come in and make sure law enforcement doesn’t find anything first?” I asked.



“No way. If law enforcement finds anything, they won’t find any signs that it was us,” Dante replied.



When we made it outside, the boys all embraced each other. I got the feeling that everyone was heading their separate ways for the evening. The two younger guys hopped on their bikes and sped off into the night. Cole and Dante watched smoke pour out of the vacant office building for a moment.



“Looks like the law might get called after all,” Dante said.



“Wouldn’t surprise me,” Cole told him, patting him on the back.



Dante hopped on his bike and gunned the engine. Then he was gone, too.



“Would you like a ride home, my beautiful damsel in distress?” Cole offered with a smile.



“Definitely, my knight in worn leather.” I climbed on the back of the bike, and she roared to life underneath us. The night air rushed past us as we pulled out of the old abandoned parking lot and headed home to our apartment overlooking the city.



These days, my bookshelves lined the walls in the living room, giving the apartment a much more studious feel. I had let all of my furniture go when I moved in, including my TV, my coffee table, everything. I just kept my books. I preferred the nice, new, comfortable furniture that Cole had at his place.



“Here’s to another job well done,” Cole said as he opened a bottle of red wine and poured it into our glasses.



“Yes, indeed, another job well done,” I agreed as we toasted and clinked our glasses.



Over the last several months I had been putting my skills back to use by stealing from other bosses to help Cole and Hell’s Overlords get back on top of everything. After Fang had been removed from the picture, Cole had immediately started working on taking over Fang’s businesses.



That was when I realized just how far out of the loop he had kept me for all those years. Sure, I had worked for him, and I had raided many, many bosses’ hideouts for weapons, drugs, information, and whatever else Fang had needed me to get from them for him. But, in the end, when it came time to contact people who handled certain different businesses he ran—like his prostitution ring, his call girls, his gambling rings—I had no idea of who to reach out to. I didn’t know who did what.



That was where Cole’s men came in. In a few short weeks, we were able to start piecing things together. Then, of course, it was on me to meet with these other former employees of Fang’s to start working on making connections for Cole.



Luckily, Cole and Hell’s Overlords had a reputation that got me in a lot of doors. A lot of people didn’t want to talk to me when I told them I used to work for Fang. They had all distanced themselves from each other, and that made sense. No one wanted to be associated with a ship that sank so violently. They didn’t want whoever had taken Fang down to come after them due to their association with him.