Page 19 of Arranged

Chapter 7

“TELL ME WE HAVE SOMEgood news,” I said to Rafael.

A week had gone by in a flash, and I was hoping he had something that would help us destroy Santino and make him pay for what he’d done.

“We do.” Rafael’s lips spread into a smile. “I found the band. They’re actually pretty good and play the kind of stuff that Santino likes. Original stuff too, so he can’t get it anywhere else.”

He offered me his phone and showed me a photo.

Four handsome young guys, and a pretty, young blonde.

Then he pressed the play button under the photo.

“She has a beautiful voice, and she’s hot. Totally Santino’s type. Perfect. Now you know what you have to do. Get in touch with them so we can make a deal, and when they agree, promote the hell out of them. We can have a few videos made too. Something more professional, but not too much because we don’t want Santino to realize someone’s backing them.”

“What if they don’t want to do what we need them to do?”

“Are you kidding me? They have an opportunity of a lifetime. There’s no way they’re going to pass it up. If they’re that stupid, then we’ll have to find someone else. Oh, and when you promote them, make sure it looks organic. I don’t care how many accounts our team has to hack. Just make it look like they caught the eye of someone important and it just spread from there. Or have them do a spontaneous concert or something that would attract people’s attention and make them share more videos.”

“Yeah, sure,” Rafael said. “Our team can handle all that. Santino won’t suspect anything.”

“Once he contacts them, they don’t have to accept right away. Maybe they could tell him they’re busy and have too many offers.”

“You’re really sure it’ll work.”

“It has to.”

“Let’s hope it does.” He started for the door.

“Wait, one more thing. It’s about Luca. It was his idea, and I think he deserves a reward.” If I only kept punishing him when he messed up, he’d have no reason to help me with anything else, even if he did get another good idea for something.

Maybe it was a little silly to think there’d be a next time, but it didn’t matter. Luca had done the right thing, and I wanted to let him know that I appreciated it.

“What kind of reward?” Rafael’s brow creased.

“More freedom. He’s been in that room for way too long now. I know it’s big enough and that he can walk around when he’s not chained up, but he has nothing to do there. It could lead to him acting up again.”

“Should I tell the guards to take him out for a walk?”

“Actually, I was thinking he should be allowed out of the room. He could go wherever he wants on this floor. Use our gym, get his own lunch... The guards would have to follow him everywhere and not leave him out of their sight, of course. We can’t let him escape.”

“Okay, but I’m not sure how the others will take it. They might be unnerved by his presence.”

“Maybe at first, but they’ll get used to him. He’s my husband, after all. He belongs to me. It’s not like I’m letting in some stranger off the streets to snoop around.”

Rafael inclined his head. “I’ll instruct the guards on what to do and let Luca know.”